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I think in the end it was a good way of studying but it was hard and made me vulnerable to procrastination
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sharonlove
Member Since 14 Nov 2009Offline Last Active Oct 11, 2011 - 17:58
#96045 How do you study?
Posted
on Jan 09, 2011 - 00:30
I think the way you study depends on the subject. I generally started studying for the final exams about 6 weeks before they started. For Maths I just did past paper questions, then in the week or so leading up to the maths exam I did both May 2010 TZ1 and 2 exams. For Chem I made notes on every part of the syllabus, then just re-read those notes, and, as with maths, did both May 2010 exams. For Japanese I did every past paper from Nov 2006 to May 2010, as well as revising kanji every day and learning vocab. For English I choose 15 poems, then wrote down quotes from each, then about 3-4 weeks before the exam everyday I would memorise the quotes from one of the poems. Then the next day I would remember the next poem, as well as recalling the quotes I had memorised the previous day, until I just knew them all. I also did a couple of practice Paper 2's and the May 2010 P1 poems (but just analysing them, not writing the commentary). For History I think I typed like 80 pages of notes, which was stupid and mind-numbingly boring, although I did come out remembering most of it. I also re-read notes I had written previously, and did the May 2010 paper. And for Psych I made a graph for Section A of paper 1 with all the types of questions they ask in that (e.g. explanation of behaviour, strength, key assumption...) and wrote something for each perspective, then memorised that. For Part B, I gathered heaps of stuff on aggression for each perspective (didn't use it though). For paper 2 I wrote heaps of notes, for each option I studied 2/3 of the option, so for social I did prej/disc and conformity. I also wrote down every study I had in a big list and just looked over that every day so I became more familiar with it.
I think in the end it was a good way of studying but it was hard and made me vulnerable to procrastination
I think in the end it was a good way of studying but it was hard and made me vulnerable to procrastination
#95912 How do you study?
Posted
on Jan 08, 2011 - 13:42
sharonlove, on Jan 08, 2011 - 05:56, said:
Hi guys,
So my mock exams are starting in a month and I have no idea how to deal with 2 years of knowledge for 6 subjects and just go through everything. Is it better to make extensive study notes for each topic which can be saved for finals?
How do we even write study notes. . .? I feel so overwhelmed, there's just so much stuff covered over the 2 years how do I relearn everything in a month? I've been trying to write some notes, but there's just so much!
Please write down your tips and how you deal with exams etc.
So my mock exams are starting in a month and I have no idea how to deal with 2 years of knowledge for 6 subjects and just go through everything. Is it better to make extensive study notes for each topic which can be saved for finals?
How do we even write study notes. . .? I feel so overwhelmed, there's just so much stuff covered over the 2 years how do I relearn everything in a month? I've been trying to write some notes, but there's just so much!
Please write down your tips and how you deal with exams etc.
This is the way I revise and I have to say, you either have to go for it 100%, or find yourself a different revision method! I don't do any work as I go along, but the payoff for that is that you have to be willing to become a very stressed examination hermit for about a month every year. Yes I think it is better to make decent notes for each topic and save them for the final exams. When you get to your final exams you will probably find it beneficial to make another set of notes based on your old notes so you get very condensed notes AND get to effectively intensively learn it twice over.
I get the syllabus out and go through it point by point until I've got all the info. stated in each point. Make notes on it and think about it.
Then I try to persuade somebody (for the IB it was my mum... you need somebody who loves you enough to be totally bored stiff by you!) to listen to me explaining it to them and correcting me using my notes. That way you get to practice recall -- and also complete recall to match the syllabus. Use coloured pens and pictures if it helps you
Although for many of the IB topics I didn't find I needed it.Depends on the subject, of course... that worked for sciences and humanities (for me), but some stuff like Maths you just have to practice through repetition :| ...so much hate for Maths...
#95889 How do you study?
Posted
on Jan 08, 2011 - 10:18
sharonlove, on Jan 08, 2011 - 05:56, said:
Hi guys,
So my mock exams are starting in a month and I have no idea how to deal with 2 years of knowledge for 6 subjects and just go through everything. Is it better to make extensive study notes for each topic which can be saved for finals?
How do we even write study notes. . .? I feel so overwhelmed, there's just so much stuff covered over the 2 years how do I relearn everything in a month? I've been trying to write some notes, but there's just so much!
Please write down your tips and how you deal with exams etc.
So my mock exams are starting in a month and I have no idea how to deal with 2 years of knowledge for 6 subjects and just go through everything. Is it better to make extensive study notes for each topic which can be saved for finals?
How do we even write study notes. . .? I feel so overwhelmed, there's just so much stuff covered over the 2 years how do I relearn everything in a month? I've been trying to write some notes, but there's just so much!
Please write down your tips and how you deal with exams etc.
Wow, a month is not much time to prepare... I hope you've been reviewing little by little up til now...
- Well, the way I plan on doing my major review is like this:
- Sitting down in a really comfortable place with tea and my books, notes, highlighters, etc.
- Take one subject and read one chapter from it, just reading, nothing extra... (more like skimming)
- Read it again, but this time take notes and pay attention to the things highlighted and notes written in the margins (if you write in your books)
- Take out my old notes on that chapter and compare the new notes and the old notes
- Combine the notes...
- Read over the fresh notes 3 times
- Go on to the next chapter
- For the chapters I know better than others, or know I have really good old notes, I won't take new notes. I'll just read over the old notes a billion times
In order to help myself remember things/memorize, etc I usually:
- Use note-cards for definitions/formulas/dates/names/concepts that you just have to memorize
- Color-coordinate everything with highlighters- for each subject, the highlighter colors will signify something (dates, main people, definition)
- Sticky notes- marking main things in my books/notes and elaborating on them on the sticky notes
- Sticky-tabs (those things you put on the corner of the page that sticks out so you can flip to the page easily. is there a specific name for that?)- mark each chapter with those tabs so it will be easier to find things when going to study
Final suggestion:
- If you are a people person, find someone to review with. But a good way to review is like this:
- One person talks about one chapter, beginning to end, and you follow along in your notes and add in anything you missed
- Than you switch and you talk about the next chapter
- Read over chapters together aloud, switch back and forth with who will read; therefore, you both stay focused and you both have to participate
Hope this helps... It sounds like a long process, and it is, but once you get into it, you do everything automatically and all the sudden you are on a roll while studying
I use that method all the timerummandcoke, on Jan 08, 2011 - 01:54, said:
This will probably sound really tiring and boring to a lot of people, but I rewrite ALL my notes, redo all my past homework assignments (worksheets, textbook questions, etc.). After I've written them out, I start memorizing processes and individual concepts, because these are mostly the things that are important. I personally find that once I'm done memorizing stuff, then it's easier to understand the way things work because I know them already.
Aside from that, I organize my information using colours, sticky notes etc. I do that throughout the year, mostly for math. Wrong answers and difficult questions are marked in red, and answers that I needed help with are done separately on a sticky note so that I can see how I did it, and the way it should be done. Proofs are in green, formulae are in blue, etc.
I find that it helps to study for history if you think of the events as a story. Once you know the order that certain events happen in, it's MUCH easier to remember individual facts and things like that. I also do Identify and Significance--identify the historical event and then write down WHY it's significant. Since history is connected (and because you write essays), that's the important bits that you need to know.
That's pretty much it, to be honest. GL!
Aside from that, I organize my information using colours, sticky notes etc. I do that throughout the year, mostly for math. Wrong answers and difficult questions are marked in red, and answers that I needed help with are done separately on a sticky note so that I can see how I did it, and the way it should be done. Proofs are in green, formulae are in blue, etc.
I find that it helps to study for history if you think of the events as a story.
Once you know the order that certain events happen in, it's MUCH easier to remember individual facts and things like that. I also do Identify and Significance--identify the historical event and then write down WHY it's significant. Since history is connected (and because you write essays), that's the important bits that you need to know.That's pretty much it, to be honest. GL!
OMG! You are like my soul-mate
I rewrite ALL of my notes too! Same with the homeworks. And the way you organize your math stuff through the year! YAY... I'm glad to know there is somewhere out there that also rewrites all of their stuff
#17176 IB Students' Starter Pack - IB FAQ - Syllabus links
Posted
on May 25, 2008 - 15:13
A Database of Information made by Former IB Students to Current and Prospective IB Students…
Menu
- Introduction
- How to Manage your Time
- Tips from Professionals
- Summer Time!
