URGENT!! please help!! AYP & IB

[macbakeib88]

Hi 

I am considering whether to drop AYP (award for young people). You basically have to go on 3 expeditions (one in november, jan and feb), attend meetings after school once a week. The expeditions will cause me to miss several IB lessons, including 3 chemistry HL, film HL, psych SL and TOK. 

 

I am not sure whether I should quit AYP or not. I am afraid that I won't have time to finish revision as I am already very busy with extra curricular activities excluding AYP (i do sports 4 times a week, and tuition as well, so I don't have much time for revision). I am in my first year of IB and i've heard that it will get worse, so i was wondering if anyone thinks that I will be able to manage missing several lessons for AYP, and have enough time for revision even though i barely have any free days. 

 

Currently, I do not have any free days to do volunteering so I am very stressed out and don't know what to do. 

 

I would appreciate it greatly if someone could give me advice! Thank you so much in advance. 

[ABKor752]

I've dealt with the issue of having too much on my plate, so let me try and help you out:

1. Ask yourself this: Am I going to enjoy continuing AYP? Not should you do it, but will you enjoy doing it. Without going into details, I've made the mistake to pile myself up with so many things that cause me anxiety that I cannot focus on school work. However, the activities that I do choose to do are ones that I love, making me much happier. We are only on earth for a 100 years. It's not about doing things to get ahead, but doing things to enjoy the present.

2. Out of the four classes you mentioned, I only take two: Chem HL and TOK. Regardless, all IB classes will require a lot of time to be spent outside of school on certain projects/presentations mandated by the IB. I am in my second year, and what has helped me out thus far has been knowing what to expect, as in, what those projects are for every class. For TOK, you take it once first year and a second time in second year. First time, it is all about getting acquainted with TOK terminology and topics. Second time, you take all you learned and do a presentation on a question about knowledge you create (10 minutes if a single-person presentation, 10 minutes times number of people if a multi-person presentation up to 3 people) and a 1600-word essay on a topic from a list you are given. Chem HL is very conceptual and requires some memorization (not as much as bio) and some math (not as much as physics). When you study for this class, you want to try and visualize certain things that are happening, like graphs for rates of reactions or the structure of an atom. Other than IB exams, there are only two IB-mandated projects for sciences: an internal assessment (basically a lab report on a question you make up) and the Group 4 project (a group science project, I think the details differ between schools). I would say to do your research to know what's ahead so you can plan ahead, physically and mentally.

3. Find down time. Athletes in the Olympics who take a month-long break after the Olympic season is over before starting training again often do much better than those who get right back into training without breaks. You need to find times where you can relax. Read a book. Play a game. Watch videos. Do something that you enjoy to help your body and mind recharge, or else you will wear yourself out trying to juggle everything at your hands.

To me, it sounds like you might be doing too much, however that is not my way of telling you to drop this AYP. I would say to sit down for 10 minutes in a private and quiet place. Then, think to yourself about AYP: What is ahead for me, and will I enjoy it? Let that question guide you.

I wish you the best of luck in your choices, and no matter what, I wish you luck in your IB career.

[macbakeib88]

11 hours ago, ABKor752 said:

I've dealt with the issue of having too much on my plate, so let me try and help you out:

1. Ask yourself this: Am I going to enjoy continuing AYP? Not should you do it, but will you enjoy doing it. Without going into details, I've made the mistake to pile myself up with so many things that cause me anxiety that I cannot focus on school work. However, the activities that I do choose to do are ones that I love, making me much happier. We are only on earth for a 100 years. It's not about doing things to get ahead, but doing things to enjoy the present.

2. Out of the four classes you mentioned, I only take two: Chem HL and TOK. Regardless, all IB classes will require a lot of time to be spent outside of school on certain projects/presentations mandated by the IB. I am in my second year, and what has helped me out thus far has been knowing what to expect, as in, what those projects are for every class. For TOK, you take it once first year and a second time in second year. First time, it is all about getting acquainted with TOK terminology and topics. Second time, you take all you learned and do a presentation on a question about knowledge you create (10 minutes if a single-person presentation, 10 minutes times number of people if a multi-person presentation up to 3 people) and a 1600-word essay on a topic from a list you are given. Chem HL is very conceptual and requires some memorization (not as much as bio) and some math (not as much as physics). When you study for this class, you want to try and visualize certain things that are happening, like graphs for rates of reactions or the structure of an atom. Other than IB exams, there are only two IB-mandated projects for sciences: an internal assessment (basically a lab report on a question you make up) and the Group 4 project (a group science project, I think the details differ between schools). I would say to do your research to know what's ahead so you can plan ahead, physically and mentally.

