Back to school already? Where has the summer gone??
And see you all soon!
Results are out!
Time to celebrate!
July was an insane month for us. As soon as results came out, we had students message us left, right and center about their amazing results. While not everyone reached exactly what they had hoped, we’re happy to say that everyone we spoke to got into a very good University, and we’re proud of every single student who studied with us.
A few cool graphs to celebrate your success:
Now, in true IB spirit, we have to explain a bit of our methodology
(keep this in mind when you write your reports and your EE!)
1. These results were voluntarily given to us by students. That means students could choose not to give us results whether positive or negative. We never force you guys to tell us anything!
2. If a student took two subjects of the same category (e.g. two sciences) and they scored positively on one, we counted that. However, I’ll openly tell you guys that no reported result was below a 5 (and that goes for all the subject areas).
3. We did allow for anomalies – as you always should in a study!
Regardless, bottom line is that you guys were a super smart cohort! Congratulations!
Help! I didn’t get into my first choice!
For a start, don’t panic! You’re still going to University:
If you unfortunately didn’t get into your first choice of University, the automatic action for UCAS is to give you your backup or ‘safety’ pick.
It may be disheartening but it’s not the end of the world (in fact it could be the start of a new one!) and knowing how smart everyone is (the data above proves it), your backup is likely to also be world class.
And there is a way to get into your first choice at a later date: transferring
Now transferring is a bit more complicated and differs from course to course, university to university, but the basic idea is that you go to your backup University, then change Universities after your first year. In order to do that, you have to check what credits/courses are required to change. For instance, your target University might require you to have studied a module Accounting in order to join their Economics course.
As said each University does this different, so it’s best to ask both sides what your best course of action is once you get to University. Transferring is more common than you think, so don’t worry about Universities being uncooperative. It just takes a bit of planning.
But if you’re unhappy with your backup choice and want to shop around, there’s still a chance but you’d have to do it quick. On last month’s MG Circular, we gave multiple options such as remarking, clearing and retaking the exam completely.
Back to school already?!
But you can do it from anywhere!
Whether the traditional 1st of September start, or early-to-holiday, early-to-return mid August start, everyone’s going back to school soon!
Have you got everything finished? Are you really ready for your new year? This final month is the time to make sure everything is sorted.
Here’s a handy checklist of the most common issues we’ve encountered in the past:
1. Finish Core tasks: EE research is usually done over summer. Don’t leave it til the last minute!
2. Drafts for IAs: HL tasks and IAs are also often drafted over summer. The English HL essay for instance is usually handed in before Christmas, with summer being the longest holiday before then.
3. Revise! Not at IB yet? Just going now to your GCSE? Make sure to revise anything you’ve forgotten before terms starts! Best way to do this? Personally, I’d go through a past paper and see which of the questions you should be able to do but can’t.
As always, get in touch with us by calling or WhatsApping +852 5598 0767 or sending an email to hi@mgstudyhub.com so we can give you a hand!
MG SPOTLIGHT
This month’s spotlight is a high-flying graduating student. Swimmer, writer and soon-to-be-doctor: Belinda Chan.
Belinda is the classic renaissance woman – good at academics, sports and everything in between. Not only did she get an amazing 44/45 in her final exams, she nabbed the school’s Diploma Programme Award in English: the highest prize in the subject.
Her EE, an investigation into the geographical and anthropological factors affecting Malaria in highly impacted African countries was so dense that half the words had to be hidden in graphs and diagrams. Cyril, who gave it a proofread, can be quoted as saying “it’s denser and twice as detailed as my University dissertation”
But we all know that academics aren’t the only thing that makes a person special. One of Belinda’s greatest passions in life is Artistic Swimming. She’s been in the Hong Kong Amateur Swimming Association Team for over 6 years, training multiple times weekly. She was even in the Hong Kong delegation to the 2nd National Youth Games in Shanxi.
Not content with being an international athlete and star student, Belinda’s passion for the medical sciences led her to start school club educating younger students on public health principles and to engage with global health issues. She also designed stickers to fundraise and raise awareness about issues of sexual violence, as well as organising the school blood drive and educating others on the importance of blood donation.
Above all that she also volunteered at a primary summer school, tutored sciences to other secondary school students, and was also responsible for organizing the ‘Buddy Reading sessions’ at Kids4Kids.
And for the future? Belinda’s taking her medical knowledge one step further to study Medicine (MBChB & GPS) at CUHK with a focus on either genetics, biotechnology or surgery.
She’s not yet sure, but we’re sure someone that smart will figure it out.