- IB – Second Year
- The External Examinations (Glimpse)
- The Night Before and the Time Before
- Entering the Examination Hall
- What Will You Hear?
- Leaving the Examination Hall and Post-Exam Period
- Some Final Words...
Introduction
This database is a guide to current and future IB students from the moment they start their first year until their last IB external examination.
Are you ready?
How to Manage your Time
You’ll always here comments and advice about how to manage your time. As you may have read/heard, the IB Diploma Programme is a program that prepares you for university life and all the responsibilities you’ll encounter in the future. Thus, it is vital that you ‘summon your will power’ and organize a daily, weekly, and/or monthly timetable to help you get your priorities straight.
Here are some websites to help you manage your time wisely:
Study Skills
http://www.frontiern...eefer/exams.htm
http://www.adprima.com/studyout.htm
http://www.wikihow.c...abits-for-Exams
Time Management
http://www.dartmouth...ccess/time.html
http://www.mindtools...n/newMN_HTE.htm
When it comes to time-management, most of us agree on how important it is to have a daily calendar to organize things one must do. Some people buy ‘calendar books’; daily-planned booklets that allow monitoring tasks and organizing responsibilities. Others use Microsoft Outlook or any other computer or phone-based program to organize things. Personally, I think that this is one good software for time management (found here).
Spoiler - Click me!
An easy Microsoft Excel-based program, where you plan your own calendar on a daily basis. No previous experience needed, and everyone can use it!
[Close]
[Close]
Tips from Professionals
Here are some things that our IBC had to say to give us a push:
“You have a minimum of six subjects, all of which demand attention and studying. Your first step is to manage your time properly. Use the [holidays] effectively. Do not simply allow yourself to relax all day, go on vacation and do nothing, then all of a sudden remember that you have final exams the following week. Put a stop to this attitude NOW!
“Use your time efficiently. Sit down and actually plan what you are going to study during the holiday. [We are] not asking you to study ALL the time. No! After all, [we] do believe in the adage 'all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy'. However, even if you travel somewhere, make sure you plan how you are going to use your time once you come back. If you are traveling for the full length of the holiday, then it is definitely a good idea to plan before you leave and to actually take a few things with you to study while you're away.
“Do not procrastinate. Do you know what procrastination is? It is simply putting off for tomorrow what you can do today. Don't you sometimes say to yourself: "What difference does it make if I did this tomorrow instead of now? The deadline is a week away anyway"? Or "None of my friends is studying until next week, so why should I"? etc. Well, trust [us], this is the worst you can do to yourself.
“How can you avoid procrastination? Here are a few tips:
* Set realistic goals;
* Look into yourself: are you postponing the work because of fear, anxiety, concentration problems, perfectionism or something completely different?
* Discipline yourself and focus on priorities;
* Minimize distractions and take your work seriously;
* Study in small blocks and take breaks;
* Reward yourself when you mark off some of the stuff from your revision plan.
(( and of course, roll over))
“Make revision notes when you study. How do you do this? Well, use different methods to record and store study information such as revision 'cue' cards, visual maps, mnemonic (Memory-aiding devices…Visit http://www.coun.uvic...uts/mnemon.html to learn more about it) sentences, use lots of color and visual imagery etc. to use beside your study notes. Most importantly, study to understand, don't just learn it by heart.
“You can make it… always believe in this. Each and every one of you is capable of passing exams. All you have to do is concentrate a little more, set priorities and learn to say NO to temptations. Remember, you make your destiny… your success lies there, in the palm of your own hand.”
Summer Time!
View 1
Surely, this word triggers visual images such as traveling, swimming and other fun activities away from books and IB-related responsibilities. This is true – to some extent. It is crucial that you have fun and forget about your responsibilities for a while, but remember; time passes by very quickly (personally, I have learnt this the hard way).
Take 3 weeks or a month of REAL vacation, after which you come back and work on the assigned duties. Some of us have finished Extended Essays, World Literature Essays, Lab Reports, TOK Essays and other research papers during summertime. Honestly, we make a big fuss about each essay, but each one does not take more than four days of rigorous and vigorous work to finish.
Make sure that you finish most to all of your CAS activities during the summer. It is a lot better to put this aside and get rid of it once you’re in your second year of IB. CAS is not a heck of a time, it is there to show that you care about the world around you. Also, it is extremely helpful in your university application and personal statement. So have fun doing CAS – it is seriously an enjoyable experience.
View 2 - deissi
Summer vacation, finally! After going through IB1, you've deserved it. Now, the point of adding my own view on how to spend your summer vacation is simple: I disagree with the one above, and think that one shouldn't worry about school too much, for many reasons. The first, most obvious, reason is that I really think that it's a good idea to take some time off, and forget about all that school stuff. Sure, it's not a bad idea to do some CAS stuff, but in general, I think it's much better to relax than to worry too much about IAs or especially final exams.
I know for a fact that most schools recommend you write your EE during summer, mine did too. In reality, however, two people in my class did that, but everyone still managed to hand the EEs in when they were due in October. What that should tell you is that it's not true what they say, you really do have time to write your EE along with other schoolwork. I started work on my EE on the first week of school in August, and all in all, it only took me 5 or 6 nights to write the essay. The only thing about the EE that I would recommend you to do during the summer is find relevant books and sources for your EE so that you can start writing it when school starts, but I wouldn't advise you to spend too much time on it either.
The other view on spending your summer vacation also recommends you to work on your TOK essays, WLAs etc. I'm even more against this than I am to writing an EE. First of all, getting teacher guidance during summer will be a lot more difficult for most people. I don't know too many teachers who would be willing to help during their vacation. Also, many of my teachers advised us against doing work in advance because the quality of work will be better if it is done later in IB2. My Finnish teacher, for example, said that writing a WLA during summer would make no sense whatsoever because writing skills develop so quickly in IB, so if it is done later, the grade received for it will be much better.
Okay, this is starting to seem too much like stream of consciousness, so I'll end here. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.
IB – Second Year
The countdown towards the externals has started and it’s serious. Spend the first four months (MAXIMUM!) visiting your teachers and revising your essays. Many schools start with TOK essays halfway through the first/second months, so it is important that you have most of the work done by then. Make sure that ALL of the work to be sent abroad (such as Extended Essay, TOK Essay, World Lit.s I and II, Math Portfolios/Projects, most of Art Pieces,…) is done and over with at least 5 months before your external examinations begin.
Why 5 months? Well by then, you would have started you Group I and II oral examinations, and having a lot of work to do would be a problem. For the orals alone, you need time to research, plan, manage, analyze, summarize, test yourself and practise over and over to get things straight. Why wait until the last moment when you can get things done easily?
Make sure to utilize the most of your mock examination break. Manage your time carefully to study all of your subjects (preferably more than once). It is vital that you make sure to practise some past papers, and repeat the harder materials over and over again. Also, make sure not to procrastinate, so that the workload wouldn’t get any larger.
Once done with your mocks, check your errors and solve these examination papers to identify your weakness points and resolve any issues. Practise as many past papers as possible, because now you have the material covered and it’s essential to make use of it.
The External Examinations (Glimpse)
Now it’s time to ‘gather the fruits of your labor’. You didn’t work for nothing in these two years, did you? Be sure to have faith and confidence in yourself, what you have studied, and most importantly, God. Stress and high adrenaline levels are perfectly normal, unless it gets you to a level where you can’t breathe anymore. Don’t get to that point, because these exams are no different than your mocks (and they might even be easier
).The Night Before and the Time Before
•Make sure that the night before you are able to take come time to relax and get a good night’s sleep. Do not pull and all-nighter. Once tired, go to sleep immediately.
•Eat healthy food the night before. It is recommended to have a minor breakfast the day of the exam to help your mind focus on the exam rather than digesting the food. (e.g. cereal, cup of tea, biscuits, cookies, milk..)
•Take all necessary equipment with you (i.e. pencils, pens, rulers, erasers…). Calculators from this date are prohibited in ALL paper 1 examinations, EXCEPT for Paper 1 Mathematical Studies SL AND Paper 1 Further Mathematics SL. Always check with your IBC on any prohibited and allowed material. Also, make sure to have spare batteries for your calculators just in case. If the language of the examination you registered for is NOT your mother tongue, you may take a SIMPLE translating dictionary (sometimes supplied by the school).
•Your stationary MUST be carried in a TRANSPARENT bag.
