advice REAL IB Advice

[3la1ne]

So I have noticed a lot of threads are like, "here is some things that I wish that I knew in the IB" and then they proceed to tell you to not procrastinate, and to get enough sleep, and to get organized, etc. We all know you are going to procrastinate and do all those things no matter what we say. This thread is for those times when things get down to the wire and you need to do something really important.

So post any, lets say, unconventional, life hacks for everyone else out there.

These are mine:

1) They sell legit caffeine pills, so if you need energy and coffee isn't doing it for you any more, try some of those.

2) If you need to study and happen to have access to a printer, a laminator, a printer, and some clear tape, you can laminate a study sheet, stick it in a sheet protector and tape the sheet protector shut to study in the shower/bath tub. If you have some expo markers too you can write stuff on it and erase it later.

3) If you put an app called NoteFlio on your graphing calculator (I have a TI-84 Plus, I don't know if they have it for other calculator types) you can make notes to yourself on your calculator in class. It's really hard to type on it though, as you are always having to hit alpha and then a key so you can't go very fast.

So those are mine. Post yours below.

[mac117]

4. Use. A. Planner. Period. 

I'm being serious. No one in their right mind can keep up with the homework and different deadlines by simply "remembering them". You will forget stuff, and that's not a good thing. 

5. It will get harder, and that's ok.

This one might not be the same for every person, but it will apply to most of us at some point. Many people start IB and as they get eased into the programme they start to believe it's not "that bad". The workload start going up exponentially and your grades are very likely to drop at some point, so don't worry. Always try to stay on top of your work and do your best, as that's what matters most. 

6. Erasable pens are #life.

Their weird design isn't that great, but holy moly weren't they a great help during my maths revision. Easier to see than a pencil - perfect. I go through 2 every other week. 

[Nomenclature]

7) IB isn't the be-all, end-all in life. Nobody in real life (university admission are an isolated fantasyland) will care whether you got your IB diploma, and 99.9% of people won't know what the IB is. So just try to have some fun and meet some of the really cool people who you get to meet in this program.

8) Occasionally skipping class/school is a good strategy. Whether to destress, catch up on the work, or just reward yourself, if you aren't doing something critically important it can be a nice change of pace.

9) Save documents in the cloud. Much more reliable than going with local storage, but doing both is good too. PDF's are your friend when submitting anything that will be viewed on a computer that is not your own.

10) Say no to things. There will be a lot of opportunities in secondary school/IB. Naturally, you can't do them all. You also can't make everybody happy at the same time. 

 

[VeronicaG]

7 hours ago, Nomenclature said:

7) IB isn't the be-all, end-all in life. Nobody in real life (university admission are an isolated fantasyland) will care whether you got your IB diploma, and 99.9% of people won't know what the IB is. So just try to have some fun and meet some of the really cool people who you get to meet in this program.

Say it louder for the parents in the back.

 

Seriously though, IB isn't everything. I would still be where I am without the diploma (actually it would've been EASIER to get to where I am) but I probably would've been much happier in a certificate program or in my province's curriculum.

 

Anyways...

11) Change up the medium on which you rewrite notes. Confusing wording, I know but what I mean is don't stick with just pen and paper. I used coloured pens, blackboards, whiteboards and even DREW ON MY DRIVEWAY IN CHALK (I traced my sister and drew her internal organs). It really helps stimulate your creativity so you're not dreading rewriting 2 years of information

[IB_taking_over]

12. IB is only two years of your life. IB scores don't matter in the wild after you've completed the program. (It's a repeat, I know. But I truly believe it deserves repeating).

13. Failure is part of life. It is an opportunity for improvement; it does not mean you are any less intelligent. 

 

[ABKor752]

14. TALK TO YOUR TEACHERS. They are there to help, not to watch you suffer. If you need help on a question/topic, if you need revisions, if you even need stress management for that class, talk to those teachers. You are strong, but your teachers will be there for those times when you strength seems to fail you.

15. Don't force yourself to do anything. If someone says you are really good at history and thus should do it HL along with the three other HL's you were planning to do, be cautious and think for yourself. If you really want to become a lawyer but you would like to write a physics EE, don't force yourself to change it to something related to your desired major. Do what you want to do. What you want to do. WANT. I stress this because I found this out the hard way. I forced myself to compete in speech and debate outside of school despite my stage anxiety, because everyone told me not to quit and that I was very talented at it.

16. As soon as your school begins you on your EE track, start working immediately. However, do not think that this means you have to pull an all-nighter once a week and never do anything fun. Spend 30 minutes to an hour each day, or even just every other day, looking for topics, planning out organizations, collecting sources, outlining, writing, or even just thinking. Seriously, the sooner you start doing something as simple as thinking about it, the more time you will have if you need to change your topic at any point.

[Vioh]

17. Be nice to your teachers, so that you can ask to extend the deadline whenever you want . For example, whenever you talk to your teachers, try to discuss about some intellectual things to make them think that you are smart and that you are on top of everything study-related. That way, it will be easier for you to persuade them to extend the deadlines for you. Generally, there's no recipe for how to be nice to your teachers. But maybe just try to ask them about their personal lives (as if you really care haha). This strategy actually worked very well for me, because it always distracted my teacher from the fact that I didn't hand in my essay to her. 

18. I'm not gonna post any links to any copyrighted materials here because it's against the IBS rules. But I'm just gonna put my words out here, that with a bit of patience, you can literally find everything on the internet, from ebooks, to teacher support materials, to past exam papers. Of course, you won't be able to find these stuff on the first page of google, especially if you use some simple and common search phrases. Think hard about what kinds of search keywords you should put into the search engine.

19. Try to get your hands on the full version of Adobe Acrobat Pro (or similar pdf software) that allows you to directly edit PDF files. This is not really an IB advice per se, it's just a general study advice. The thing is, PDF is used everywhere these days. Many teachers use PDF to communicate to the students (e.g. presentation slides, homework assignment, ebook, etc.). Having a software (either by buying the full version, or by downloading the pirated version) that can edit the PDF directly would help you immensely in your study. For example, even if you have a paper textbook, it might be a good idea to scan it and make a digital version as well. Here, adobe acrobat pro can help you put together all the scanned pages, do the OCR (to recognize all the words, such that you will be able to perform searches on your textbook later on), delete pages that you don't like, or even change the contents or the positions of the contents in the PDF. That way, you can easily customize your study materials, making it easier for you to learn.