Year 13 Student Leavers Pack 2016

Transcription

1 Year 13 Student Leavers Pack 2016 Dear Year 13 Students, Take the time to go over the contents of this pack carefully. It contains all of the relevant information you ll need with regards to your exams, results and university confirmation and clearing. Please note that Ms. Digby and myself will be in school at the following times if you need any help or support regarding Higher Education applications: Thursday 7 th July 8.00 a.m p.m. Friday 8 th July 8.00 a.m p.m. Good luck with your revision and upcoming exams and don t hesitate to ask your teachers for help or advice. Mrs. Davey-Peel, DP Coordinator

2 C O N T E N T S 1) Detailed examinations Timetable 2) Exam Notices and Stationery 3) Exam Day a. Procedures b. Bad Weather c. Illness 4) Calculators for IB examinations a. Examinations in which calculators are allowed b. General restrictions applying to all calculators used in examinations c. List of approved flash (ROM) applications d. Teacher and Candidate Responsibilities 5) Examination results & procedures 6) Services available after issue of results a. Remark of one or more subjects (Cat1 EUR) b. Retake in November c. Fees, Deadlines & Procedure d. Final transcripts e. Examinations results guidance and counseling 7) University Confirmation and Clearing APPENDIX 1: Use of calculators in examinations version 1.0

3 1) Detailed examinations timetable: May 2016

4 2) Exam Notices and Stationery -> Library)

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7 3) Exam Day The student briefing presentation will be available on the Examinations page of the school website from 15 April. a. Procedures on the Day of the Exam Make sure you have read and fully understand the IB Conduct of the Examinations Notice to candidates displayed in the Diploma Centre and printed in this document. Arrive 30 minutes before the timetabled start time. Go to the Refectory. If you arrive after the exam has started report to the Exams Office immediately. If you arrive later than 30 minutes after the start time, you may not be allowed entry to the exam, depending on the circumstances. Unacceptable reasons for lateness: sleeping in; missing your ferry; heavy traffic; misreading the start time. Bring your Hong Kong ID card, or a photocopy cut to size, and take it into every exam. Only bring to the exam the items you need in a clear plastic bag: black pen (plus a spare), HB or 2B pencils (for multiple choice/diagrams/etc.), ruler, eraser, highlighters, IB approved calculator, spare calculator batteries. You will not be allowed to borrow any equipment from another candidate in the exam room. Correcting fluid/tape and wired battery chargers/power packs are not allowed. Be silent at all times once in the exam room and listen to instructions. For minimum 24 hours do not communicate or discuss the content of an examination outside the immediate school community. Do not use your phone or computer in the break between papers. b. Bad Weather Arrangements relating to examinations differ from those relating to the school as a whole. Be aware that postponed exams may be rescheduled to start later in the day or over a weekend. FOR WARNINGS BEFORE YOU LEAVE HOME BLACK RAINSTORM OR TYPHOON 8 AND ABOVE Exams will be postponed. Check the school website and your school for announcements and rescheduling of exams if applicable. RED/AMBER RAINSTORM WARNING OR TYPHOON 3 Examinations will go ahead as timetable. Check the school website before you leave home as there may be an exception depending on the circumstances. In the event of bad weather be prepared to leave home earlier than you normally would. c. Illness If you are unwell, try to come to school and take the exam. Get a doctor s note and go to see the Examinations Officer as soon as possible as you may be eligible to apply for special consideration. If you are too unwell to come to school you MUST give a doctor s note to the Examinations Officer as soon as possible. You will only be able to apply for special consideration if you have already completed at least 50% of the assessments required for that subject, which must include an externally assessed piece of work.

8 4) Calculators for IB examinations (also see Appendix 1) Not all programs or apps are suitable for use in examinations. Not all GDCs are suitable for use in examinations that require GDCs. Appendix 1, Use of calculators in examinations 2016, contains information on recommended and prohibited GDCs along with required examination settings. a. Examinations in which calculators are allowed Calculators of the types indicated as suitable are allowed only in the subjects listed in the following tables. Statistical tables are not allowed in DP group 5 mathematics examinations from May 2014 onwards. Candidates must have access to calculators that are able to find relevant statistical values. Different courses have different requirements, but the minimum requirements listed on the following page are for all the mathematics courses. Some of these may not be relevant to every course.

