meh

Perhaps I am going out on a limb by saying this, or am simply completely uninformed, but as I see it, the way IB grades papers is utterly unproductive towards our educations. Allow me to explain. Upon finally receiving my IB scores, I was overwhelmed by disappointment... not with my scores, but with how they were presented: a single number next to a subject name. That's it. No details at all. Not the specific marks, not a breakdown among different papers and IAs, just one number. But the cardinal sin is that IB seemingly offers students no way of receiving their graded papers back. From what is supposedly an education program, this is truly an remarkable oversight. Students are left not only with no understanding of how they earned their grade, but no clue what they did wrong.

I remember being given by my teachers examples of graded IAs and EEs and being really stunned by the insight and sharpness the graders showed, and I would love to be able to get such a thorough explanation of the strengths and weaknesses of my various writings. Unfortunately, IB does not allow this. Furthermore, I'd suggest that receiving criticism and corrections is an absolutely crucial part of learning and growing as a student. I know I learned more about how to write from reading my English teacher's critiques of my in-class essays than I ever did from any textbook. But we have to move on to college with no feedback (outside that single number) on a massive body of work from the past two years. Perhaps if IB were the final part of our education this might be acceptable, but for those of us who have many more essays in our college futures to look forward to, this lack of feedback is utterly unproductive towards our education.

Maybe I'm alone on this, or maybe I dozed off when my IB coordinator explained how to get graded papers back. But having just received the numerical evaluations of my last two years of work, I'm left very unfulfilled by this total lack of feedback which leaves me with a complete inability to learn from my mistakes... especially since I don't know what those mistakes are.

And please, don't mistake me for being bitter about my scores. Only one of my scores surprised me, and I received the diploma by a safe margin. I'm just feeling disillusioned by the process, feeling that IB should re-evaluate this policy, and wondering if anyone has any thoughts on the matter.

Wow. I am surprised and humbled.

Math HL - 6
A2 English HL - 7
Economics HL - 7
History (Europe & Middle East) HL - 7

A1 Czech SL - 7
Physics SL - 7

EE in Economics - B
TOK - A

Overall - 44 pts.

I honestly did not expect this, jetlagged as I was prior to the exams; my predicted grades have been spot-on. I am contemplating a Math HL retake to tackle the mythical 45, but probably won't go through with it.

Wow.

Since people were saying someone should post this in the SB and it appears that IB results are starting to come through... So post your results and reactions

English A2 HL - 7
Finnish A1 HL - 6
History HL - 7
EE (History ) - A
Economics SL - 6
Biology SL - 6
Mathematics SL - 7
ToK - B

Reaction:  Missed my predicted grades by two points and might go for remarks in Finnish or Econ... BUT it's all good, got my diploma, met my uni offer and I can finally call myself an IB alumnus and not think about IB ever again :D

(Saying that... I might apply to tutor IB courses so......)

That's really good wow

meh, on Apr 30, 2011 - 23:13, said:

Yes, you do, although I think you can do diagrams in pencil and need to do the multiple choice paper in pencil. They get you to do it in pen so they know it's not been edited (apparently!).

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What you read is correct. If you don't want to say something just scribble it out. You're not marked on presentation unless it's illegible, so it's much faster to stick a line through something than spend ages tipexing it out anyway.

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Yes you should hand in all paper for all your exams, but to be honest depending on who is invigilating you might not have to. Our IBC got lax and stopped collecting them in after the first few exams.

TBH all your concerns are really inconsequential. I wouldn't fret about them You don't lose marks if things don't look pretty or for your planning looking stupid.

1. I don't know if all exams have to be in pen but I think the majority do have to be. Even math exams will be written in pen this year because apparently they will be scanned and sent electronically to the examiners this year Just bring both pencils and pens to the exam in case.

2. No you are not allowed to use white out. Cross out any mistakes with a line. The examiner is not supposed to award/take away marks for anything that has been crossed out.

