IB or A Level: Where to Study in Singapore?

One of the most common questions when it comes to choosing an international secondary school in Singapore is whether to study the IBDP or A Levels. To help you make that decision, we've rounded up the schools offering the two curricula and looked at the programmes offered, their performance and cost.

By Carli Allan

Updated:

5th Oct 2022

Is your child heading towards the college years? Are you looking for the best curriculum to prepare your teenager for a top university or career path? A large number of international schools in Singapore offer either the IB Diploma Programme (IBDP) or A Levels to students aged 16-19 years. Both are two-year programmes that are widely recognised by universities and employers – and when it comes to the question of which qualification you should choose, there is no straight answer.

Conventional thinking says all-rounders (with strong organisational skills) tend to prefer the IBDP, while those with a clearly defined academic passion and preference for science, or the arts, or languages or the humanities tend to favour the A Level.

To read more about A Levels click here, and for the IBDP click here.
Click here to understand the differences between the IBDP and A Levels.

There are 27 schools in Singapore offering the IBDP, including seven that are full IB schools and also follow the IB Primary Years (PYP) and Middle Years Programmes (MYP). There’s a smaller choice of just seven schools offering A Levels in Singapore. This includes Tanglin Trust School and St Francis Methodist School which are the only schools in the city-state (and only a few in the world) to offer both programmes, giving students the choice of taking either A Levels or the IBDP.

Read on to find out more about where to study A Levels and the IBDP in Singapore.