The Ultimate Guide to IB Schools in Finland: FAQ

So, you're thinking of applying to the IB in Finland and you have questions about the entrance exams? Look no further! Today, I will be delving into frequently asked questions about applying to the IB, the entrance exams you have to do and how to prepare.

How do I apply to an IB High School?

When you’re in 8th grade of lower secondary school, you may need to start thinking about options of continuing to upper secondary schools. You have only 5 schools you can apply to, and you should pay a lot of attention to what order you put them in when submitting your application in 9th grade. For example, in the table above, you can see that the school I wanted to get into most was the IB Programmes in Ressun Lukio, followed by Helsingin Suomalainen Yhteiskoulu (SYK), Etelä-Tapiolan Lukio (Etis), Mattlidens and Tikkurilan Lukio. Thus, my least preferred option was Tikkurila. 

As for how the point scoring system works, as stated by the Ressun Lukio website: ‘Students can get max 10 points for their Grade Point Average (GPA) and max 10 points for the entrance exam, bringing the maximum total score to 20 points.’

If I actually don’t want to go to my first preference after I’ve been accepted, can I switch schools to another one on the list if I got accepted to that one?

You are not able to switch your preferences after you’ve submitted your application. For example, if you have Mattlidens as your first preference and Etis as your second and you are accepted into both schools, you will automatically be accepted into Mattlidens and your application to Etis will be listed as ‘cancelled’. This is why you need to be ultra careful about your application and really think about what order you want to place your schools in!

How do you organise your schools in order of preference?

(Psst! Check out the 'About Me' page to know what schools I applied for, in what order, and what scores I got from each entrance exam)

I think that the answer to this question lies in 4 main things:

1. The types of opportunities you want from your school

Each school has its own activities and opportunities available to their students, and I remember being told about the opportunities available when people have attended Ressun Lukio in the past. Ressun Lukio has incredible opportunities to not only engage with your local community, but also on a global scale. By being part of this school, I have highly people-oriented opportunities that have actually changed me as a person, including:

• Being able to be part of the organisation European Youth Parliament (EYP)
• Volunteering in the World Summit of Students for Climate Change (WSSC)
• Participating in Helsinki International Model United Nations (HELIMUN)
• Soon-to-be participating in Slush 2019

I knew that the more people-oriented nature of Ressun Lukio would be the perfect place for me. However, I was told that SYK offered more academically-based opportunities, such as being part of debate competitions and therefore I could probably develop my academic abilities the most there. This resulted in me being torn between the two.

As for the other schools on the list, at the time I applied for schools, I knew next to nothing about Etis or Mattlidens (except the rumoured tendency for Mattlidens to hold frequent parties) and this resulted in me putting both of them further down the list. Furthermore, I knew I didn’t have the Finnish skills that Tikkurila asked for so I put it last on the list as a very last resort.

2. The career path you want to navigate towards

The subjects you want to focus on for your future studies and career can determine what school you end up choosing. While Ressun Lukio offers subjects like Psychology and Math Studies, it also offers the option to take 3 science subjects. The importance of being able to take 3 science subjects rests in the fact that almost all IB schools only offer the ability to take 2 sciences at most, and therefore those that would in theory be interested in pursuing a career in medicine, would be more suited to attend Ressun Lukio. 

Those that are particularly interested in Economics, Global Politics, or both, may be prefer to put schools like Mattlidens first, because that’s one of the only schools in Finland that offers those subjects. If you are more geared towards business and entrepreneurship, Etis offers Business Management.

3. The type of student life you prefer

When I visited Ressun Lukio on open doors day, I really liked the atmosphere I felt: the people I met were to me the perfect mix of sociable and academically focused. This was one of the key things that basically decided my choice to put Ressun Lukio as my first option as opposed to SYK, for example. I mostly went by what I heard about schools (essentially just rumours), and these painted SYK as a highly academically focused school without much of a social life. While this may not be necessarily true, I had pretty limited information on what each school was like. When I heard that SYK essentially didn’t have any parties, for example, it became a deciding factor in if I would choose Ressu or SYK as my first option.