3. Yes, you have to hand in any paper that you mark. Even if there's a little pen mark on it or something apparently it has to be handed in They need to have all your planning pages. I doubt they would really look at them, seeing how many papers they have to mark (plus they won't get paid more for thouroughly reading through them )

Paper 1 is a piece of cake to score 7s in as long as you are taught the correct way to do source-based questions. If not do past paper 1s and look at the mark schemes, there's probably also information online on how you should optimally do paper 1. It is possible to score 22 points out of 25 (if I recall correctly) with only the source-based information, and that's a clear 7. In paper 2 I think 13 (out of 20 I assume) is already pretty close to a 7, so if you do well in P1 it should not be too hard.

Check the History syllabus and the markbands for paper 2 essays. As people have noted do historiography (in most of my P2 answers I have mentioned around 5 interpretations), you don't need to know them too in-depth to be able to do some impressive namedropping so outside reading is not really necessary if you have a good teacher/good textbook although it's of course helpful. For my last mocks I made a little list of interpretations for some topics I anticipated there might be, for example for AII:
Mosse - opportunity missed due to autocracy
Kirchner - fundamental changes but ran out of time
Watts - too little, alienated intelligentsia
Westwood - "no other ruler bought so much relief to his people"

Also if possible challenge the assumptions within the question (e.g Why was the League of Nations a failure? was not a complete failure, settled smaller disputes, Health Organization was a success, for one of my essays which was on whether Alliance system was responsible for WWI or not I had a paragraph on how it was not due to only one reason but rather a sum of several.), might also be helpful to compare to other similar historical events eg. when discussing the Paris peace conference 1919 you might compare it to Congress of Vienna in 1815...

Reading, Notetaking and Knowing in History

The following information was given to me by my HL History professor who is also an annual IB grader for History and it is also my own advice that I use all of the time fr my History HL class. These are the major tips my professor has given my classmates and I on creating class-notes and study-notes from books,historiography, etc. that are incredibly organized and the methods aim at reaching each type of persons study-style and note-taking style. I hope this is beneficial. It really helped me.

Quick Tips to Utilize:

• Dividing notes

• Internal (Micro) vs. External (Macro)

• Capitalizing Arguments/ Marking Arguments in a Specific Way

• Compare/ Contrast
• Result/ Effects
• Causes/ Origins

• Use analysis to understand

• Coercion, Persuasion, Consent analysis for capitalized arguments
• Retrospective Determinism

• Chronological and Thematic organization
• Give the sections titles after you finish making the notes

• After realizing what the text is about

• Breakdown the Effects

• Long-term vs. short-term

Major Tips In General for Reading:

Look for the Main Theme

• publisher's comment
• contents page
• subheading
• introduction
• conclusion

Active Approach

• Be clear what you are looking for
• Recognize the form and structure of the book (this helps discover the central of the book)

Use the SQ3R Method when reading

• A sequence formula for effective reading

What is the SQ3R?

• Survey
  • Survey the chapter (using the Major Tips for Reading)
• Question
  • Notice and question the writer's interpretations and arguments
  • Decide what is needed for your purpose
• Read, Recall, Report
  • Read: This is not surveying or skimming. This is in-depth, slow, comprehensive reading
  • Recall: Move away the book and recall what you have learned (say it aloud or in your head)
  • Report: Write it down!

Major Tips for solid/comprehensive Noting:
(this is done after the "report". You go back and fix up your jotted-down notes)

Make heading and subheadings larger

Don't use complete sentences
- Use bullet-points
- Use contractions

Use legible handwriting only for yourself
- Who cares if someone else can't read it? You are the one who will study from it

Space out your notes
- What if you have to add something in later?

Graded Indentation
- one of the most vital features


Structure your notes

Note the book title, author and page number you are on

How to Approach Paper 1? What should you know going into your exam?

• Question 1.a

• Do you understand what the source says?
• Display literacy and understanding of the source.

• Question 1.b is always about the last source (table, photograph or cartoon)- what does the source convey?

• Make more than 2 points, but not more than 4, in order to make sure you get the 2 full points you need
• Do not explain the source, say what is conveys.

