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Other articles in this series:

・Introduction on Cambridge International-①　English/Japanese

・Cambridge Pathway (Introduction on Cambridge International-②)　English/Japanese

・University Applications (Introduction on Cambridge International-④)　English/Japanese

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Overall, the number of Cambridge schools outnumbered the number of IB schools. However, the distribution is rather uneven if being examined based on country. Since Cambridge originated from the UK, it is not surprising to see that Cambridge is much more widely used in the UK compared to the IB. While in the case of the US we see the other way around, though the difference is smaller. In Asia, the situation varies by country as well. There are more IB schools than Cambridge schools in Japan and Hong Kong but the gap is not as huge as the UK and US cases since the total number of schools are not as many. As for Thailand, the number of Cambridge schools is larger. And this difference in number becomes much more obvious when it comes to the case in Mainland China, Malaysia and India, in which Cambridge schools outnumbered IB schools again. There are almost equally the same number of either schools in Singapore.

If we compare the requirements and educational focuses of the IBDP and A Levels, the final qualifications of the two programs, it is not difficult to find that these are two rather different programs, which also indicates the different kinds of demands that they meet. 

For students, the Cambridge system could be more flexible than the IB. There are no compulsory subjects, so science students can choose between mathematics, chemistry, and physics. In addition, the timing of the completion of all exams does not necessarily have to be the same. Both IB and A Level have pros and cons which will be different for each person.

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