IB Mandarin B SL Paper 2

[#teamnosleep]

Hi guys, 

Those of us who are taking Mandarin B SL can discuss our Paper 2 here. I personally think the topics are okay, it is better than November 2015 paper despite the fact that the paper 2 is harder compared to previous years.

[Enrico Giori]

I see we both made an exam discussion thread for this paper!  anyways although I found it hard to interpret some questions, I chose question 5 (科学与技术）and I mainly focused on 网络和电脑的利与弊 as that was the main content we had studied in class. The paper was easier than November 2015 but much harder than those in other May and November examination sessions. For example, May 2014 科学与技术 was literally "因为手机的普遍使用,让许多人能方便地用发短信的方式来进行沟通。你对人们经常用手机发短信的影响有一些想法。写一篇日记,记录你对这个现象的意见。" I wish I had that question this year! Overall though, I think I may have repaired some of the damage from Paper 1 with paper 2

 

 

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[Guest iblearner]

I chose the question about celebrations. I hope they like my essay  

[#teamnosleep]

11 hours ago, IBStudent1225 said:

I see we both made an exam discussion thread for this paper!  anyways although I found it hard to interpret some questions, I chose question 5 (科学与技术）and I mainly focused on 网络和电脑的利与弊 as that was the main content we had studied in class. The paper was easier than November 2015 but much harder than those in other May and November examination sessions. For example, May 2014 科学与技术 was literally "因为手机的普遍使用,让许多人能方便地用发短信的方式来进行沟通。你对人们经常用手机发短信的影响有一些想法。写一篇日记,记录你对这个现象的意见。" I wish I had that question this year! Overall though, I think I may have repaired some of the damage from Paper 1 with paper 2

 

 

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Ah really? I wasn't aware of that. But yeah, question 5 is always interesting. I wish we have the same topics as the previous papers. I felt like they're easier like you mentioned about writing a 日记。I mean, how hard can it be? But then again, I think we should count our blessings as we did not have Nov 15 Paper. That is a curse. When my classmates and I looked at it, we thought it was a HL paper. Are you always stronger at Paper 2? Do you use 成语 and 关联词 in your  Paper 2？

[#teamnosleep]

10 hours ago, iblearner said:

I chose the question about celebrations. I hope they like my essay  

Ah really? What did you write about? I was going to choose that, but then I forgot the text type they were asking for so I was like NOPE. I ended up choosing 健康 though, as it is my go-to topic hehe. 

[Guest iblearner]

2 hours ago, #teamnosleep said:

Ah really? What did you write about? I was going to choose that, but then I forgot the text type they were asking for so I was like NOPE. I ended up choosing 健康 though, as it is my go-to topic hehe. 

wasn't it just a letter? hahaha i wrote about nong li xin nian (chinese new year) and referred to the celebration they were talking about in a few lines. I didn't even know what celebration they were talking about, i thought it was about remembering farmer's day lmao but turns out it was hero's day (hari pahlawan), but luckily i didn't write anything that was directly about "farmer's day" lmao  whatever i wrote about the celebration they talked about was just like "i'm interested to know more about your celebration, i think its important to remember these people because they work hard for us everyday~ see, it applies to both farmers and heroes so i'm safe lmao)

I was gonna choose 健康 but i wasn't so confident hahaha

Edited May 8, 2016 by iblearner

[Enrico Giori]

6 hours ago, #teamnosleep said:

Ah really? I wasn't aware of that. But yeah, question 5 is always interesting. I wish we have the same topics as the previous papers. I felt like they're easier like you mentioned about writing a 日记。I mean, how hard can it be? But then again, I think we should count our blessings as we did not have Nov 15 Paper. That is a curse. When my classmates and I looked at it, we thought it was a HL paper. Are you always stronger at Paper 2? Do you use 成语 and 关联词 in your  Paper 2？

I feel like I usually do well in both papers, but I like Paper 2 better (my grades were always 21,22 and 23/25 in Paper 2). I do use 成语 and 关联词 in my Paper essays but I do feel like sometimes they are not used perfectly. I agree though, an exam like November 2015 would have been a nightmare, although the 科学与技术 question was pretty easy and doable. 

