Admission to the IB program at Salem school, Germany

With both students we waited for the school's decision on those Russian-speaking students who entered earlier this year and came to the open day on March 10 to take entrance tests and interviews at Salem. At the same time, I knew that it was already very tense with places in the 10th grade, enrollment on a straight line at IB was more likely since there are always more places at IB.

A week after March 10th, I called the admissions office to see if there were any vacancies for our two students based on the results of the last Open House at Salem. Much to my delight, both of my students were invited to take the entrance tests, an interview with the academic director, and a tour of the school on April 13th.

I contacted both students and their parents immediately after taking the test, as their feedback on admission to Salem will be useful to the following candidates, and this is what they said.

Yegor, 17 years old, is a GCSE student at a British school, Kyiv. Applied to Salem at IB.

We just arrived yesterday, the day before yesterday I passed the tests, I can tell you how everything went and my impressions of the school.

I took mathematics, English and biology. Since I indicated in the application that I want to study science at the university, I was offered a choice of a test in one of the subjects: physics, chemistry or biology, I chose the latter. In fact, biology is poorly taught at our school, since there was only one topic in the biology test, which I studied at the British School in Kyiv.

I passed everything well in mathematics, did not have time to finish the last task, but I did 90%. In our British school, there is more emphasis on geometry and trigonometry, but we study algebra at a lower level. I didn’t know exactly how to do the task with indices, because I hadn’t studied it yet, but I quickly figured out how to do it. After the Ukrainian school, it would probably have been easier, more topics would have gone through.

Of course, I passed the English test best, since I have been studying at a British school for a long time. It was an essay, there was no oral test, only then I interviewed the director in English. We were given 8 categories of topics, I chose a topic about the problems of humanity and wrote an essay. Of course, after the Ukrainian school, even with excellent English, there would be a problem, since the Ukrainian school does not teach how to write essays. So let prospective students pay attention to this. Here you need to know both the structure of writing and have a sense of the language. In our Ukrainian schools, they teach only rules and grammar.

Then there was an interview with a Latin teacher (IB coordinator) and a Greek teacher who is in the admissions office. The interview took about an hour. There was also a representative of the students - the head of the student committee - he also asked a couple of questions. They looked at my progress reports, asked why the score was low here and there. I realized that they were satisfied with my academic performance, but they look at my reaction, how I respond, what I am applying for and how I represent myself in this school. They also asked what I could not write on the test and why. The IB program coordinator is very tough, the first thing she said after seeing me was that she would not have invited me if my academic performance had not improved this year.

The coordinator gave me a form to fill out what I want to study, then asked me about my choice, tried to understand my worldview. I gave a couple of metaphors, a couple of facets, she agreed with me in many ways. We discussed philosophical topics, discussed my application form. She smiled a lot but was tough enough. She advised which subject to take, explained what was being studied where. She told me several times that the biggest problem facing a student is freedom. Trust in students and freedom are important, and that at school everyone should make their own choice to study it or not. I told how I got out of school last year and how I pulled myself together this year. And that I want in Salem precisely because I want to achieve something in life, and I need a fair atmosphere where I can study.

I really liked the school. At first we were in Spelbirge, I met a student, we both practice boxing, have already managed to find common interests and make friends. He showed me everything, where they study, where they live. I really liked that despite the restaurants, there is a kitchen everywhere on the floor. I was in Herling too, I liked it very much, I did not see the residence, only from the outside, but the academic building - I really liked it. I look forward to when 2 weeks will pass and they will give me an answer, or I entered. I really hope so.

Pavel, 15 years old, is a GCSE student in the UK. He enters Salem in the 10th grade of the International Program, Pre IB.

I liked the school, I liked that they study programming and robotics a lot. I also liked the stay, although 4 people in the room is probably a lot.

I took tests in mathematics and English. Not very good with mathematics, since we did not study half of it in school. Therefore, I made only 40%, about 2 sheets out of 4. I did everything in English.

Then there was an interview. We talked with the director for an hour, she told me about the school, showed me the timetable, asked where and how I study now. Half of the questions were about my studies and half about my personal interests.

In general, I think that I entered because they were very interested in my hobby for motor sports, the headmaster knows all motorcycle racers, was interested in what competitions he participated in, and, besides, I have good results from my British school now. Students from Russia showed me the territory, told me what they do in the extracurricular time, what circles and sections there are. Then they showed where the students live. The territory of the high school was not shown to me, not even offered. But there was a lot to see in Salem Castle. We saw a lot of schools, but we have not been to any school for so long. As they started the test at 10 am, they left only at 4 am, as we were promised. Thanks for organizing, we liked everything. We will wait for the results.