- Mike Nicholls – Director of Admissions, Oxford Uni
- Until recently, little logic in IB offers – inconsistency, ignoring of key elements of IB etc
- 18k applicants – 23% international 8 years ago, now 34%
- Decline in A-level pool – under 70% applicants with A-levels
- More international academics – more understanding
- IB – over 1k now of the 18k applicants.
- No offers over 40 points now. (38-40)
- Students who have over 40 points consistently outperform A-level students at Oxford – this should lead to flexibility in the view of their specific
- Kids with less than 37 points did badly and rarely completed their degrees.
- Level of Maths – doing Physics and Maths HL more than compensates for not doing Further Maths
- Humanities and Social Sciences have moved to 6-6-6 HL. Engineers need 7-7-6. UNLIKELY TO ACHIEVE THIS.
- Average actual standard is 41-42 even though the offer is 38-40. (A-levels – 2.3 x A*)
- Emphasis on final exams suits IB students
- IB expects students to read full texts – play to this strength. A-levels don’t expect this as much.
- IB is integrated subject – Oxford has joint degrees
- Extended Essay on top of a heavy schedule is liked. As are time-management skills.
- Predictions – often wildly inaccurate! 4-5% of A-level predictions inaccurate – 25% in IB cohort. (Partly because it’s harder to predict in so many subjects).
- They will wait until A-level results are out to decide
- NEW IB SCHOOLS – TEACHERS MAY STRUGGLE TO BE ACCURATE IN THEIR PREDICTIONS. MUST MENTION IF YOU ARE A NEW SCHOOL DOING IB.
- School has to opt in to giving results – unis can be left in limbo not knowing what kids’ results are.
- Teacher workshops – June, July. 3 day residential stay in Oxford – observe a tutorial – eye-opening.
- Q & A – any benefit taking 4 x HL? Not really – unnecessary pressure. Preference for humanities for Law? Requirements are made clear – Law has no specified subjects. However, some subjects will give an advantage with the admission test.
- Can the aptitude tests be prepared for? TSA – 3-4 hours of prep is suitable. Not much time available – need to move quickly. Essay is not regurgitation – a much more focussed response is needed. Maths paper – get more marks for working-out than the final answer
- For Medicine – think hard bio-chemical degree.
- Tutors are responsible for development of the students they admit.