[Guest iblearner]

14 minutes ago, IBStudent1225 said:

I feel like I usually do well in both papers, but I like Paper 2 better (my grades were always 21,22 and 23/25 in Paper 2). I do use 成语 and 关联词 in my Paper essays but I do feel like sometimes they are not used perfectly. I agree though, an exam like November 2015 would have been a nightmare, although the 科学与技术 question was pretty easy and doable. 

is it cool if i didnt use 成语 in my essay? i always get like 20/25 in my essays and my teacher never told me about using idioms so~

[Enrico Giori]

1 hour ago, iblearner said:

is it cool if i didnt use 成语 in my essay? i always get like 20/25 in my essays and my teacher never told me about using idioms so~

I think it should be fine. The idioms may win you a few more points in the language criterion, but they surely are not essential! I know some such as 人山人海，应有尽有，幽默风趣，气温宜人，脚踏实地, 五颜六色，... but for example in my actual paper 2 I only used 应有尽有 and 人山人海. If you are interested in some 成语 for your own knowledge of Chinese I recommend this link, it is very well put together http://www.fluentu.com/chinese/blog/2013/12/26/chinese-idioms-chengyu/

[#teamnosleep]

7 hours ago, iblearner said:

wasn't it just a letter? hahaha i wrote about nong li xin nian (chinese new year) and referred to the celebration they were talking about in a few lines. I didn't even know what celebration they were talking about, i thought it was about remembering farmer's day lmao but turns out it was hero's day (hari pahlawan), but luckily i didn't write anything that was directly about "farmer's day" lmao  whatever i wrote about the celebration they talked about was just like "i'm interested to know more about your celebration, i think its important to remember these people because they work hard for us everyday~ see, it applies to both farmers and heroes so i'm safe lmao)

I was gonna choose 健康 but i wasn't so confident hahaha

LOL, I can see why you thought it was farmer's day at first glance. Smart of you to not mention anything about farmer's day lmao. Hahahhaa I am really bad with text types that's why I chose Health because its only an essay. The Health topic only requires you to talk about why drugs, drinking and playing computer games are not a good solution to handle stress. You should be fine without using 成语 in your essay, as long as your language was correct and well-structured.

[Guest iblearner]

44 minutes ago, IBStudent1225 said:

I think it should be fine. The idioms may win you a few more points in the language criterion, but they surely are not essential! I know some such as 人山人海，应有尽有，幽默风趣，气温宜人，脚踏实地, 五颜六色，... but for example in my actual paper 2 I only used 应有尽有 and 人山人海. If you are interested in some 成语 for your own knowledge of Chinese I recommend this link, it is very well put together http://www.fluentu.com/chinese/blog/2013/12/26/chinese-idioms-chengyu/

 

38 minutes ago, #teamnosleep said:

LOL, I can see why you thought it was farmer's day at first glance. Smart of you to not mention anything about farmer's day lmao. Hahahhaa I am really bad with text types that's why I chose Health because its only an essay. The Health topic only requires you to talk about why drugs, drinking and playing computer games are not a good solution to handle stress. You should be fine without using 成语 in your essay, as long as your language was correct and well-structured.

Ayyy thanks you guys~! I wish I had put in some 成语 but I guess it's okay hahaha~ I really didn't understant what the health question was about so I was like um no thanks lol

I'm really gonna miss learning Mandarin, I've been learning it for the past 12 years and I miss all the fun haha~

[#teamnosleep]

Hahahahha. Yeah I am going to miss learning Mandarin as well, I loved my Mandarin classes and my teacher. Sad that good things have to come to an end .

[Enrico Giori]

1 hour ago, iblearner said:

I'm really gonna miss learning Mandarin, I've been learning it for the past 12 years and I miss all the fun haha~

 

1 hour ago, #teamnosleep said:

Hahahahha. Yeah I am going to miss learning Mandarin as well, I loved my Mandarin classes and my teacher. Sad that good things have to come to an end 

I totally agree with this, although learning Chinese for me was an extremely study-intensive process, and I wish the Paper 1 examination would have allowed myself and classmates to reflect our abilities better. I took iGCSE Mandarin (Foreign Language) and then went onto IB Chinese B SL. It was a big leap but it was worth it! I am sure that Chinese B will help us a lot in the future!

[#teamnosleep]

12 hours ago, IBStudent1225 said:

 

I totally agree with this, although learning Chinese for me was an extremely study-intensive process, and I wish the Paper 1 examination would have allowed myself and classmates to reflect our abilities better. I took iGCSE Mandarin (Foreign Language) and then went onto IB Chinese B SL. It was a big leap but it was worth it! I am sure that Chinese B will help us a lot in the future!

Yeah, despite all that pain hahaha. It definitely will help us in the future, especially since China is one of the world's biggest economies now. Mind if I ask you guys what you guys plan to do in the future?