What is the IB?
IBO = International Baccalaureate Organisation
While this may be self-explanatory, the IBO deserves some form of explanation or definition. The IBO is an international organisation which binds together thousands of pupils from all over the world to study a variety of subjects of which are taught in English, French or Spanish. It is taught on 6 of the 7 continents in the world and allows students to pursue studies virtually anywhere in the world. All your grades are marked according to a 0-7 system, where 3 is fail and 7 is the maximum. Taking part in this programme from beginning to end means going through the MYP and DP. However, you can enter the IB at the beginning of any of these stages (for example, I joined the IB to do the IBDP). So, you may ask, what is MYP or the DP? What's CAS or TOK? Are there any other words I should know to get familiar with the IB? Well, you've come to the right place, if you read on, I will elaborate on all the terminology you need to know to get you started in the IB.
What is the IB MYP?
= International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme
The MYP is aimed at students from 11-16 years old, which is around the time that students attend middle school. It aims to prepare students for the later years of the IB, and to encourage kids to actively engage with their community. That's why their programme is centered around community service.
The subjects taught in MYP are divided into 8 categories, including: Language and Literature, Language Acquisition, Individuals and Societies, Sciences, Mathematics, Arts, Physical and Health Education, and Design. During the course of MYP, students complete a 'personal project' (similar to the Extended Essay in the Diploma Programme), where they investigate anything they're interested in.
What is the IBDP?
= International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme
This is a two-year programme that caters to 16-19 year olds (although you can start when you're 15 and pupils usually graduate when they're 18). The IB DP is what I'm in currently, and is super flexible in terms of the subjects you can choose to explore. Your subjects belong to different categories known as subject groups. You take 1 subject from each group, taking 3 of these at Standard Level and 3 of these at Higher Level (if you don't yet know what Higher or Standard Level means, scroll further down in this article to find out or hit command+F on your keyboard and search it up in this article). These subject groups are usually decided upon by the school you end up going to but usually follow these categories:
The diploma awarded at the end of the IBDP after your final exams is awarded out of 45 points. Each of the 6 subjects you take is worth 7 points, which means that 42 points of your whole diploma are reliant on the subjects you take. The remaining 3 points out of the 45 come from your EE and TOK.
There is a possibility to take 7 subjects during the IBDP, but only 6 of your 7 subjects will be registered in the final exams (commonly referred to as 'finals'). This is usually not advised for students in the IBDP because the programme is already pretty demanding and that 7th subject won't even be counted in the 45 points in your diploma, but some find having another subject quite rewarding.
What is Pre-DP or Pre-IB?
= Preparatory Year for starting the IBDP
The Pre-IB year is a year-long preparatory year for students about to start the IBDP. This is not a common practice for most IB schools in the world, but Finnish Upper Secondary students are legally required to attend 3 years of high school, IB schools have also added an extra prep year before the IBDP. This year introduces students to all the different subjects offered in the IBDP and gives them the opportunity to smoothly enter high school and get to know other students without being too stressed about the workload. The reason for this more stress-free entry into the IBDP is because of the simple fact that all the subject material in the IBDP was originally meant to be covered over the course of 2 years. However, in Finland, this is spread across 3 years because of the Pre-DP, and because of this the workload is more spread out.
What is an EE?
= Extended Essay
The EE is a 4,000 word essay written over the course of the IBDP, in which you can pick any subject you are studying and any topic within that subject as your source of inspiration. For example, I take HL History and am very interested in history and politics. Because of this, I decided to do my EE about the Iranian Revolution. If you are interested in Mathematics, you can do your EE on Game Theory, and if you're interested in English, you can do your EE about sensationalism in the media. The EE is a great opportunity to explore the subjects that you are passionate about.
What is SL and HL?
