Question: Do you think IB would be a better option if you want to be an engineering?

Neil Dhir answered on 18 Jun 2014:

Hi Haras,

That is an excellent question, and I think it would be wise if you asked the other engineers as well about their experience with other education systems.

Now as for IB; it gives you an extremely solid background, regarding all the foundations of maths and physics that you will need in engineering. As I am sure you know engineering is a very maths and physics based degree, and you will be dealing with far more difficult things, come your undergraduate studies. I recall spending perhaps ten pages on solving a singe tutorial example. However I was well prepared. I was well prepared because the IB did a very good job of supplying us with the elementals, in such a way that you could generalise a lot yourself based on what you had learned in IB.

IB is very demanding but I do not think it is any more or less than A-levels. For maths there are three levels of difficulty as I am sure you know; studies, standard and higher. For physics there are two: standard and higher. If you want to study engineering you will need to study both at higher. This can seem a bit daunting at first, but I would not worry at all about it, you’ll get into the swing in no times, especially if you enjoy maths and physics! Then of course it depends on what type of engineer you want to be. If you want to do something very physically based, such as mechanical engineering, then you only need to do maths and physics higher level. However, you would like to study something such as chemical engineering you will need maths,physics and chemistry at higher level.

Now, of all the comments I have heard about IB, from tutors and teachers, is that it makes you a very well-rounded student. Whilst I enjoy maths a physics, I also very much enjoy history and English. This was very useful in as much as I could study all of these subjects, and more at IB, but I always knew that my primary focus was on maths and physics (though I took a bunch of other subjects at higher level too, because they were fun).

At the end of the day, I really enjoyed the IB as did all my others peers. But the same, I am sure, is true for A-levels. I do not think either prepares you better for an engineering career. If you enjoy maths and physics you will excel in whichever system you choose, be that IB or A-levels.