Pre-IB to IB

[seungeunlee]

Hello!

I’m currently in year 11 and graduating in June.

Is there anything special that we have to get ready for in September and can we start our CAS hours (150 hours) during the summer and use it for our year 12 CAS program?

And what is Theory of Knowledge and what do we do during those lessons. Is there anything special to prepare for those courses?

It’d be great if I get some advice for next year =) Thank you~^^

[Summer Glau]

At my school, you can start CAS hours the summer before IB1. I'm not sure if that applies to all schools so ask your coordinator.

In my opinion you don't really need to prepare yourself much for IB over the summer. Some of my friends tried to take the math SL/HL books over the summer to get a head start, but it didn't work out because they were probably in vacation mode and thus lost their motivation You could get started with CAS but aside from that I think you should enjoy your summer and not stress out about IB1 before it starts! Have fun, relax, and you'll be fine for IB1 when it starts.

[nametaken]

I agree with Summer. Don't get too worried about getting ready to begin the IB and just enjoy time while you still can. Theory of Knowledge isn't too difficult, it's a logical subject in my opinion, and doesn't require a lot of preparation. You'll do fine in it, as long as your brain's switched on. With regards to CAS, I don't know as my school doesn't have that kind of thing set for its new students(perhaps that's because it's relatively new to the IB).

What's TOK (Theory Of Knowledge) about?

Well, it's about questioning how you know what you know and exploring the four different ways of knowing: Reason, Intuition,Language & sense perception. And looking at areas of knowledge (subjects that you study). It's not too bad, in my opinion.

But the main thing for you to do, is not to worry too much about getting prepared for the IB. Just go and enjoy the summer. Eat an ice cream, ride your bike, write a novel. Just do whatever you want to relax, because once you're doing the IB, you'll wish you have more time to relax, without worrying about lab reports, orals, etc.

[Ice Cream is really yummy]

At my school, you can start CAS hours the summer before IB1. I'm not sure if that applies to all schools so ask your coordinator.

In my opinion you don't really need to prepare yourself much for IB over the summer. Some of my friends tried to take the math SL/HL books over the summer to get a head start, but it didn't work out because they were probably in vacation mode and thus lost their motivation You could get started with CAS but aside from that I think you should enjoy your summer and not stress out about IB1 before it starts! Have fun, relax, and you'll be fine for IB1 when it starts.

You'll definitely want to check if you can begin your +150 hours for CAS during your summer because I know of one IB student in my class who DID begin without telling our CAS coordinator (they even had proof and everything) and they were unable to count the hours spent. It all depends on your CAS coordinator... although I always understood that you needed to complete your +150 during the 20 months of your IB to keep your balanced.

[blenderer]

I agree with the others. Take it easy! You are not required to do any preparation for the IB Diploma Programme and because of that you shouldn't really stress about it. On IB, you'll soon notice, it is better to do what you are asked to and do that well (and in time!), anything more than that is more or less a waste of time. The beginning of IB1 is not that bad (at least not in our school) and if the teachers know their jobs they will increase the amount of workload bit by bit so that you have time to get used to it. If you study already during the summer you'll just end up having boring lessons at first since you already know the stuff.

In our school we were not allowed to start completing CAS before the beginning of IB1. What we were asked to do however was to think about possible CAS -activities in advance, so that we were able to begin doing the programme immediately when the time for it came. And you can easily get the minimum amount of hours during the IB (I've got like 80% of the required hours done and I'm just finishing IB1) so no worries!

And finally about TOK. Relaxing, thought-provoking, interesting. Although the theory and the terminology can be a pain to learn, you don't really need it except for the essay and the presentation. Mostly you can just sit back and think. Have discussions, debates, be creative. TOK is a refreshing step away from the style of the studying you normally do and at least I've really enjoyed it so far. It makes you more aware of...yourself.

[Brian Hunt]

I'm not sure how TOK is run at other schools but at my school it's the easy class that lets you unwind at the end of the day. The only homework is journals responding to the assigned chapter in the book and anything day-to-day that makes you think but related back to TOK. We begin CAS the summer before the first year but you really don't need to. I am coming to the close of the end of my first year of IB and I have more than 150 hours, but a certain amount of the hours is needed during the second year so I still have to do more. It's not really a particularly fun thing for me, I just happen to do all of the things needed for CAS anyways so now I'm just keeping track of it all. I wish you luck in IB, it's really not that bad!