9 (cont d) Examinations in which calculators are allowed

10 b. General restrictions applying to all calculators used in examinations Restrictions in the use of certain technology are in place to discourage malpractice and maintain fair and reasonable access to technology that is generally required in the good practice of teaching and assessment. Telephones, pagers, calculator-watches, personal computers (PCs) and personal data assistants (PDAs) are not allowed in any subject examinations. Only the manufacturer s operating system may be used. Computer Algebra Systems Enabled (symbolic manipulation, whether inbuilt or programmed) calculators are not allowed in any subject examinations. Calculators with wireless/infrared communication are not allowed in any subject examinations. Examination questions must not be stored in or recorded into the memory of a calculator. Peripheral hardware must not be taken into the examination room (for example, keyboards, link cables etc). Calculators must not be shared or exchanged during examinations. Calculator manuals must not be taken into the examination room. More than one calculator per candidate may be brought into the examinations room. However, a spare set of batteries is a preferable alternative to several calculators. c. List of approved flash (ROM) applications Flash (ROM) applications (Apps) are sophisticated programs written by expert programmers. They are stored in the flash ROM memory of the GDC.

11 You must delete all apps not listed above. Failure to do so is in breach of the regulations and will be treated as Academic Misconduct. d. Teacher and Candidate Responsibilities Teachers of all Diploma Programme subjects that permit or require the use of calculators in examinations should discuss the requirements with their candidates. Candidates should be aware of both the requirements and restrictions of use. The potential consequences of breaches of these requirements by candidates would be similar to consequences of any other breaches of examination regulations. Teachers are responsible for monitoring the use of calculators by candidates on a continuous basis by informal conversation and by spot-checking calculators. Methods of monitoring individual calculators include manually checking, transferring memory to a PC, or using tools provided by the calculator manufacturer, such as Test Guard.

12 5) Examination Results & Procedures IB will not issue results to or discuss results with candidates, their legal guardian(s) or representative(s). The Diploma Programme Coordinator is the intermediary for any communication with the IB. Your results will be published on 6 July, 12:00 GMT. You will obtain your results via the Internet using your alphanumeric user name and personal identification number (PIN), which was given to you for your TOK Essay upload. If you have entered your PIN incorrectly 3 or more times your account will be locked. The account will automatically unlock after 30 minutes. Also try using Mozilla Firefox ( as this is the IB preferred browser. If you forget or lose your login details, you can request a copy by ing examsoffice@sis.edu.hk with subject IB RESULTS LOGIN. Under no circumstances should you reveal your PIN to universities or admission centres. If your grade is lower than expected, you can appeal through the enquiry upon results service and you have the opportunity to retake examinations in November (see section 6). LEGALISATION OF DIPLOMA RESULTS Please note that in some countries the IB Document Diploma Results will not be valid unless it is legalized in Geneva, Switzerland by the relevant embassy or consulate. If you are applying to a country that requires this and you would like to request to have your results legalized, please let the Diploma Programme Coordinator know by the 20 th May at the very latest.

13 6) Services Available After Issue of Results Before you do anything, contact the university/college to find out if they will accept you with the grades you have. If you are not satisfied with the grade for a subject, genuinely feel you did better and your university/college place is dependent upon a better grade, you have the following options: Re-mark of one or more subjects (marks can go down as well as up). Retake one or more subjects in November. a. Re-mark of one or more subjects (Cat1 EUR) If you are not satisfied with the grade for a subject, you can request an Enquiry Upon Results (Category 1: Re-mark) for one or more subjects. The externally assessed components of your work are re-marked by a different senior examiner. All externally assessed components in the subject will be re-marked (except multiple choice). It is not possible to request one component to be re-marked e.g. Geography HL Paper 3; in this case the remark request for Geography HL will result in the re-marking of Paper 1, Paper 2 and Paper 3. The re-marking does not include multiple-choice components and internally assessed work. IMPORTANT: A candidate's grade may be lowered as a result of a re-mark, that is to say that THE MARKS AND GRADES CAN GO DOWN AS WELL AS UP. The school recommends that if you are considering a re-mark you should wait until the component results are available. Your component breakdown will be ed to your school address when the component results are released from IBO (usually 3-4 days after results issue, but the timescale is provisional and subject to change). Re-marks can take several weeks to complete so you are advised to make your submissions as soon as possible after the issue of results. b. Retake one or more subjects in November Availability of subjects for November 2016: Group 1 - Chinese, English, French, Japanese, Korean Group 2 - Chinese - Mandarin, French, Japanese, Spanish Group 3 - All Group 4 - All Group 5 - All Group 6 - Music IMPORTANT: You cannot register to retake one or two components of a subject; you must retake all written examinations e.g. Paper 1, Paper 2 & Paper 3. The internal assessment and written task/assignment marks for the subject, if applicable, will be carried forward from the May session.

