Changes the IB is Making to the Mathematics and Languages A Courses

Every 7 years, the IB (International Baccalaureate) makes changes to some of their courses. This year, the IB decided to change Mathematics and Language A courses starting from the class of 2021.

Beginning with next year’s eleventh grade students, math will be separated into Mathematics Analysis and Mathematics Applications. Both courses are offered by the IB at the standard and higher levels; however, due to the number of math teachers and sections at our school, Mathematics Analysis will be the only course offered at AISG at both levels of difficulty. Mathematics Applications will only be provided at a standard level difficulty, so there will still be three options for students (Analysis HL, Analysis SL, and Applications SL).

According to what Ms. Brinkman has told her students, Math Applications will be a course suitable for students wishing to major in courses related to biology, psychology and economics, whereas Analysis is suitable for students wishing to major in different sciences and math.

Additionally, our language A courses (Language and Literature in English and Chinese; Literature in English) will be modified. Further Oral Activities (FOAs) will be eliminated from the requirements for Language and Literature, and the Individual Oral Presentation (IOP) will be eliminated from the Literature requirements. Furthermore, the IOC or Individual Oral Commentaries will be altered so that students will be able to choose their own set of passages. This means that students will have a smaller range of possible passages, which will make this assessment easier and more bearable as there will be fewer passages to prepare for. Also, students may draw these passages from any text taught in the course, not a predetermined set of two (SL) or three (HL) readings. The changes will also make the Language and Literature course more similar to the Literature course, and will eliminate the creative options from the current Written Task assessment.

Although FOAs and IOPs will be excluded from the IB requirements, many teachers will still keep them as internally graded assessments, as teachers find them to be meaningful assessments, as well as good practice for future presentations in courses such as Theory Of Knowledge (TOK).

I interviewed students to learn about their perspectives on the changes. Students that were interviewed are primarily sophomores, as they have already received information about the changes in IB from their teachers.

Andy H. believes that slightly moderating these courses was a good idea. He comments that splitting Mathematics into two different courses allows students to think about their future majors in university starting from an earlier age, which helps them prepare and be ready for university. As for the English A courses, he states, “since Further Oral Activities (FOA) will be taken out of the requirement, non-native speakers of English may be less stressed.”

Sanshiro M. states that these changes will hopefully be beneficial to students in the future as they were made to better this program. Although he agrees to most of Andy’s comments on how splitting the math course can be helpful and will have a positive impact, he states, “Our school cannot fully apply the changes made for mathematics due to the lack of math teachers at our school.” This change is, in a way, unfair, as it can only be applied to big schools.

Readers, what do you think about these changes? There have been some upperclassmen upset as they feel like IB is getting easier for the underclassmen. Are you one of these furious upperclassmen? Or, are you a younger student worried that the teachers will still be learning the new curriculum, and will have less guidance for you? Let us know what you’re thinking in the comments.