76 replies to this topic

[FeralKid]

I have noticed that it is really hard to maintain an healthy social life and IB grades high,
most of the people undergoing the second year of IB that have impressive scores do not go out and the only company they have good are our dear books.

Now do you find impossible to have a social life and good IB scores? Would you give up one of them?

In my opinion is useless to get a 45 & at the same time have "wasted" what can be considered the best years of our lives..
Lately i am indeed, struggling between school, boyfriend and friends, however i can confess i am a proud(? maybe not that much) 5iver/6er and i will never give up my happy party life for the IB (yes i am a horribly disappointing  IB student)..

what do you think? any experience to share ?

[deathwish546]

Ahaha, as they say, choose between 2 of the 3: Sleep, good marks, and a social life.

Nah, I have quite a few friends who parties often, have relationships, go out a lot and they are getting 6s/7s and it makes me jealous (unfortunately I can't achieve that level even by cutting social life T_T) but regardless, it's possible to enjoy life and have good marks, especially (as the teachers say) if you manage your time well . I'm a 5/6 student myself =P

[wombat123]

I guess it depends on how much you have on top of the IB; for example, extra curricular activities, team sports, part time job, etc. If you have those plus the IB and want good grades, I'd say it is pretty impossible to be able to go on frequent outings with friends. It also depends on how good your teachers are....for one of my hardest classes the teacher is not so good, so basically everyone has to teach themselves everything, which does take a fair chunk of time.

[Cynthia]

It's definitely possible to do normal stuff on top of IB without cutting that much - if being in IB means that you can't have friends or date then you're doing something wrong. It's all about time management; if you start your EE two days before it's due you won't have much time for social life but if you've actually organised your time well you can sit back and relax while others are panicking

[computerlove]

I think it's more like time spent on IB > time spent on social stuff.
However this can be good depending on your priorities.

[ca.cu]

Most of my friends have a pretty busy party life but it really depends on  your personality. I am not really the kind of person who goes out to clubs drinking and partying every single weekend. I'd rather hang out at the movies with my friends and boyfriend or just having fun somewhere nice, not necessairly with 1000 people, dark lights and loud music (it doesnt mean i hate partying, it is pretty relaxing sometimes) One of my party freak friends got a 42 score (first report, but still) and the other one got a 34 (the same as I did, which is not bad) If you are capable of doing both then go for it,... like sometimes i just give up of going out either friday or saturday to get stuff done.

Edited by ca.cu, Dec 14, 2010 - 02:36.

[belen1234]

It's not impossible ! you can do it, I dedicate 8-12 hours weekly on sports and go out once in the week (friday or saturday) + we have a group with some friends with the ones we coordinate once a week for 2 hours to talk about different topics and i'm getting good marks 6-7s (ToK is another story hahaha i don't get it ! ) The only thing that I can tell is that if you are going to do extra things as I do with sports or the group that I mentioned is that I sleep less haha (about  7 hours, normally but when there's a due date for an IA or something like that it's like 3 hours)
Just as the social life/good marks/sleeping says choose only two

But social life + IB = possible

[zoes]

FeralKid, on Dec 08, 2010 - 03:30, said:

I have noticed that it is really hard to maintain an healthy social life and IB grades high,
most of the people undergoing the second year of IB that have impressive scores do not go out and the only company they have good are our dear books.

Now do you find impossible to have a social life and good IB scores? Would you give up one of them?

In my opinion is useless to get a 45 & at the same time have "wasted" what can be considered the best years of our lives..
Lately i am indeed, struggling between school, boyfriend and friends, however i can confess i am a proud(? maybe not that much) 5iver/6er and i will never give up my happy party life for the IB (yes i am a horribly disappointing  IB student)..

what do you think? any experience to share ?

I can see where your coming from - all my teachers seem to expect that I only do there subject - they don't collaborate at all - I feel as though they each give me the work of someone who is studying a degree in the subject area but each of the subjects which makes it all pretty much impossible.
I'm training to study musical theatre after 6th form and obviously you need training and experience to be able to get into a decent college - they dont just accept anyone. So I dance 7 hours ,  an acting class and 2 singing classes every week in the evenings. I often do dance gigs to earn money and have experience in the industry which is often helpful when it comes to applying to colleges. I also teach dance to beginners 3 times a week in school and attend a fitness class as dance also requires fitness.
So overall I feel like i've been dragged down - I couldn't tell you the last time I socialized - I'm not doing amazingly in school but I do try and I haven't been shopping in months unless i run to a specific shop to grab a certain item i've already planned to buy.
Its ridiculous and I'm actually counting down the days of my IB days - I think IB has to be the worst decision I have made in my life and would gladly suggest A levels to anyone who asks in the future.
The fact that most colleges go mostly on audition rather than academics kind of disheartens the mood but then you hve to keep school and parents happy as well i guess.
Good luck with it all and it really is the 3: sleep, socialize, education
I tend to stay up til 4am some nights doing work.
x

[Access Denied]

I think it really comes down to natural ability and lack of procrastinating.

