The IB Course

The IB Chemistry Course:

This is a demanding and complete course which requires hard work and commitment. The rewards from this are not only an excellent understanding of chemistry and its application to the world around us but also an extremely well recognized course for universities worldwide.

Chemistry is an essential tool to solve current problems facing the world for example: pollution, diseases such as AIDS, development of new materials and helping to solve the future energy demands that will face us. In short chemistry is an interesting, relevant and important subject. A clear understanding of it is essential in order to have an educated opinion and for he right decisions to be made in the future

The IB course is a comprehensive and complete one and is available at standard and higher levels. The higher level should only be taken by students who clearly have a clear ability and aptitude for the subject. The following is a brief summary of the topics covered by the standard and higher levels. A detailed interactive syllabus can be found on the web: http://ibchem.com/IB/ibsyllabus-2009.htm

The course is assessed by exams (multiple choice, structured questions, options questions) and practical work. The break down of the exams for the standard and higher levels is given below:

Assessment is by means of examination and practical for both higher and standard level chemistry courses.

Examination weighting		- 76%
Practical work weighting		- 24%

Examination (higher level)

There are three papers:

Paper 1	Multiple choice		- 20%
Paper 2	Structured questions		- 36%
Paper 3	Options questions		- 20%
	Total		- 76%

Paper 1 (high): 1 hour consists of 40 multiple choice questions. Calculators are not allowed. A periodic table is provided

Paper 2 (high): 2 hours 15 minutes consists of five structured questions and a choice of two from four longer answer questions. Calculators are allowed and a data booklet is provided

Paper 3 (high): 1 hour 15 minutes consists of three questions form each of two selected options. The paper presents eight option choices. Calculators are allowed and data booklets are provided.

Examination (standard level)

There are three papers:

Paper 1	Multiple choice		- 20%
Paper 2	Structured questions		- 32%
Paper 3	Options questions		- 24%
	Total		- 76%

Paper 1 (standard): 45 minutes consists of 30 multiple choice questions. Calculators are not allowed. A periodic table is provided

Paper 2 (standard): 1 hours 15 minutes consists of some structured questions and a choice of one from three longer answer questions. Calculators are allowed and a data booklet is provided

Paper 3 (standard): 1 hour consists of two questions from each of two selected options. The paper presents eight option choices. Calculators are allowed and data booklets are provided.

The IB course is a demanding, but it is an enjoyable one involving lots of practical work. By the end you will have quite an advanced level of understanding of the subject and its relevance to the world the world around you. Some of you may well be using and expanding on the concepts that you have learned to help solve some of the problems that face the world today and will face the world tomorrow. Above all I want you to enjoy the course and to develop an enquiring inquisitive mind who doesn’t accept anything without a clear logical argument. In addition you must be able to suffer some bad jokes!