+Agastya Posted September 12, 2010 Report Share Posted September 12, 2010 Hello.I've never taken a course in anthropology before, but I'm quite confident that anthropology will be of great interest to me. I love all the social science courses. If I could, I would just take 6 courses from there alone. However, I do want to get the IB Diploma, and I chose to take theater over a second social science because my school placed all of them at the same block. Anyway, on to my question: I want to take the Socio-Cultural Anthropology course at a standard level online. I do not even want to take the exam, I don't want to stress myself over this course as I want to take it as a seventh course where I just enjoy learning about the subject. Do you think that someone with a strong work ethic but no prior experience can finish and handle the workload in a socio-cultural anthropology course? Do you think it would look weak on my college application that I took a course on anthropology and chose not to take the exam?Thanks! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bishup Posted September 12, 2010 Report Share Posted September 12, 2010 Just take the course and do the exam no big deal. Most people who studied it never even had a glimpse of what the subject was like prior to enrollment in the IB. I wish I had taken it but I doubted its rep since it's kind of on the soft subject side of the fence. I recommend you take it if you are as passionate as you make yourself out to be but please just take the exam you might just get a 5 but that's an extra qualification under the belt. University would not care if you did the course they want concrete proof : ie EXAM. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Licorice Posted November 11, 2010 Report Share Posted November 11, 2010 Hello.I've never taken a course in anthropology before, but I'm quite confident that anthropology will be of great interest to me. I love all the social science courses. If I could, I would just take 6 courses from there alone. However, I do want to get the IB Diploma, and I chose to take theater over a second social science because my school placed all of them at the same block. Anyway, on to my question: I want to take the Socio-Cultural Anthropology course at a standard level online. I do not even want to take the exam, I don't want to stress myself over this course as I want to take it as a seventh course where I just enjoy learning about the subject. Do you think that someone with a strong work ethic but no prior experience can finish and handle the workload in a socio-cultural anthropology course? Do you think it would look weak on my college application that I took a course on anthropology and chose not to take the exam?Thanks!If I was you, I would not have taken it. I am doing Social and Cultural Anthroplogy SL, and it is a heck lot of work! You don't need the extra stress of reading another set of books and articles, i.e. at least 4-5 books and 10 000 articles, in really heavy English (well, at least some of them). Having a good teacher makes it A BIT easier, and I could have never imagined studying IB anthropology by myself. IB Soca requires a lot of time, as well as prioritization... Honestly, don't bother.. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
miha Posted May 2, 2011 Report Share Posted May 2, 2011 If I was you, I would not have taken it. I am doing Social and Cultural Anthroplogy SL, and it is a heck lot of work! You don't need the extra stress of reading another set of books and articles, i.e. at least 4-5 books and 10 000 articles, in really heavy English (well, at least some of them). Having a good teacher makes it A BIT easier, and I could have never imagined studying IB anthropology by myself. IB Soca requires a lot of time, as well as prioritization... Honestly, don't bother..I cannot agree with you. I find anthropology the easiest subject and it doesn't require any work at all for me. All we do is have relaxed discussions in class, and each time we get 3 pages of some article to read at home, but nobody from the class reads it anyways. I have 7 predicted, and by the way, my teacher is paper 1 examiner so I believe the grade is honest.There are only two things you have to do to have a good grade. First, be intelligent. It really helps if youre interested in social studies, because than you have a broader picture of the issue in your mind, students that are more natural sciences oriented, seem to have problems. Second, you have to sound professional in your essays. Learn two or three fancy anthropology related phrases and use them in your essays. At the end, even if you write bull****, you sound convincing and like you know what you're talking about. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Licorice Posted May 5, 2011 Report Share Posted May 5, 2011 (edited) If I was you, I would not have taken it. I am doing Social and Cultural Anthroplogy SL, and it is a heck lot of work! You don't need the extra stress of reading another set of books and articles, i.e. at least 4-5 books and 10 000 articles, in really heavy English (well, at least some of them). Having a good teacher makes it A BIT easier, and I could have never imagined studying IB anthropology by myself. IB Soca requires a lot of time, as well as prioritization... Honestly, don't bother..I cannot agree with you. I find anthropology the easiest subject and it doesn't require any work at all for me. All we do is have relaxed discussions in class, and each time we get 3 pages of some article to read at home, but nobody from the class reads it anyways. I have 7 predicted, and by the way, my teacher is paper 1 examiner so I believe the grade is honest.There are only