4. The distance of the school to your home

This was pretty simple for me: like most teenagers, I want to get up as late as possible and get in as many hours of sleep as possible. Therefore, the distance of the school I would go to from home was one of the most important factors in deciding which school I would go to.

To summarise how and why I prioritised some schools over others, here's a table so you can see why Ressun Lukio IB ended up being the best choice for me.

A lot of my choices were dependent on my gut instinct from visiting the schools on Open Doors Day and talking to the people within the schools, but my choices were also dependent on rumour. This means that the assumptions I had about the school were very much inaccurate, but I didn't have much else to go by in what school I should choose and in what order. Therefore, I encourage you to ask the people that are currently or have previously attended the schools you're interested in about what they think about the school (especially when considering the criteria I gave above!!)


What are the exams in each school?

• Ressun Lukio: 2 English essay prompts (a poem and a quote), a math test, and a multiple choice science test
• SYK: A math test, an English essay and 2 group interviews
• In the year I did the exams (2017), the Etis and Mattlidens exam was conjoined and included: a math exam, a second language exam and an English exam

When did you start preparing academically for the entrance exams?

I had high school entrance exams in Australia which I prepared for through tutoring and at-home practice, so I was already familiarised with entrance examinations. To prepare for the exams once I moved to Finland, I first dedicated most of my time in 8th and 9th grade to improving my GPA (and used this simultaneously as practicing for the entrance exams), and when 9th grade started, I began using resources specific to entrance examination style questions.

Do I have to know another language that’s not English?

Yes. The IB Programme is taught entirely in English in Finland, however a requirement for being in the IB is knowing a second language. As such, you must study this language as one of your 6 subjects. For me, this second language is Finnish. 

How should I prepare for IB science entrance exams?

In the Finnish curriculum, study the science material that was provided to you throughout eighth and ninth grade, but not anything more complicated than that. They only ask about physics, chemistry and biology.

How should I prepare for IB Interviews?

To prepare for the SYK interviews, I researched lists of job interview questions and found around 20 that I could see would be asked in a school setting (ie. What sets you apart from other applicants for the same position?). After that, I drafted example answers to questions and quizzed myself without looking at the answers to remember what I would answer different types of questions. This technique was a life saver, as it taught me to talk on the spot and also to expect any and all questions. 

Generally, schools like SYK expect you to think on your feet, but even for those that stutter and stumble, they found their way into good IB schools.

Research 'job interview questions’ online, they are seriously a lifesaver. Also, think about what the interviewer wants to hear, not what you want to babble on about. To elaborate, they rather want to see if you fit the criteria: an academic student who would benefit from their subjects and their facilities, nothing more. With the same GPA and test score, who’s more likely to get the spot in the interviews: someone who likes to swim, or someone who’s in a debate club? Don’t get me wrong though, there is nothing wrong with having swimming as a hobby (I myself have swum for a few years), however focus more on advertising any activities you partake in that are more academically-related. 


What is in the English section of the entrance exams?
Generally reading comprehension and/or essay prompts. Ressu essay prompts were by far the most difficult, but everyone that got in responded to the essay prompts in different ways and still ended up with high marks. Ressu had two essays, including a poem analysis of “Poetry” by Don Paterson:

In the same way that the mindless diamond keeps

one spark of the planet's early fires

trapped forever in its net of ice,

it's not love's later heat that poetry holds.

But the atom of the love that drew it forth

from the silence: so if the bright coal of his love

begins to smoulder, the poet hears his voice

suddenly forced, like a bar-room singer's-boastful

with his own huge feeling, or drowned by violins;

but if it yields a steadier light, he knows

the pure verse, when it finally comes, will sound

like a mountain spring, anonymous and serene.

Beneath the blue oblivious sky, the water

sings of nothing, not your name, not mine.

