elmar

Any UWC college if you can get it.

pretty talented usually won't cut it. Bio and Math HL usually don't go well together. Usually people are either good at concepts for math or good at memorizing a bunch a stuff.

I believe you can get a 7 in 1 of the subjects.

Well, this is the advice I can think of.
You're supposed to go about your History EE like you do your IA ideally. There has to be a pooling of evidence from all kinds of sources. You should have at least 3, preferably up to 5 primary sources and as many secondary sources as you deem reasonable. If you could possibly interview someone who was involved in the war and is around (if that is possible for you of course)  it would be invaluable to your essay. The main point of a History paper (IA, EE, or otherwise) is to show that you as an IB student have observed and researched as many facets of the topic as you could. This being your EE, the research has to be substantial and impressive (especially for an A). Based on all of that evidence, you have to analyse it and postulate your position on the relative importance (or lack thereof) of the person you have in mind and his opposition to Hitler's Reich. At the same time, you have to always remember to practically and realistically evaluate your sources, more so the ones you're relying on as primary ones, and how the presence of personal or apparent bias, cultural influence, time period, generalisations, and so on and so forth reduces/improves the validity and integrity of the source you've used.

This is something I've observed and by no means am I saying this is true or not, but a good EE always has some unique evidence source (for Social Studies and English EEs I mean). I wrote mine on Shakespearean theatre and things that influenced Shakespeare. My mother did her Masters in Literature, with an emphasis on Shakespeare, she was an invaluable source of information. Through her I met with a number of professionals who had either studied Shakespeare extensively or were literary commentators and scholars of different sorts. I even got an interview with Nicolas Hytner who had been working at the London National Theatre as a director and had staged numerous Shakespearean plays professionally in London. I included all these interviews' transcripts as appendices in my Essay (the entire thing was a huge bundle). It was a lot of effort and I devoted an entire summer to gathering my evidence and sources until I had everything I needed. Similarly, History EEs need primary sources to stand out because anyone can quote a bunch of textbooks. A friend of mine did her IA on apartheid in South Africa and its influence on women's roles and positions in society. She actually went about in Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Pretoria and interviewed over 20 women, did a number of surveys and included graphical proof of her findings in her essay. She was the only one in our History Class who got a perfect score in raw points on her first draft after summer break.

That's my two cents,
Arrowhead.

elmar, on Jul 20, 2011 - 20:20, said:

Interesting..I did better on the IB exam. Which was probably because I studied way more IB.  I think that it's easier to get a good mark in AP though.  There are only 5 levels, and if you study hard and know the material, you will get a 5.  However, Its also much easier to fail in AP, since they do frequently give out 1s (usually 10-33%).  

IB on the other hand, their tests do test knoweldge, but you need more than that. It's a bit of intrepretation, and a bit of luck what questions they might throw at you.

The frequency for 7s are very low, (except for maybe mandarin b), but I find it interesting how 1s and 2s are almost negligble in IB.

westfallc, on Jul 17, 2011 - 23:41, said:

At least he added a comment to the posters original question...
This forum doesn't have "grammar nazis" rather than people who want to make sure they don't fail it in an actual essay. And definitions aren't grammar, they're vocab.
Please try to be somewhat helpful if you post...

Haha oh dear. Research basically works thus: you pick your EE title which should be in the form of some kind of challenge or question, which you've already done. Then you think to yourself, what kind of information do I need exactly to help me answer this question?

For instance, I did mine on paternalism vs autonomy in Philosophy, so I thought I'd need a definition and discussion of paternalism, the same for autonomy and then to begin to read around current writing on those arguments, bearing in mind my topic (placebos). The best way to start out with the current writing is to head directly for a textbook or some kind of summary text. For a science EE you should be reading journal reviews, for written subjects like History I suggest textbooks. Check out your school library or local library.

The idea of looking in the textbook is that it helps you identify the main sources which are out there and that you should then go and get hold of. Read footnotes and see where information has come from in the first book you look at, then follow it backwards and you'll find papers, articles, artwork and a whole myriad of sources. Ultimately there is a lot more out there than you can read, but if you look at what other people have cited it will often lead you to the most important/relevant information. Google them if you can - Google Books or whatever has a surprising number of really weird/obscure stuff on there, so you may well find it, even if it's very weird!
The research takes ages (considerably longer than writing the essay, often, depending on how slow a writer you are...) and is a very organic process - you basically keep going until you feel like you have enough stuff to support your arguments and make your case. Also you may come across stuff which is so interesting it forces you to change your question for your EE Or spend ages on stuff you never include.

A few things to say - firstly, make a word document and copy/paste all useful links, articles etc. that you find and if you have time now, make sure you write out whatever information it is in the form of a reference. You know like Smith, J. (2002) French History Explained. Routledge. London. <--- that kind of thing. You will hate yourself if you have information you can't reference later on because it means either finding it all over again or leaving it out.
Secondly, don't reference the web page if you can reference the original article/book! Look in the web page's reference and try your best to track it down. Then once you have, do you best to track down an actual copy of it so you can verify that the website you got it from got their information right. Perhaps unsurprisingly, websites make a hell of a lot of mistakes/make up a lot of information/misquote a lot!

No one said you couldn't. It's attached by a silly little string. And don't think of IB as the super anal people we all think they are

The difference between option A and option B is the ratio of studio work to the RWB that you are graded on, which is what you already probably already know. In option A, 60% of your grade will be based on studio work and 40% on the workbook and vice versa. And HLA and HLB are not totally different, only that you have to display fewer pieces for your final exhibition, and submit more RWB pages. But it's true, schools generally teach just one option to the entire grade- it's much more convenient.