• Question 2

• Always asking to compare and contrast
• If you are uncomfortable with writing: compare in one paragraph, contrast in the second paragraph
• If you are comfortable with writing: run-on comparison/contrast (gives more points because it shows that you can think and write about the sources)

• Question 3

• Origin, purpose, values, limitations
• specific/sophisticated
• If you have nothing to say, be clever about how you say it so it sounds good
• Avoid the word "biased"

• Question 4

• Combines all of the sources
• Use both the source and your own knowledge; make sure you have all of the sources
• "mini essay"
• Must write an outline for your systematic writing
• Take about 20 minutes to write the essay
• Use transition words and phrases between sources and ideas
• If you run out of time for the essay, write it in note form (outline, neat, indentations)- only do this if you truly messed up

• Moving through the source: read actively (read, annotate, write, underline, etc.)
• Be able to summarize each source into about two sentences
• Quality, not quantity
• Do not be repetitive with different words

How to Approach Paper 2 and 3? What should you know going into your exam?

• Make an outline to organize your thoughts

- Students who do not make an outline generally donot do well because they lose their train of thought half way through the essay

• Introduction

- Short
- State exactly what the essay will be dealingwith
- Set the frame
- Be very clear about the language

• Body paragraphs

-  Add in natural, subtle details to paint apicture
- Give evidence in support of statements/arguments
- Vital; makes a huge difference between a lowerand a higher mark
- Evidence, for instance numbers/statistics toback up arguments show that you know the material
- Don't just tell the story; analyze the situation
- Reference back to the question



Remember for the Exam:

• Be able to use historiography (names of historians and their arguments).
• Define words mentioned in the question (ex. Revolution)
• Three rules of writing:
  • Coherence/Consistency (Reinforcement)
  • New Ideas
  • Historiography (Argument)

Writing a History Essay (Quick Tips Only)

NOTE: Everything in history is a question you are trying to answer.

Tips:

• do not write the essay as if it were an English paper (meaning, no need fr voice and style usage to a great extent)
• the title should be the actual question (turn the question into a statement for the title)
• do not volunteer knowledge that is not asked for in the question
• be very sure, concrete and specific in what you are explaining
• do not hide you weaknesses in History behind you knowledge in writing style
• your audience: intelligent people, yet have no knowledge about the topic

Three Aspects You Essay Must Contain:

• Clarity- think of the easiest and most precise way to say things
• Precision- if there is a word or way to say it precisely, say it. Be straight to the point.
• Concision- if you can say it in two words than do not say it in fifteen. Use the right words

In you History Essays, never...

• use first person
• change tenses (always write in past tense)
• use passive voice

Both in question 3 in Paper 1 and in Section C in the Internal Assessment, you will be asked to evaluate sources for their Origins, Purpose, Values and Limitations. Here are some questions you should be asking yourself when you are faced with a particular type of source:

Tips for the A1 Individual Oral Commentary (IOC)

1. Find out how your teacher wants to play it...
Okay very technically speaking the rules re: the IOC state that you should be presented with a series of envelopes each containing an extract totally unknown to you from any one of the texts/poems etc. you have studied. However, quite a large percentage of IB schools seem to be into alternative versions of the rules, including some where they will let you choose which texts they'll use and even the odd school where they let you choose your extract. Clearly if your teacher is going to let you select which novel you want to get, you're in with an advantage (and can save yourself memorising the plot lines of 4 novels in the bargain), so make sure you know how they want to play it and make the most of whatever you get!

2. Know the chronology of your texts
Assuming that your school hasn't let you choose the extract, you should find you have no idea what you're going to be given until you receive it. The good news is that your teachers are supposed to, according to the IB criteria, select an extract of significance within the novel. The bad news is that it's not always very obvious whereabouts in the novel this is, and you will be expected to put the extract into context. Consequently a reasonably large proportion of your preparation time should actually be dedicated to re-reading the whole text(s) and making sure you're quite clear about what events happen when. For some books this is easy, but for others with very skippy timelines (we all know the sort I mean...) it's really hard, so make sure you put your effort into the right places!

