IB Curriculum Explained
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The International Baccalaureate (IB) Curriculum Explained
More than 5,000 schools in 140 countries around the world offer the International Baccalaureate (IB) programme. With so much information about the various IB programmes, it’s easy to get confused.
This blog will clear up some of the confusion so you can decide if this curriculum is for you. Find out how to succeed in your medical admissions as an IB student.
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What is the International Baccalaureate (IB)?
The International Baccalaureate (IB) programme is an internationally recognised school curriculum that aims to foster open-minded and well-rounded students.
First proposed in the 1960s, the IB helped establish internationally standardised courses for school leavers. Since then, it has grown into a K-12 programme dedicated to its students’ academic and personal growth.
The IB offers four programs catered to students ages 3 to 19. The IB Diploma Programme (DP), a two-year “pre-university” course that students start in their second-to-last year of high school, is the most popular. Completing this program rewards students with the world-renowned IB Diploma, opening pathways to some of the best medical schools in the world!
You can take the DP as an alternative to your high school qualification, which might be GCSE, A Levels, AP, HSC, VCE, or NCEA, depending on your location.
To participate in the curriculum, you must attend an IB accredited school. These schools have specially-trained teachers who deliver the IB curriculum.
There are about 5,000 IB accredited schools in 148 countries. Check to see if your school is one of them!
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Primary Years Programme (PYP)
The PYP aims to foster academic, social and emotional wellbeing in children ages 3-12 years. It focuses on international-mindedness and strong personal values. Centred on six transdisciplinary themes, the academics in the PYP include students recognising:
- Who they are
- Where they are in place and time
- How they express ourselves
- How the world works
- How they organise themselves
- How to share the planet
Middle Years Programme (MYP)
The MYP is a 5-year program that prepares middle and high school students aged 11 to 16 years old for the IB Diploma Programme. Students study a broad curriculum across eight subject areas: Language & Literature, Language Acquisition, Individuals and Societies, Sciences, Mathematics, Arts, Physical & Health Education, and Design. At the end of the programme, students participate in a Personal Project. This self-driven research or practical project encourages students to situate their academic interests within the context of global issues.
Diploma Programme (DP)
The IB Diploma Programme is a two-year high school curriculum for students aged 16 to 19 composed of six academic subject groups and the Diploma Program (DP) Core. The DP Core requires students to reflect on the nature of knowledge in a course called Theory of Knowledge (ToK), participate in an independent research project to produce an Extended Essay (EE), and engage in extracurricular activities related to Creativity, Action and Service (CAS).
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Pro’s of the IB Curriculum
1. Global Recognition
You can’t go past the most obvious point in the IB’s favour – the international aspect.
The IB Diploma Program is recognised by all leading universities, which instantly puts you on the world stage and contextualises your application to medical school.
Regardless of where you sit your IB exams, the results mean the same thing, and they’re understood by admissions officers across Australia, New Zealand & the UK.
Country specific curriculums, such as NCEA, VCE and HSC, don’t have the same global reach, so it’s harder for universities to understand the results and compare you fairly to other candidates.
2. University Preparation
The IB Diploma is effectively a “university preparation program”, in that it teaches you skills and ways of learning that will set you up to do well at a tertiary education level.
After two years of practice, it’s fair to say that you will have mastered fundamental skills such as university-style reports and essay writing, source citing, and how to conduct independent research which is necessary for medical school.
More broadly, you’ll be an expert at time management and self-study.
The IB’s heavy workload forces you to get into good study habits and work on ways to better manage your time, and these are most certainly important skills for medical school, where you’ll be in charge of your own learning across multiple papers.
In the IB, you are not tested on your ability to memorise facts and theories (which could be said for other curriculums), but rather your ability to understand how facts are presented and how theories are applied. This skill is very beneficial for the UCAT entrance exam!
Not only this, but you will have learned how to think critically. That is, how to view things from different perspectives and not to cloud judgement with preconceived ideas and beliefs. The philosophy-based component of the course, Theory of Knowledge (TOK), will train you to think outside the box and develop an enquiring mind.
