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Language B: Taken by fluent students


biochem

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Argh. no problem. I was in a bit of a bad mood :)

In reference to medicine, I am planning on being an oncologist and when I came in contact with the admissions officer from my university - they told me that language is heavily prided right now in medicine. If you live in the US that is because, places like in Chicago have taken resources by calling local shops and schools in order to communicate with patients. And I can tell you my mother, among others, are more respected to the point that her schedule in the hospital is easily changed. not saying her practise isnt the cause, but she is definetly a time resource when it comes to communication.

We just took our practice test for Spanish, and the girl of course, got a 7.

there is still much to be said about this. It speaks about the integrity of the school and the politics behind IB. Clearly, my school is willing to ignore certain factors when representing their statistics (commonly done). I mean its a far-fetched idea to say that a single person has altered the boundary, but as the friend was quickly to point out to me, she is not the only one taking spanish B as a fluent student. There are several more. So the march scheme for my school that is, should be totally out of whack and not representable wit ha valid point. 5 automatic 7's amongst less than 100 students, alters our scale. Then convert these instances on a bigger scale, and look at exactly what is going on. After all, the march scheme for Spanish was slightly higher than other languages (and I am aware of the factors which input this influence, but the uncertainty is not dismissible).

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Im sorry biochem, I really didn't mean to insult you. It was just my opinion. :)

I admire you for been tri-lingual (does that word even exist?!) and is still learning another language. :yep:

However I do not see the point of learning another language during the busiest time of my schooling career. Group 1 is reserved for your 1st language. Group 2 would be your second language. I see no place for an additional third language. If there's a Group Z: Third language I would be happy to choose a third language like German or Japanese. Like I said, I would want to do Chinese A2 but our school does not offer it. The Group 2 subject is not as important as say the sciences when applying for uni. For med students, offers are made based on the sciences. So unis don't care about what you choose for Group 2.

You can!!! I take 3 IB language courses. I take Eng A1 HL, French B HL and Japanese Ab. I didn't want to take a music or art (because I am so not talented in this area..hahaha), so I asked my headmaster if I could take a third language instead. So the headmaster of the school asked the people in charged of IB and they replied saying that as long as the student can manage to do it, then the student can do it. So here I am studying 3 languages.

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But then again Arabic in IB isn't the arabic I speak so it's not THAT easy.....

Yes definatly, what levela are you taking it?

I take A1 SL, and it is sort of demanding, for the same reason you mentioned. I did my arabic orals last week, and they sucked, because I just couldnt find the word Im looking for.

I think that is one of the problems with IB arabic, the normally spoken one is very different from the 'formal' one. Unlike other languages, especially french and english.

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Yes definatly, what levela are you taking it?

I take A1 SL, and it is sort of demanding, for the same reason you mentioned. I did my arabic orals last week, and they sucked, because I just couldnt find the word Im looking for.

I think that is one of the problems with IB arabic, the normally spoken one is very different from the 'formal' one. Unlike other languages, especially french and english.

I am italian, and people keep shooting dirty looks at me because I'm taking Spanish B HL. I only went to Spain for three months in my life, but I learnt the language pretty well. However, I only learnt how to have a conversation, and discuss of normal things like weather and TV programs. This week I had my first spanish oral and it was about alcohol abuse in Spain and how parenthood and media influence the teenagers who abuse alcohol. Of course, everybody said I shouldn't "complain" because I was fluent. Nobody thinks that the reason I'm doing so well in Spanish is that I actually studied it and made an effort last year, everybody assumes that if I can speak to a fluent speaker for 5 minutes without problem then I shouldn't be allowed to take it.

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Don't we get credit for knowing more languages than the others? Haha. I'm fluent at french and I take French B HL only because our school doesn't offer a higher level course and no teacher is trained to teach such a course. We did several IB exams in class which I found fairly easy. Good for me right?

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From what I know, people regret taking their language as Language B course. The same thing happens in schools within Serbia. Instead of taking up an actual language to learn like German, Chinese or English they simply focus on Russian which is usually learned within the first year fluently. This is not really relevant to this topic, but just shows that people take the easy way out.

If you can deceive, convince, choose or manipulate your schedule to cater to your needs, so that a class is an automatic passing grade +, then more power to you :]]

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  • 2 weeks later...

People at my school take English B when they're just as fluent as I am in English. I dont see why not. Some people are aiming to study some humanities in UNI, so having their score pushed up by such an easy subject would be an advantage.