•If you have a school uniform, wear it.
•Make sure you read the ‘Notice to Candidates’ carefully. (can be found here)
•Make sure to arrive thirty minutes to school before the examination begins.
•Don’t panic. Take it easy and do some breathing exercizes before the exam (take in long breathes, stop for sometime and let out long breathes. Repeat for some time).
Entering the Examination Hall
You will be directed to your seat by the IBC/ invigilator. You will have answer sheets on your desk (or be given these sheets upon arrival/ some time after); official coloured paper from the IB with your name, candidate session number, name and language of examination paper, some regulations and some spaces; string tags; and may be given scratch paper.
Make yourself comfortable in your seat. Smile.
What Will You Hear?
The IBC/invigilator will read some regulations. Make sure to listen and digest the information carefully.
•Starting the Examination
- Do not open the examination paper until I instruct you to do so.
- Do you have any questions about the notice to candidates displayed in the school?
- Does anyone have any unauthorized material in his or her possession? This is your last
opportunity to say so.
- Are the subject, level and language of your examination paper correct?
- Do you have everything you need for the examination?
- Check the details on your cover sheet. Please tell me if any of the details are not correct for
this examination.
- Use only the rough paper provided by the school for notes.
- Use blue or black ink for all written text. Pencil, including colored pencils, may be used
only for graphs, diagrams or charts.
- The number of pages in the examination paper is on the front page. Turn the pages to check
none is missing. Is the examination paper complete?
- Read all instructions very carefully. Do not answer more questions than required—if you
answer extra questions they will not be marked.
- Write as clearly as possible using both sides of each page. If you require more pages on
which to write your answers, please ask for more.
- Write your session number at the top right corner of every page you use (including graph
paper if appropriate).
- Write question numbers in the left-hand margin. Leave the right-hand margin blank.
- After I finish this instruction, you will have five minutes to read the questions carefully.
During this reading time you are not allowed to write (or use a calculator). You may now
open your examination paper. Your reading time starts now.
(You have five minutes reading time.)
- Your reading time is over. You have (…time…) for this examination paper. You may
start to write.
-The time is (the precise start time is to be given).
•During the Examination
You will be notified twice during the exam; once when there are 30 minutes left:
- The time remaining is 30 minutes.
And another time when 5 minutes are left:
- The time remaining is 5 minutes.
•Ending the Examination
- The examination has ended. Please stop writing immediately and close your examination
paper.
- Do not make any additions or amendments to your answers.
- Draw a line through any work that you do not wish to be marked.
- Check that you have written the question numbers in the left-hand margin.
- Complete all details on your cover sheet if you have not done so already. Remember to
indicate the number of answer sheets used and which questions you have answered.
- Make sure that your cover sheet and answer sheets are fastened together using a string tag.
- Do not staple the pages together. Make sure that your session number is written on every
page. (In case any graph paper has been used – that too.)
- Place any rough notes and the examination paper separately on your desk/table ready for
collection.
Leaving the Examination Hall and Post-Exam Period
Do NOT leave the hall unless instructed by the IBC/ invigilator. Once you’re done with the exam, get your mind off of it and focus on what’s remaining from your subjects rather than the ones you’re done with. Smile, again.
Rest for a while, and study for the next exam.
Do NOT talk about any examination online, unless 24 hours have passed from the LAST SCHOOL TO DO THE EXAM – meaning, not the 24 hours after YOUR exam.
Some Final Words…
Enjoy IB. We hope you get lots of help out of IBSurvival!
#87815 Historical Investigation: I'm screwed
Posted
on Nov 11, 2010 - 03:32
I just posted this on another board, but if you still need help, I recommend these two websites.
http://www.montgomer...toryia/home.htm
^This site has a list of topic suggestions and an explanation of each section
http://sites.google....rnal-assessment
^This site has a section by section guide that includes suggested word counts
http://www.montgomer...toryia/home.htm
^This site has a list of topic suggestions and an explanation of each section
http://sites.google....rnal-assessment
^This site has a section by section guide that includes suggested word counts
#87807 Historical Investigation: I'm screwed
Posted
on Nov 11, 2010 - 02:38
Eh, not smart, but it's not that big a deal since it's a draft and you still have a week. Plus the paper isn't too long. Devote 1-3 days where you'll sit your butt down and research your topic. Actually writing the paper can be done in 1 or 2 days. I'd suggest spending 2-3 hours on a good outline with quotations from your sources that tells you what you'll say in each section and spending an additional day or so on writing the paper. And when I say a day, you should have a 3 to 6 hour chunk of time at your disposal.
And we can say that we're really busy and whatnot, but 9 times out of 10, we're able to rearrange or stay up and get something done if it's important, as this is.
As for the topic--look at the history syllabus provided by IB. They've got tons of potential paper topics listed as things that teachers can teach you, divided into regions and time periods and topics. If something strikes you as interesting, do some internet research on it. If you like where this is going, go to your library to check some books out about it. To make it easier on yourself, pick something not completely obscure and irrelevant to your area so that you have local access to information to write your paper.
Once you have some topics in mind, let us know and we can tell you what we think of them. Good luck.
And we can say that we're really busy and whatnot, but 9 times out of 10, we're able to rearrange or stay up and get something done if it's important, as this is.
As for the topic--look at the history syllabus provided by IB. They've got tons of potential paper topics listed as things that teachers can teach you, divided into regions and time periods and topics. If something strikes you as interesting, do some internet research on it. If you like where this is going, go to your library to check some books out about it. To make it easier on yourself, pick something not completely obscure and irrelevant to your area so that you have local access to information to write your paper.
Once you have some topics in mind, let us know and we can tell you what we think of them. Good luck.
#78785 Please motivate me, I am officailly depressed.
Posted
on Sep 06, 2010 - 08:18
dude if your failing math sl, and getting 17%, then clearly you're not cut out for the ib. go and aim for like wabash college instead of the ivy league.
#71775 Tips for writing A1 Essays - Paper 1, Paper 2 and WL1
Posted
on Jun 19, 2010 - 23:25
Skip to...
Paper 1
Paper 2
WL1
Literary features
Useful Links (cribbed off sweetnsimple786, thanks!)
World Literature 1 Marking Criteria
World Literature 2 Marking Criteria
Other Links (posted by Julie)
Literary Analysis and Writing Technical Points
Tips for Writing A1 Unseen Commentaries (Paper 1)
1. Learn how YOU work best
Unless you've sussed it out for yourself already, your aim throughout the two years of IB should be to establish how you best approach this sort of essay. Everybody prefers to deal with it differently and has their own style -- the ultimate aim for anybody is to produce an essay with a cohesive, well-supported argument, a sound structure, doesn't skip any major points and can be completed within the allotted time. Simple, right?
There are two major areas in which people differ. The first is planning. How much time do you personally need to plan? Some people like to invest a massive amount of their time into it (e.g. for a 2 hour paper at HL they might spend half an hour or more planning it) and some people much less time, for instance 5 or 10 minutes. Obviously some has to take place as you have to read the poem and formulate an argument; whether you then choose to go straight ahead and start writing (usually to maximise the amount you can write down and give yourself leeway to change things) or whether you like to plan out exactly what you're going to say when (to make sure you have a good structure and are focussed), it's not a big deal. You have to work out for yourself what the optimum sort of time is going to be.
The second area is the style in which you deal with the text. This can either be done by theme (and incidentally tends to pair well with somebody who plans a lot) in which major points of discussion are stuck into dedicated paragraphs, or line-by-line which is literally dealing with the text in a linear fashion and therefore tends to require a lot less forethought. Each of these has its weaknesses -- for the former you can easily find yourself spotting something you should've discussed earlier but will then need to break your structure in order to include. You're less likely to come across things as you're writing, can write comparatively 'shallow' essays (i.e. less deep analysis) and of course you do need to plan things like crazy. An acronym often related to this is SCASI (Setting/Character/Action/Style/Ideas), where you do roughly a section of your essay on each of those. Weaknesses related to the line-by-line are largely time management (you end up writing a lot more) and making sure you pick up on overarching themes as well as structuring it in a cohesive manner.
Use any practice commentaries you do to test these out! Which do you prefer? More importantly, with which of these methods/time distributions do you get the best results grades-wise? You might be at an extreme or somewhere in the middle, but you're going to have a style which suits you and it's extremely important you're secure and confident in your personal approach before you enter the exam. On a final note, a lot of teachers will tell you that there's only one way to write a commentary. This is wrong. I've seen 7s with good employment of both these styles and the examiners will reward essays which fulfil the marking criteria, not your teacher's favourite way of doing it.
