OIB

The Anglophone Section in Lyon is the unique among international sections in France or abroad in offering both the British and American international options of the French Bac. Both options are overseen by the CIEP (Centre International d'Etudes Pédagogiques) in liaison with its foreign partners. For the British option this is CIE (Cambridge International Examinations) and for the American option, the College Board. Both these bodies officially recognise the OIB as a high level school leaving diploma giving access to higher education in the appropriate countries.

Further infomation is available on the CIE and College Board websites.

Students working towards OIB exam take exactly the same courses (taught in French) as their peers in all the subjects in the traditional French Baccalaureate plus OIB literature (4-5 hours per week) and history / geography (3-4 hours per week) which are taught and examined in English. Students in this bi-lingual and bi-cultural program are thus required to work to the highest linguistic and academic standards in both French and English.

The extra workload and high expectations are credited with high coefficients in the calculation of final marks for the overall Bac results.

Both the linguistic and the academic standards of the option are such that students with a pass in it can be considered to be already working at least at a level equivalent to a first year university course.

The OIB written exams are four-hours each and there are two oral exams of thirty and fifteen minutes each.