Official November 2009 IB Results Thread

[KiwiFruit]

2009 NOVEMBER ENGLISH A1 SL 6

2009 NOVEMBER MANDARIN B SL 5

2009 NOVEMBER BUS.& MAN. EE in ENGLISH B

2009 NOVEMBER BUS.& MAN. HL in ENGLISH 6

2009 NOVEMBER GEOGRAPHY HL in ENGLISH 7

2009 NOVEMBER BIOLOGY HL in ENGLISH 7

2009 NOVEMBER MATH.STUDIES SL in ENGLISH 7

2009 NOVEMBER THEORY KNOWL. TK in ENGLISH C

Total= 39

[mreos]

I was just wondering which unis are you people applying to? I assume there must be some of you here applying to Australian universities and I too wish to study there, so any information regarding which Australian unis you people applied to/got accepted to and with how many points did you or someone else you know get accepted at certain unis (such as Melbourne Uni, University of Sydney, U Queensland, Monash etc.) would be very helpful.

I'm interested in Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Biomedicine degree programs to be precise.

Sorry I dont have time to look those particular courses up for you, but all the australian unis simply publish the IB score as well as the TER/ENTER/local high school certificate score (every state has a different name for it) for the course as it was in the last intake. So if you do a little bit of browsing on all the sites you can find these scores to help you.

[Ejoriah]

This is what I got:

Maths HL - 4

Computer Science HL - 7

English A2 HL - 6

Economics SL - 6

Physics SL - 6

French A1 SL - 7

ToK - C

Extended Essay - A

So 2 bonus points, makes it a total of 38.

Best of my school, bit disappointed personally because I was predicted a 41. I was also predicted an A for ToK, goes to show doesn't it.

[Asheee]

well done everyone! predictions don't mean much really I'm strongly considering getting my Theatre remarkeed (I already have the IB score I need for uni, but if my grade gets boosted i'll feel better)

If you are an Australian citizen applying for Melbourne Uni, and are eligible for the Special Entry Access Scheme (SEAS), they are allowing people to enter Biomedicine on a TER of 88, so around an IB score of 32/33. I'm guessing they'll continue with that next year. Bachelor of Science through SEAS is a 78, so I'd say a 30 or less?

My first preference for Uni is Latrobe University to do Dentistry. Normally need a score of 99.3 but i qualify for a regional bonus so I'll only need a 32. I got a 34 so hopefully I'll get in

[capitalist]

well done everyone! predictions don't mean much really I'm strongly considering getting my Theatre remarkeed (I already have the IB score I need for uni, but if my grade gets boosted i'll feel better)

If you are an Australian citizen applying for Melbourne Uni, and are eligible for the Special Entry Access Scheme (SEAS), they are allowing people to enter Biomedicine on a TER of 88, so around an IB score of 32/33. I'm guessing they'll continue with that next year. Bachelor of Science through SEAS is a 78, so I'd say a 30 or less?

My first preference for Uni is Latrobe University to do Dentistry. Normally need a score of 99.3 but i qualify for a regional bonus so I'll only need a 32. I got a 34 so hopefully I'll get in

By the way will all Australian universities simply look at the "IB to UAC" score ranking chart to know what your score is?(http://www.uac.edu.au/undergraduate/faq/ib.shtml)

If so, it gives the IB students a great advantage in terms of grades required for admission.

[Asheee]

All New South Wales unis will use the IB to UAC score ranking chart, all the other states will have their own conversion table, SATAC for South Australia and VTAC for Victoria, QTAC for Queensland. The link you gave me above, is the same as VTAC's conversion chart for this year.

So yes, all Aussie Unis will convert your IB score into the local score

[AndyIB]

I was just wondering which unis are you people applying to? I assume there must be some of you here applying to Australian universities and I too wish to study there, so any information regarding which Australian unis you people applied to/got accepted to and with how many points did you or someone else you know get accepted at certain unis (such as Melbourne Uni, University of Sydney, U Queensland, Monash etc.) would be very helpful.

I'm interested in Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Biomedicine degree programs to be precise.

Sorry I dont have time to look those particular courses up for you, but all the australian unis simply publish the IB score as well as the TER/ENTER/local high school certificate score (every state has a different name for it) for the course as it was in the last intake. So if you do a little bit of browsing on all the sites you can find these scores to help you.

I didn't ask from you or from anyone else to look up those particular courses for me. I already did the research myself and I know that Australian universities convert IB grades to local scores etc.