2. Don't pick between poetry/prose in advance
This might seem reasonably obvious, but there is a considerable chance that the poem/prose which comes up will not be to your liking. With the poetry you might not understand it... and with the prose you might not really see what there is to write. There are exceptions to this rule, some people know what they're doing and can go for their favourite every time, but as a general rule if you don't know 100% that you are an exception (and you'll know, trust me!) my advice is to practice both. Don't pick prose or poetry prior to seeing what they are like, that's a pretty crazy tactic because you're taking away your own options!
3. Have a line of argument
This gives your essay purpose, direction and is something for you to constantly refer back to. It's easier to do an analysis if you treat the whole essay as building up the case for WHY your analysis is correct. Imagine that you've announced "this poem is about X and now I'm going to show you why". This way you'll analyse, you'll give examples and you'll have cohesion because your essay will keep returning to the same central points. At no point in the exam should you be sitting scratching your head wondering where on earth to go next. You have an introduction (your declaration and brief overview of why you believe X to be the case) and a conclusion (briefly how you believe you've proved it to be so). Excellent stuff, having a line of argument.
4. Make sure your argument makes sense
If I am correct, in the USA and some other places, they call an argument a thesis statement. Whatever. Call it what you like, it is extremely important that you project your own 'vision' or interpretation of the poetry/prose. What this does NOT under any circumstances mean is that you see one bit of a line, think "ooo I like that idea!" and start inventing things or deciding that the word 'interpretation' is some kind of arty excuse for making mystical-sounding comments. World Literature is an analytical subject at heart, and whilst there's no technical right and wrong in that several versions of something can be correct, there's definitely a wrong and the word for that is misinterpretation. You do not want to misinterpret the whole thing. Some people are lucky and will never misinterpret because it comes naturally to them; for other people, no worries, there is a litmus test. Decide what you think the main theme of the poem/prose is and then with your decision in mind, and prior to writing anything, go through the whole text and think at every point "does my interpretation DEFINITELY make sense in light of this section?". Sometimes you might find something contradictory -- for instance a note of joy in a poem which is otherwise quite depressing. In that case, your argument can no longer be that the whole poem is centred around bitterness (or whatever, I'm making this up) but rather you'll have to alter your argument to the poem being about the randomness of fate (because on reflection it turns out that the contrast between the depression and the joy makes this the message you receive). Clearly this is an invented example, but the point I'm trying to get at is that the former interpretation wouldn't fit the whole text. The second interpretation DOES fit the whole text. Always make sure that your main line of argument fits everything, or your entire essay will be out.
5. Use language you understand
Okay I'm not going to lie, some people say some really stupid things. If you don't know what a word means, don't know how a phrase is used (and this happens to some native speakers as well as non-native speakers) for the love of whatever higher being may or may not be out there… don't do it! Please. If you've been exposed to a lot of phrases around you in everyday life, and read a lot of books, you'll probably find this kind of thing like second nature to you, and you're very lucky. If not, please don't try and impress anybody. It's better to use straight forward sentences and make sure you're definitely getting your point across. You will not be rewarded for speaking with the kind of Elizabethan flourish which would've made Shakespeare proud of his handiwork. They're going to be more impressed by the whole thing making sense than by you using verbs in conjunction with the wrong prepositions etc.
6. PEE! Also go to the toilet before the exam.
I always assume everybody has heard of this; if you haven't, listen up! PEE is the best way to approach anything. Point, Example, Explanation! Live by the code of PEE and you should never make a crappy point (because if it's crappy hopefully you'll realise your explanation sucks and therefore not write it) and never make a point without explaining it (without that extra E, PEE just wouldn't be the amusing urination-based acronym we all know and love, would it?). To break it down with a (flippant) example:
Point --> Seamus Heaney (a poet) uses potato-based puns to enforce his love of potatoes
Example --> He says: "Without potatoes/I would not be rooted in this life" (yes this is made up)
Explanation --> The word "rooted" refers back both to the author's roots and also to the nature of potatoes themselves which are root vegetables. He also uses a very effective sentence structure to emphasise the significance of potatoes by making them the start of the phrase, the verb in the middle and then with "life" as the last word in the phrase, the stresses fall in such a way that the two seem linked…. etc etc etc. It's amazing what you can bull**** really
7. Manage your time wisely
Okay I mentioned this with planning earlier. Know when you're going to have done stuff by and keep an eye on the clock. An essay is not an essay without a conclusion and all of its contents, and these things cannot be put into place if you run out of time! When I used to do my A1 essays I went line-by-line and said more or less to leave 5 mins at the end to conclude have 5 mins at the start to plan and intend to be halfway through the poem by the time I got halfway through my time. Never failed to finish an essay with this (very non-technical but useful) tactic. Don't be caught out.
8. Make points, don't score points! (aka don't drop in literary features if you don't know what you're doing)
I wrote that mostly because it sounds catchy, but basically what I mean is that you should realise you get marks for making points. Not for using special words. Obviously you want to use some special words throughout (and by special words I mean the World Lit lingo: alliteration, metaphors, caesuras etc etc) but they should be coincidental with you making a point. I used to fit them in as part of the second E in my PEE. When explaining why my point was valid I would casually mention that it was mightily effective on account of the simile and so on. In other words, they can be slotted in casually.
What you should avoid is point scoring, which is kinda like name dropping only using special words. Just because you know a word to describe a literary feature and what it means, it doesn't mean it's always going to be there! The major victim of people trying to point score is "irony". In actual fact, irony is not all that pervasive in literature. It crops up every now and again, but not particularly frequently and definitely not in 80%+ of things. I'm not going to bother inventing a statistic for how often it does crop up, but just remember it's not everywhere. DO NOT say something is 'an example of irony' unless you
A) are sure it's definitely an example of irony and that you know what irony is
B) are willing to explain how it's an example and why this is effective
This goes for any special word. If you know something is effective but don't know the special word for it (and often there isn't one), there's no harm in explaining it out. It is better to do this than to invent things or to go out of your way to include literary features just for the sake of them being there! If something if effective, just explain why. You don't need a technical term for it every time, and if you see something you know the technical term for but it isn't really effective... don't go out of your way to mention it.
Tips for Writing A1 Essay Responses (Paper 2)
1. Look at past questions and use them to break down your texts for revision
If you look through past paper questions, you'll spot that the sorts of questions you receive will always be about generalised things. Off the top of my head, things like Setting, Character, Beginnings and Endings, Death, Love, Chronology etc. all tend to crop up with reassuring regularity. So, this is the way in which you should approach your texts when revising them. Remember that in the actual thing you'll come across one of these sorts of questions and you will either have to sit and think for the very first time of exactly how the minor characters influenced the play (...for example...) or you'll have handily thought of it all before.
Hopefully you'll agree that the second scenario is much better than the first. My advice is therefore to go through all of your texts and pick out the main points to do with these themes. Not only will you familiarise yourself with the texts in the process, but you should also find that a lot of the points can be easily recycled into your actual essay in the exam and that's the aim. Get a piece of paper, head it up with the theme you're looking at and then divide it into columns. Think of a point from one of the texts and simultaneously whether that same point can be made in another text -- i.e. compare and contrast. You might draw a blank, or you might think "well they DO mention the minor characters, but they play more of a role in narrating the life of the main characters than in providing any of the action..." = et voila, a contrast! That kind of thing.
2. Prepare all of your texts
Do not favouritise texts. You will note that the questions ask you to write about 2 or more of the works you have studied. So yes, technically you only have to learn about 2. What, however, if the question in the exam asks you about Death, and nobody dies in one of the texts. You'll be stuffed. Unless you can see forward in time to know what the question will be, don't do just 2 of the texts. Do all of them. Revising them isn't really very time-consuming or difficult, and at the end of the day you'll be able to make the best comparisons if you're able to choose the best texts to compare. Simple as.
3. Use the exam time as a guide to which texts to use
Again going back to the "only doing 2 texts" thing, there is NO optimum number of texts to do. You can get a 7 comparing 2 of them, and you can get a 7 comparing all 4 of them. Also 3. It depends on the question you get and how much you know to be able to write! Sometimes you'll be able to say a lot about 2 texts, sometimes you'll be able to say a little about all 4. Provided your answer is high quality and makes some good points, it'll be okay.
