The International Schools Review Forum

Looking at amazon for books titled something with "IB-diploma", I´ve seen the Oxford series, the IB-series, and independent ones. Was thinking of getting a couple for my subjects to browse, to get an idea of what I can expect to be teaching. Any general preferences? Do schools usually have them all?

Depends. What you will actually be teaching should be based on the IB subject guide, which can be downloaded free from the OCC, or purchased from the IBO shop.

OUP, CUP and Pearson all have titles for most DP subjects and schools may have a selection, why not contact the school and find out the situation.

All my DP year 1 students had to buy the CUP textbook for my course, I have yet to use it with them since the beginning of the academic year last August.

Hodder is really good for IB History, Paper One. I am currently using it to cover the Arab-Israeli conflict. Lots of sources.

What subject? There is no universal publisher who everyone uses and loves across all subjects.

You want to learn about IB quick and dirty? Download the syllabus, and get one of the study guides ( not the ib approved ones! They are good at test prep only imho, and about 10usd only) and go over unit by unit. You can see the general depth and breadth in that way fairly quickly.

For several of the books, one can get a quick preview on Amazon. This might help you spot the texts that have serious deficiencies or those that would be appropriate for your students.

I have used Hodder's Access to History for the IB Diploma with great success. I also order 2-4 other texts (usually university level) as supplementary/complimentary works.