tipstosurviveib

[tipstosurviveib]

Good luck, guys!

The fall semester has just started for some, and will start soon for others! For all IB starters, I wish the best of luck! If you freak out for a moment, calm down and remember: you overcame many things before IB, so you can get the best of IB too! :)

[tipstosurviveib]

Hello :) I'll be taking the IB dp this coming year and I was wondering what things I could do to prepare myself for the rigor and coursework I'll face the upcoming two years. I just finished my IGCSE exams, and its summer now, so I have a lot of time on my hands that I thought would be best spent getting into the flow of things, for I've heard that IB is very challenging. I'll be taking Math, Physics and Computer Science in HL and Spanish ab-i, Psychology and English L & L in SL. Any tips??

Hello! IB is challenging – that’s right, but it depends on your effort; you can finish most of it in the first year and get prepared for the exams in the second year; or you can go with the flow. My choice was the first option. Especially for CAS activities. You may google sample CAS activities and prepare a ‘to-do list’ for each branch. ‘S’ (service) is the hardest part to get done – I’ve already posted my recommendations. Have a look at them when you have time. Moreover, you can get familiar with the software requirements since you have Math & Physics HL. Buy a T.I. calculator and learn about its utilities from YouTube – or learn how to graph on LoggerPro. For ToK, check out the following link: http://www.theoryofknowledge.net/about/the-tok-course/tok-glossary/ Ways of knowing and areas of knowledge are significant. Perhaps you can find your essay & presentation topic, why not? I guess, the easiest course will be Spanish. You can try to learn basic vocab. In ab-i levels, your vocab level almost determines your final grade. Hope this helps & take care! :)

[tipstosurviveib]

Hi there!! I just finished my IGCSE exams last week and i will be doing the IB next. Do you any detailed advice and tips for being very successful in IB overall? Any useful websites for notes and guides for each subject? or is there anything you really would recommend which is something that YOU personally found that without it you wouldn't be able to do as well? Also, i dont really understand want TOK is, and any tips for it? Thank you :) btw i love your blog x

Thank you for your lovely comments!Well, IB requires a lot of practice - so that you can learn effectively, and don't forget what you've learned throughout those 2 tiring years. Thus IB question banks for each course help a lot. You can find them on torrent. But that's something you can do after learning each topic.To practise and revise, there is this website called 'IB Guides'. It contains valuable notes by teachers & peers (especially for Biology HL).ToK is a course which you can learn simply by reading the textbook by Cambridge. The key to be successful is to learn terminology and come up with your own creative point of view (I've posted my own notes from ToK before, you may still find them on my blog).Another tip for you, please read the books from literature on time, then decide on your favourite one and take notes on it. Try to write down every single thing that your teacher says. Sometimes a downplayed note can get your internals higher:)Try to finish the substantive amount of CAS activities during the first year. Focus on the service part first because it is more difficult to get done.*Don't hesitate to ask for tips & extra help! I hope IB goes well for you:)Take care!

[tipstosurviveib]

'The best way to motivate yourself is to stop stressing about what’ll happen when things go wrong and start thinking about how awesome life will be when they go right.' After IB exams, your life will be much better!!! Good luck to all of you guys:)

[tipstosurviveib]

Hi, I am an IB senior. I have my mocks starting from 20th March. I need to manage my time. I haven't studied anything yet because of the TOK essays, IA submission and some other stuff. I am freaking out. I am not sure how I can do my best. Tips?

Hey, don't freak out. You still have time to revise. But I think you should start solving past papers. My only tip is this - because it's easy and quick to do. You'll be familiar with question types and see your weaknesses at the same time.All the best for your mock exams!

[tipstosurviveib]

Hi! Any tips for coping with ib stress? HELP!

Hello! A few months left and I hear you:( I experienced an excessive amount of stress too.If you feel overwhelmed at the moment, you may give frequent breaks when you are studying; or you may solve past paper questions and beat a double-strike: studying and testing yourself at the same time - by which you'll have much freetime than before (this was my method).If you are still stressed, try to sleep more and drink passion-flower tea (even a cup works to calm yourself down)Perhaps you can listen to some soothing songs too; like the xx's coexist album (especially the first song, Intro - helped me a lot) or just send me a private message so I can send you my stress relieving mix for IB (For real I've made one) :DTake care and don't be hard on yourself!

[tipstosurviveib]

hi ı am from turkey and i want to do ibdp next year. but there ıs a thing like that i dont like speaking in ib do we have to speak a lot or can we just sit and listen like a normal class i am aware of the oral presentations can you give some ibformation about them

I heard about the terrorist attack in Turkey. Please accept my condolences. I wish you a very quick peace time.Speaking depends on the courses you'll pick. If you go for a lang&lit course, you will have multiple oral exams. If you rarely want to speak, prefer science courses and maths. IB will require only an oral presentation for once with a low percentage for those, but don't worry, if you are to understand English and write in English - IB will be just for you.

[tipstosurviveib]

Quick Tips

Hey guys, there are a few months left for IB, so I’d love to share some tips for seniors to increase their grades out of 7:

1) IB question banks are available on the Internet, you may buy or go for torrent. The questions are mostly from past papers, plus most common mistakes are available - so you may see the answers that pissed examiners off.

2) Check out past papers. Especially the last three years. Sometimes the questions are repetitive (especially multiple choice quetions. In my era, we catched at least 5 questions from each chemistry and biology that were the same or almost the same)

3) Study illustrations with their labels. Plants and kidneys are frequently asked in biology.

4) Avoid using arrows when you label a drawing. Use simple and horizontal lines!

