In Singapore, over 2000 students partake in the IB Programme, which is quite the small portion, compared to the over 300,000 students taking the A-Level route. This makes the IB curriculum quite a unique path for a student to take, requiring just a bit more effort to find the best tuition for it.
If you’ve clicked on this article, then you might be curious about attaining IB tuition for yourself, or for your children! In light of the recent COVID-19 pandemic, most may turn to look for IB home tutors in Singapore, but don’t really know where to start their search!
Looking for the right kind of tuition to suit your needs can understandably be tough and confusing. But worry not, as this article aims to cover all you need to know to find the IB tuition that you need to ensure those perfect grades that everyone’s gunning for!
Firstly, we need to be familiar with the IB curriculum.
Understanding the IB Curriculum
The IB (International Baccalaureate) Programme consists of 3 different levels, the Primary Years Programme (for ages 3 to 12), the Middle Ages Programme (for ages 11-16) and the Diploma Programme or Career-Related Programme (for ages 16-19).
Only a few schools in Singapore offer IB Programmes, such as Anglo Chinese School (ACS) International Singapore or ACS (Independent), SJI International and Hwa Chong International.
In Singapore, most IB Programmes taken up by students are the IB Diploma Programmes.
The IB Curriculum follows the structure seen in the image above. It consists of six subject groups, of which Diploma Programme students are to pick six subjects from and complete over two years, including the core elements- theory of Knowledge, the extended essay and creativity, action, service.
Out of the six subjects chosen, at least three and not exceeding four are taken at a higher level (HL), and the remaining are taken at the standard level (SL).
Now, you might be wondering what the core elements and available subjects may be. Well, the core elements, as stated before, are the Theory of Knowledge (TOK), Extended Essay (EE) and Creativity, Action and Service (CAS).
TOK ensures that IB Diploma Programme students are able to think critically when it comes to any form of knowledge, as well as aid them in holistic development, in and out of the classroom.
EE grants these students the chance to delve into a topic of interest, giving them a much deeper understanding about said topic and exercising their independent research and writing skills.
The CAS core element is the key to developing a student holistically, focusing on learning outside of the classroom. It encourages students to cultivate their talents and makes use of their vigour through theatrical performances, community service tasks, etc.
Now for the subjects available according to the six different subject groups.
- Language and Literature
- Literature (English)
- Language and Literature (English)
- Language Acquisition
- Chinese
- Tamil
- Hindi
- Spanish
- French
- Individuals and Societies
- Business Management
- Economics
- History
- Geography
- Sciences
- Biology
- Chemistry
- Physics
- Computer Science
- Mathematics
- The Arts
Students are examined via Internal Assessments (IA) throughout their curriculum and written examinations towards the end of those two years. Each subject is graded from a scale of 1 to 7, poorest to highest respectively. A minimum overall grade of 24 is required in order for the student to be awarded a diploma, all the more reason to seek out the tuition needed to ensure that the best grades can be attained!
Since you’ve now been well introduced to the IB curriculum, its time to look for the tuition services that you need.
Getting the extra help to ace your grades
Given that IAs and EEs make up a significant portion of a student’s grades, it is of utmost importance that a student excels in these areas to guarantee their entry into their desired universities or future careers! Luckily, many tutors are readily available to make that journey for them much smoother.
As stated before, most would opt to look for IB home tutors in Singapore, given that individual tutoring grants the students a more personalised teaching experience that is catered specifically to their needs.
Taking into Singapore’s competitive academic nature and the oftentimes challenging nature of IAs and EEs, home tutoring can offer students the added benefit of pre-learning certain topics to better prepare them ahead of time!
Fortunately, the ChampionTutor blog offers you a wide range of IB tutors to choose from, including IB Math home tutors and much more! Hopefully, this clarifies any doubts regarding the nature of the IB curriculum and aid you in finding the right help that you need!