= Standard Level and Higher Level
In the IBDP, subjects must be taken at either SL or HL. Taking a subject at SL means being taught a subject for 150 hours, and taking a subject at HL means being taught for 240 hours. This means that there is a lot more material covered and more lessons at HL, so the subjects you pick to take at HL are the subjects you should really enjoy studying. Additionally, I really encourage doing your Extended Essay in one of your HL subjects, because there are much higher chances that you know a lot more and can make more educated decisions on if the topic you pick is worth doing.
In Ressu, taking SL means having that SL subject for 3 out of the 5 terms in your school year, whereas a HL subject is studied for all 5 of the 5 terms in your school year.
What is an IA?
= Internal Assessment
The IB uses a variety of assignments and exams to give you a final grade. This assignment is approximately 2,000 words and is also written over the course of the IBDP. You do one IA per science and humanities subject you take, including Biology, Psychology, and History, to name just a few. You can choose to do the IA in any topic within that subject, and it will be marked by your teacher for that subject. To make sure that your teacher isn't marking too harshly or anything, a few IAs from your class will be sent to the IB to be moderated.
What is CAS?
= Creativity, Activity, Service
CAS is a continuously changing and evolving programme which you have to do throughout your IBDP. As of 2019, it consists of 150 hours of doing different sorts of activities involving fitness, community engagement and painting. It's split into 3 categories: creativity (where you can do painting, for example), activity (swimming could be placed in this category) and service (you could do some volunteer work at your local cat shelter, for instance). You need to do at least 50 hours per category to fulfill CAS and you need to write diary-style reflections throughout the course of doing the different activities you choose.
The aim of CAS is to encourage students to focus on things that aren't academics or IB related and push students to go outside, breathe in some fresh air and engage in local events and the environment. Examples of CAS that I'm doing include volunteering at a daycare centre, makeup, running and cooking.
What is TOK?
= Theory of Knowledge
TOK is a subject taken during the IBDP that is essentially philosophy, but tied together with more academic elements. The subject consists of lesson time, an internally assessed presentation and an externally moderated essay, where you investigate different philosophical 'claims' about the world and life itself (for example, "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"). I think it's a really interesting class because it can spark some great discussions in class and you learn to see the world in a different light.
While this may be self-explanatory, the IBO deserves some form of explanation or definition. The IBO is an international organisation which binds together thousands of pupils from all over the world to study a variety of subjects of which are taught in English, French or Spanish. It is taught on 6 of the 7 continents in the world and allows students to pursue studies virtually anywhere in the world. All your grades are marked according to a 0-7 system, where 3 is fail and 7 is the maximum. Taking part in this programme from beginning to end means going through the MYP and DP. However, you can enter the IB at the beginning of any of these stages (for example, I joined the IB to do the IBDP). So, you may ask, what is MYP or the DP? What's CAS or TOK? Are there any other words I should know to get familiar with the IB? Well, you've come to the right place, if you read on, I will elaborate on all the terminology you need to know to get you started in the IB.
CURRICULUM-RELATED TERMINOLOGY
What is the IB MYP?
= International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme
The MYP is aimed at students from 11-16 years old, which is around the time that students attend middle school. It aims to prepare students for the later years of the IB, and to encourage kids to actively engage with their community. That's why their programme is centered around community service.
The subjects taught in MYP are divided into 8 categories, including: Language and Literature, Language Acquisition, Individuals and Societies, Sciences, Mathematics, Arts, Physical and Health Education, and Design. During the course of MYP, students complete a 'personal project' (similar to the Extended Essay in the Diploma Programme), where they investigate anything they're interested in.
What is the IBDP?
= International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme
This is a two-year programme that caters to 16-19 year olds (although you can start when you're 15 and pupils usually graduate when they're 18). The IB DP is what I'm in currently, and is super flexible in terms of the subjects you can choose to explore. Your subjects belong to different categories known as subject groups. You take 1 subject from each group, taking 3 of these at Standard Level and 3 of these at Higher Level (if you don't yet know what Higher or Standard Level means, scroll further down in this article to find out or hit command+F on your keyboard and search it up in this article). These subject groups are usually decided upon by the school you end up going to but usually follow these categories:
There is a possibility to take 7 subjects during the IBDP, but only 6 of your 7 subjects will be registered in the final exams (commonly referred to as 'finals'). This is usually not advised for students in the IBDP because the programme is already pretty demanding and that 7th subject won't even be counted in the 45 points in your diploma, but some find having another subject quite rewarding.