3. Familiarise yourself with the author's style
An excellent way to prepare for your IOC is to familiarise yourself with the sorts of literary features and themes most common within a text So a good idea for your preparation is to flick through and look very closely at the author's styles for various things and make sure you're aware of a few key instances where the style is used. As an example (because I realise that's not the greatest explanation), Jane Austen always introduces characters with a few key descriptive words which cause the reader to form a view of a character usually before hearing them speak or seeing them do anything. So, knowing that this is one aspect of her style and that it's possible an introduction or description of a character might pop up in my IOC, I would make sure I was aware of at least one key instance of this happening so I could knowingly refer to it in my IOC.
Be sure to look at all aspects of writing style so you literally know enough about the general way the author writes that you can say something about almost any page in the book/poem etc.! You always want to show good knowledge of the novel/poems as a whole body.

4. Use your preparation time wisely
You should be given 20 minutes to prepare for the exam and during this time it is imperative that you make the most of it. The number one key thing is not to panic. Panic = wasting precious minutes. It's better to finish early and idle around than panic for 5 minutes and spend the next 15 writing frantically. Ideally, unless you're such a chilled person that you have no nerves, it's a good idea to have a plan of attack. I personally suggest the most simple which is to go through the extract line by line after reading through it once or twice.
The important thing is that you remember you probably only have enough time to make notes once, so the first notes you make will probably be the exact same ones you use 20 minutes later. There's no writing up into neat! Going through the extract underlining things is therefore not necessarily going to be that helpful if, once you're on the spot, you can't remember/read your own hand writing as to why exactly you underlined it. So make sure that all the points you make are in a format which will be easy for you to understand in the actual thing. Also, although you only have a short period of time, as I mentioned before it's important to put things into context and match them up with other parts of the novel and other parts of the extract, so if you spot the same thing happening twice within your extract, link them up in such a way that you'll remember to mention both at once as you go through it. This makes your commentary seem a lot more structured than it otherwise would with only 20 minutes to prepare!

5. Imagine it's on paper and structure it
Literally imagine that your essay is being written by you rather than spoken by you. What do you need in every essay? Introduction, main body, conclusion. Don't forget to include an introduction (including that all -important putting the extract in context chronologically) and also a conclusion. I strongly suggest you bullet point the contents of these rather than making them up on the spot because nerves can do terrible things when it comes to mind blanks, and the beginning and ending of presentations are both extremely important for the overall impact. You can do a great job but have a terrible ending and it's the lame ending which sticks in people's minds.

6. Don't fail to show outside knowledge!
Reading through the extract and find yourself remembering a related fact/incident as you read? SAY IT! It's really important that you make the context (and your excellent knowledge of it) very clear, So if you remember something related, pop it in. Think that something a character does is reflective of something they do later/earlier/their general behaviour? Mention the other event as well. Don't waste loads of time on it, keep all these outside points reasonably succinct, but whatever you do don't overlook them or fail to mention them.

7. Set yourself up to achieve fluency via knowing how you work
Just like with the IOP, you want to appear extremely competent and fluent. Generally when in a state of panic, the only way to achieve this (besides obviously making sure you know what you're talking about!) is to make excellent notes so when panic strikes, you can stay on track. I'd strongly suggest you practice going through an extract that you pick at random and making notes on it prior to the actual thing. Then try imagining what you'd say based on the notes you've made yourself after 20 minutes. If the notes you've made aren't enough to stop you blanking, re-consider the way in which you make notes.

And finally, take a chill pill because really it's not that hard. IGNORE THE TAPE RECORDER!!

Hopefully those're all helpful hints. Please feel free to post some of your own and I'll edit them into this thread with some credit, or if you have constructive comments to make on the tips already up there, those are also welcome!  

Also check out... http://teach.beavert...entarytips.html which has some useful hints & tips - I'd especially recommend having a look at the "Parting Shots" section at the end. This is probably as close as you can get to having an insight into the way they actually apply the (somewhat vague seeming) marking criteria.

Our society is not made for smart people. School makes close to 0 provisions for children who are superior in intellect, those who are less intelligent get far better assistance. Throughout elementary and middle school, you have a paltry token effort being made in the form of "The Gifted Program", where we did jack **** for 1 hour every couple months. All it did was signify we were different. If your kid is retarded all the teachers and principals jump out of their chairs and bend ass-over-head to accommodate the snotty little dumbass. But when a kid is doing even worse than the dumb-dumb, due to the fact that he's bored with school. He gets his ass scolded. Have you ever seen anyone be be creative, and put their hand up, connecting the lesson to something else they've heard or figured out, only to be shot down with a "you'll learn that next year" or a "that's in university". Even if they want to learn more, they can't. They have to learn an average amount.