And as far as talent is concerned, I don't think you should worry too much because the examiner wants to see your development as an artist throughout the course... So as long as you use the skills that you will pick up either in class or outside, you should be fine! I'm in SLB, and am pretty sucky too. For homework, I tried to draw my little brother in a crouch position and my teacher thought it was a frog   I'm slightly better at landscapes though, and my knack for 'abstract' work has generally been appreciated in my school

Just hang in there!

We do have lab samples, but they're only available for VIP and VIP subscribers.

However, if you want to take a look at guide on how to write a good lab report, click here. This is a detailed guide, and it will probably help you.

Good luck!

I don't study this for IB at all and I'm happy people are studying my history. Basically Louis was an inept **** and his government was corrupt as he syphoned all the taxes from the tiers etat to fuel the life of opulence of the nobles. Because France had suffered from economic problems such as the consequences of the participation in the American war of independence a new system was needed. Although technically the need for change would boil and louis did nothing about it, the people would allow the discontent to boil over as to result in the most successful revolution of all time(highly biased but kinda true   )

The french revolution sprawled over a few years and the power of the republicans would be consolidated through the medium of terror (hence the reign of terror).
And an upsurge in middle class from the peasants and workers would lead to liberte, egalite, fraternite hence an eventual change.

I have never real studied French History but if you need to get your ideas going think along the lines of main rubrics. In this case consolidation and rise to power.

If only we studied the French revolution  

Ultimately it's what you make of it. If you enjoy a wide range of subjects and feel that you want a solid, all-rounded education then go for it. If you would rather go more in-depth in fewer subjects then don't, because the IB will feel quite restrictive to your desires.

Over 100,000 people are doing it every year, so surely it's not impossible. You just need to make sure you can manage your time properly (something that can improve over time), and that you're committed to making the best of it.

US universities usually like the IB quite a bit, and it'll give you a fair few course credits, so if you're planning on staying in the US for university then that's an added bonus.

It's worth mentioning that whilst you're in the IB you can hate it with a passion, but when you're done you really appreciate its benefits.

...this is an impossible question to answer. Some options...

1. Yes you should be worried because if you really did do badly, you might not have got that great an IA mark.

2. No you shouldn't be worried, people never do as badly as they think they did.

3. No you shouldn't be worried, worry is a waste of time and stops you enjoying the present when in actuality you can't go back in time and change what happened, the outcome is already decided whether you worry or not.

..it's impossible to give any other sort of answer! Pick whichever one makes you feel better, maybe. I like 3.

elmar, on Feb 23, 2011 - 02:48, said:

For English, there is also an IOC. And for Studio/Visual Arts, the IWB isn't really an IA. Both your art and your workbook are graded by an external source, ie. the judge that comes to your exhibit. But everything else is correct.

Masannio, on Nov 27, 2010 - 14:20, said:

Did you actually want help? or are you just click happy on the forum?

I don't understand you posters who come in once, waste my time, and leave.

Drake, on Nov 27, 2010 - 07:14, said:

I don't think so. It might depend on your school and you would need to decide which are your 6 subjects before they (your school) register you to IB, but I'm not really sure about this. You might change later on but it might cause some problems if you want to change AFTER you are registered to IB.

Sorry but I have a different suggestion:

English A1 SL
Latin B SL
History HL
Math HL
Physics HL
Economics HL
Biology SL

Why Econs and where is Chem?

You only studied Chem in year 8. YEAR 8!! and you said it was kind of fuzzy. You were likely to learn very basic things in year 8 and you already faced some difficulties, so taking it in IB you'd see a very big gap. My classmate never took Chem before and now is taking it in IB -- for university reasons. He wants to study something which requires Chem. He is doing SL, was really struggling in the beginning. He has a weekly Chem tutorial at school and he still has a Chem tutorial outside school, and he has passed Chem topical test only ONCE. I do not know if it is just him who is too lazy or my teacher teaches too fast or it is just hard to take IB Chem if you have no background in it. Just to play safe, you should not take Chem. Especially you have already had Physics HL and Biology SL. Do you want to kill yourself, remembering the amount of lab reports you'd have to write? With your History and Math IAs, and languages orals?? Well, Drake might be able to survive with it but he didn't do Physics in IB1 so it is still..kind of managable. Peace Drake

You do not know what to study in uni and what to be in the future. Look at those subjects that I recommended. You have Math HL and Physics HL which allow you to study Engineering, Computer Science or Mathematics. You also have Econs HL which allows you to study Business or Accounting. If you want to study Medicine, you should instead take Bio HL, Chem HL and Math SL, but you don't have a background in Chem and taking it HL would torture you, really. So you won't be able to study Med with this subject combination but you have those courses available as I mentioned before.

Econs HL is very easy, objectively. Subjectively, it is a bit hard because I am not good at memorising. At my school, the HL and SL classes are combined except for Math. And in Econs, the SL students need to know the HL contents too. So I know how easy it is, but my brain was not designed to memorise that well. It is not a lot to memorise. You just need to understand it well and memorise the definitions. Even the IA is very easy. You only need to find articles and write commentaries. That's it, not so demanding.

Trust me ok, you should consider taking Econs and forget Chem. However, you must take the subjects that you like. If you are so interested in Chem, take it then. Nobody will hinder you. Who knows if you'd break the record the best Chem student yet you never studied Chem before. Do not take Econs if it is really not of your interest. Think of what you like, what you want to study in uni and what you want to be. If you know what to study in uni already, you can decide your subjects based on it.