two things you have to do to have a good grade. First, be intelligent. It really helps if youre interested in social studies, because than you have a broader picture of the issue in your mind, students that are more natural sciences oriented, seem to have problems. Second, you have to sound professional in your essays. Learn two or three fancy anthropology related phrases and use them in your essays. At the end, even if you write bull****, you sound convincing and like you know what you're talking about.First, I don't understand how you have a 7 as your predicted grade when you don't read what you are supposed to. Getting a top grade in soca requires you to have DETAILED knowledge about at least 4 different societies. You must have a superbrain or something, hehe...Second, maybe it's our teacher who has picked difficult stuff for us... I don't know, I was just sharing my viewpoint based on my experience. Let's agree to disagree That said, I would like to see if your opinion changes when you end the course in '12 - Edited May 5, 2011 by Licorice Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
miha Posted May 9, 2011 Report Share Posted May 9, 2011 First, I don't understand how you have a 7 as your predicted grade when you don't read what you are supposed to. Getting a top grade in soca requires you to have DETAILED knowledge about at least 4 different societies. You must have a superbrain or something, hehe...What societies do you study? I think that is a very important questions, it's not about ones being hard and easy ones, but in IB it's about how useful they are to prove your points. I think studying to much about lifestyle in different communities is not something that gives you a better grade, focusing on key element, tradition, or specialties of each community is the one that gives great anthropological insight into human and human culture. And it is here that selection of ethnographic becomes crucial, because as I said, you can study hundreds of them, but if there is not that significant thing in it, it won't help you. To tell you what I'm talking about, let me tell you an example. Darwin could go around and see thousands of habitats and study every bit of it, but would not find anything out. But on Galapagos, it was something obvious that helped him make something nobody else ever thought about.For ethnographies, I suggest ones written by famous anthropologists, because that ethnographies gave them ideas to form new theories. Example, Malinowski - Yanomamo - Biopsychological functionalism. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jsoh Posted May 16, 2011 Report Share Posted May 16, 2011 Anybody want to give me some heavily condensed important information about the Yanomamo? Taking the exam on thursday/friday and realising that i dont know them in detail at all... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeko123 Posted May 18, 2011 Report Share Posted May 18, 2011 Anybody want to give me some heavily condensed important information about the Yanomamo? Taking the exam on thursday/friday and realising that i dont know them in detail at all...mate just google it an ull find some useful info.. read about globalisation on yanomamo as well. i regret taking antropology anyway hope i pass... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
snarker Posted May 19, 2011 Report Share Posted May 19, 2011 Anthropology is a really fascinating subject, I think. I do get bored out of my mind reading about theorists, or at least I did at first. Reading about other cultures is fun though, and the theory is REALLY useful in helping you understand them, I find the theories much more interesting than the theorists themselves. It isn't hard, per se, either; a lot of dense stuff sometimes, but it really just depends on what theory book you use. We have Thomas Hylland Eriksen's Small Places, Large Issues and Carl Salzman's Understanding Culture. Had I been shown Salzman's book at the start, I would have dropped out more than likely, I don't understand half of what he's trying to say (I would ask my teacher to explain, but she doesn't understand it either, her predecessor chose that one). Eriksen, on the other hand, doesn't talk as much about individual theories as he does about the subject in general, but it's really easy to understand and well-structured. So, it can be a student's worst nightmare, or the best subject ever.Taking anthropology online sounds like a good idea, if you're willing to work hard. I'm not going to lie, it's a big course and you'll have to really dedicate yourself if you plan on finishing it. But if you do it, the fact that you do it on top of your other studies will prove to colleges that you're exceptionally motivated; I think that alone will counterbalance any negative effects of not taking the exam. Good luck! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
laughattack7651 Posted December 8, 2011 Share Posted December 8, 2011 · Hidden by The Economist, December 29, 2011 - outdated topic Hidden by The Economist, December 29, 2011 - outdated topic I think you could do it as long as you do the work such as reading the ethnographies and learning the vocabulary and topics. But if you do it you could probably score well on the exam so I suggest taking it! Link to post
Survival Robot Posted December 29, 2011 Report Share Posted December 29, 2011 Automatic generated message This topic has been closed by a moderator. Reason: Same topic can be found at If you disagree to this action, please report this post, and a moderator or administrator will reconsider it. Kind regards, IB Survival Staff Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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