This expanded thinking is necessary for medical school, where you’ll be exposed to many different conditions, opinions, and of course, people!
3. Well-rounded Education
The breadth of study is something that the IB offers that no other curriculum comes close to.
You’re exposed to a much wider range of subjects in the IB than you are in other curriculums.
Not only do you have to choose a wider range of subjects in the IB, but you have a much wider range to choose from. But it’s necessary to provide choice in order to develop “well-rounded students”, which is one of the goals of the IB Diploma Program.
Being a well-rounded student doesn’t mean you’re a jack of all trades and master of none. On the contrary; it shows your adaptability, strength of character, and ability to push yourself.
No one is great at everything, and that’s one of the reasons the IB is so challenging.
It’s also one of the reasons the IB is so rewarding because it’s in your weaker subject areas where you really have to step up your study game to do well.
You’ll get a much stronger sense of achievement in the IB because you can’t only play to your strengths.
However, you do have the option of studying the subjects you like more intensely.
In the IB, students will take some subjects at a higher level (HL) and some at standard level (SL), where the former comprises 240 teaching hours, and the latter 150 teaching hours.
This means you can focus more on your best three subjects (or four if you’re extra keen), and less so on your weaker subjects.
4. Personal Development
In the IB, you grow not only as a student but as a human.
One of the aims of the IB program is to create a more peaceful world by creating more socially conscious adults who will go on to make meaningful contributions long after they’ve completed their education.
This is where the Creativity, Action, Service (CAS) component of the IB comes in, which places emphasis on emotional and social development by getting students involved in activities outside the classroom.
Not only does it force you to take a break from the books and have a balanced approach to your studies, but you have the chance to develop softer skills like empathy and teamwork, which have massive benefits for the MMI Interview and application.
Other curriculums are purely academic and do not focus on character building in this way.
Want to get great IB results? At MedView, our online tutoring engages the world’s best teachers and tutors in specific curricula to help students reach their high school and medical school admissions goals.
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Con’s of the IB Curriculum
1. Length of Study
The IB is no walk in the park. In fact, it’s not a walk at all. Think of it more like a run – but a marathon, not a sprint.
You need to be a “long-distance learner” to do well in the IB. It requires consistent work and solid performance over a two-year period. While everyone else has to be “on” for one year, you have to be on for two.
Exams aren’t spread out, either, which means that come to the end of your final year you’ll be tested on two years of learnings, and you’ll have to have just as strong an understanding of the material taught at the beginning of the course than at the end.
2. Heavy Workload
In the IB, not only have you got all the coursework and assignments that come with the six mandatory subjects, but also the essays, presentations, and projects that you need to do for the three core components: EE, TOK, and CAS.
This makes it a much more demanding and content-heavy course, and it’s why being diligent and organised is more important than being smart. You need to be able to manage your time really well to fit in all the activities as well as keep your grades up consistently with all the different assessments going on.
3. Less Flexibility
Even with so many subject choices, there’s less flexibility in the IB due to the compulsory breadth of study it requires.
The IB is a rigid curriculum with a six subject allowance dispersed across six categories. If you don’t take an arts subject, you can “double-dip” in another category, but there’s no triple dipping. This means you can ONLY take two science subjects BUT some medical schools require ALL three as a prerequisite.
As part of our Admissions Support program, MedView can help you navigate and manage your time if you would like to sit the IBs as part of your medical school application.
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The IB Grading Scale
Seven is the highest possible score for all IB courses. The assessed components of the DP Core (ToK and Extended Essay) are scored on an A-E scale. Creativity, Action, and Service have a Pass/Fail requirement. Depending on the combination of your scores for ToK and EE, you receive between 1-3 points, bringing the total possible score to 45. At the end of the IB Diploma Programme, you receive a final score of up to 45 possible points. Your 6 IB classes attribute to 42 of those points.
While the IB does not provide a GPA or equivalent, use the following table as a guide to understanding how the IB grading scale works.
IB Grading System
IB Exams and Assessments
The IB Programme is unique in that final scores are a combination of internal and external assessments.
