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A few questions before I submit my IB Application


Crazycops

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I am currently 16 years old and in my sophomore year and have decided to go with the IB program offered in my school. I have decided to study in the UK. Before I submit my application which is due in a few weeks, I have some questions.

  • I am planning to do either Software Engineering or Electronic Engineering as an undergraduate course and I just wanted to know if the following courses are suitable for it:
    • HL - IB English, IB Physics and IB Economics
    • SL - IB Spanish AB, IB Chemistry and Mathematics SL
  • I have noticed that some schools in the UK and US do pre-IB summer programs, however, there is no such program in the country I live in (Saudi Arabia). I just wanted to know if they are helpful or needed? If yes, are there any online programs of the same?
  • IB English HL - Is this a good choice or should I do another HL, like Mathematics HL instead?
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4 hours ago, revumol7 said:

I would personally recommend taking HL Maths as opposed to English as it may prepare you better for the Math heavy courses in Engineering. 

I want to take HL Maths but after hearing what others had to say about it, I am not sure. I would say I am good at mathematics and I also like it a lot, but I am not one of the best in my grade and I don't think it's a course for me. The teachers too said that unless you enjoy maths so much so that a fun weekend for you would be trying to solve a complex problem the entire day. Will I be able get into Software or Electronic engineering in a good university without taking HL Maths but getting 6-7 points in my other HL classes?

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6 hours ago, Crazycops said:

I want to take HL Maths but after hearing what others had to say about it, I am not sure. I would say I am good at mathematics and I also like it a lot, but I am not one of the best in my grade and I don't think it's a course for me. The teachers too said that unless you enjoy maths so much so that a fun weekend for you would be trying to solve a complex problem the entire day. Will I be able get into Software or Electronic engineering in a good university without taking HL Maths but getting 6-7 points in my other HL classes?

If you are going to study in the UK, then I would say no, as most of the top universities for Engineering have Mathematics HL as a requirement. You can always search up the requirements for the different universities that you plan to get into. I would therefore doubt that they would consider your application in that case, since it does not meet the requirements. 

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If you're going into engineering, you'll have to do 4+ years of hard math anyways. Might as well get used to the difficulty now with HL Math instead of being underprepared with SL (not to mention most 'good' schools won't accept you with just SL Math).

If you have the option of HL, take it. Most of what you're hearing is probably just rumours.

If you're 100% sticking with SL Math, start doing your research now as to what schools you can get into. Canadian unis take either SL or HL Math, so maybe consider some top universities there.

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Your subjects are mostly good for your future undergrad choices, with the exception of SL math.  Basically what everyone else said for HL math.  I'd just like to add that it's is definitely not as difficult as people make it out to be.  A fair amount of practice and good skills in maths should suffice.  What you should do is practice a lot of different math problems, and improve your problem solving skills in general.  To be good in HL math, you'd need to be good at math overall.  Having access to SL/HL textbooks definitely won't hurt either.  

Some links for preparation that may be helpful:

  • http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/ - good pre-calculus and calculus notes, with nice exercises.  I learned a fair bit from here on my own.  
  • http://nrich.maths.org/step - generally used for preparation for STEP, a math exam for Cambridge, but is still related to the IB HL syllabus.  Trying to do some STEP past papers won't hurt either.  They're somewhat more difficult than HL math IMO.  
  • Khan Academy and other Youtube video channels won't hurt either, although I personally don't like videos (I'm of a minority it seems though).  

To answer your other question, pre-IB summer programs probably aren't necessary - I didn't take them myself, but I'm still doing fairly well in the IB anyways.  What can be helpful is to start to study the material on your own before you start the IB.  I did this for chemistry, physics and maths, and now I can slack off in those classes if I wanted to (although I just do other work - really just don't slack off).  

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You need Maths HL for engineering. Even if it's not required (and most unis in the UK will require it), because so much of your Engineering degree will be maths. And if you're scared of high school Maths, then you probably should reconsider your choice to study Engineering, cause maths there will definitely be harder than IB Maths HL. 

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On 3/16/2017 at 3:41 PM, dreamyslife said:

If you are going to study in the UK, then I would say no, as most of the top universities for Engineering have Mathematics HL as a requirement. You can always search up the requirements for the different universities that you plan to get into. I would therefore doubt that they would consider your application in that case, since it does not meet the requirements. 

 

On 3/16/2017 at 6:09 PM, VeronicaG said:

If you're going into engineering, you'll have to do 4+ years of hard math anyways. Might as well get used to the difficulty now with HL Math instead of being underprepared with SL (not to mention most 'good' schools won't accept you with just SL Math).

If you have the option of HL, take it. Most of what you're hearing is probably just rumours.

If you're 100% sticking with SL Math, start doing your research now as to what schools you can get into. Canadian unis take either SL or HL Math, so maybe consider some top universities there.

 

6 hours ago, SC2Player said:

Your subjects are mostly good for your future undergrad choices, with the exception of SL math.  Basically what everyone else said for HL math.  I'd just like to add that it's is definitely not as difficult as people make it out to be.  A fair amount of practice and good skills in maths should suffice.  What you should do is practice a lot of different math problems, and improve your problem solving skills in general.  To be good in HL math, you'd need to be good at math overall.  Having access to SL/HL textbooks definitely won't hurt either.  

Some links for preparation that may be helpful:

  • http://tutorial.math.lamar.edu/ - good pre-calculus and calculus notes, with nice exercises.  I learned a fair bit from here on my own.  
  • http://nrich.maths.org/step - generally used for preparation for STEP, a math exam for Cambridge, but is still related to the IB HL syllabus.  Trying to do some STEP past papers won't hurt either.  They're somewhat more difficult than HL math IMO.  
  • Khan Academy and other Youtube video channels won't hurt either, although I personally don't like videos (I'm of a minority it seems though).  

To answer your other question, pre-IB summer programs probably aren't necessary - I didn't take them myself, but I'm still doing fairly well in the IB anyways.  What can be helpful is to start to study the material on your own before you start the IB.  I did this for chemistry, physics and maths, and now I can slack off in those classes if I wanted to (although I just do other work - really just don't slack off).  

 

2 hours ago, Gaby said:

You need Maths HL for engineering. Even if it's not required (and most unis in the UK will require it), because so much of your Engineering degree will be maths. And if you're scared of high school Maths, then you probably should reconsider your choice to study Engineering, cause maths there will definitely be harder than IB Maths HL. 

After researching about universities in the UK, it seems that most of the universities do not require HL Maths for the course I want (with a few exceptions like University of Manchester and University of Leicester). It's not like I am scared of maths or something, I like maths but I think HL Maths will require a lot of time. If I take SL, I can also give a good amount of time and effort to my science courses. I talked to the IB Coordinator at school and he said SL Maths is good enough for engineering.

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