4. Avoid the format Text A. Text B. Text C. End.
This also applies to the World Lit essays: do not write everything about Love in Text A and then everything about Love in Text B. It is infinitely easier to make good points and score better if you follow the model: Point A about Love in Text A, Point A about Love in Text B. In other words, each paragraph(ish) should be a comparison of a specific point across the texts, and you should be constantly flitting between the two or more texts. This'll give you good structure and make your essay cohesive. It's similar to the line-of-argument thinking, really. Hopefully that makes sense.
5. Learn roughly 5 quotes per text (minimum)
You don't have the texts with you in the exams (unless your school is being super lax with the IB rules), however it is always good to
A) do some language analysis
B) show your amazing knowledge of the texts
Of course you can (and definitely should) show knowledge by explaining where your examples sit in context within the texts, how they're supported or repeated throughout the text and all that sort of thing which shows the examiner that you clearly know the text well, without quoting. However, quotes are important. I would recommend you learn 4-5 quotes per text. The reason for this number? Well it's random, however it should also be sufficient. Remember that YOU are in charge of putting them in, so for all the examiner knows, you might know every word of the whole book but have just chosen to put in 2 or 3 quotes -- you can show off what you know and totally skip on what you don't know by simply explaining it rather than quoting it. Consequently, you don't need to remember lots, and you can base some of your points around your quotes to make sure you nip them in. For this reason, your quotes need to be well-selected. I would recommend that you have quotes to convey the main themes, important things about the main characters, examples of the author's style if they have a distinctive style, and at least one quote which you can do a tiny bit of literary analysis on per text. You can find these by flicking through the books and just thinking of the most important things your teachers picked out in lessons, or you'll also find that sites like Sparknotes often contain 'key' quotes which you can use to inspire you. Picture them appearing in your essay and the points you'll make from them and it'll help you pick
They don't have to be long... even just 3 words long if it makes your point!
6. Make sure the essay has a sound, planned structure
In my experience, people rarely run out of time for this essay. There's no line-by-line version where you can ramble on to make your point, you'll have to structure it. Again you should practice how long this is going to take you, but you should do it a bit like Tip 1. Columns to compare points across as many texts as you're going to include. This shouldn't take you too long, but make sure you introduce with a mini line-of-argument, as in Paper 1 (it's a bit harder in Paper 2 so your introduction will probably just be some major generalising about the way in which the theme pops up in the texts) -- this'll also provide you with a way to conclude. Always think how to link the previous point to the next point so your essay flows well.
7. Remember what your texts are called and who wrote them...
It does not in any way shape or form help impress the examiner if you cannot get these right!! You'd be amazed what sorts of things you assume you know but will blank on in the exam, and the names of texts and authors are right up there with major things people forget. Part of this is due to the fact you'll be giving them all slang names by the end of studying them (e.g. 'Handmaids' instead of 'The Handmaid's Tale', and suddenly you'll be in the exam wondering who on earth wrote it, how many Ts there are in "At(t?)wood" and whether it was 'a' Handmaid's Tale or 'the' Handmaid's Tale or whether there was ever an extra word there at all). Really stupid things but you'll get stuck! Make sure you're spelling all of the titles, character and author's names right (don't assume you've been calling them the right name for 2 years, for instance many people reading The Outsider are very freaked that 'Mersault' has secretly been called 'Meursault' the whole time). This is the thing you will absolutely kick yourself for not getting right.
8. Always refer back to context and give examples
Show you know the texts! Without retelling the story, pop in a little bit of context with all your examples, and make sure you give an example (not necessarily quoted, remember, it can just be explained) for every point you make. Don't waste your time by going into insane detail, just make it subtly obvious you know the texts with context and examples.
9. How many paragraphs should my essay have??
Okay, lots of people ask this. The answer is AS MANY AS IT NEEDS. The reason for this is the intrinsic structure of your essay. You want each paragraph/section to be illustrating a new compare/contrast point. For instance, if the Question you're given is something like... "In the texts you have studied, what is the role of time?", you want to instantly come up with comparators/contrasts. E.g....
- in Long Day's Journey Into Night, the setting changes over time to show the passing of the day and the 'journey into night'
- in Waiting for Godot, the setting never changes to reflect how despite changing time, nothing actually changes
- in Long Day's Journey Into Night, the mother lives mentally in the past and regresses further and further as the play goes on
- in Waiting for Godot the characters are confused about the time and how long they've been there
(...and then obviously a lot more points!!)
Having done this you want to look at the points of comparison and contrast you've created. I would say that the points are
1. the way that time affects setting
2. the character's view of the passage of time
Et voila! 2 points and ~ 2 paragraphs.
Hopefully this illustrates the idea of the structure: your paragraphs/sections should represent your points, and your point should compare/contrast across all the texts you're using. In this way you end up with a good, well-structured essay that very tightly and neatly answers the question. Your points and ideas are very clear! This is, essentially, PEE again. Got to love PEE Really though, there's no point in doing X number of paragraphs as some optimum number. You'll have no idea how many points you're going to have and how many paragraphs your writing will take up until you've written it. Otherwise it's like saying that you're going somewhere nobody's ever been before, but nevertheless want somebody to advise you on the exact walking time. Just plain old bizarre.
Tips for Writing WL1 Essays
1. Get your question right!
"Thesis statement" or question, whatever code name it goes under, it is absolutely absolutely essential it's right. You have several things to look at to get it 'right', and these are as follows
A) You will be able to write 1,500 words in answer to your question. WL essays are short and if it's not 1,450-1,500 words minimum I would suggest you've not set yourself a very good question or have failed to answer it thoroughly enough. You should be editing out minor words like crazy trying to trim it down, and definitely not stopping short of the mark.
B) You will be able to answer the question extremely thoroughly within 1,500 words. If you think "oh and I could've said that, too, but I ran out of space..." you didn't set yourself a very good question! Your question must be FULLY answered in the word count.
C) It will be a question! I personally think the phrase "thesis statement" can be misleading in terms of including the word statement. There should be no stating, narrating or retelling (unless it's part of briefly establishing context). You're trying to prove something by answering a task you've set yourself.
If you're having difficulty finding a question, I would suggest looking again at major themes and characters as you'll invariably find at least something to compare between those.
2. Thoroughly integrate the two texts
As with Paper 2 (Tip 4) make sure you constantly put one text against the other and do your best to avoid half your essay being about Text A and then half your essay being about Text B. You can't really do an analytical comparison that way, you end up just listing facts about 1 and facts about 2 -- if you're good you might be able to link Text B back every single time you spot an overlap, but that makes for difficult and messy reading and is generally not what you want to be doing if your aim is to impress.
3. Keep quotes short, simple and sweet
Definitely quote! Just remember that quotes take up your word count, so the more professional you are about integrating your quotes the better. Don't quote a whole sentence if the bit you want is only in part of it. If you can edit out/in words so it makes sense in the context of what you're writing, that not only shows that you are proficient at writing and will get you brownie points for that, but also saves your word count (yay). To show an example of quotes being integrated well and quotes being integrated less well, I shall give an example -- for instance, if the sentence in the book was
"Fred's tortured past was long behind him now"
A 'worse' version of this might be By saying 'Fred's tortured past was long behind him now', the author contrasts the fact that his past was bleak with the fact it happened a long time ago ....
A better version: Here Fred's past is described as "tortured" but the author also contrasts it with the fact that it is "long behind him now"
Not the best of examples but hopefully you can see that by chopping and changing, you can quote as part of your explanation rather than quoting something and then explaining it. In the long run it reads better, saves words and is generally more efficient.
4. SHOW your knowledge of the text
The best way to do this is by putting all of your examples in context. It's very important to appear to have a good working knowledge of whatever it is you're writing about and you should note that the IB specifies an appreciation of culture as one of its little keywords in the WL1 blurb. Although you should put all of the examples into the context of the novel/play/whatever itself, it's possibly worth putting some points of the novel in a more global context -- for instance if you were to pick out an example from Animal Farm with one of the pigs talking, you could extremely briefly mention the propaganda of Orwell's time and the message which he intends to convey through the character of the pigs being very relevant to its original readers. With Antigone or one of the Ancient Greek plays, pointing out how useful the Chorus is as a narrative technique given the mechanics of Greek theatres. This kind of thing is good because it shows you appreciate the style of the piece and also its original cultural context. Whatever you do do NOT go on about this for any longer than absolutely necessary. It's a World Literature piece, so any reference to non-WL stuff should be the tiniest of comments, but it's a good idea to nip in this sort of thing somewhere as it shows the examiner you appreciate a very large context to your understanding of the literature.
