Sharing of IB vs NSS

ANChan59

Strategy 3 Summer job or attachment(updated 5/10)- get into hot professional programs in HK Universities

ANChan59

Check your pm

ANChan59

A new post as follow:

CUHK Undergraduates Admission - non-JUPAS

Thanks YMCAkids information and my family can attend some admission talks on interested faculties. The information is useful and made my son to set a goal for hot programs, 3 yrs to go.

We targeted the general talks on non-JUPAS admission, Medicine (half clashed with Pharmacy and we need to queue up for Medicine) and Quantitative Finance and Global Business. As too many people to queue up, we dropped Global Business finally.

non-JUPAS admission talk, most info are covered by the admission talks in other faculties, if clashed with other talks, I recommended to drop it.

2010 Medicine admission data:
EAS - 175 applicants, 170 interviewed and 57 admitted;
JUPAS - Before AL, 458 applicants, 71 interviewed   
           (HKCEE 33/7=4.7, 6A1C or 5A2B);
           After AL, 189 applicants, 107 interviewed;
           Total 54 admitted (median WGPA = 4.3);
Non-JUPAS - 523 applied (some are clearly not meet minimum requirements), 122 interviewed, and 53 admitted (included 2 Med-2, 2 Med-3)

For JUPAS admission, they used WGPA to review academic results + interview, WGPA = 25% HKCEE results + 75% HKAL results.

Shortlisted for interview still only have 1/3 of chance to be admitted.

Non-JUPAS included wide spectrum of backgrounds and I summarised some notes from the talk in Medicine:
1. Graduates - Postgraduates or undergraduates of relevant subjects from top universities like UC Berkerly, Cambridge etc; GPA average 3.8-3.9.
2. IB - Min requirement for interview 40/42 (not included the bonus point), at least 3HLs from 6 subjects, Chenistry HL is essential.
3. GCE AL - interviews based on the GCSE and AS results, 10A* in GCSE and 4 A* of AS level with average over 95%. The conditional offers based on 4 AL results with average 90%.
4. Australia and New Zealand - top 0.5% of UMAT results.
5. Canada & US - Canada scored over 95%; SAT over 2300.
6. Transfer students - CUHK internal transfer average GPA 3.7; other university in HK treated as non-JUPAS, discouraged by UGC.

The EAS of GCSE or IGCSE are going through non-JUPAS route, but the number is limited.

2012 double cohorts - Medicine is 5 yrs for HKAL students, HKDSE is 6 years, but the total number is not double.

Then, some professors from 4 specialties and two graduates to share their experience.Their sharings are very reviewing and insightful.

My wife and my son attended the talks of QF and I will summarise that later.

[ 本帖最後由 ANChan59 於 10-10-10 00:08 編輯 ]

ANChan59

IIwong, Annie123
Check your pm.

ANChan59

My son's choices are:
Chinese A1, SL
English A2, SL
Maths HL
Chemistry HL
Physics HL
Economics HL

His choices of undergraduate programs:
Medicine - Chemistry
Pharmacy - Chemistry
Quantitative Finance - Maths & Economics
Global Business - Economics

I suggest you search in your targeted university and check out their requirements for your son's preferred programs.

That's what I did in the last summer with my son, we check the Big3 in HK. He also thinks about LSE as a top choice for Economics.

[ 本帖最後由 ANChan59 於 10-10-27 22:20 編輯 ]

ANChan59

A1, A2 not much difference refer to previous exam results in Chinese and English. HL & SL makes more difference, his English teacher always push them to sit for HL.

Some people say, Chinese will change, some say both will change. My point is be honest to ourself, what's our mother language?

ANChan59

My son shared with me that Chinese and English may have only A1 and B to choose in coming year. No more A2, any one can clarify that?

ANChan59

Last night, as my wife no dinner at home, my son and I went for a delicious hot-pot dinner together. In a more relaxed environment, he shared with me some observations in his Pre-IB study life.

1. Chinese vs French language
His school has a minority group of students study French instead of Chinese. According to NSS, students must study Chinese, IB is their only way out. Some of them their academic results are medicore and struggle in Pre-IB classess. My son told me that they should changed to other schools either locally or overseas with other curriculum. A boy shared with me after confirming the acceptance of Pre-IB, his father's choice in French is a wrong decision and made him very frustrated as he would like to study university in HK and work in HK or China.

2. Demanding workload
So many essays, lab reports and quizs every week. He comes back home and will take a power nap for an hour before doing his homework. Not every week, but some week he needs to work until 02:00 to complete his assignments even he is very efficient to complete tasks.

3. Leisure time or work time
He tailor made a high perofrmance desk top computer (SSD hard drive, 6 cooling fans, military standard components boards etc.) during summer with two monitors, one for working and the other for MSN & FB, musics. My wife and I so frustrated as he claimed he is multi-tasking............. May be we are too old to accept that this type of work environment......