Internal assessments
IB Internal Assessments takes the form of long-term projects such as papers, reports and presentations. For example, in Group 5 (Sciences), you complete lab reports, and in Group 1 (Studies in Language and Literature), you write papers.
These internal assessments usually comprise 15-25% of your final IB score for that subject and are graded by your teachers. Your school later sends a small, randomly selected sample of student work to the IB for “moderation”, a process that ensures your school is grading fairly.
External assessments
The rest of the IB is externally assessed, mainly in the form of final examinations. IB exams are cumulative, with assessments in all topics taken in one exam at the end of your second year of study.
IB Courses Assessment Breakdowns
Below are common examples of assessment breakdowns for IB subjects.
IB English Literature HL External assessment (70%) 20% - Paper 1 (Written commentary) 25% - Paper 2 (Essay) 25% - Written Assignment
Internal assessment (30%) 15% - Oral presentation 15% - Oral commentary
IB Chemistry HL
External assessment (80%) 20% - Paper 1 (Multiple choice exam) 36% - Paper 2 (Extended response exam) 24% - Paper 3 (Higher Level topics)
Internal assessment (20%) 20% - Scientific reports
IB Business Management SL
External assessment (75%) 30% - Paper 1 (Exam based on pre-released case study) 45% - Paper 2 (Exam based on remaining course content)
Internal assessment 25% - Written commentary on a real-life business problem
Are IB Classes worth taking?
The IB is a rigorous academic program available to high school students. An IB Diploma indicates to your future university that you can manage the demands of undergraduate studies.
The IB Diploma is recognised worldwide, and universities around the world will understand your IB score.
The IB fosters a highly balanced intellectual experience - academically and beyond. You can take IB classes from a wide range of subject areas, allowing you the freedom to create independent research projects using gathered knowledge. The CAS program also ensures you have a balanced lifestyle beyond academics. Other high school programs do not have this level of intellectual and personal development.
Additionally, in recognising the rigour of the IB program, many universities accept IB course credit as a replacement for first-year courses, allowing you to bypass early requirements and accelerate your studies.
If you're interested in taking IB courses but need help managing the rigorous coursework or maximizing your performance for the best possible outcomes, MedView is here to help!
And if you’re still unsure which curriculum is best for your strengths and interests, schedule a free one-on-one consultation with one of our Academic Advisors who can help set you on the path to success.
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The UCAT
The UCAT, or the University Clinical Aptitude Test is the medical school admission test required for many universities in Australia and New Zealand. The UCAT is designed to assess applicants for the aptitude, attitudes and beliefs required of a doctor. In order to defeat the UCAT - we should understand what it is. First off, it’s a two hour computer based exam. There are 5 separately timed subtests - Verbal Reasoning, Decision Making, Quantitative Reasoning, Abstract Reasoning and Situational Judgement. In this blog we break down each of the sections and offer guidance on how to prepare for this important exam.
Verbal Reasoning
Verbal Reasoning is meant to assess your ability to read something and draw appropriate conclusions. You can see why this would be important to a doctor - you’re part of a multidisciplinary team and will have to communicate effectively. In addition, doctors have to keep current with new research and draw reasonable conclusions from published findings. Decision making involves 11 text excerpts with 4 questions each, meaning this section has 44 questions in 21 minutes - that means an average of 29 seconds per question. That doesn’t even take reading the stem into account!
Decision Making
Decision Making is essentially data interpretation from graphs, tables, text and charts. You don’t need to have background knowledge on any subject, because part of what they’re testing is your ability to understand new information. Can you think of a time a doctor might have to do the same? This section has 29 questions in 31 minutes - an average of 64 seconds per question. Compare the timing of section to verbal reasoning, it’s more than double. Consider the length of time per question as an indication of how much the test writers want you to analyse.
Quantitative Reasoning
Quantitative Reasoning is a straightforward mathematics section - there are nine scenarios each with four questions. You’ll have access to an on screen calculator - which is functional but pretty clunky! You’ll have to strike a balance between using mental maths to be quick, and keeping your wits about you, and staying accurate. This section has 36 questions in 24 minutes - an average of 40 seconds per question. It’s not a lot of time to question your maths abilities!