What is Pre-DP or Pre-IB?
= Preparatory Year for starting the IBDP
The Pre-IB year is a year-long preparatory year for students about to start the IBDP. This is not a common practice for most IB schools in the world, but Finnish Upper Secondary students are legally required to attend 3 years of high school, IB schools have also added an extra prep year before the IBDP. This year introduces students to all the different subjects offered in the IBDP and gives them the opportunity to smoothly enter high school and get to know other students without being too stressed about the workload. The reason for this more stress-free entry into the IBDP is because of the simple fact that all the subject material in the IBDP was originally meant to be covered over the course of 2 years. However, in Finland, this is spread across 3 years because of the Pre-DP, and because of this the workload is more spread out.
SUBJECT-RELATED TERMINOLOGY
= Extended Essay
The EE is a 4,000 word essay written over the course of the IBDP, in which you can pick any subject you are studying and any topic within that subject as your source of inspiration. For example, I take HL History and am very interested in history and politics. Because of this, I decided to do my EE about the Iranian Revolution. If you are interested in Mathematics, you can do your EE on Game Theory, and if you're interested in English, you can do your EE about sensationalism in the media. The EE is a great opportunity to explore the subjects that you are passionate about.
What is SL and HL?
= Standard Level and Higher Level
In the IBDP, subjects must be taken at either SL or HL. Taking a subject at SL means being taught a subject for 150 hours, and taking a subject at HL means being taught for 240 hours. This means that there is a lot more material covered and more lessons at HL, so the subjects you pick to take at HL are the subjects you should really enjoy studying. Additionally, I really encourage doing your Extended Essay in one of your HL subjects, because there are much higher chances that you know a lot more and can make more educated decisions on if the topic you pick is worth doing.
In Ressu, taking SL means having that SL subject for 3 out of the 5 terms in your school year, whereas a HL subject is studied for all 5 of the 5 terms in your school year.
What is an IA?
= Internal Assessment
The IB uses a variety of assignments and exams to give you a final grade. This assignment is approximately 2,000 words and is also written over the course of the IBDP. You do one IA per science and humanities subject you take, including Biology, Psychology, and History, to name just a few. You can choose to do the IA in any topic within that subject, and it will be marked by your teacher for that subject. To make sure that your teacher isn't marking too harshly or anything, a few IAs from your class will be sent to the IB to be moderated.
What is CAS?
= Creativity, Activity, Service
CAS is a continuously changing and evolving programme which you have to do throughout your IBDP. As of 2019, it consists of 150 hours of doing different sorts of activities involving fitness, community engagement and painting. It's split into 3 categories: creativity (where you can do painting, for example), activity (swimming could be placed in this category) and service (you could do some volunteer work at your local cat shelter, for instance). You need to do at least 50 hours per category to fulfill CAS and you need to write diary-style reflections throughout the course of doing the different activities you choose.
The aim of CAS is to encourage students to focus on things that aren't academics or IB related and push students to go outside, breathe in some fresh air and engage in local events and the environment. Examples of CAS that I'm doing include volunteering at a daycare centre, makeup, running and cooking.
What is TOK?
= Theory of Knowledge
TOK is a subject taken during the IBDP that is essentially philosophy, but tied together with more academic elements. The subject consists of lesson time, an internally assessed presentation and an externally moderated essay, where you investigate different philosophical 'claims' about the world and life itself (for example, "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?"). I think it's a really interesting class because it can spark some great discussions in class and you learn to see the world in a different light.
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