Not everyone does IB for the sake of benefitting from it like the way we should, in terms of learning new languages and becoming more capabale of others.

It's controversial(sp?).

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Plus.. One who take language B is may be because the school doesn't offer any other option for language. That will be one of the limitation too.

And the thing is, no matter what language it is, it comes with its own difficulties. And difficult is subjective to different people. So, lets just appreciate what we learnt.

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The thing is, students who opt to take English B may not be accepted into many universities in English speaking countries, such as the UK, USA, Australia, NZ, Canada etc etc. For courses like medicine,literature, psychology, optometry, dentistry... English A1 SL is the minimal requirement.

Im just saying it is better to choose wisely if you get the chance to choose.

That's not completely true, actually. I'm only familiar with UK requirements, but I'm fairly certain both US and UK universities will accept any English course as long as sufficient proof of proficiency can be provided. I have the impression that if you have a six in English B HL, you will not need any additional proof of proficiency. If you do, there are always tests like the TOEFL and Cambridge certificates and whatnot in case your language proficiency is questioned, so it really isn't the end of the world what English course you take.

That said, I still don't think it's a good idea to choose a B language where you could have taken an A2 language. Just my personal opinion.

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For courses like medicine,literature, psychology, optometry, dentistry... English A1 SL is the minimal requirement.

Not really, almost everyone from my grade that applied to medecine...dentistry...etc in the UK, US and australia are A2 or even B. They are good UNI's as well..like cambridge..sheffield..oxfird..etc.

I have the impression that if you have a six in English B HL, you will not need any additional proof of proficiency.

For American Universities, TOEFL is required even if you did IGCSE 1st language extended and IB A1 English. Which is kind if weird.

Edited by mahuta
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I feel concerned, since I'm fluent in frencch and am considering moving down to B HL, so that the workload from my 4 other highs is doable(Math HL, Physics HL, Bio HL, His HL[i still have to see if 5 highs are allowed by the IBO])

calm down with the HL's lol.... why would you want to do more than the required 3 when it is not reccomended by IBO or universities?

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For American Universities, TOEFL is required even if you did IGCSE 1st language extended and IB A1 English. Which is kind if weird.

Wtf??? That seems completely unreasonable and ridiculous. That's like saying, even though English is my first language (proven by A1), I still have to take TOEFL?

There must be some other criterion because I doubt everyone who has applied to US universities have taken TOEFL (they have SATs though).

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Is there any way for the IB to know if language B students are fluent. Coming second to a fluent kid (whos done german for 8 years), is unbelievably frustrating.

You do write your 'first' and 'second' languages or whatever. My first nationality is apparently Chinese then Canadian but my first language is English then Mandarin. :drool: Not sure who filled out that form... anyway, it's easy to bypass the system.

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Our school has clear guide lines in languages who should take which course. I think it has even been given by the IBO.

For B SL, it's for people who:

-has 2-5 years experience of the target language

-is not taught other subjects in the target language

-is normally taught outside a country where the language is spoken

-is a beginner or near-beginner who lives in a country where the language is spoken.

For B HL, it's for people who:

-has 4 to 5 years experience of the target language

-is not taught other subjects in the target language

-is normally taught outside a country where the language is spoken

So in case of Hyperbole's students, they are doing it against IB regulation I would say...

When their exam is in English and they take English B, it's not allowed.

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So in case of Hyperbole's students, they are doing it against IB regulation I would say...

When their exam is in English and they take English B, it's not allowed.

The thing with that is that it's a guideline, not a rule. So nobody is obliged to abide by it; it is just the ideal. So the IBO is not entitled to go tell anybody that they're too good at a language to study it at the level they do; all they can do is to encourage schools and students to ensure that the right level is being studied. They state in the Group 2 Guide that studying the wrong level will rob a student of a learning opportunity, and that is obviously very bad.

Not to defend my school, because I don't agree with the policies there myself, but it isn't "not allowed" or against regulations, just discouraged.

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The thing is, students who opt to take English B may not be accepted into many universities in English speaking countries, such as the UK, USA, Australia, NZ, Canada etc etc. For courses like medicine,literature, psychology, optometry, dentistry... English A1 SL is the minimal requirement.

Im just saying it is better to choose wisely if you get the chance to choose.

Is this true? Wev'e always been told that if you get your diploma you're considered fluent in English, even if you''ve not studied it as a subject. I especially asked teachers about this before I decided to actually not choose English A2.

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