IB Help?

[Mohammad Al-Ahdal]

You guys have probably had many and many of these annoying posts from people, but I really need help on this one. So I will start off with some background information, I am a grade 10 Diploma IB applicant. I know you guys probably think that's outrageous and crazy especially for a person who has a 74.0% in their first term mark. The thing is I need help. I've fallen into depression, I can't work as I used to in grade 9 acing every test, being the best student in the class. I am currently taking Math Pre-IB candidate with a standardized mark of approximately 75%, a Science mark of 80% French mark of 80% and English mark of 64%. Looking at these, what I consider as poor marks, i feel bad and depressed. I can't work I can't concentrate, I have no social life. and my marks (especially for math) have decreased while others like french (52.4% to 80%) have increased. I find that I am a visual learner, I tend not to take notes and I feel that my notes don't help me, therefore instead I draw in math class and understand everything the teacher says, after all of this the average of which my marks increase is a 10% more. I still haven't been accepted into IB but I am DYING to get in. I need help. I know I tend to procrastinate but I always finish all my work before hand, I have difficulties understanding math examples from my teacher while people around me are getting literally over 100% in Pre-IB. I make VERY silly mistakes on science quizzes but on unit finals I feel like I came unprepared. In french I feel being picked on by the teacher. She tells everyone when i get below 50% in an assignment but says nothing when I get 100%. For English finally, I feel like I understand concepts but to revise every line and it's meaning for Romeo and Juliet seems Pointless. Can someone please help me?

[Liliii]

Take Everything Slowly . If You Keep On Stressing Yourself You WON'T Do Good. Don't Make Getting Into IB Your Main Aim Because If You Noticed You Were Doing Better In 9th Grade When It Wasn't On Your Mind. Just Don't Think About IB For Now

[Award Winning Boss]

You guys have probably had many and many of these annoying posts from people, but I really need help on this one.

So I will start off with some background information, I am a grade 10 Diploma IB applicant. I know you guys probably think that's outrageous and crazy especially for a person who has a 74.0% in their first term mark. The thing is I need help. I've fallen into depression, I can't work as I used to in grade 9 acing every test, being the best student in the class. I am currently taking Math Pre-IB candidate with a standardized mark of approximately 75%, a Science mark of 80% French mark of 80% and English mark of 64%. Looking at these, what I consider as poor marks, i feel bad and depressed. I can't work I can't concentrate, I have no social life. and my marks (especially for math) have decreased while others like french (52.4% to 80%) have increased.

I find that I am a visual learner, I tend not to take notes and I feel that my notes don't help me, therefore instead I draw in math class and understand everything the teacher says, after all of this the average of which my marks increase is a 10% more. I still haven't been accepted into IB but I am DYING to get in. I need help. I know I tend to procrastinate but I always finish all my work before hand, I have difficulties understanding math examples from my teacher while people around me are getting literally over 100% in Pre-IB. I make VERY silly mistakes on science quizzes but on unit finals I feel like I came unprepared. In french I feel being picked on by the teacher. She tells everyone when i get below 50% in an assignment but says nothing when I get 100%. For English finally, I feel like I understand concepts but to revise every line and it's meaning for Romeo and Juliet seems Pointless.

Can someone please help me?

Yo, please use paragraphs next time round. You'll probably get more responses because people don't like large bodies of text.

Can you clarify something for me please? Are you actually depressed, or just sad about the position you're in?

Have you spoken to the teacher about what you need to do to be accepted into the IB? If you haven't, you need to.

You need to calm down anyway. Worrying excessively about getting admitted to the Ib will probably hinder your chances of getting in. If you can't concentrate then you won't do well. But that isn't the main point.

Everyone at one stage or another feels like they're less intelligent. That shouldn't be so. The earlier years of your education aren't meant to be difficult anyway. You can still do well now by organising your goals (not just saying 'get into the IB). But really, you need to ask your teachers what you need to do to get into the IB.

[Kaleb337]

Relax, take things one step at a time and set a bit of time for yourself each day to unwind. Set small goals for yourself prioritizing the goals in order of importance and difficultly. For example, if you have one big, difficult assignment and several smaller, easier assignments, it would be wise to do the smaller ones first, take an hour break to relax and then tackle the larger one with a fresh mind. That way you can rest easier knowing that most of your work is done and you can focus all your attention to the task at hand.