3. Find down time. Athletes in the Olympics who take a month-long break after the Olympic season is over before starting training again often do much better than those who get right back into training without breaks. You need to find times where you can relax. Read a book. Play a game. Watch videos. Do something that you enjoy to help your body and mind recharge, or else you will wear yourself out trying to juggle everything at your hands.

To me, it sounds like you might be doing too much, however that is not my way of telling you to drop this AYP. I would say to sit down for 10 minutes in a private and quiet place. Then, think to yourself about AYP: What is ahead for me, and will I enjoy it? Let that question guide you.

I wish you the best of luck in your choices, and no matter what, I wish you luck in your IB career.

Thank you so much for this detailed response! I just finished reading through it and it was extremely helpful for me! I will take the time to consider whether or not I want to drop AYP or not, as I feel that I will not enjoy hiking for two nights three times, and maybe ask the teacher leading the activity on their opinion as well. 

Again, I am extremely grateful for your comprehensive response that has given me a lot more insight into the IB! 

Thank you!

[SC2Player]

@ABKor752 put it pretty well in terms of considerations - I have a bit more regarding AYP specifically. 

Our school made it pretty much mandatory to do AYP Bronze for some reason in Grade 9 - I have no clue how helpful it is really for university (nor where my AYP booklet thingy is either; I probably should find it). Anyways, I have some experience on the matter.

Are you attempting to gain bronze, silver, and gold in the two years of IB? Honestly, I'd say that's going to be quite difficult (lots of service hours, 3 expeditions + planning, and the physical recreation bit is quite a lot too). Bronze was already quite time-consuming for me, and that's considering that our school planned our expeditions, ensuring that no lessons clashed by giving the whole grade a free week. Maybe consider doing only bronze, or just bronze and silver; depends on your time and motivation really. 

With that said, however, you could look into whether or not you could tie together the AYP hours with CAS hours. I do know a lot of people at my school used AYP activities as CAS activities when going for silver or gold, so you could end up effectively doing two things at once with your hours. The residential project for gold may even be a good CAS project. The only thing that probably doesn't count as CAS is the expedition (although you might be able to make it as a CAS project too, if you did enough independent planning). Ask your CAS coordinator on this. 

Edited September 5, 2017 by SC2Player

[macbakeib88]

On 9/5/2017 at 9:40 PM, SC2Player said:

@ABKor752 put it pretty well in terms of considerations - I have a bit more regarding AYP specifically. 

Our school made it pretty much mandatory to do AYP Bronze for some reason in Grade 9 - I have no clue how helpful it is really for university (nor where my AYP booklet thingy is either; I probably should find it). Anyways, I have some experience on the matter.

Are you attempting to gain bronze, silver, and gold in the two years of IB? Honestly, I'd say that's going to be quite difficult (lots of service hours, 3 expeditions + planning, and the physical recreation bit is quite a lot too). Bronze was already quite time-consuming for me, and that's considering that our school planned our expeditions, ensuring that no lessons clashed by giving the whole grade a free week. Maybe consider doing only bronze, or just bronze and silver; depends on your time and motivation really. 

With that said, however, you could look into whether or not you could tie together the AYP hours with CAS hours. I do know a lot of people at my school used AYP activities as CAS activities when going for silver or gold, so you could end up effectively doing two things at once with your hours. The residential project for gold may even be a good CAS project. The only thing that probably doesn't count as CAS is the expedition (although you might be able to make it as a CAS project too, if you did enough independent planning). Ask your CAS coordinator on this. 

Hi, thank you for your reply. I have asked the AYP leader on whether the Silver AYP counts as CAS, however at our school it doesn't. I have made the decision to drop AYP because I want to pursue other CAS activities that I will actually enjoy (as I don't really fancy the idea of having to hike for two nights and miss several lessons as a result). I've also heard for teachers that you shouldn't do something that you won't enjoy in the long run, and I didn't really enjoy Bronze AYP, and feel that silver will just cause me unnecessary stress (I don't even like hiking that much! haha)

Edited September 8, 2017 by macbakeib88

[ABKor752]

50 minutes ago, macbakeib88 said:

Hi, thank you for your reply. I have asked the AYP leader on whether the Silver AYP counts as CAS, however at our school it doesn't. I have made the decision to drop AYP because I want to pursue other CAS activities that I will actually enjoy (as I don't really fancy the idea of having to hike for two nights and miss several lessons as a result). I've also heard for teachers that you shouldn't do something that you won't enjoy in the long run, and I didn't really enjoy Bronze AYP, and feel that silver will just cause me unnecessary stress (I don't even like hiking that much! haha)

I think you made the right decision.