Socially, it's even worse. You don't even have to be a inherently socially awkward kid. Socially, being different in any way is worse, especially being more intelligent. Not only do people have the usual hate for the odd one out, they also resent you because they're feel inferior, even though they are strong in other areas. And no one understands the stigma. All the pop books and movies have below average heroes that everyone's suppose to identify with, but none have the smart guy, who has just as much, if not more, insecurity with what's expected.

School itself is structured as more of a factory than a learning facility. How many times have you been like "What? I understand how the formula works, but I don't really understand how it fits together...". School teaches you that following procedure, taking notes down mechanically, repeating formulas under your breath, is the way to go? IB is just this but faster, with more work. It is not intellectually engaging, it's attrition.

I mean occasionally some blessed person will say "oh hey, there's a problem here, we better bump this kid up a grade", and while it is a step in the right direction it isn't enough. Kids can go into kindergarten with nearly a year between them. It is nice, but again only a token gesture.

After school it is know different. I'm sure a lot of you have read Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell (if you haven't, you should), and he found that intelligence correlates with success in school and success in work only up to a point, and then it is all circumstance. He found that even those who do amazing things with their vast intelligence, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, those guys had the right upbringing, the right opportunity, and the right damn blind fool luck that allowed them to succeed. You do need intelligence to do amazing things, but you also need to work damn hard, and have damn good luck. The smartest man in the world (300-400 IQ or something like that) grew up poor and coloured. Due to his circumstances (his upbringing, his mother falling ill at a certain time), he was never able to find an academic job and ended up as a farm hand.

And throughout life intelligent people have to live with the general lack of naivety that comes with intelligence. If ignorance is bliss, what is intelligence?

I think with the whole reading thing, it's not so much reading during IB but a life-long thing. It's hard to explain, but it helps people to write better and also analyse things better. You can passively (and enjoyably) pick up all of the skills which'll get you an insta-7 in IB English. Or so I believe Also having been educated in the English school system probably helps because they expect you to do what is basically English A1 from the age of 14-16 anyway, in terms of skills, so you've already spent 2 years doing it.

Anyway, I digress. I agree that lots of quotes (provided they're relevant, well-integrated and not over the top)  are good, but think that the key is probably a strong 'thesis' or line of argument. If you make your case compelling enough, you'll get a 7. Thing is, the most compelling case can be made by the person most insightful when it comes to analysing literature, and that's probably where lots of reading would help you out. Not that people analyse as they read, but it sets you up to notice things very easily.

So yes: line of argument! Also, if nobody in your whole class has ever got a 7 in 5 years, to me that says a lot about your teachers. Basically my whole HL English class got 7s and most people were pretty average at English. By average I mean plenty of people had got Bs for GCSE (pretty easy to get a B, provided you can write in full sentences...). With English, once you've got the hang of the technique of analysing things.... that's literally it. Every single component of the A1 course is just analysis and, for just 2 parts, trying to remember quotes and plots. Still mostly analysis though! Usually I'd say sit down with your teacher and ask them what you need to change about the essay you did to make it 7-worthy (do they give accurate predicted grades, your teachers?) but if they've not managed to get anybody a 7 in all those years, they might not be the best source of advice! See what you think.

Basically the range of AoKs discussed will depend on the essay title. If it specifies "relating to Arts and Sciences", then clearly you'll want to stick only to those; if it doesn't then don't worry about it and mention whatever you want. It makes sense to mention at least 2 in order to have contrasting AoKs but you shouldn't really worry about using the number of different AoKs as any sort of parameter to write a good essay.

As for the way to mention them, it again depends on the essay but generally, unless the title seems to suggest something different, you should disperse them throughout. You should usually use examples from AoKs to back up your points, so it would make sense that they're dispersed as presumably your points won't all be made together(!).

In conclusion, base your essay around Ways of Knowing and the points you're going to make, and let AoKs fall into the discussion as and when it seems appropriate, would be my advice. I wouldn't fret too much about the structure when it comes to ToK essays, just let it play out naturally.

