IB advice from a recent IB graduate.
disclaimer: don’t take my word as law or anything, these are just things i’ve learned from personal experience and advice from my teachers&seniors. there’s a lot of general stuff that can be applied to other curriculums or aspects of life but there are some very IB specific things as well. hope this helps!!!
1. your health comes first. be it mental, be it physical, you shouldn’t be killing yourself over a good grade. the healthier you are mentally, physically, and emotionally, the better your work will be. when it feels like too much, take a step back to avoid burnouts. burnouts were very common for me during IB, to the point that i got checked into the hospital for exhaustion (and lung infection for some reason) right around the time after EE submissions. and thank God it was after. being ill before a deadline is soooooo much worse. take care of yourself, remember to eat, spend time with your fam and your friends, go out and be active, read, or stay in and netflix but don’t go too overboard with it. balance is everything!!!
2. start early. if you didn't, start NOW. if your case is the latter, finish reading this point and then close all your tabs and get. to. work. i cannot emphasise enough how terrible cramming, especially in IB, is to your health (both mental and physical, and your quality of work. time management is, as dj khaled would say, a MAJOR KEY. be sure to plan well and talk to your teachers/advisers. be aware of any and all deadlines, both internal and external. aim to have your work done ahead of these deadlines so you still have time for feedback from your advisers. have a copy of the marking criteria for each assessment and examination, and the subject guides for the learning outcomes and syllabus. this is so you know what you’re working toward, and what the IB expects. also, if your school gives out a semester/term calendar, plan around that. this is especially important with the core subjects (extended essay, TOK, and CAS) as well as the internal assessments (IAs) for your six subjects. this also applies in university, where your course load is much heavier and there aren’t any teachers or coordinators around chasing after you about deadlines!!!
3. don’t be afraid to ask for help, but really make sure you do your own work. your advisers and coordinators are all there to help you, not to make your lives harder, and you can also check out tutorial videos or other resources online if you’re struggling with the coursework. also check out the IBO website and subject guides!!! and IB forums!! there are plenty of resources like study guides and past papers if you look hard enough (cough reddit cough). your classmates are there for you too, as you should be for them! i was (and still like to consider that i am) very close to my Math HL, Physics, and Art classmates as we had to go through similar things. share resources like study guides and shortcuts, and encourage each other!!! a positive learning environment is really conducive especially if you feel like you’re struggling. you may not be doing the exact same things, but you definitely have some common ground. teaching someone else a topic kills two birds with one stone: you’re helping someone else, as well as strengthening your own understanding. the IB takes intellectual property and academic integrity very seriously, so don’t forget to cite your sources and acknowledge other people’s ideas. being original also won’t kill you, it gives examiners something interesting to mark!! think outside the box and take risks, but make sure to seek advice from your advisers as well; they usually know what they’re talking about and what the examiners want.
3a. TurnItIn is your dude. be sure you know your login, and you know your deadlines. DON’T wait until an hour before the submission deadline to submit because the servers will be crazy!!! also, when you finish your stuff earlier and submit it through turnitin, you get more time to edit your work if you get your originality report earlier. cite your sources!!!!!!!!
3b. know your citation style, and stick to it. let’s not mix and match okay? If you started with MLA (which i think is usually preferred in IB if I'm not mistaken? (( or maybe that was just my school idk ))) please be consistent throughout! if you decide to cite in-text, then keep with it, it you decide on footnotes, keep with that but don’t mix and match! it’s a pain to organise and even more of a pain to read. that being said, end-of-text citations or bibliographies should be consistent too!!! ask your teacher/librarian for help if you’re not familiar with citing sources in a certain style. websites like EasyBib.com can format the citation for you!
4. study. “but ariane, that’s so obvious!” i mean it. i struggled so much in my first year because i only studied when exams came round and i always thought i could do it without studying (big mistake, chica). if you’re a little pressed for time, as i’m sure most IB students are, just review the notes you took (please take notes)/the chapter you covered in class/the quiz you’ve just received that has been marked once you get home. if you manage your time well, you can probably spend 1-2 hours tops going over the things you learned that day so they stick in your mind, and time to spare on your assignments. go over your quizzes and practice/school/mock exams. it was really good for me to retrace my steps and figure out what went wrong and how to fix it in preparation for externals.
