Hi! I'm new and can use your help!

[Stefan Bojilov]

Hey everyone! My name is Stefan B from South Florida.

I'm currently a Freshman in the IB MYP program at Atlantic High in Delray Beach and its really hard for me to keep up with everything and do well. A lot of my classmates came from a much better middle school than i did therefore, making it easier for them to adapt to iB than myself.

I just started my last quarter of freshman year and i need to get straight A's but so far im off to a bad start. I feel like such a slacker :/ I feel like an idiot compared to most of my classmates.

What are your tips to do well the last quarter of 9th grade? I want to stay in iB but its very hard to keep up with everything. I have never gotten a C until i came into the InternationalBaccalaureate program

Thanks for your help!

[HiggsHunter]

Hello Stefan! Have you started your IB school in MYP3 or MYP4? If the MYP courses are well organized, they should be an excellent preparation for your DP years, giving you early exposure to the IB approach to study, project work and assessment.

If your previous school was not the best, there is no replacement for hard work to catch up. But if that is not enough, there is no shame in repeating a year at this stage in your academic career, and then carrying on up the ladder in step with your new fellow students.

[Emmi]

Even though it's the last quarter of school, still try to stay focused and turn in all of your work. By this point you just want to be done with school and enjoy summer (believe me, I know, I'm a senior ) But your teachers will still give you work, you still have assignments and quizzes and tests and things like that, so you need to make sure you study for them and score well. You probably won't have as many as you would in any of the other quarters, but you still need to do well. These last few grades can make the difference between getting a B for the year in a class or getting a C, so don't fail anything! (or try not to ) Last year I was on the border between a B and a C for the year in my SL math class, but I made sure that I passed all of the tests that we got in the last few weeks and I just managed to pull my grade to a B for the year. So it's entirely possible you can do the same! I don't know what your grading scale is since I don't live in Florida, but if you're not that far off from a higher grade you can definitely do it.

Once next year starts you get to start off fresh with new teachers and new classes, so just focus on doing well the entire year. Start out strong and finish strong.

And don't worry, I never got a C in my life until I started the IBDP program. Many of us were used to very high grades before starting IB. Just make sure you don't get too many Cs and other low grades, and you will be OK.

[marauder7]

You just have to put some effort. Do ALL of the assignments on time and study hard for tests. Maybe it would help to form a study group. With time you will earn skills and school won't be such a big challenge. IB is hard, but it isn't impossible. You just need dedication and time management skills.

[Sandwich]

^^ It's true, your grades take a nosedive when you get to the IB - but it's a higher level of education so I guess you'd expect it. I used to find it really easy to do well, got to the IB and resigned myself to marks I would never have contemplated before! Provided you pull it all together in time for the final exams you're sorted.

I think an important skill to pick up at this stage (or you can pick it up later but the earlier the better ) is to know how to learn. As in, what you should do in order to maximise your time (without wasting any) and achieve your goals. It usually takes people quite a while to figure out what style is learning is best for them, and it depends on your targets - eg. if you get graded on your homework and it counts towards your actual grades, you'd need to adopt a different style from somebody who's only marked on their end of term exams. Try out different things with how you do your work, different ways of managing your time, making sure you try and keep a balance of work and leisure/physical activity. It may be that drawing things out really helps you - or writing them out again, or making summary note cards or quickly skim-reading the chapter of a textbook the day before so it seems to make just that little bit more sense when you're eventually taught it. Little things. If you can work out how you learn best then you're already ahead of most people For me, I like to write everything out because it helps me understand by going through it at the slow pace of handwriting and then going back over it all at once and highlighting it and suddenly things I'd thought of separately all came together and voila - understanding! But I spent many years just reading books (which I've now realised is pointless for me) and hoping I could magically absorb it. Or seeing my friends use a thousand coloured pencils to make notes, spend hours colour-coding my stuff and then realise that the colours make literally no difference to whether I remember things or not. But for some people they work wonders (I'm told). So yeah if you can hit on the most efficient way of learning for you, you can really maximise your time and remember a lot more.

Also if you feel behind or if something is particularly hard for you, don't be scared or reluctant to ask your teacher for some extra help. Usually they'll be quite chuffed that you've come up to ask them and catching up is really worthwhile - don't be afraid to let them think you're an idiot by plaguing them with questions if it means you suddenly start doing better in tests and exams It's honestly worth it. Spending a year or two looking a bit dim in certain subjects enables you to get the grades you want in them at the end. Hoping you'll understand it better when you get home doesn't.