I freaked out when we got this prompt and had to read the poem over and over since I simply could not understand what it meant and was surprised at the level of difficulty the poem was being presented to us at. At this point, I seriously thought I would not get into Ressu, as after the exam, many people (of which ironically didn’t get into any IB schools) said the exam was very easy, when I obviously felt like this was an incredibly difficult section of the exam. I ended up scoring well, so if you feel this is very difficult, I really did as well. However, the pressure of the exam pushes you to put something on the paper and somehow I was able to analyse the poem given to us.

The other essay prompt was something based on the following quote “He who opens a school door, closes a prison”. To what extent do you agree with this statement? This was a lot easier for me, as I found it much more straightforward than the poem. Other schools, such as SYK, gave basic essay prompts. These included scenarios such as one where you are asked to send an email to a principal about a recently introduced school uniform policy.

Keep in mind that when analysing such poems and quotes, avoid all personal pronouns as the examiners don’t care about your personal opinion, they want to see an analysis that’s as evidence-based and thus objective as possible.

What questions did they ask in the SYK interviews?

First, they ask questions about your hobbies and free time. Don’t dwell too much on if you do sports or makeup or anything ‘non-academic’ as you should appeal to what the teachers would want you to say.

They do not care about you personally, but rather want to see if you ‘fit the criteria’: an academic student who would benefit from their subjects and their facilities, nothing more. With the same GPA and score, who’s more likely to get the spot in the interviews: someone who likes to swim, or someone who’s in a debate club?

Later on, the questions progress to more difficult topics related to current affairs. You can do research at home about these kinds of topics by using news outlets such as Bloomberg, and Al-Jazeera, which provided detailed insight into lots of different topics that may be discussed, ranging from climate change to gender inequality. If you struggle to keep up with these more ‘dry’ news outlets, I would recommend at the very least to browse Reddit and visit the subreddit r/news every few days in order to stay in touch with current affairs.

As a final point of advice in SYK entrance exams, you can ask what subject the teacher interviewing you teaches beforehand. If they teach global politics and economics (like mine did), I made sure to put an ‘economics/global politics’ slant on everything I said. I emphasised my knowledge in related topics and stayed far away from topics I didn’t have much knowledge about as to not be seen as uneducated. 

Generally, the teachers are trying to gauge how you handle pressure and how creative you are, but keeping your feet on the ground and mindful about what you’re saying is very important.

Which subjects count in the GPA submitted as part of the application?

Academic subject GPA is used primarily when applying, but sometimes the GPA including electives as well as academic subjects can be used (referred to as elective+academic GPA). In the table below, I've included examples of what classifies as academic subjects and what classifies as electives.

To really get what this all means in practice, here's an example.

Sarah has an academic GPA of 9.2 and gets 3.4 on her mattlidens exam, which is a total score of 12.6. However, John has an academic GPA of 8.7 and gets a 3.7 on the exam, which is a total score of 12.6 as well. The problem with this, however, is that there's only 30 placements available in the grade they're trying out for and they both have the lowest score of acceptance: 12.6. So, this is where your elective and academic GPA is used: Sarah has a elective and academic GPA of 9.5 and John has 8.3. Sarah's total is then higher than John's, so she gets in instead of him.

Which entrance exams did you find hardest and why?

In the order of most difficult to easiest: Ressu, Etis/Mattlidens and SYK. I found Ressu most difficult due to a) being very unprepared for poem analysis and b) the level of difficulty the poem was at. Additionally, the math test in Ressu requires you to think outside-the-box on most of the problems, while also combining your own knowledge in solving the questions. These ended up not being too difficult, but I found the exam quite intense and required a lot of creative thinking.

I found the conjoined exam of Etis/Mattlidens difficult due to the second language part of the exam. Swedish is considered my second language, along with Finnish, and my skills in both languages are quite limited. So, when I sat down to do the Swedish exam and struggled to answer quite a few of the questions, I became very worried about how this would impact my overall grade. After the exam, I talked with others that chose Finnish as a second language instead, and they claimed that the exam was very easy. Because of this, if you’re torn between choosing Finnish or Swedish as your second language (and you’re equally good in both of them), I would recommend choosing the Finnish as a second language exam over the Swedish one.

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Picture from: http://www.fernedu.com/mbbs-entrance-exams-for-medical-students/