Hello everyone,

I think there comes a time when every IB student comes to the realization that most of the textbooks for IB subjects are rubbish. I found this out pretty quickly after starting my courses.

However, recently I have come across a few IB textbooks I think are so awesome that I need to recommend it to as many people I can. All of these books are published by Pearson Baccalaureate and I have the ones for Mathematics HL, Physics HL and Chemistry SL. Below follows a short mini-review for each textbook and links to purchase them on Amazon:

Pearson Baccalaureate: Higher Level Physics:
This is in my opinion the best physics textbook I have ever had the pleasure of owning. It is written by Chris Hamper, an experience IB Physics teacher who teaches at the Red Cross Nordic United World College in Norway. The textbook contains everything you need for the HL course, including all the options. What makes this a great textbook is that it consists of great explanations and examples with colored diagrams and illustrations to make a seemingly hard subject like physics a joy to learn. An added bonus is that you get a link to a website where the author has uploaded all the answers to every single problem in the book, with complete solutions. Please, if you are an IB physics student, do yourself a favor and buy this book right now!
Link: http://www.amazon.co...92145418&sr=8-1

Pearson Baccalaureate: Standard Level Chemistry:
My opinion on this book is very similar to the physics one. Chemistry has never been one of my favorite subjects mostly because I never REALLY understood the concepts, even though I was able to do the problems. This textbook offers great examples and explanations and makes chemistry really simple. It also a link to website with complete solutions to every single problem. Recommended!
Link: http://www.amazon.co...92145960&sr=1-1

Pearson Baccalaureate: Higher Level Mathematics:
I've used three textbooks for mathematics during my stay at the IB, and this one wins hands down. As with the chemistry and physics textbooks, this comes with even more examples so you really get the mathematical intuition needed to succeed in a subject like Math HL. The book itself does not contain any of the options, but you get a link to website online where you have the option to download all the four options in PDF format.
Link: http://www.amazon.co...92146184&sr=1-2

Oh, and all three textbooks come with loads of past exam questions, so you can get the practice you need before the exam.

I really hope this helps anyone out having to deal with frustrating textbooks.

If you have an IB textbook that you really like, feel free to share it with everyone!

iotabebraindead, on Dec 06, 2009 - 07:25, said:

If you want the really bad news then read on...

Firstly it probably doesn't depend on what you hand in personally. The moderation procedure assesses how your teacher has graded the practical work that is handed in for moderation. This is only a sample of the students work (not all students, not all work).

The sample is chosen from the predicted grades according to a very simple algorith. If you have a group of 10 students, then five students are chosen. The second from the best, the second from the worst, the one nearest the median and the two that are half way between the top chosen and the median and the bottom chosen and the median.

If you are the best (or the worst) in your group you won't be chosen, unless it is a very small group.

If the moderator feels that your teacher has applied the IA criteria incorrectly he/she will change the grades of ALL of your class (not just the moderated work).

The grade change seems to be applied proportionally. If, for example, the top mark awarded by your teacher is 44/48 and the moderator decides that it should only be 32/48, then he is downgrading by a percentage of 12/48 x 100 = 25%. This downgrade will then be applied proportionally over the whole class, so that a student who was awarded 12/48 will only receive 9/48.

The system is unfair, unjust and unethical. You personally could fulfill all of the criteria 100% and present the best series of practicals in the history of the IB and still get downgraded. It's that stupid!

To ensure that your teachers sample is not downgraded (although impossible) you must encourage the whole class to fulfill the criteria to the best of their ability and the teacher to be extremely harsh with the assessment and application of the criteria, students under no circumstances should attempt to persuade the teacher to be 'kind' with the marking.

The appropriate nature of all experimental work is essential. There must be no sign of collaboration between students in write-ups or any other aspect of the experiment. Work presented for moderation MUST be entirely individual, there must be no prescribed presentation (tables, graphs etc). If possible the work should be word processed and any background referenced. I could go on, but I'm sure you get the point.

There is a section about moderation on the www.ibchem.com website for more info (although I have covered the bulk of it here)