Salem International College - IB, Abitur

Härlen campus - Salem school.

Härlen is Salem's most modern campus, home to graduate students. Every student of the school dreams of getting into the Härlen campus, since, to the great regret of students, the campus does not accommodate all students.

The two Salem International College campuses are located on the shores of Lake Constance in the town of Uberlingen, 5-7 minutes walk from each other.

The Spetzgart Castle campus is intended for grade 11 students.

When moving to grade 12, students change campus to Härlen.

However, since the Härlen dorms are more comfortable - apartment-type residences and students live in separate rooms - there are not enough places on the campus. Therefore, some of the students remain on the Spetzgart Castle campus.

So that no one is offended, at the end of the year a draw is held and 30 twelfth graders remain at Spetzgart Castle, in the same rooms where they lived in 11th grade.

Student opinion on the IB program in Salem

Interview with Egor

At school the 4th year, from Kyiv, in the last year of IB. He studied in Kyiv at a British school. Was at our exhibition and chose high schools in England, Switzerland and Salem. Came to Salem for the Christmas holidays, showed the whole school and set the dates for the exams. I came for the exams for the second time, passed, after 2 weeks the results came and came to the 9th grade. Expects 35 points on the IB program, which is applied to economics in England.

Here's what Yegor told about teaching and extracurricular activities at IB.

I watched schools in Switzerland, England and Germany, there are the fewest Russians here, so I liked it.

In the 9th grade, they told us a little about IB, at the 10th grade there was already more preparation, teachers from Salem International College came to us, they told us that we could choose which topics in which subject so that we could consciously choose.

In total, you take 6 subjects in IB: 3 standard and 3 high. I had 4 high standards: mathematics, economics, history and English, and 2 standards: physics and German, but then I dropped one - mathematics to the standard, I would have passed, but it's difficult to catch everything. There are 50 of us in IB, divided into 2 classes. Also on the same campus, German students study under the Abitur program - there are more of them.

In addition, there are compulsory extracurricular activities.

TOK "Theory of Knowledge" - there was ethics in high school - this is something similar. All year we have been studying the types of knowledge and what it is. Now we are making a presentation. Then they evaluate. Everyone chooses a separate topic related to ethics, I redid it, then you need to change the topic. You can make a presentation as much as you want and then present it. I had the death penalty, is it ethical, you look at it from different sides. The second is about testing on animals, why it is not possible or possible. Different types of knowledge or people and you need to motivate their point of view. There are passive observation and active experimentation and you explain your point of view, can there be more than two, why you think so. This is assessed by 3 instructors. handed over half a year before the end.

There is also an essay, each year IB issues several questions, you need to choose 1 and write a detailed essay on this topic. At first, we discussed various topics in previous years, what to use when writing an essay, not knowing your topic yet. Then they give new topics in the second trimester. There is a teacher who is a supervisor, you choose a topic and meet with him 3 times. First, you write a plan, present it to the supervisor, present the introduction at the second meeting, show all the essays at the third meeting and can be returned to you for revision. This is not a personal opinion, but views from all sides. Can be in any subject. Maybe a physics experiment. Maybe ethics, history and social studies. Doing research from books and news. I had a socio-economic, - the development of relations between Ukraine and Russia until 2004. You can go to the library and order any book - so writing is not difficult. The internal date of delivery at the school in order to pass the incomplete version, then the full version, then the teacher checks and sends it to the IB, they also evaluate there. The presentation is filmed or recorded on a dictaphone and also sent to IB.

On IB, 5 students per class are randomly assessed, if they believe that the teacher has underestimated their grades, then the whole class is raised the grade, or left the same, or everyone is released, based on the results of the selected test.

I arrived in the 9th grade and did not know German, but you must definitely take German every year, and for IB, you can take it in the 7th subject. My German at IB was at the standard level and I passed before the new year at B-2.

Here service classes are from class 9, while CAS in IB is only from 11, so it is convenient. With CAS it is very convenient (CAS: Creativity, Action, Service - "Creativity, action, service"), there are a lot of subjects and in all schools, to pass, they count hours, and since here from the 9th grade these subjects are the same as extracurricular activities, - then you must attend at least 50% of all workouts. For creativity, you need to take one circle: for example, theater or drawing. I had a modern united nation, UN modelling, as I'm not very creative. Action - you choose one sport. And service all 4 years - I was a lifeguard. In the last semester, all the after-school classes ended, only the preparation of exams. You keep a diary and you pass the CAS at the end of March. We need to complete the project at the end of the year. We are making an international tribunal in The Hague in Salem - a representative of the international tribunal from The Hague comes to us. We are preparing a tribunal over Syria for responsibility for the massacre in Hula by government forces.

Studying at IB is very interesting. Everyone has time for everything. All this does not happen in a row. One month one, another second. The busiest day is 4 couples and a club after dinner, usually 3 couples and something after school, you learn something on your own, for example a third language.