14 c. Fees, Deadlines & Procedure Fees: The following costs are approximate dependent upon the GBP exchange rate in July: o o Re-mark - $900 per subject Retake - $1,120 registration plus $1,800 per subject (subject fee includes invigilation & postage) Deadlines: Re-mark - 9 September 2016 Retake - 25 July 2016 (late fees charged by IB after 29 July) o Procedure: N.B.: If your retake decision is dependent on the outcome of a re-mark, you are advised to register for the retake then if your grade goes up, you can withdraw after 29 July with a refund. Otherwise, there are no refunds for retake withdrawal after 29 July. Request a re-mark or retake form by ing examsoffice@sis.edu.hk with subject IB REMARK or IB RETAKE. Take your completed form with a deposit cheque to the Exams Office (LGF Block C): o o If you are not in Hong Kong you must nominate someone in Hong Kong to do this for you; Cash is accepted in exceptional circumstances and e-payment is not accepted as a deposit. If you have not received confirmation within 2 working days that your request has been processed, examsoffice@sis.edu.hk Re-mark outcomes are ed to students within 2 working days of receipt from IB. d. Final Transcripts Two copies of your Final Transcript of grades will be sent to you at your postal address in Hong Kong. You can forward this or take it with you together with your IB certificates, which will be available for collection from the Exams Office in early September. e. Results Guidance and Counseling Careers guidance staff will be available, as indicated on the cover of this pack, to give advice on who to approach in cases where students have not been able to meet their conditional offers or have decided not to take up those offers. Please be aware that the data protection laws include strict rules for dealing with issues of confidentiality. The legislation means that staff will not be allowed to intervene in any negotiations you have with an institution. You will need to approach the university or college yourself and come to an arrangement with them. If an institution needs verification of your student status and exam results, you may request the careers staff to contact the university or college. Please make sure you give the careers guidance staff the correct contact details.

15 7) University Confirmation and Clearing IB results will be sent direct by the IBO to the universities you will have specified by April (via UCAS in the case of the UK). BTEC results should be confirmed by the end of Term 3, though any AS results will come later in August. The universities will then confirm your place or inform you that you have been unsuccessful. The way this happens varies by destination: N. America These offers are essentially unconditional. If your final scores are drastically below your predicted scores, then universities reserve the right to withdraw their offer. However, this happens very rarely. In addition to being informed of your scores by the IBO, universities may request a Final Transcript of grades or Final Results from the school. If a special form is required, make sure we have a copy. Otherwise, we will send this online via the Common App and post two copies of a Final Transcript to all of you at your postal address in Hong Kong: you can forward this or take it with you together with your IB certificates. U.K. and Hong Kong Australia Others These offers carry specific conditions you have to meet in terms of total IB/UCAS points and often also specific scores for certain subjects. For the UK see the Clearing Advice below. For Hong Kong, contact the university concerned, in person if necessary, to confirm your place once you receive your results. Do not hold an offer for more than one university after confirmation : accept or withdraw as appropriate. We will inform the IBO of the universities you have indicated in Gateway so that they receive your results in time for your applications in August/September. Any Advanced Diploma applicants should ensure that universities receive certified copies of final results when requested. Offers can vary in nature. If you are unsure whether your place has been confirmed after results day, find out from the university concerned. Please keep us informed or seek our help if necessary. For any destination, if a paper Certified True Copy of your Results is demanded for confirmation, come into school and we can provide one for you. Bring evidence of any such demand. Advice and Assistance (applicable to all students where not specific to IB) Confirmation of university places after results should go smoothly for the vast majority. Those who need to follow up with an institution or go into Clearing should be able to handle the situation unassisted if they follow the advice given here. Indeed, universities will only deal directly with the applicant and would not be impressed anyway if the school or a parent contacted them on your behalf. However, if you feel that you require further assistance, advice or supporting materials beyond the Final Transcripts that will be sent to you, Ms. Digby will be available in the Careers Centre on the two days following IB Results Day.