What I wanted was perhaps more in depth information from someone living in Australia to tell me what the situation is really like regarding universities because I know that on their websites they state only minimum requirements. So, for example, even though it says that a uni will accept an applicant with 33 points or whatever, I suppose you will actually need more than that in order to really be accepted. Just because it's stated on Melbourne Uni's website that the requirements are grades 4 on HL subjects and 5 on SL subjects, I know that in order to really be accepted, you would need to achieve much more than this as it's VERY competitive, right?

So, that's why I wanted someone from Australia who might know from personal experience (a person who maybe knows someone who got into these programs and with how many points did he/she get accepted to these programs) to tell me and give me a better insight on how tough it really is to get into certain courses such as Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Biomedicine. This is why I mentioned these courses in my previous post, not to have someone look them up for me.

[Bishup]

This is what I got:

Maths HL - 4

Computer Science HL - 7

English A2 HL - 6

Economics SL - 6

Physics SL - 6

French A1 SL - 7

ToK - C

Extended Essay - A

So 2 bonus points, makes it a total of 38.

Best of my school, bit disappointed personally because I was predicted a 41. I was also predicted an A for ToK, goes to show doesn't it.

Hey dude congratulations on your grades you blew me away you definetely made up for your 4 in maths. Can you tell me why you ended up with a 4 in maths and could tell me what books you studied for french for part 2 and part 4, you'd do me a massive favour

[balloon]

AndyIB, I can tell you about universities in the Sydney region. For science I would recommend University of Sydney and University of New South Wales in particular. These unis both have new science units, and UNSW recently installed a world class cancer research center, if your interested in biomedecine. In terms of admittance, as you probably already know, mathematics and chemistry are additional selection criteria. If you have the University Admissions Center (UAC) guide, you will know this. According to the Board of Studies, the 'mathematics' prerequisite these courses require is equivalent to IB Math Studies. 2 unit mathematics (or advanced) is equivalent to Math SL et cetera. The mathematics the IB requires should be sufficient for these courses. In terms of acceptance of IB students, the universities are rather vague. They certainly accept IB students but appear to have preference (usyd especially) for HSC students who have earned grades via competition. If you fulfill the additional requirements criteria, and have the grade equivalents to be accepted, it might not be a bad idea to have your school headmaster send a headmaster' s recommendation to the university, as these are heavily considered in Australia.

I understand that Griffith university and some Queensland universities have better IB recognition. Indeed, the Sydney area seems to have the worst IB recognition, but don't despair! I know many an IB student who has been accepted there.

UTS would perhaps be the only other university in which one might consider doing science. The other universities in the region really aren't worth you while for that sort of degree. Macquarie's biology unit is a greenhouse on top of a sky scraper. Bad bad bad!

[Forester]

Congratulations everyone!

[Asheee]

I suppose you will actually need more than that in order to really be accepted. Just because it's stated on Melbourne Uni's website that the requirements are grades 4 on HL subjects and 5 on SL subjects, I know that in order to really be accepted, you would need to achieve much more than this as it's VERY competitive, right?

I know that as long as you get the required scores in the subjects, and the clearly-in Enter Score/ IB Score, they will accept you. So yes, for Melbourne uni you can get in on a 4 HL or 5 SL, whatever they ask. Melbourne Uni isn't as competitive as they appear to be. Melbourne Uni have many places availible for those who get the required score. It's best to get an IB Score as high as possible, as it will give you that extra advantage over other students. Also, the VCE certificate (the year 12 program most Victorians undertake), most VCE students find it very difficult to get ENTER scores that Melbourne Uni ask for, as an ENTER score of 88 means that you are basically better than 88% of the state.

[Ejoriah]

Hey dude congratulations on your grades you blew me away you definetely made up for your 4 in maths. Can you tell me why you ended up with a 4 in maths and could tell me what books you studied for french for part 2 and part 4, you'd do me a massive favour

Maths HL is, in my opinion, the hardest subject in IB. Computer Science is in the same category as maths, but I found maths incredibly harder, as I think is quite obvious from my grades. The think is with IB maths HL, knowing your theory is simply not enough. You can know your theory, but be chucked questions that you don't even understand what they are asking you for - I know the maths teachers themselves took some time over some questions because they are not straightforward at all. Maths HL is not something you can do well at with practice, because every year you get questions that you've never encountered the likes of before, and somehow I couldn't wrap my mind around it. I'm just glad I got a pass though, as I got a 3 for my mocks. In my school only one person got a 6 in maths HL, and many others failed. The grade boundaries must have been very low, because I know for a fact I left the last two questions of my paper 2 section B blank.

I completely forgot what the parts are in french (which is shameful because my mother is both an IB french teacher and the IB coordinator), so I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that part 2 is the one you do your C.O.I on, for this we had "L'Etranger" by Albert Camus and a selection of poems (Hugo, Musset, and some other african authors).