As a visual learner who doesnt take notes myself, I find it easier to focus on studying the big picture, the concepts, of subjects. You can save time studying if you first go through your course companion and before reading the paragraphs, read the title and try to explain to yourself what you remember of the topic from what was taught in class. Skim the paragraph to make sure your understanding is correct and read in depth things you dont remember, focus on the concept and not the details, unless of course the subject is something like Bio where termanology is very important. In those cases, make acronyms or mental visual models to remember those specifics. The more creative those are, the more likely you'll remember them.

Overall, it seems your biggest problem is dealing with stress, like Liliii pointed out, you seem to stress over getting into IB. I'm sure that isnt your only worry but it seems like the main one. Find ways to unwind and get your mind off stress. As a grade 12 DP candidate, I can assure you that your procrastinating will get worse and so will the stress. Time management, dicipline, stress relief, and caffeine are the only ways I have been able to make it this far. I'm not saying you stressing so much over gettting into IB is pointless and stupid, I'm saying that you stressing over this much isnt worth it.

PS you'd be surprised how well good friends can get you out of that depression thats keeping you from concentrating and how well music can help you concentrate.

[Arrowhead]

Yo, please use paragraphs next time round. You'll probably get more responses because people don't like large bodies of text.

Word.

No, but seriously OP. If you're stressing this much even before the IB starts, you have to ask yourself if you're cut out for the programme. Stress isn't worth the diploma especially if you have so much trouble managing it.

I understand that you need to complete the IB (scratch that, I don't 'understand,' but I do 'sympathise' with the feeling of academic need for something), but it isn't worth going bananas over. At this rate of 'depression' you will probably burn out before you get to the real parts of your education that actually matter post-IB.

So have a think about that and make an informed decision about your future.

Edited December 2, 2012 by Arrowhead

[ChocolateDrop]

Prioritize - Make a list in order of which subject needs most work done on them. Then spend time proprtional to how much work is needed per subject doing extra work.

For maths help I recommend using some kind of interactive maths website to help you. Ask your maths teacher if your school subscribes to any interactive maths website like: www.mymaths.co.uk. Then you could do exercises with visual aid to help your understanding further.

For english, it's not really memorizing the play you need to do, it's more the skills of analysing. If you master this skill, then theoretically speaking you'll be able to 'smash' and anaylise plays you haven't even come across before. Here's a guide on how to write english commentaries: http://www.scribd.com/doc/130902/How-to-write-an-english-commentary

sample commentataries: http://www.scribd.com/doc/77221489/Example-IB-English-Commentary

http://www.scribd.com/doc/77217221/Example-IB-English-A1-Paper-2

NB: You don't have to produce work to the same standard as the sample commentaries at this point in time as, these are IBDP samples.

Your grades actually aren't that bad. Way back when I was applying to an IB school, the general trend in terms of being able to study HL and SL subjects at the schools I was looking at were:

-you needed at least a B in the subject to continue studying it at SL (roughly 70-79%) and an A to study it for HL ( roughly 80 -89%) . I.E To stduy french B at SL I needed a minimum B at GCSE. It depends on the schools criteria really.

[drserosa]

Don't mean to derail from your legit concerns, you're obviously stressed, but are you required to achieve a certain grade to be able to so the IB? I've never heard of such a thing. As far as I know, IB isn't selective. Also, I think you've put yourself in a bit of a vicious cycle. You keep getting more stressed which reduces your grades which gets you more stressed. Take a chill pill, and try something completely new. For example, if you're a visual learner, what's wrong with YouTube? Users like Patrick JmT, Khan Academy, and others make great tutorial videos on the stuff your probably doing.

Also, I bet this time next year you'll realise how pointless this stress your having is. Relax, its okay

[Rahul]

Hey, Mohammad, do you have Chung or Davidoff? I'm not sure if you got accepted or not recently, or whether you chose to accept it, but from what I've heard from people who have gone through the program at our school is that it's certainly doable as long as you work hard, study your material, and believe in yourself. It's a difficult program, but it's one that has benefits for us in the future.You could try talking to Chung about this - she's been really helpful for me. Just make your decision carefully and know what you want to get out of high school, cause there's no shame in taking the dash-1 stream and the IB Coordinator, Mrs. Miller, won't let you out without good reason. You can do it, just don't worry too much, and don't stress yourself out, as drserosa said.

Oh, and if you have Blais for french, don't worry, she's not the best teacher and does that to some of my other friends too.

Good luck!

Edited December 16, 2012 by RahulArora