5) Check language B writing papers. Format makes you gain more than half of the marks. Try to memorize letter structure etc and some common idioms, questions used in the structure.

6) For lang&lit or only literature courses, write sample introductions with thesis. Introduction depicts organization. You may adapt your intro to any question after you get used to it.

Here are a few tips that I remembered, please ask if you have more questions.

With the very best wishes in your IB preparation:)

[tipstosurviveib]

Hey! Thanks so much for answering my ask about CAS earlier. I have no idea what to do for service hours and I need the most hours for that area. Any ideas? Thank you in advance!

Here are some ideas from me and what my friends have done: you may go to orphanage or visit a rehabilitation centre to help people over there, you can help them with physical treatments or homework. You may organize concerts to raise money for their meds. You may prepare a show or a presentation in the assembly area to inform people about aids day etc. You may attend a community service activity, help them to create awareness in different designs and languages. Those all worked and I hope these will help you too!All the best:)

[tipstosurviveib]

Any advice on what to do when IB makes you question why you're doing this to yourself?

Well, you must be overwhelmed and I hear you. It's normal to feel in this way - yet IB is a very beneficial programme, you'll have a very good amount of general knowledge as well as academic writing skills. Not to be a snob, but non-IB graduates find the whole university thing challenging... Yet uni life will be a lot easier for you. What I tell you now may sound nonsense; but if you hold on a little bit, I assure you, you'll understand:)Take care!

[tipstosurviveib]

What did you do for CAS? I'm so clueless rn

I went to orphanage and helped the kids about their tasks. Then, getting a driving licence and the tutorials for it were also counted. What else... I learned how to play badminton from a friend. Plus, I translated info about works for my nephew's exhibition:) if you send me what branch you need cas credits for, maybe I can help you more.. All the best:)

[tipstosurviveib]

How hard would it be to get a 667 in HL classes? (i'm taking HL history, english, and bio)

I didn't take history HL but rumour has it, your grades depend on the examiner because there are two things: factual info and your own interpretations. Of course you can still get 6 or 8, but if you are not really into the course topics, you may consider 5. I studied English HL, if you follow the templates of p1 and p2, why not, 7 is easy. (I've already shared some tips, check them out) lastly bio... You know, it's the hardest among these three little HLs. I recommend you to solve ib question banks, past papers and please get an ibbioninja app to revise the definitions. If you are good at memorizing, OK, you can get 6-7. The difficulty of questions vary every year. It's kinda luck. A little effort from you, a few easy questions between sections - 7 must not be that hard.You know, after your mocks at school you'll be able to guess your grades better. I don't know how you do in these courses, but why not? If nothing is impossible, 777 is not impossible either - when correlation is causation btw.

[tipstosurviveib]

Oh Great and Holy IB graduate(🙃), the IB journey has just begun for me but I was sincerely hoping that you could give me some tips for the subject of History (dun dun duh!). We are doing a lot of Russia, some Japan and a bunch of dictators I believe (I have no idea if this affects anything, I just thought you should know). Thank you!! P.S. English literature and French advice wouldn't go amiss either. P.P.S. Sorry for asking these, I'm sure you've gotten the same questions many times before.

Hey, sorry for the late answer. It's been almost a decade from now. My faculty is not going easy on me and I've been having a hard time outta tumblr.Anyways, my sl subject was history. It was one of my favourites. Well, this may sound silly, but whatever you learn or whoever you get to know about - try to build a context for yourself, check wikipedia etc and try to come up with interesting points or key ideas about the topic (examiners do love that!)For your Written task (I don't know if you're still doing it but we were), come up with a general topic. I wanted to be original, but what really matters is the references that you base your task on. Many tasks, higher grades.If you wanna ask about other things, I'll be around. Send your questions and they will be answered earlier (sorry again tho)I hope I kinda help you out:)Take care!

[tipstosurviveib]

Hi! I would like to know the qualities of an excellent EE abstract. Thanks!

Hey, an abstract is basically a summary of what you did. If your EE is about an experiment or a survey, you should write about your experiences. For every course, you should include what you've learned nearby a quick summary of overall EE. My EE supervisor made me use 'I's and talk about the relationship between my EE and related IB course. Let me know which course your EE topic is on, so that I can be more specific.(Sorry that it took me so long to answer. Those finals are killing me...)

[tipstosurviveib]

Do you have any idea what HL foreign languages are like? My school requires that we take History and English HL, and I think we only need one other one.

Yeap. If you get a language b level hl, it's like an intermediate language course - yet if you are to pick a language A course, it's harder. You need to focus on the target culture as well as the grammar. Language courses have always been my favourite ones. If you wanna improve yourself, your general knowledge and widen your perspective, you should take A level. But if you are a starter, take B level. I hope I helped you out a little bit:)

[tipstosurviveib]

I'm in my first year of IB (I took pre-IB last year) and I've been struggling in math so far. Last year in math20IB I earned 14% higher than the math30IB course I'm taking now. Right now, my math class is a split class with regular math30s. Do you have any tips to stay focused and to get a higher mark? Thanks!

Math has always been a trouble for me too. Try to keep your exploration grade as high as possible - you may check out my tips, I've already shared my own experiences and notes, you know:) If you cannot learn during the course, download a question bank (torrent) and solve with the marking scheme. It helps because nearly all question types are very similar.

[tipstosurviveib]

IB Physics is Killing Me

Hey, I hear you... It will always be kinda hard yet you can keep it under control. Try to solve as many past papers as you can. Believe me, when you get used to the question type, it will be easier. Plus, the boundaries are very low. Thus you still have a marvelous opportunity to do better! Take care!