From Pre-DP to Real IB - Help?

[chloe.8]

Hi! So I've reached the end of the Pre-DP Program, and I'm constantly thinking of real IB. I honestly don't have any idea of what to expect for my next two years in the IB Program and that's why I've turned here. I was hoping for just a general idea of what the program is like in comparison to the Pre-DP program, and what I should expect? I also would like to know what school supplies I'll need. Is it the same general stuff I used in Pre-DP? What size binders do I need? Things like that. These are the classes I'm taking by the way: 

 

- HL English 

- HL Psychology 

- HL History of the Americas 

- SL French 

- SL Biology 

- SL Math Studies 

 

So yeah, I was just hoping if you could tell me the general gist of what it's like. Is the homework load vastly different from that of the Pre-DP program? Could you give me an idea of the homework load for some of the classes, or just an idea of what they'll be like? And again, the school supplies thing. Am I going to need much larger binders than usual? Just a size estimate would be nice. Oh, and is there anything I could do over the summer that would further prepare me for those classes? Besides the summer assignments of course, like should I review anything so I have a basic understanding of it? Any information would be so so helpful. Thank you to all of you in advance!   

[ShootingStar16]

Umm for me, it was a bit of a jump, but you will definitely get used to it. I'm not going to lie: your marks might drop and you will get a lot of things thrown at you each week (for me, I have at least two tests/quizzes/essays/projects/presentations each week). For binders, it really depends on the person. I have friends who can fit stuff into 1 inch binders while I have 2 inch binders (one is for English Lit and History, another for Spanish, one for math and one for chem and bio). For note taking, I recommend coil notebooks because imo, it's easier to organize (your notes aren't scattered all over the place). Also, have some loose leaf in handy. 

 

Here's a word of advice: don't walk into a class automatically thinking that it'll be easy because I did that for chem and chem ended up being the hardest IB subject for me However, what IB subjects you're going to be good at are really going to depend on your strengths. When I was in grade 10, the grade 12's were telling me to stay away from English Lit, but it's a lot of fun and it's my fave IB subject. For review, I don't think it's necessar because you don't know what you'll be doing exactly for the most part before you actually start your IB classes. You can't really do much, but you should still be fine. My marks stayed in the 90's going into IB. 

 

I could help you out a bit with English (depending on if you're doing Lit or Lang Lit), bio (I'm in HL) and History (I'm in European History, but I can help you out with the markschemes of essays and workload).

 

English: For English Lit, it's a whole bunch of analyzing and you need to be able to pick apart your literary devices (like why do they use that metaphor? what does the title say about the poem? How does the punctuation demonstrate the tone of the passage?) and you also need to base thesis statements off a whole passage. It can be quite tough at first, but you do get used to it (it takes lots of practice). You have two major IA's: the IOP and the IOC. IOP you usually do first year and IOC you do second year. The IOP is not that bad imo (it's not hard to do at least decent in) and it is based on part 4 works (your options). The presentation has to be 10-15 min. and it's on a topic of your choice based on at least one of the texts you studied for part 4. For the IOP: PLAY ON YOUR STRENGTHS (like if you're a good creative writer, go with a creative response and have a rationale for it or if you're more analytical, do something like a commentary). You get a whole bunch of time to do your IOP and it's all on your own time. Please do not put this off until the night before it's due. The IOC is a taped commentary that gets marked by your teacher and then sent and moderated by the IB people. For World Lit, you have to read three books, do three reflective statements and supervised writings as well as interactive orals for each work. You pick one work you're going to do your world lit paper on and the paper itself is on technique. You also get lots of time to do that. My suggestion is taking notes on the books you read, so you can keep track of themes, motifs, characterization, summaries etc. 

 

History: Ik you're in HoA, but it's still probably the same idea. Do your readings and in my experience, IB history is a lot of self teaching because sometimes, teachers don't have the time to cover the content in class. To do at least decent on the essays, have counter arguments (know that there are always different sides to the story). You have your historical investigation and it's an IA. The idea is that you pick a topic of interest, formulate a solid research question and go through the process of finding an answer to that question. Best method is to identify a general area of interest in history and then narrow it down as you find more info. If you like history, you will love this class because the content is so interesting. What's hard though is that there's so much you need to know and you need to know a lot within the time crunch when writing IB exam-style essays. You also have to know a bunch of historians. Yeah, not something you study the night before. 

