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Changing IB school after 1 year IB


Intuition

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Hello!

Im in my first year during my IB diploma right now, and I have been thinking about going to another IB school.

The reason is that the school I am going to now is extremely commercial, where as we pay a lot while they put 1200 studeacents on a 25 acre campus (4 students in a 4*5 meter room), provide us with terrible budget food, and they underpay and exploit the teachers (we have very good teacher though), etc...

One thing is that I have to continue with the same subjects, but there are still schools out there with the same subjects, so I guess it shouldnt be a problem (?)

Anyone who tried this? Would appreciate any response!

Edit: Also, is there any way I can search for IB schools offering specific subjects? (My concern is Norwegian A).

Edited by Intuition
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Depends if you can find a school with similar subjects. Also bear in mind that they may have gone through the syllabus in a different order, have completed different IAs, be studying different texts... and so on. So people who do this usually move school because they NEED to, just because it's a pain and you will inevitably have to do some extra work and put in extra time to get yourself in line.

There's also the issue of adjusting to a new environment, new friends etc. when actually IB2 is quite a stressful year just by itself, on account of almost everything important happening then. So you end up putting a lot of extra pressure on yourself.

So I definitely know people who moved schools and still did the IB, but never on a whim, always because their parents moved country or something.

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If you do switch schools don't worry about Norwegian A because you are entitled to study your native language in all IB schools (if there is no teacher then there is something called Self Taught which a lot of students do at my old school e.g if they are Chinese or Russian). So you can be sure no matter where you go, you will be able to take Norwegian A.

I think you should take advantage of the fact that you have really good teachers, in spite of the circumstances. Good teachers can be hard to come by, let alone the added pressure of adjusting to a new environment like Sandwich said - IB2 IS stressful on its own.

I know it is possible to switch schools after IB1 and still be successful, but this was predominantly due to the flexibility of the teachers at the school the person switched to. Teachers unfortunately have a tendency of going through the syllabus differently, and this can be especially difficult in subjects like mathematics. You could end up going over the same chapters twice and having to self study some completely on your own. I would think very carefully before making this decision. Good luck!

Edited by Babydolleyes
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So far Ive found two other schools in the US offering Norwegian A HL, and a few others in other places of the world. However, if it is true as Babydolleyes say, I will have a lot of schools to pick from. At one of the schools I found offering Norwegian A HL, the tuition is half of what it is here - and the facilities can't possibly be better.

And well… I said my teachers were good. The only teacher I think is really good is my physics teacher - my Math and Econ teacher is above average, and the rest is just around what I guess is average. I think I just see my teachers as good because I came from a school with terrible teachers where everyone refused to work in class.

Anyways, there is so many problems with the school I go to now, and even one of my teachers agreed to so and said that he would never send his son to ´this school´, not even if the tuition was half of what it is here.

How should I proceed to potentially change school after the summer? I probably have some deadlines Id have to nail. Should I perhaps send an email to one of the schools and ask if it would be possible to go there as an IB senior?

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Well I read that you had very good teachers - But of course if they aren't spectacular in your opinion then don't linger for their sake. I promise you, it is true that you are entitled to study your native language no matter what IB school you attend. In fact, I had to persuade my IB Coordinator in letting me NOT take Double A1 because I only wanted English A HL and not Icelandic too (since both languages are equally my mother tongue).

Are you very dependent on your school/teachers? I'm just wondering because some IB schools have super long hours (timetable wise) whilst other schools emphasize a lot of independence and self study (e.g my old school, we had very few classes per week and did a lot of work at home). If you are relatively independent and capable of self study, I would definitely encourage you to endure the last year because it will most likely be easier. I mean you can't even really work on your EE during the summer or anything because you don't know if your new supervisor will accept the topic or not. Definitely send an email to all the schools in question and ask if what you want is even possible, and then try to see if they can allocate an EE supervisor as soon as possible. Find out if there are any summer projects you need to be aware of and just try to decide on a school quickly. Are you potentially moving to the states to go to school there? The further you move from the school you are in now, the higher the probability is that the new school does things quite differently..

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