Assuming that part 4 is the one you do your P.O.I on, we had "Candide" by Voltaire, "Paul et Virginie" by Bernardin de St Pierre, and "Renée" by Chateaubriand. If I got the parts wrong, sorry, but I tried to put everything IB related behind me

[AndyIB]

Hey dude congratulations on your grades you blew me away you definetely made up for your 4 in maths. Can you tell me why you ended up with a 4 in maths and could tell me what books you studied for french for part 2 and part 4, you'd do me a massive favour

Maths HL is, in my opinion, the hardest subject in IB. Computer Science is in the same category as maths, but I found maths incredibly harder, as I think is quite obvious from my grades. The think is with IB maths HL, knowing your theory is simply not enough. You can know your theory, but be chucked questions that you don't even understand what they are asking you for - I know the maths teachers themselves took some time over some questions because they are not straightforward at all. Maths HL is not something you can do well at with practice, because every year you get questions that you've never encountered the likes of before, and somehow I couldn't wrap my mind around it. I'm just glad I got a pass though, as I got a 3 for my mocks. In my school only one person got a 6 in maths HL, and many others failed. The grade boundaries must have been very low, because I know for a fact I left the last two questions of my paper 2 section B blank.

Yeah, I figured Math HL would be the hardest. So, did you leave the 2 questions for Paper 2 blank on the final exams or on your mock exams?

Also, could you tell me how long you spent practicing for your Math HL exams, what tasks did you use for practicing (i.e. Math HL book, Question Bank etc.) and to which type of tasks were the ones on the final Math HL exam most similar to? I assume they were most similar to the Question Bank tasks...

Btw, congratulations on all the other subjects.

Edited January 9, 2010 by AndyIB

[capitalist]

By the way does anyone know whether IB Maths HL OR HSC(Higher School Certificate in NSW Australia)'s Maths Extension 2 is harder?

[Ejoriah]

Yeah, I figured Math HL would be the hardest. So, did you leave the 2 questions for Paper 2 blank on the final exams or on your mock exams?

Also, could you tell me how long you spent practicing for your Math HL exams, what tasks did you use for practicing (i.e. Math HL book, Question Bank etc.) and to which type of tasks were the ones on the final Math HL exam most similar to? I assume they were most similar to the Question Bank tasks...

Btw, congratulations on all the other subjects.

On the final exams. I really expected to get a 3 because of that!

I used a Math HL book for some questions then ploughed my way through past papers, and a little bit of the question bank. Like I said, the one thing that threw most people off is that the questions are extremely different from what we had seen before - not all of them obviously, but the big ones that carry a lot of weight usually are. We were lucky that the same type of proof that we got in our mocks was asked in the finals. There was a question though on vectors I think it was, a topic we had all revised over and over again, in study groups and in class, and it stumped all of us.

[slizzie]

By the way does anyone know whether IB Maths HL OR HSC(Higher School Certificate in NSW Australia)'s Maths Extension 2 is harder?

When I was studying the IB in Australia, our teacher said IB Math SL is equivalent to about 2.3 units in the HSC course, so I would say that HL Math would be about the same as extension 2, however, it is hard to say which one is directly harder because of the difference in curriculum.

[Henza]

By the way does anyone know whether IB Maths HL OR HSC(Higher School Certificate in NSW Australia)'s Maths Extension 2 is harder?

as one user said before, its hard to compare two different courses. Personally, I think ext 2 is harder, in terms of the questions they get. I think theyre integration stuff is harder, and it goes into more depth than the HL course. Exam papers have more questions, each questions worth less marks so it can be hit or miss. However, HL do extra topics compared to HSC such as 3d vectors, matrices (no big deal though) and stats. As far as I'm aware, HSC doesnt do much stats at all (mostly cause of the lack of a GDC where they can use distribution data)

However, the two HL areas which i say would be harder than the HSC are the portfolios and the option topic. Portfolios - absolutely nothing compares to it in HSC. its very different, but i still think HSC would be able to handle it. Option topics - things like discrete maths, series, further stats, groups, sets etc are already 1st/2nd year uni stuff, and although theyre treated at a simple level, like the portfolios, theres no equivalent to the HSC.

I managed to get 6, kinda disappointed with that, but oh well. I thought I managed to kill the option topic. messed up p2, but p1 was alright.

my ten cents...gratz everyone

post script:

in regards to that vectors question...i was the same, did heaps of prep with past paper vector questions, but from what i remember, i kept getting really bad decimal numbers

post post script:

i just did heaps of past papers, looked at mark schemes, and went through the text book. month leading up to exams, i think i just went over my weakest topic which were vectors and stats and brushed up on the option topic.

Edited January 10, 2010 by Henza