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OSC Summer Courses


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I know some people who went on the Mathematics course and they said it was brilliant in terms of the teachers - they actually specialised in IB teaching and gave out some really excellent handouts (which I managed to nick some photocopies of :P ). It's best to do it for consolidation, though, so doing it in the easter holiday or whatever break you have just before May is a good idea, as you go back over everything very thoroughly and practice. IMO that'd be the most beneficial time to go.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I would love to do it but the fees are outrageous, one week of tuition and board runs about 3000 pounds plus flight. I'm not sure how much it would help either in the summer. I'm sure the Easter ones before May would be better but I'm not sure if all the money is worth it.

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It is expensive. Going for exam revision before final exams in Easter of IB2 is too stressful (there is a lot of pressure to cover everything in the course, and not to waste your parents' money) and you could just do better to revise by yourself (because once you get there, you may end up panicking when you realize that people in other IB schools are "so much smarter" and have covered some material in more depth than you/you confirm your belief that your teachers are incompetent and waste too much time blaming them rather than revising). 4 of my classmates went for the OSC courses right before exams, and I got more points for my diploma than all of them (and I didn't go to the revision courses, I revised at home). You could also do just as well to buy the OSC revision guides, because many of the teachers that run the OSC courses wrote those guides.

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It's not that expensive each course costs £1100 per week(at Cambridge) and the plane tickets are quite cheap if you book them a lot earlier.

My problem is that I don't know how useful they could be. Of course there are examiners there telling you what you should study, but I think that students go there just for vacation and not to study.

Probably I should ask my IB Coordinator as well, he must know something more. :P

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Well I just returned from the "Revision Courses Europe & America" yesterday. It was well worth it; I took Math HL and Chemistry SL. I think it's about half the price of the courses you have mentioned; the one in the UK cost 445 pounds for the first course and then further courses will be a little cheaper. But I got one course for free as a CAS scholarship :P . I don't know if they have that for the Easter revision course, too... just check it out www.revisioncourses.com

The tutors have all completed their IB around 3 or so years ago and had of course excellent grades. My tutor in Math and Chemistry is right now studying Chemistry in Oxford. So yes, the tutors there are right now students, but I think that is a great advantage. They understand our situation better, they have tackled the exams themselves, they know some tricks for the questions and stuff... besides, they really know what they are talking about. And my tutor would arrange extra sessions with us for comparing the homework.

Each course was four days, at least for hours per day of class... plus homework and stuff. It was pretty intense. They say at Easter it's much more intense, though, 8 hours per day.

So I don't know whether I'll go Easter, but the summer course definitely helped me out. In Math HL we covered a lot of the syllabus and in Chemistry SL the whole syllabus. I took loaaaads of notes.

And after all, it was so interesting to meet other IB people, as my school doesn't have any experience; we are the first group.

Edited by decemberflower
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Well I just returned from the "Revision Courses Europe & America" yesterday. It was well worth it; I took Math HL and Chemistry SL. I think it's about half the price of the courses you have mentioned; the one in the UK cost 445 pounds for the first course and then further courses will be a little cheaper. But I got one course for free as a CAS scholarship :P . I don't know if they have that for the Easter revision course, too... just check it out www.revisioncourses.com

The tutors have all completed their IB around 3 or so years ago and had of course excellent grades. My tutor in Math and Chemistry is right now studying Chemistry in Oxford. So yes, the tutors there are right now students, but I think that is a great advantage. They understand our situation better, they have tackled the exams themselves, they know some tricks for the questions and stuff... besides, they really know what they are talking about. And my tutor would arrange extra sessions with us for comparing the homework.

Each course was four days, at least for hours per day of class... plus homework and stuff. It was pretty intense. They say at Easter it's much more intense, though, 8 hours per day.

So I don't know whether I'll go Easter, but the summer course definitely helped me out. In Math HL we covered a lot of the syllabus and in Chemistry SL the whole syllabus. I took loaaaads of notes.

And after all, it was so interesting to meet other IB people, as my school doesn't have any experience; we are the first group.

I was talking about this course http://www.osc-ib.com/ib-courses/ , were most of the tutors are IB examiners.

I think that it is not the same one you attended, but both of them probably are a great help to the students attending them.

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  • 3 weeks later...

My brother took the OSC summer courses and said it was well worth it. I think he studied maths and physics. He said that the teachers were very experienced and they gave him loads of notes, handouts and advice. I'd recommend you go. If you live in the UK and don't have to pay for a plane ticket, I'd say you should definitely go. Plus, you'll have some experience and you can state this on any Personal Statements you may have to right. Other than the cost, there isn't anything negative I can tell you about it. Even this can be avoided because I think that there are also courses occurring in Easter. You should check that out...

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  • 1 year later...

I HATED OSC! The check-in times were brutal and it was like another day at school. Sure, it helped, but Lanterna was much cheaper and the facilities better. The guys at Lanterna all did Ib (even the social staff!) and the tutors had like 40-45 points. But then again I did OSC summer course and just the Lanterna spring course.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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