I.B. vs A.Levels

<p>hmm..thought so..and with edexcel cant u give ur exam in so many components. im sitting pure math, stats and mechanics all in one sitting. no AS levels from before. im sitting all four full A-levels in Econ, Law, Math and Fmath and so are the majority of the people here. oh the horror</p>

<p>well i went to city school in pakistan but since i am a us citizen my chances are better than my peers. well alevel physics is a lot easier tha further maths mechanics. my school didnt offer further maths so i took it privately in my second year after giving maths in first year privately. i did the whole course but i didnt have time to prepare for the exam so i never gave the exam. neways furthermaths wud have been my 7th subject so it really didnt matter neways. and Alevel Computing was a hell of a taxing subject. especially the alevel computing project. missed distinction in alevel computing by one percent cuz i had the stupid chem paper on the same day. and i am a procastinator who studies in the end so 2 papers on the same day really matter. anyways got an A incomputing dats supposed to matter a lot cuz only 2% of the ppl who give computing get As. u can count the ppl who got As in karachi(a city) on ur fingers. furthermaths can be done in a year. the frdn i studied further maths with in a year got 97% in further maths and he did it in a year. u just need to havea strong base in maths and some good motivation and ofcourse less than 5 subjects</p>

<p>Btw, Sheikh, are those subjects harder than STEP papers? I would not know how to compare them better than making a nice comparison between those both by CIE :)</p>

<p>where are you now. and both the girls who got world distinction in computing for jne 2004 were from my school. im in lahore grammar school. and dont all you karachi people give AS levels. that takes so much pressure off AND giving your A levels in sittings also takes it off. computing can be very taxing ur right. i had it on o levels. didnt take it up in A levels. it takes so much of your time. my friends in A levels are going crazy over it. and im most probably going to England. have an offer from LSE, kings, warwick etc. but lets see. im still going to wait for my US admissions</p>

<p>im sorry i dont know what STEP papers are</p>

<p>i know ppl from lgs got it. lol if hadnt gotten a d in my theory paper3 i wud have gotten it. but on the same day was chem. in computing there is this book written by the examiners. LGS has it and we got it last year. a girl from our school got 99% in As computing ans she is da one to watch out cuz i think our skool will take the disticntion this time :P. well i have a 1420 SAT1 760 mths2c 800physics and 600writing sat2s so like since my school had no high school conseler i missed all the deadlines last year and had to take a year off i just picked up us news best us uni rankings and applied to top 14 unis. got into UT austin and USC and got rejected from ucla. all 3 are my last choices. still waitng to hear from 9 more unis. i am in california now living alone in a shared house. spent the year here learning how to live alone. and besides ill be getting gr8 aid packages here. prolly only have to pay 3lakh/year to whtever uni i get into. the rest will be aid. as for AS our school is really crappy and cant compare to ur school. ppl in our school when they give the AS exam dats a sorta exepriment they are doing in learning how the alevel exam feels and wht kinda qs come and how to prepare. to the point most ppl get real crappy AS results so they repeat the whole alevels again anyways.</p>

<p>besides u know 2 admission packages are heading from MIT to pak. proll for LGS, KGS or st pats</p>

<p>ya one is in our school, and one is in aitchison and there is a third one..i know two of these dont know about the third one..we have people in harvard and wharton and all the top places from my school in the last year. this batch is pretty tough too. 35 plus studenents have 7a's or more including me. lets see where i end up. and money isnt a factor. havent applied for financial aid.</p>

<p>and do u know with distinction students. they consider who took it under more pressure :) but we do have the best teacher in lahore. very very dedicated. by the way what did you get in ur A levels</p>

<p>i know ur grades are beyond me. with ur result i wud be sitting in MIT now. but i pleaded poor(anything we earn in pak is less compared to those ppl) plus backward school plus negative environment plus the fact dat i took more subjects then my school offerend and dat too privately plus the fact i did an intern as a part of alevel computing project and i also came 3rd in iseo and i did mths in one yaer(no big deal but nething goes) and urdu in 2 months. well i am juss assuming tht this wil holdup for my above average but not excellent grades. wish u best of luck.</p>