 

Biology: Another class you don't study the night before. If you have a good teacher, you should be ok. Have a very solid understanding of your command terms for written response and for IB written response, they expect very specific things. Look at how much the question is worth to give you a rough idea of what the person marking your test is looking for. Don't try to memorize concepts. Understand them and be able to link them together. Flashcards are great for this class (try Quizlet if you're more digital). Another thing that helps is if you have a good textbook with practice questions because it gets you to understand the concepts more. Another thing your teacher should do is give you the IB outcomes for each unit so you know what you need to know and what you don't need to know. You need to know how to draw a whole bunch of diagrams just saying . For all sciences, you have the group 4 project (dw about that for now, but you basically get a very general prompt and come up with a specific topic linked to the prompt with a group. You mostly get marked on group work and it's a fun project honestly.) and the independent investigation (a lot of work so try to get that done and out of the way ASAP when your teacher begins to talk to you about it). 

 

TOK: a pain in the butt, but sometimes it's interesting.

 

EE: again, don't worry about this because your TOK teacher will discuss this with you later in the school year next year. Just a heads up: I recommend working on it the summer of your grade 11 year so you can get good feedback and get it off your chest for grade 12. Come up with a subject first and then a topic. It's a lengthy process, so make sure you put the time and effort into it. 

 

Helpful website for biology: http://www.ib.bioninja.com.au/ib-home/

Edited May 22, 2015 by ShootingStar16

[Alex Jordan]

ShootingStar had TONS of good points.

 

You'll definitely want to keep your binders from IB1 over to IB2. A lot of the material is built upon (especially in French), so it's always a good idea to have those older things. If there's useful vocab lists or cheat sheets from Pre IB, transfer those too. You'll love yourself later for it.

 

Take good, thorough notes that you can actually understand. Sometimes you'll have to go through the material a few times to understand it, but if you take good notes, you'll be able to study more efficiently. I personally use a colour-coding system (I'm a visual learner), but go for whatever helps you the best. Experiment with different types of note-taking, and once you've found your best way, I'd  copy over the prototypes so you can have a master copy.

 

What I did for my Group 4 was I'd take as much down in the lecture (honestly, a total chicken scrawl), and as soon as I got home, I'd revise my notes and make them beautiful and colour-coded and everything onto nice A4 paper. I now have all of the IB Physics HL syllabus in a clean, concise copy which really helped me to study for the externals.

 

Math Studies seemed to be quite easy (according to my friends who took it). I wouldn't stress yourself on this class, but yes, I would take good notes as a lot of the material pops up in other topics (for example, in SL, algebraic topics were integrated into trigonometry or whatever).

 

For history, you'll want to read the readings well and TAKE NOTES. Make timelines and charts of leaders and tons of different stuff. Interacting with the material is one of the best ways to learn it, in my experience. Plus it's always good to have those review sheets to study for your Paper 2 and Paper 3, since you're HL. Again, colour-coding helped me so much during my history course.

 

TOK, as ShootingStar said, can be a pain in the butt sometimes, but it's a really interesting course. You'll learn A LOT in the two semesters of it.

 

And your EE - GET IT DONE OVER THE SUMMER. You'll want to pick a topic you like - you'll be married to it for 9 months, so pick something that doesn't make you want to vomit. Also, choose a subject type you like or is pertinent to the degree you want to pursue after IB. Make it interesting for yourself. Also, definitely listen to your supervisor - they know more about the EE and the process than they'd like to know. They can't give you direct advice pertaining to your paper, but they can guide you in the right directions. Collect your sources and evidence early, and get that rough draft done as soon as possible. I'd write the full rough draft over the summer (or right before the school year ends) and then tweak as needed over the summer or when you begin IB2. It'll save your butt when IB2 becomes rigorous.

 

School supplies - highlighters, pens, pencils, oh my gosh. Stock up now. For binders, I'd recommend a 2" or higher (French, English, Maths - 2", Psych, History, Bio - 3" or higher). You'll want to reuse them going into IB2 so if you have to, duct tape them (i did this for all of my binders and got some patterned duct tape - it ended up looking really cool too).

 

That's basically it, coming from someone who's survived the IB.