IB English and A-Level English

[marlou]

Hey,

I take English A SL, and I can't figure out what it is equivalent to in A-levels or Cambridge English Proficiency.

The requirements:

Advanced GCE (A-Level): Grade C English literature (A or B) Or: Grade C English Language (A or B)

What is this equivalent to in IB English?

[Sandwich]

According to UCAS (who do UK University admissions and award points to different qualifications), a 7 in SL English is worth 70 points and a C at A Level is worth 80 points, so it's actually impossible to be equivalent to a C grade no matter how well you do in SL English. You'd have to get at least a 5 in HL English to be compared with a C in A Level English. Tariff tables: http://www.ucas.com/...f/tarifftables/

However, the IB is scaled specially so that individual subject grades are artificially lower to compensate for the fact you do so many subjects in the diploma (otherwise the IB would wildly beat A Levels in UCAS points). So assuming that you need to know the conversion for some kind of purpose, you should contact the organisation in question and ask them how they view the qualifications for an IB SL course. It's very likely that they will accept English SL despite it technically not being equivalent to their lowest requirement for A Level. In actuality, a 7 in SL represents a lack of dedication to make English an HL subject rather than (necessarily) a lack of ability, and I think that's widely recognised. Certainly many people who get 7s in SL English could beat a C at A Level! On the other hand, depending on how essential English is to what you're trying to do, they may also not wish to accept students who couldn't be bothered with HL.

In the UK, thanks mostly to the fact that A Level people do only 3 subjects, they have a tendency to only care about your 3 HLs and disregard your SLs as nothing more than just a contribution to your overall point score. Despite the fact that that's not really how the IB works, and SL subjects are not so easy as to be negligible. Anyway, that's how they do it.

[marlou]

According to UCAS (who do UK University admissions and award points to different qualifications), a 7 in SL English is worth 70 points and a C at A Level is worth 80 points, so it's actually impossible to be equivalent to a C grade no matter how well you do in SL English. You'd have to get at least a 5 in HL English to be compared with a C in A Level English. Tariff tables: http://www.ucas.com/...f/tarifftables/

However, the IB is scaled specially so that individual subject grades are artificially lower to compensate for the fact you do so many subjects in the diploma (otherwise the IB would wildly beat A Levels in UCAS points). So assuming that you need to know the conversion for some kind of purpose, you should contact the organisation in question and ask them how they view the qualifications for an IB SL course. It's very likely that they will accept English SL despite it technically not being equivalent to their lowest requirement for A Level. In actuality, a 7 in SL represents a lack of dedication to make English an HL subject rather than (necessarily) a lack of ability, and I think that's widely recognised. Certainly many people who get 7s in SL English could beat a C at A Level! On the other hand, depending on how essential English is to what you're trying to do, they may also not wish to accept students who couldn't be bothered with HL.

In the UK, thanks mostly to the fact that A Level people do only 3 subjects, they have a tendency to only care about your 3 HLs and disregard your SLs as nothing more than just a contribution to your overall point score. Despite the fact that that's not really how the IB works, and SL subjects are not so easy as to be negligible. Anyway, that's how they do it.

Hmm makes sense, I'll call them then.

Thank you so much!