5. stay organised. it’s not dorky or lame to have at least a folder for every subject to keep your handouts in, or folders on your computer for your work; it saves a lot of time rummaging through your notes when externals are around the corner, or deadlines are looming. write down the dates of your classes at the top of the page when you’re taking notes; it makes it easier for the teachers to go back to things, and for you to look for what you need. keep all your quizzes and practice exams to go over. our EE coordinator had us keep those folders with a lot of pockets in one to keep our reflections, forms, drafts, and research as a PHYSICAL BACKUP in case anything were to go wrong with our digitals etc.
5a. ManageBac (if your school’s got it) or anything similar, are your FRIENDS. my school used ManageBac and all our course assignments, resources, and DEADLINES were all up on there, as well as forms for EE, TOK, and CAS that made the reflection requirement a lot easier to fulfil.
5b. back up ALL your files. seriously. i mean it. in film and TV, the industry standard is to have a master, and 3 backups in the cloud. Google Drive is free, and it’s never a bad thing to have extra copies of your work in case of a laptop crash or other unforeseen circumstances. an external hard drive (or several if available to you) are also helpful to keep backups but make sure you store them in a secure location and away from any potential damaging situations. make sure your backups are up to date as well!!! so in the event you do lose something, you won’t have to start from scratch and claw your eyes out!!!! i’ve had friends whose laptops have crashed, broken, stolen etc and it really pushed me to keep backups in the cloud. it’s also really helpful if you need to share your stuff with your teachers quickly to have them in cloud storage.
6. make CAS a part of your everyday life, and the hours will fly by. my best friends and i, for action and creativity did pilates together every week as part of our weekly routine. so not only did we fulfil our CAS requirements, we had fun and stayed fit through a time where it would have been very easy to slip into a very unhealthy lifestyle. i also was part of my yearbook committee for CAS and was in a GIN branch at my school which really helped fill those tricky service strand hours.
7. BUT, make your CAS projects varied! this is to make sure you fulfil ALL 8 learning outcomes!!!! the most important thing is that you cover ALL the learning outcomes!!!!! so do something you never thought you would have done before! learn a language, join a volunteer group and actually volunteer! dance! tutor someone! help out the chess club! gain some experience outside of the academic for some really interesting projects and add-ons to your CV! again, two birds with one stone!!! my CAS coordinator would always say “think globally, but act locally” when it came to this kind of thing, because depending on where you are opportunities can be slim so also make it a point to engage with the community around you.
8. when it comes to Extended Essay, there is no such thing as an easy route. i’m serious. people will tell you “oh! doing lang A for EE is so easy! doing math studies for EE is so much easier!” nah bruh. they’re all HARD WORK. no matter what the subject strand, it takes the same amount of hard work and dedication for a good product. also, the advice i’ve gotten is to NOT do the subject you’re going to do in Uni--unless it’s something you actually like. i was told to write about something you like or are interested in/intrigued by because it makes the research process much more bearable than to write about an anomaly in the genetic mutation of bean sprouts (unless that’s what you’re into). work with your EE supervisor and coordinator, and look at exemplars online for inspiration. talk to your seniors too!! also don’t cram. when you’re done, 4,000 doesn't seem like a lot but when you’re in a pinch it feels like an eternity. also 4,000 isn’t actually a lot so beware about how much you really need to say to get your point across (i struggled with this i’m Miss OverWrites 2015 as you can see from this post). same goes with IAs, do what you’re interested in. it’s a lot easier to springboard off that if you’re still looking for ideas. CITE !! YOUR !! SOURCES !! go beyond with your research if applicable with things like conducting interviews and reading scholarly articles!!! but again, this depends on the subject.
9. if your teachers give you an extra copy of your formula booklet, keep it. or alternatively find/ask for digital copies as well. being able to annotate in my spare formula booklet really helped me draw connections between concepts and equations.
i know the IB diploma experience/the high school experience in general isn’t great for everybody, but make the most of it. uni is an entirely different ball park, hell it may be a different sport all together. it’s okay to make mistakes, please learn from them!!! IB kids, i think, have a little bit of an edge over other kids when they start university because of the quality of work expected from the assessments and the course load as well. don’t get discouraged!!! have the time of your life no matter where (or when) you are!!!!!!! :):):)
good luck!!! to quote my Dad™, Logic: peace, love and positivity!! apologies if i said anything wrong and if i’ve missed anything please let me know or add on to it yourself!!! if you want anything more subject specific or uni-related, just drop me an ask :)