I for example get 6/7's except spanish and have a boyfriend not doing IB, play sport, and do so much stuff outside school dont come home till 10pm most nights, but i aim to sleep by 12 and often do. I hardly work on the weekend. but wen i cram things in last minute I do alright, working under pressure

I think this is one of these questions that really depend on the individual

Good luck

[HildaBaby]

it is possible to have a healthy social life....in the first year of IB. in the second year, it gets  really hard to juggle. trust me, i know. i partied practically every saturday of my first year of IB, had a fabulous boyfriend. but just one semester of the second year of IB and am close to dead trying to keep up with all those things. this term my grades dropped to their lowest [ am still suprised i got an offer for medicine from peninsula school of medicine with an IB prediction of 36] and well, i just keep on partying because thats the best thing i know how to. just remember to hand in really good internal assessments and read for your final exams.

[Jazmine]

No its not impossible just really hard. Ibers understand it, parents and teachers do too.

My friends and I try to do stuff not related to school every now and then- we might potluck at someones house, go to the movies, prank call people, go shopping, just chill and hang etc. When we all have time is the one hindering thing but we all try our best.

IB teachers at my school try to help as well. For EX: my HOTA teacher gives us an extra credit assignament, we just have to show up for an IB movie night one saturday a six weeks and write like 3 sentences over the movie. Its fun, it gives us a break and we get 10 bonus points on a test. Who wouldnt love that?

[Ahmed Mazlom]

I really thinks it depends on the subjects. Take HL Math and I heard your social life is gone forever

[Jaymi]

well im quite a joke when it comes to work..don't even know why im doing IB..but im doing alright   i work really hard during the week and during free periods...come home on a friday & do absolutely ZERO work and just pass out on the couch infront of the TV...then sometimes i'll go party..get drunk..come home at 3..pass out till 12ish..have a massive hangover and i manage to work quickly with a hangover dont know if working with a hangover will ever help someone.. haha..

so yes, its possible to have a social life, sleep and good grades because im managing that

[zwingli]

I take HL Math, and am still able to have a Social Life and do well in school... granted i'm also a fast worker.

[Lin.A]

well ive lost my social life ever since i started IB!! and i recently found that i wont be able to even revive it in the summer because of all the work i will be given to do!! EE, WL1, WL2, Math portfolio, IT project, and so on.....

[ChikkyD]

IB is really only as hard as you make it. As several other have mentioned, it's very possible, and even encouraged to have a social life while in school. However, since my transition into IB, I've definitely gone out on the weekends less, caught up with friends rarer, etc. Maybe that's due to me being a procrastinator though . But, it really is quite possible to manage a social life. Also, I do a very small amount of CAS and so that does't take up much time for me

[miha]

I don't find it a problem. Due to my laziness, I extremely rationalized my work and still keep my grades somewhere between 35 and 40. I don't do more than 3 hours of after school work in a week.

At languages, I only had to read the books that teacher gives you, Math is easy for me and Philosophy is a subjects which doesn't discriminate between Descartes and "some old wise man" so if you are inventive thinker its easy to get 7 and not come to a single lesson. Apart of IA the only two subjects that require me to work are Physics and Anthropology, however I don't, which shows up on my Physics grade (4) but Anthropology (7) goes well for me without almost no work.

[Desy Glau]

I agree that it depends on the subject you take.

if you are a certificate student then of course you don't feel the toughness of IB. or maybe you take like math studies, environmental systems&societies, sports science, language ab initio etc of course you can take IB easy. no offence to those taking the mentioned subjects though.

if you are taking like Math Phy Chem HL plus Econ or History then you will realise that the main vision and mission of IB is to kill students.

[JonathanSpencer]

Well I'm having my social life for sure. If I can't do my homework at least I skim read. Still I'm hoping THIS won't happen when I get my results. Check it out Hitler hears his IB results. Hilarious.

Edited by JonathanSpencer, Jun 17, 2011 - 09:44.

[pumkinns]

LOL i'm loving the link on JonathanSpencer's comment

so, i'm done with my IB and looking back i'd say i did fairly well, and i had a decent social life. i managed to balance my bf, friends and family and my studies. the only times in IB where you will be cut off, is a month before your Mocks and Externals.

i sat down and studied really hard for them but i still found time to enjoy a bit of every day. so go with a schedule it'll help... good luck