5. Take advantage of presenting the characters (added by Tilia)
Present the characters. Don't write "X eats a potato together with Y". Instead write "The 16-year-old protagonist X eats a potato together with his best friend and neighbour, the blonde Englishman Y". This is how you show knowledge of works, criterion B.
(And handily use hardly any of your word count in the process! Good tip or what?)
Literary features bucket list: a short list of essentials literary features you can add to... but it's definitely useful to know these ones!
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 -- only if they're decent, of course, although I'm sure they will be (so no "bring a pen" comments!) xP Or if you have constructive comments to make on the tips already up there, those are also welcome.
Paper 1
Paper 2
WL1
Literary features
Useful Links (cribbed off sweetnsimple786, thanks!)
World Literature 1 Marking Criteria
World Literature 2 Marking Criteria
Other Links (posted by Julie)
Literary Analysis and Writing Technical Points
Tips for Writing A1 Unseen Commentaries (Paper 1)
1. Learn how YOU work best
Unless you've sussed it out for yourself already, your aim throughout the two years of IB should be to establish how you best approach this sort of essay. Everybody prefers to deal with it differently and has their own style -- the ultimate aim for anybody is to produce an essay with a cohesive, well-supported argument, a sound structure, doesn't skip any major points and can be completed within the allotted time. Simple, right?
There are two major areas in which people differ. The first is planning. How much time do you personally need to plan? Some people like to invest a massive amount of their time into it (e.g. for a 2 hour paper at HL they might spend half an hour or more planning it) and some people much less time, for instance 5 or 10 minutes. Obviously some has to take place as you have to read the poem and formulate an argument; whether you then choose to go straight ahead and start writing (usually to maximise the amount you can write down and give yourself leeway to change things) or whether you like to plan out exactly what you're going to say when (to make sure you have a good structure and are focussed), it's not a big deal. You have to work out for yourself what the optimum sort of time is going to be.
The second area is the style in which you deal with the text. This can either be done by theme (and incidentally tends to pair well with somebody who plans a lot) in which major points of discussion are stuck into dedicated paragraphs, or line-by-line which is literally dealing with the text in a linear fashion and therefore tends to require a lot less forethought. Each of these has its weaknesses -- for the former you can easily find yourself spotting something you should've discussed earlier but will then need to break your structure in order to include. You're less likely to come across things as you're writing, can write comparatively 'shallow' essays (i.e. less deep analysis) and of course you do need to plan things like crazy. An acronym often related to this is SCASI (Setting/Character/Action/Style/Ideas), where you do roughly a section of your essay on each of those. Weaknesses related to the line-by-line are largely time management (you end up writing a lot more) and making sure you pick up on overarching themes as well as structuring it in a cohesive manner.
Use any practice commentaries you do to test these out! Which do you prefer? More importantly, with which of these methods/time distributions do you get the best results grades-wise? You might be at an extreme or somewhere in the middle, but you're going to have a style which suits you and it's extremely important you're secure and confident in your personal approach before you enter the exam. On a final note, a lot of teachers will tell you that there's only one way to write a commentary. This is wrong. I've seen 7s with good employment of both these styles and the examiners will reward essays which fulfil the marking criteria, not your teacher's favourite way of doing it.
2. Don't pick between poetry/prose in advance
This might seem reasonably obvious, but there is a considerable chance that the poem/prose which comes up will not be to your liking. With the poetry you might not understand it... and with the prose you might not really see what there is to write. There are exceptions to this rule, some people know what they're doing and can go for their favourite every time, but as a general rule if you don't know 100% that you are an exception (and you'll know, trust me!) my advice is to practice both. Don't pick prose or poetry prior to seeing what they are like, that's a pretty crazy tactic because you're taking away your own options!
3. Have a line of argument
This gives your essay purpose, direction and is something for you to constantly refer back to. It's easier to do an analysis if you treat the whole essay as building up the case for WHY your analysis is correct. Imagine that you've announced "this poem is about X and now I'm going to show you why". This way you'll analyse, you'll give examples and you'll have cohesion because your essay will keep returning to the same central points. At no point in the exam should you be sitting scratching your head wondering where on earth to go next. You have an introduction (your declaration and brief overview of why you believe X to be the case) and a conclusion (briefly how you believe you've proved it to be so). Excellent stuff, having a line of argument.
4. Make sure your argument makes sense
If I am correct, in the USA and some other places, they call an argument a thesis statement. Whatever. Call it what you like, it is extremely important that you project your own 'vision' or interpretation of the poetry/prose. What this does NOT under any circumstances mean is that you see one bit of a line, think "ooo I like that idea!" and start inventing things or deciding that the word 'interpretation' is some kind of arty excuse for making mystical-sounding comments. World Literature is an analytical subject at heart, and whilst there's no technical right and wrong in that several versions of something can be correct, there's definitely a wrong and the word for that is misinterpretation. You do not want to misinterpret the whole thing. Some people are lucky and will never misinterpret because it comes naturally to them; for other people, no worries, there is a litmus test. Decide what you think the main theme of the poem/prose is and then with your decision in mind, and prior to writing anything, go through the whole text and think at every point "does my interpretation DEFINITELY make sense in light of this section?". Sometimes you might find something contradictory -- for instance a note of joy in a poem which is otherwise quite depressing. In that case, your argument can no longer be that the whole poem is centred around bitterness (or whatever, I'm making this up) but rather you'll have to alter your argument to the poem being about the randomness of fate (because on reflection it turns out that the contrast between the depression and the joy makes this the message you receive). Clearly this is an invented example, but the point I'm trying to get at is that the former interpretation wouldn't fit the whole text. The second interpretation DOES fit the whole text. Always make sure that your main line of argument fits everything, or your entire essay will be out.
5. Use language you understand
Okay I'm not going to lie, some people say some really stupid things. If you don't know what a word means, don't know how a phrase is used (and this happens to some native speakers as well as non-native speakers) for the love of whatever higher being may or may not be out there… don't do it! Please. If you've been exposed to a lot of phrases around you in everyday life, and read a lot of books, you'll probably find this kind of thing like second nature to you, and you're very lucky. If not, please don't try and impress anybody. It's better to use straight forward sentences and make sure you're definitely getting your point across. You will not be rewarded for speaking with the kind of Elizabethan flourish which would've made Shakespeare proud of his handiwork. They're going to be more impressed by the whole thing making sense than by you using verbs in conjunction with the wrong prepositions etc.
6. PEE! Also go to the toilet before the exam.
I always assume everybody has heard of this; if you haven't, listen up! PEE is the best way to approach anything. Point, Example, Explanation! Live by the code of PEE and you should never make a crappy point (because if it's crappy hopefully you'll realise your explanation sucks and therefore not write it) and never make a point without explaining it (without that extra E, PEE just wouldn't be the amusing urination-based acronym we all know and love, would it?). To break it down with a (flippant) example:
Point --> Seamus Heaney (a poet) uses potato-based puns to enforce his love of potatoes
Example --> He says: "Without potatoes/I would not be rooted in this life" (yes this is made up)
Explanation --> The word "rooted" refers back both to the author's roots and also to the nature of potatoes themselves which are root vegetables. He also uses a very effective sentence structure to emphasise the significance of potatoes by making them the start of the phrase, the verb in the middle and then with "life" as the last word in the phrase, the stresses fall in such a way that the two seem linked…. etc etc etc. It's amazing what you can bull**** really
7. Manage your time wisely
Okay I mentioned this with planning earlier. Know when you're going to have done stuff by and keep an eye on the clock. An essay is not an essay without a conclusion and all of its contents, and these things cannot be put into place if you run out of time! When I used to do my A1 essays I went line-by-line and said more or less to leave 5 mins at the end to conclude have 5 mins at the start to plan and intend to be halfway through the poem by the time I got halfway through my time. Never failed to finish an essay with this (very non-technical but useful) tactic. Don't be caught out.
8. Make points, don't score points! (aka don't drop in literary features if you don't know what you're doing)
I wrote that mostly because it sounds catchy, but basically what I mean is that you should realise you get marks for making points. Not for using special words. Obviously you want to use some special words throughout (and by special words I mean the World Lit lingo: alliteration, metaphors, caesuras etc etc) but they should be coincidental with you making a point. I used to fit them in as part of the second E in my PEE. When explaining why my point was valid I would casually mention that it was mightily effective on account of the simile and so on. In other words, they can be slotted in casually.