4. Programs
After attending admission talks in CUHK and HKU in Oct and other talks in his school. He has some rough ideas about his selection of programs in HK (Big 3) and UK (LSE). He will go for SAT either this year of next year. Now, he will take step 2 to get some summer jobs or attachments to verify the professional life of some professional programs. It's his choice for around 40 years, don't blame us........ The primary school, secondary school, IB all are his own choices. It's tough and not easy, he will stick to it........

5. Dating
I won't share here....... His privacy.....

[ 本帖最後由 ANChan59 於 10-11-2 09:50 編輯 ]

ANChan59

原帖由 Annie123 於 10-11-3 17:04 發表
Heard that they will have only one Language A (no more A1 and A2). The "standard" of the new Language A will be somewhere between A1 and A2.

Thanks for your info. I will book an appointment with his Further Study Coordinator to clarify the Language issues.

ANChan59

原帖由 KL 於 10-11-3 16:12 發表
You mentioned you son was frustrated in the old curriculum.  What was that and why?

In local curriculum, his creativity, fast learning and lateral thinking may not be a good attributes in the eyes of traditional teachers. Tuition on different subjects, drill on past examination papers are not his cup of tea. He is more lay back in studying.

Relatively, IB teachers loved his creativity in essay writing for the IB admission test and praised his attributes. Small class learning has more interaction with teachers and learn the subjects in more details and teacher also know his standard and help him to improve his knowledge.

Check your pm for tuition centre details.

ANChan59

In the medical school of HKU, HL need grade 4, SL grade 5.

ANChan59

My son told me that more literature element call A, less literature call B. Of course, I need to double check with his teacher on this Sunday.

ANChan59

You are right, it's only min. requirement.

Thanks for your advice about language requirement, fortunately, my son still have a year to consider the choice (in Pre-IB this year).

ANChan59

原帖由 WYmom 於 10-11-5 11:53 發表
ANChan59,
As your son have selected IBD subjects, will he obtain bilingual diploma with his choices in English and Chinese ? Thanks.

Yes, he is. His school is compulsory bilingual diploma, English + Chinese or French.

As Annie reminded me the change of curriculum in English Language in 2013, my wife and I start to worry about this, we need to talk to his English teacher.

ANChan59

原帖由 Annie123 於 10-11-4 19:44 發表
I do not think anyone with a 4 could meet "other" requirement for HKU med school. For instance, we are talking about the total (projected) score of 40+ to get into HKU med school. Those that can rea ...

Just devil advocate, Maths, Chemistry, Physics, Economics are HL and 7 = 28, both languages 5 = 10, get all bonus point 3 = 28 + 10 + 3 = 41.

Back up plan is business and finance 38+.

I also checked with LSE, Finance 38+, 3 HL 7,6,6, 7 is HL Maths.

ANChan59

原帖由 yyyy 於 10-11-5 17:15 發表
Does anyone know how to get the bonus marks for IB? thanks.

IBDP has core modules: Theory of Knowledge and Extended Essay. If both modules score B or above, you can get extra 3 bonus points.

Six subjects and max = 6 *7 = 42 + 3 bonus = 45, the perfect score of IBDP.

In case you want to know more of the combination of bonus point, pls refer to ibo.org for more information.

ANChan59

This morning, we visited the Garden Fete and spent some time with my son's English Teacher, here summarise his updates, but he reminded us that the offical announcement will be in Jan 2011, the following info based on the current IB English Workshop.

English no more A1 & A2, Just A, in A will have two streams:
1. Like previous curriculum, standard between A1 and A2, still focus on literature; and
2. Less literature, more on business communication, report writing etc.

Keep SL & HL.

Also can go for Level B, but may need to take IELTS to prove the English proficiency for university admission.

[ 本帖最後由 ANChan59 於 10-11-12 20:56 編輯 ]

ANChan59

原帖由 kids33 於 10-12-22 00:13 發表
Hi ANChan59,
Thanks for your great sharing.  Could you please also pm me the 2 tutorial classes with your comments.  BTW, how about an average score of 14 in compo of your boy's school in junior class ...

kids33

I will pm you the tuition centres info.
If your boy's score in English composition is 14 out of 20, its pretty good. I recommed you and your boy talk to BA's teacher(s) and get better understanding of their methodology and programs.
Even in Pre-IB, my boy still attends BA in current affair writing.

ANChan59

原帖由 kids33 於 10-12-22 22:03 發表
Thanks a lot, ANChan59.  Do you think BA is also good for oral presentation?  Or would it be better to be coached by a NET?

You can talk to them and you can see their oral English are comparable to NET.

ANChan59

I wish you all Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Furthermore, you can make the best choice with your kids in IB vs NSS issues.

Pls share with us here.

ANChan59