16 U.K. Clearing Students who hold no offers or whose offers are not confirmed following their IB or Advanced Diploma results will be informed if they are in Clearing through Track and their Clearing Number will appear there. You should check that the correspondence address on your UCAS form is where you intend to be living on and after the publication of IB results on July 6th. If not, please inform UCAS of your change of address through Track. Advice for Clearing We recommend that, if possible, you are in the U.K. in July/August in order to visit universities if Clearing is necessary. We understand that many of you will not be. Wherever you are, you will be able to check your status on UCAS Track on and after July 6 th. Make sure you have your Track log in details and password at that time! If your results meet your firm choice conditional offer from the university, then congratulate yourself and relax. You will be contacted in due course by UCAS and the institution and an AS12 letter confirming your place will show on Track. If your results do not meet your firm choice offer but do meet your insurance choice offer and no decision is clear on Track, you should still contact your firm choice if your results are a near miss. They may accept you. If they don t, you are duty bound to go to your insurance choice, who will contact you in due course. If your results are below your firm and insurance choices and there is no decision yet on Track, contact them anyway - you may be lucky. It is more likely however that you will be rejected. Alternatively, you may be offered a change of course or year of entry. You are under no obligation to accept this, but it is an option. You are now eligible for Clearing. Because IB results come out 6 weeks before A level results, another possibility comes into play. The university may delay its decision until the A level results come out on 18 th August, in order to see how many of its A level candidates (the vast majority) meet their offers. In this case, follow the advice given here in August as well as July. Once UCAS is informed of your rejections, they will send you a Clearing Number in Track where an Add Clearing Choice button will appear. Students should phone or Admissions Officers about vacancies on courses that they find attractive, as soon as these are advertised. This is done through the UCAS website as well as newspapers such as the Telegraph as soon as the A level results come out and for the next four weeks or so. For Scotland, Clearing vacancies will appear on August 9th and on for the rest of the UK on August 18th. Only one Clearing Choice is allowed at a time and this should therefore be used once you are in contact with the university. If unsuccessful, another Add Clearing Choice button will appear. (Some Clearing vacancies will appear as early as July 6 when the IB results come out and students may wish to look at these in advance and perhaps act upon them once the official Clearing period begins in August)

17 More precise details on sources and dates will be sent to you by UCAS with your Clearing Instructions, usually by the end of May. If there is any conflict with this advice, please follow the UCAS instructions. Wherever you are, UCAS offers advice on the following helplines: or (if calling from overseas) or (Scotland) If you are in Hong Kong, the British Council holds an annual Education UK Exhibition to coincide with the HKDSE results: this year, it is on 16/17 July at the InnoCentre, 72 Tat Chee Ave, Kowloon Tong (opposite City U) from 1pm -7pm. Another Clearing Fair is held in August to coincide with the A level results and will be held at the Renaissance Harbour View Hotel in Wanchai North on Saturday August 20 from 1pm 6pm. A large number of universities attend and they can make offers on the spot. You may need to make appointments in advance. Contact the British Council (tel ) or go to their website at for full details. There will be staff at school to offer support and advice if necessary. You may Ms. Sharman, Mr. Campion or Ms. Digby on matters to do with Higher Education but not matters to do with the results themselves or retakes. Your Clearing Decisions Make all decisions yourself! Don t rely on your parents, relatives, friends or your domestic helper to handle Clearing while you re on holiday in Thailand. Only you should decide what you are going to do for the next three years or more, so be fully accessible during the Clearing period. Don t get depressed if you have to go into Clearing. Be positive and regard it as another opportunity to find a course that you ll really enjoy. Be positive and confident when you do contact Admissions Officers. Stand up, if you re on the phone. You may panic and try to get accepted on to a course you re not really keen on. Don t. Make sure that it s something you really want to do. Do consider Combined and Modular courses or an HND. These may offer the chance to study your original choice alongside other options and you might discover that you really like that style of course. Have a look, in advance, at courses on the UCAS website that are available for Extra entry. You can find these in the Course Search function by choosing the filter Show Courses In Extra : these are likely to be available in Clearing in the summer. Did Much Better Than Expected? If your final IB results are well above your Firm conditional offer conditions and your predicted scores, you may be tempted to trade up : that is, you may try to gain a place at a course and university you had previously thought too competitive. This is now officially known as Adjustment see UCAS advice on

18 If you decide to do this, you must ensure that: Your desired course and university is available (unlikely in many cases). There are no Adjustment vacancy lists. You are 100% sure about this choice the grass often looks greener! Non- academic factors such as accommodation need to be considered. You are quick. You have to complete this process within 5 days of receiving your Unconditional Firm offer. Finally, please keep in touch with us here in the school. We still regard you as our students even after you leave and we like to know how your careers are developing. Younger students will also welcome any advice that you can pass on about Clearing, courses, universities or the transition from Hong Kong to the U.K., U.S.A. or elsewhere. Good luck with your exams and we hope all goes well with your university applications. Please remember to update your HE applications list with your Final Destination on the Gateway (but don t remove all other applications). Martin Campion / Lauren Sharman/ Janie Digby Careers and Higher Education Department

19 APPENDIX 1 Use of calculators in examinations 2016 version 1.0

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