IB? Three must-knows

Tikkurilan lukio IB World School welcomes students with different cultural backgrounds to join our open-minded and caring school community that promotes skills for inquiry, reflection and risk-taking. Our IB students are willing to grow into life-long learners, knowledgeable communicators and principled thinkers with intellectual, physical and emotional balance.

Three IB students perform a chemistry experiment in chemistry class.

Step 1: IB or not IB?

If you have studied nine years and have completed a basic education that corresponds to that of Finnish comprehensive school (classes 0-9, ages 6-15), it is time to move on. If you are a Finnish citizen, you even have to move on. A “normal” high school or IB, you may think. We have squeezed the differences into a nutshell.

Step 2: Only six subjects! But which subjects?

Firstly, you have to study two languages, and one of them at a native or at a nearly-native level, “language A” in the IB. We offer English and Finnish as languages A. If you are a young native Finnish-speaker, why don’t you join our international little school within a big school? Your English is certainly good enough.

Your second language can be another language A or what we call language B. Language B is a language that you have studied at least two years prior to the IB programme. Some of our students have not studied Finnish before but they start their Finnish studies when joining our pre-DP. They study so intensively that they are able to study Finnish B after our pre-DP year.

In addition to the languages, you must study four subjects, one from each subject group. Instead of Arts, you can, however, choose another subject from groups 1-4. We offer Philosophy as the only IB school in Finland and our Philosophy students have represented Finland in Philosophy Olympics for young people on a regular basis.