<p>if ur just regular like go with the flow of ur school..ur fine..urdu isnt an academic subject. people ended up with A's with just two weeks of study from some notes. internships dont matter that much in states. but ur blue passport will. and shud help u fish money out from them too. im thinking england right now. its either an ivy league or its LSE. i plan on law btw. screw MIT. best of luck. ur sat's are pretty decent and city school doesnt have that bad a rep. were u in the darakshah campus?</p>

<p>nope in paf. lol i am the highest SAT scorer of my school. dats speaks enuff for the students in da school. besides i gave my sats after i came to usa so da fact dat i was alone and i was adjusting to living and therefore cuoldnt prepare for my sats to my full potential sorta boost my scores. yeah blue passport really helps. i know urdu is a really stupid subject but wht the heck its an ez A. ivyleague r pretty good for law and uk had good reputation for law too. i am planning n doing electrical engineering and computer scence. then proolly go to an ivy later for an MBA and after an MBA get a masters and PHD in engineering prolly frm MIT.</p>

<p>S paper or special paper is an extra exam one can choose to sit for with the Alevels if they do reasonably well at end of first yr (JC1) exams. Although the syllabus is almost the same as normal Alevel and it so said, no extra materials are rqd, most JC here conduct extra classes and go thru sample ques. this is because S papers are really really hard.. ofcourse there are ppl who are either simply brilliant or have been studying consistently and have time to work for thier S paper and score distinctions or merit. normally students take one or two s papers, in rare cases one can opt for three with the ministry's permission id they are truly capable.
i took chemS and well did not study for it at all throughout the yr and got a U (unclassified :o )... hehe, but ppl do get merits usually with some work and time..</p>

<p>i am not sayin it is bloody hard to justify my U but it seriously it is.. i was dumb not to drop it as i knew i did not really have time for it.. most ppl dun even take.. the aim is usually to get 4As in the main sub and decent grade in GP and mother tongue.. </p>

<p>one more thing, juz my honest opinion and of other singaporeans, based on experience by practicing past yr papers , the Alevel we sit for in nov are harder than the ones in may-june.. not sure abt AS level, the syll seems a bit diff... no offence to those sittin for may-june :p</p>

<p>Well I did/am doing Phys, Math, F.Math, Chem and GP for CIE A levels. The Nov exams are so obviously harder than the June ones it's ridiculous.</p>

<p>It doesnt matter if an alevel paer is tough or easy. since thier is relative grading even if the paper is hard the person who did the best will get distinction/merit and a relative grading graph will be drawn and every person will get a grade reagrdinh how well they did incomparison to the other person. therefore if the paper is easy or difficult it makes no difference to ur grades. all tht makes the difference is how well u are prepared compared to the ther exam givers</p>

<p>sorry but i saw this thread VERY late so could not chip in earlier.
People, believe it or not, a person HAS appeared for 13 A/AS Level examinations. This guy, blip and I went to the same school and I can confirm this fact. The exams he appeared for are as follows:
A Level
Phy, Chem, Bio, Maths, FMaths, Economics, Accounting, Geography, Bussiness Studies, Psychology and Computing.
AS Level
General Paper and Thinking Skills.</p>

<p>I am pretty surprised by the response some ppl have shown here about what blip had to say coz why on earth do ppl think that he would lie abt something abt his friend? That too in CC.</p>

<p>BTW, He got all As.</p>

<p>wht was he a supernerdygeek. did he even have time for something else</p>

<p>well, what makes the feat even intriguing is that he was NOT a geek! He just had the brains. He was appointed a School Prefect, for which he worked very hard. He was the founder VP of a computer club that organized national competitions. He plays volleyball, table tennis and was the div champ in swimming. More than anything, he is a very good and understanding friend.</p>

<p>He has loads of other ECs as well. the point is: he is a multitalented one in a million guy.</p>

<p>So this goes to everybody......Whts impossible for you, doesn't necessarily be impossible for others. And Cupcake, one should learn to look beyond the horizons of Oxford, there are miracles out here as well.
:)</p>

<p>
[quote]
And Cupcake, one should learn to look beyond the horizons of Oxford, there are miracles out here as well.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I still do not believe you. Why should I? 80% of people on this board are lying. Look at some of the profiles/chances threads. Ever met anyone like this in real life? No, of course not. It's always "A friend of a friend". You are all school children so maybe you believe these things. When you are older you will se that people are not always what they seem.</p>