What you should avoid is point scoring, which is kinda like name dropping only using special words. Just because you know a word to describe a literary feature and what it means, it doesn't mean it's always going to be there! The major victim of people trying to point score is "irony". In actual fact, irony is not all that pervasive in literature. It crops up every now and again, but not particularly frequently and definitely not in 80%+ of things. I'm not going to bother inventing a statistic for how often it does crop up, but just remember it's not everywhere. DO NOT say something is 'an example of irony' unless you
A) are sure it's definitely an example of irony and that you know what irony is
B) are willing to explain how it's an example and why this is effective
This goes for any special word. If you know something is effective but don't know the special word for it (and often there isn't one), there's no harm in explaining it out. It is better to do this than to invent things or to go out of your way to include literary features just for the sake of them being there! If something if effective, just explain why. You don't need a technical term for it every time, and if you see something you know the technical term for but it isn't really effective... don't go out of your way to mention it.
Tips for Writing A1 Essay Responses (Paper 2)
1. Look at past questions and use them to break down your texts for revision
If you look through past paper questions, you'll spot that the sorts of questions you receive will always be about generalised things. Off the top of my head, things like Setting, Character, Beginnings and Endings, Death, Love, Chronology etc. all tend to crop up with reassuring regularity. So, this is the way in which you should approach your texts when revising them. Remember that in the actual thing you'll come across one of these sorts of questions and you will either have to sit and think for the very first time of exactly how the minor characters influenced the play (...for example...) or you'll have handily thought of it all before.
Hopefully you'll agree that the second scenario is much better than the first. My advice is therefore to go through all of your texts and pick out the main points to do with these themes. Not only will you familiarise yourself with the texts in the process, but you should also find that a lot of the points can be easily recycled into your actual essay in the exam and that's the aim. Get a piece of paper, head it up with the theme you're looking at and then divide it into columns. Think of a point from one of the texts and simultaneously whether that same point can be made in another text -- i.e. compare and contrast. You might draw a blank, or you might think "well they DO mention the minor characters, but they play more of a role in narrating the life of the main characters than in providing any of the action..." = et voila, a contrast! That kind of thing.
2. Prepare all of your texts
Do not favouritise texts. You will note that the questions ask you to write about 2 or more of the works you have studied. So yes, technically you only have to learn about 2. What, however, if the question in the exam asks you about Death, and nobody dies in one of the texts. You'll be stuffed. Unless you can see forward in time to know what the question will be, don't do just 2 of the texts. Do all of them. Revising them isn't really very time-consuming or difficult, and at the end of the day you'll be able to make the best comparisons if you're able to choose the best texts to compare. Simple as.
3. Use the exam time as a guide to which texts to use
Again going back to the "only doing 2 texts" thing, there is NO optimum number of texts to do. You can get a 7 comparing 2 of them, and you can get a 7 comparing all 4 of them. Also 3. It depends on the question you get and how much you know to be able to write! Sometimes you'll be able to say a lot about 2 texts, sometimes you'll be able to say a little about all 4. Provided your answer is high quality and makes some good points, it'll be okay.
4. Avoid the format Text A. Text B. Text C. End.
This also applies to the World Lit essays: do not write everything about Love in Text A and then everything about Love in Text B. It is infinitely easier to make good points and score better if you follow the model: Point A about Love in Text A, Point A about Love in Text B. In other words, each paragraph(ish) should be a comparison of a specific point across the texts, and you should be constantly flitting between the two or more texts. This'll give you good structure and make your essay cohesive. It's similar to the line-of-argument thinking, really. Hopefully that makes sense.
5. Learn roughly 5 quotes per text (minimum)
You don't have the texts with you in the exams (unless your school is being super lax with the IB rules), however it is always good to
A) do some language analysis
B) show your amazing knowledge of the texts
Of course you can (and definitely should) show knowledge by explaining where your examples sit in context within the texts, how they're supported or repeated throughout the text and all that sort of thing which shows the examiner that you clearly know the text well, without quoting. However, quotes are important. I would recommend you learn 4-5 quotes per text. The reason for this number? Well it's random, however it should also be sufficient. Remember that YOU are in charge of putting them in, so for all the examiner knows, you might know every word of the whole book but have just chosen to put in 2 or 3 quotes -- you can show off what you know and totally skip on what you don't know by simply explaining it rather than quoting it. Consequently, you don't need to remember lots, and you can base some of your points around your quotes to make sure you nip them in. For this reason, your quotes need to be well-selected. I would recommend that you have quotes to convey the main themes, important things about the main characters, examples of the author's style if they have a distinctive style, and at least one quote which you can do a tiny bit of literary analysis on per text. You can find these by flicking through the books and just thinking of the most important things your teachers picked out in lessons, or you'll also find that sites like Sparknotes often contain 'key' quotes which you can use to inspire you. Picture them appearing in your essay and the points you'll make from them and it'll help you pick
They don't have to be long... even just 3 words long if it makes your point!
6. Make sure the essay has a sound, planned structure
In my experience, people rarely run out of time for this essay. There's no line-by-line version where you can ramble on to make your point, you'll have to structure it. Again you should practice how long this is going to take you, but you should do it a bit like Tip 1. Columns to compare points across as many texts as you're going to include. This shouldn't take you too long, but make sure you introduce with a mini line-of-argument, as in Paper 1 (it's a bit harder in Paper 2 so your introduction will probably just be some major generalising about the way in which the theme pops up in the texts) -- this'll also provide you with a way to conclude. Always think how to link the previous point to the next point so your essay flows well.
7. Remember what your texts are called and who wrote them...
It does not in any way shape or form help impress the examiner if you cannot get these right!! You'd be amazed what sorts of things you assume you know but will blank on in the exam, and the names of texts and authors are right up there with major things people forget. Part of this is due to the fact you'll be giving them all slang names by the end of studying them (e.g. 'Handmaids' instead of 'The Handmaid's Tale', and suddenly you'll be in the exam wondering who on earth wrote it, how many Ts there are in "At(t?)wood" and whether it was 'a' Handmaid's Tale or 'the' Handmaid's Tale or whether there was ever an extra word there at all). Really stupid things but you'll get stuck! Make sure you're spelling all of the titles, character and author's names right (don't assume you've been calling them the right name for 2 years, for instance many people reading The Outsider are very freaked that 'Mersault' has secretly been called 'Meursault' the whole time). This is the thing you will absolutely kick yourself for not getting right.
8. Always refer back to context and give examples
Show you know the texts! Without retelling the story, pop in a little bit of context with all your examples, and make sure you give an example (not necessarily quoted, remember, it can just be explained) for every point you make. Don't waste your time by going into insane detail, just make it subtly obvious you know the texts with context and examples.
9. How many paragraphs should my essay have??
Okay, lots of people ask this. The answer is AS MANY AS IT NEEDS. The reason for this is the intrinsic structure of your essay. You want each paragraph/section to be illustrating a new compare/contrast point. For instance, if the Question you're given is something like... "In the texts you have studied, what is the role of time?", you want to instantly come up with comparators/contrasts. E.g....
- in Long Day's Journey Into Night, the setting changes over time to show the passing of the day and the 'journey into night'
- in Waiting for Godot, the setting never changes to reflect how despite changing time, nothing actually changes
- in Long Day's Journey Into Night, the mother lives mentally in the past and regresses further and further as the play goes on
- in Waiting for Godot the characters are confused about the time and how long they've been there
(...and then obviously a lot more points!!)
Having done this you want to look at the points of comparison and contrast you've created. I would say that the points are
1. the way that time affects setting
2. the character's view of the passage of time
Et voila! 2 points and ~ 2 paragraphs.
Hopefully this illustrates the idea of the structure: your paragraphs/sections should represent your points, and your point should compare/contrast across all the texts you're using. In this way you end up with a good, well-structured essay that very tightly and neatly answers the question. Your points and ideas are very clear! This is, essentially, PEE again. Got to love PEE
Really though, there's no point in doing X number of paragraphs as some optimum number. You'll have no idea how many points you're going to have and how many paragraphs your writing will take up until you've written it. Otherwise it's like saying that you're going somewhere nobody's ever been before, but nevertheless want somebody to advise you on the exact walking time. Just plain old bizarre.Tips for Writing WL1 Essays
1. Get your question right!
"Thesis statement" or question, whatever code name it goes under, it is absolutely absolutely essential it's right. You have several things to look at to get it 'right', and these are as follows
A) You will be able to write 1,500 words in answer to your question. WL essays are short and if it's not 1,450-1,500 words minimum I would suggest you've not set yourself a very good question or have failed to answer it thoroughly enough. You should be editing out minor words like crazy trying to trim it down, and definitely not stopping short of the mark.