Abstract Reasoning
Abstract Reasoning is used to evaluate your ability to locate patterns and understand logic, separate from your language abilities. If you’ve seen the guides online with pictures asking you to find a pattern - that’s abstract reasoning. This section is sometimes hard for students to grasp, because it’s such a different set of skills. It’s also probably the biggest struggle with time management. This section has 55 questions in 13 minutes - that’s only 14 seconds per question. Don’t even think about going into this section unprepared!
Situational Judgement
Situational Judgement assesses your judgement and character in different situations - the situations are usually clinical or education based. Either situations you’ve likely been in, or a situation you could be involved in future. Then you’ll have to evaluate the appropriateness, importance or consequences of the situation. It’s one way for universities to evaluate the characteristics that are important for future doctors! Situational Judgement has 69 questions in 26 minutes - an average of 25 seconds per question.
With so much to do - how can I set myself up for success?
Prepare
This sounds like a no brainer, but preparation is the most important thing you can do if you want to succeed on the UCAT. Going over questions is one thing but the most effective thing you can do is to practice under exam conditions. That means doing computer based exams - so when you get to test day, you know what to expect. Luckily MedView has a bank of questions.
Identify Your Strengths and Weaknesses
Time is a precious resource when you’re preparing for medical school admissions - you have to continue doing well in your studies, prepare yourself for an interview, and master a new exam. There’s not infinite time - so you have to learn how to study smarter, not just harder. So many students waste their time by continuing to drill skills that they’ve already mastered. It’s important to identify the weak points that need more TLC.
Learn Skills
Each type of question requires a specific psychometric approach to understand and answer so quickly. Skills and strategies to identify the problem and solve the challenging question are essential for success. MedView has a range of 1:1 tutoring, group workshops, practice exams and questions alongside our spiral learning curriculum to help students develop the skills necessary to succeed in time conditions. Our UCAT students are 5x more likely to receive an interview offer.
Sitting full-length practice exams under simulated conditions is the most effective preparation for developing UCAT skills. As this will familiarise yourself with the extreme time pressures, as well as allowing you to practise concentrating on psychometric skills for two hours. It is also important to practice using the computer-based platform that will be used when you sit UCAT as well.
Seek Help
Find friends that have taken the test before and ask for their experience. Better yet, schedule a free Academic Assessment with MedView today! When you start your journey as a MedView student, you are allocated an Education Coordinator who has experience helping hundreds of students get into med school. They’ll help you stay on track with your goals, offer you support, and help you succeed on your path to medical school.
Next Steps
The UCAT is an important exam that is key to medical school admission for undergraduates. We recommend starting your UCAT preparation early and integrating it into your study load to give yourself the best opportunity to succeed. If you’d like to learn more about the UCAT or how to get into Medical School, check out our free eBooks and blogs!
- What is the UCAT?
- How Universities use your UCAT Results
- A Quick Guide to Australia Medicine eBook
- A Quick Guide to New Zealand Medicine eBook
- How to Prepare for the UCAT
- What UCAT scores will get me into med?
MedView offers a range of UCAT preparation courses as well as personalised 1:1 tutoring with our expert team. If you would like to know more about the UCAT and how MedView can help, get in touch today.
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What can you do before the year starts?
Before the year starts, it is vital that you understand that the journey to becoming a doctor is a long and arduous process. Medicine is a life-long commitment whose pathway extends beyond the 6 years of study. It includes a progression from a house officer to a registrar, and application onto training schemes if you opt for the surgical pathway.
The vast majority of people who apply for medicine, do not have a clear picture of what they want to do in the future. This uncertainty is not something to worry about now – you have plenty of time to figure out exactly what you want to do. There is something in medicine for everyone. If you are still uncertain about the medical pathway beyond the 6 years of study, I would recommend doing further research.
Another thing you can do over the summer break is to identify your motivation to become a doctor. If it’s for the money, you may not be in the correct profession - it will be at least 10-12 years until you start earning the big bucks that all doctors are known for! If you have an inherent nature to help people and seek to make our society healthier, then you are on the right track.
Once your head is in the right place, enjoy your summer! The year will belong, and you will have to make social sacrifices to make your studies a priority. Make the most of the time you have by seeing friends and family, as you will inevitably see less of them throughout the year. You are likely to experience burnout sometime during the year, so optimising your rest now is important.
The single most effective way to distance yourself from your competitors is to start early and hard. After you have rested throughout December and into the new year, it is time to get started and get ahead. The Flying Start Course offered by MedView was my ticket to success. It is a highly intensive programme starting in late January that covers the first 6 weeks of content for the three core papers in the first semester. The advantages of this course are numerous:
- The most valuable aspect of Flying Start is the content covered. As the first semester contains 3 out of the 4 core papers, it is so important to get a good start. An early lapse within the first few weeks can completely derail your entire year. Being exposed to similar content ahead of time builds your confidence and gives you the opportunity to begin learning before others.
- There is a radically different teaching style from high school to university. Flying Start emulates the style you are accustomed to, while simultaneously teaching university material. This eases your transition and places students into a more comfortable and familiar environment.
- You can meet other motivated people. You may have heard the horror stories of people sabotaging each other, taking their notes and hiding their bags. While these are mostly exaggerated, there will still be those who resort to other measures to gain an advantage. The people doing Flying Start will be motivated just like you, and eager to get ahead. Working together and building these strong relationships before the year starts means that you have a better support group in place. I have met several bright individuals who were passionate and together, we were able to navigate the difficult year and succeed as a group!
MedView believes in a holistic approach to medical school admissions, meaning we surround the student with a team of experts to help develop their candidacy and skills in all three major pillars in their journey to medical school, and now it’s even more accessible with the MedView Hub App!
Over the last decade there’s been a mass adoption of smartphones and a shift in the way people behave online and communicate. Australians are spending more time online, often using multiple screens, and consuming vast amounts of content each day. And it’s only going up!
Recent figures show that almost eight out of ten Australians use social media, and 87% of them use their mobile phones to access it. Fifty-nine percent of Australians access social media everyday or most days, and over a third of people check social media more than five times per day.
We often go online to chat with friends and family, share photos, or be entertained by cat videos. But the very same platforms we use to socialise can also be used to gather knowledge that we can apply in our offline lives. One of the areas where users can reap the benefits is online communities. MedView prides themselves on finding the best tutor, strategist or consultant for each student whether they be in Australia, New Zealand or the United Kingdom and having an online community platform allows even more core benefits for our students in a shorter amount of time. Now students can access over 320 tutors, strategists and consultants and get answers to their Synapse questions, interact in exclusive workshops, and most importantly make friends. The meaningful relationships with other members of the community increases knowledge and collective wisdom.
The MedView Hub App is our own online community platform for students, parents, tutors, and alumni to create a network of opportunities to participate in smart, focused conversation on specific medical school admissions topics (unlike the Instagram and Facebook chatter).
Over the last decade there’s been a mass adoption of smartphones and a shift in the way people behave online and communicate. Australians are spending more time online, often using multiple screens, and consuming vast amounts of content each day. And it’s only going up!
Recent figures show that almost eight out of ten Australians use social media, and 87% of them use their mobile phones to access it. Fifty-nine percent of Australians access social media everyday or most days, and over a third of people check social media more than five times per day.
We often go online to chat with friends and family, share photos, or be entertained by cat videos. But the very same platforms we use to socialise can also be used to gather knowledge that we can apply in our offline lives. One of the areas where users can reap the benefits is online communities. MedView prides themselves on finding the best tutor, strategist or consultant for each student whether they be in Australia, New Zealand or the United Kingdom and having an online community platform allows even more core benefits for our students in a shorter amount of time. Now students can access over 320 tutors, strategists and consultants and get answers to their Synapse questions, interact in exclusive workshops, and most importantly make friends. The meaningful relationships with other members of the community increases knowledge and collective wisdom.
The MedView Hub App is our own online community platform for students, parents, tutors, and alumni to create a network of opportunities to participate in smart, focused conversation on specific medical school admissions topics (unlike the Instagram and Facebook chatter).
Find out more and begin your journey to medical school by speaking with a MedView Academic Advisor for free today!
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