B) You will be able to answer the question extremely thoroughly within 1,500 words. If you think "oh and I could've said that, too, but I ran out of space..." you didn't set yourself a very good question! Your question must be FULLY answered in the word count.
C) It will be a question! I personally think the phrase "thesis statement" can be misleading in terms of including the word statement. There should be no stating, narrating or retelling (unless it's part of briefly establishing context). You're trying to prove something by answering a task you've set yourself.
If you're having difficulty finding a question, I would suggest looking again at major themes and characters as you'll invariably find at least something to compare between those.
2. Thoroughly integrate the two texts
As with Paper 2 (Tip 4) make sure you constantly put one text against the other and do your best to avoid half your essay being about Text A and then half your essay being about Text B. You can't really do an analytical comparison that way, you end up just listing facts about 1 and facts about 2 -- if you're good you might be able to link Text B back every single time you spot an overlap, but that makes for difficult and messy reading and is generally not what you want to be doing if your aim is to impress.
3. Keep quotes short, simple and sweet
Definitely quote! Just remember that quotes take up your word count, so the more professional you are about integrating your quotes the better. Don't quote a whole sentence if the bit you want is only in part of it. If you can edit out/in words so it makes sense in the context of what you're writing, that not only shows that you are proficient at writing and will get you brownie points for that, but also saves your word count (yay). To show an example of quotes being integrated well and quotes being integrated less well, I shall give an example -- for instance, if the sentence in the book was
"Fred's tortured past was long behind him now"
A 'worse' version of this might be By saying 'Fred's tortured past was long behind him now', the author contrasts the fact that his past was bleak with the fact it happened a long time ago ....
A better version: Here Fred's past is described as "tortured" but the author also contrasts it with the fact that it is "long behind him now"
Not the best of examples but hopefully you can see that by chopping and changing, you can quote as part of your explanation rather than quoting something and then explaining it. In the long run it reads better, saves words and is generally more efficient.
4. SHOW your knowledge of the text
The best way to do this is by putting all of your examples in context. It's very important to appear to have a good working knowledge of whatever it is you're writing about and you should note that the IB specifies an appreciation of culture as one of its little keywords in the WL1 blurb. Although you should put all of the examples into the context of the novel/play/whatever itself, it's possibly worth putting some points of the novel in a more global context -- for instance if you were to pick out an example from Animal Farm with one of the pigs talking, you could extremely briefly mention the propaganda of Orwell's time and the message which he intends to convey through the character of the pigs being very relevant to its original readers. With Antigone or one of the Ancient Greek plays, pointing out how useful the Chorus is as a narrative technique given the mechanics of Greek theatres. This kind of thing is good because it shows you appreciate the style of the piece and also its original cultural context. Whatever you do do NOT go on about this for any longer than absolutely necessary. It's a World Literature piece, so any reference to non-WL stuff should be the tiniest of comments, but it's a good idea to nip in this sort of thing somewhere as it shows the examiner you appreciate a very large context to your understanding of the literature.
5. Take advantage of presenting the characters (added by Tilia)
Present the characters. Don't write "X eats a potato together with Y". Instead write "The 16-year-old protagonist X eats a potato together with his best friend and neighbour, the blonde Englishman Y". This is how you show knowledge of works, criterion B.
(And handily use hardly any of your word count in the process! Good tip or what?)
Literary features bucket list: a short list of essentials literary features you can add to... but it's definitely useful to know these ones!
Spoiler
Mention this sort of thing!
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 -- only if they're decent, of course, although I'm sure they will be (so no "bring a pen" comments!) xP Or if you have constructive comments to make on the tips already up there, those are also welcome.
#78230 World Literature 1 Topic
Posted
on Sep 02, 2010 - 08:20
dont expect any of us to help you in the choosing of an aspect, like you do. part of the criteria is actually selecting a topic, and it is extremely unethical if we give you a topic to do. if so you put everyone at risk of malpractise and you don't want to be that selfish. if you do continue to ask for help i will personally report you to the ib ethics comittee.
#44748 General Math Examination Tips
Posted
on Apr 29, 2009 - 18:54
13) Always read the question carefully and see what they are looking after.
14) Remember to have your final answer to 3 significant figures.
15) Do not panic when not knowing how to solve a question.
16) Always show your full working, so that even if your final answer is wrong you will still get marks.
14) Remember to have your final answer to 3 significant figures.
15) Do not panic when not knowing how to solve a question.
16) Always show your full working, so that even if your final answer is wrong you will still get marks.
#44745 General Math Examination Tips
Posted
on Apr 29, 2009 - 17:33
Here is some advice that you might want to follow right before and during the Math examination.
Although most of these things are common sense, I think that putting it all down in words helps.
So,
1) Ensure that you have atleast 2 working pens, a ruler, an eraser, two working pencils and your GDC put into your bag the night before the exam.
- The last thing you want to do is forget something small and go around begging people for it/ going home to get it right before the exam.
2) Change the batteries of your GDC the night before the Paper 2 exam.
- I know this is kind of extreme but after having used the GDC for so much exam practice [hopefully], the batteries might be running out!
3) Do not talk to your friends right before writing the exam.
- They are likely to ask you about how to solve something or the other, and if you don't know it, you'll probably freak out and try to cram the solution : that will not help, an hour before the exam is probably too late to learn anything new
4) Do not do last minute cramming/ trying to solve difficult problems.
- For the reasons stated above
5) Do not eat a large breakfast/lunch or go to the exam with a completely empty stomach.
- Eat 'brain food'
6) Have a cup of coffee.
- Research shows that it will help you concentrate better.
- Plus, one cup of coffee drunk occassionally will not do you any harm.
7) You will have 5 minutes to look over your paper. In this time, make a mental note of the questions you are sure you know very well. Do them first. Then, move on to the more difficult ones.
- Doing easy questions first helps bring confidence and gets your brain running.
8) When you're done with your exam, look over your answers/ re-calculate if time permits.
- You might find mistakes you missed before.
9) Do not try to cheat.
- Believe me, you'll get caught
Good Luck!
Although most of these things are common sense, I think that putting it all down in words helps.
So,
1) Ensure that you have atleast 2 working pens, a ruler, an eraser, two working pencils and your GDC put into your bag the night before the exam.
- The last thing you want to do is forget something small and go around begging people for it/ going home to get it right before the exam.
2) Change the batteries of your GDC the night before the Paper 2 exam.
- I know this is kind of extreme but after having used the GDC for so much exam practice [hopefully], the batteries might be running out!
3) Do not talk to your friends right before writing the exam.
- They are likely to ask you about how to solve something or the other, and if you don't know it, you'll probably freak out and try to cram the solution : that will not help, an hour before the exam is probably too late to learn anything new
4) Do not do last minute cramming/ trying to solve difficult problems.
- For the reasons stated above
5) Do not eat a large breakfast/lunch or go to the exam with a completely empty stomach.
- Eat 'brain food'
6) Have a cup of coffee.
- Research shows that it will help you concentrate better.
- Plus, one cup of coffee drunk occassionally will not do you any harm.
7) You will have 5 minutes to look over your paper. In this time, make a mental note of the questions you are sure you know very well. Do them first. Then, move on to the more difficult ones.
- Doing easy questions first helps bring confidence and gets your brain running.
8) When you're done with your exam, look over your answers/ re-calculate if time permits.
- You might find mistakes you missed before.
9) Do not try to cheat.
- Believe me, you'll get caught
Good Luck!
#71152 Any hints or tips for for unseen commentary?
Posted
on Jun 09, 2010 - 18:41
may, on Jun 09, 2010 - 18:09, said:
i agree with all the above, and especially with sweetnsimple786. my best advice is to read the text A LOT of times. it's wrong to think that you lose time by reading it, and start writing without actually having understood the text. it's safe to say that you can devote even around 10 minutes! i am a HL level student and today i spent 15 min over the poem! and i was ok with time (:
