Is it always this bad?

[keeley45733]

SOoooo I being open here is the IB always this hard. I'm a year 1 and I'm 2 months into school. So far I am doing terrible in all of my classes except Mandarin SL.

Can anyone else relate to the first few months being rough

annnnnnndddd

how do I get out of this bad grade slump because I've NEVER gotten the kind of grades I'm getting right now, like ever, in my life. It gets better right?

Because if yes, how did ya'll do it??

[Nomenclature]

If it's because you not studying/doing the work, then you might want to think about whether IB is something that you want to do. If not, that's totally fine. If so, then change your habits and you'll be fine. By the way, it's completely normal to be getting lower grades now. School's difficulty has increased dramatically, so it makes sense.Everybody's feeling a bit overwhelmed but eventually you should get used to it. Don't expect to always do great, just do your best. "D's get degrees", as we say in North America.

If it's because you're too busy with extracurriculars then make some decisions about what you want to do less of.

Don't study hard, study smart.

p.s. I see you listed math and physics. I only did math, so I'll give my two cents on that. Do problems from start to finish. Read how to do the problem. Once you feel like you kind of understand, try to do a whole problem by yourself. Don't just immediately look up the answer if you get stuck for a few minutes. Go back and watch the work on the other problems. Make sure you can do everything that's been covered. Working through a problem from start to finish and then checking answers is generally the best way to learn. 

[Nomenclature]

7 hours ago, strawberry said:

Hello, I too am feeling the same way in year 1. Tests got harder, and I feel like all I do is study all day  ._. just know that you're not alone and there are several of us all across the world but hopefully we will learn to manage it!
 

Currently this semester I am taking -> sl math, hl chem, sl  bio and sl french. Do you have any general tips for me on doing well and handling these particular subjects? I am having trouble balancing homework from the math and sciences in particular, and as such, I get behind on one (right now I'm behind in hl chem ._.)

Thanks!

 

I've heard chemistry is a beast, I never took it.

Just following up on the math I'll explain what I meant by "Don't study hard, study smart" because it can be kind of a cliche. What I mean is that it's much more effective to spend 7 minutes doing a problem from start to finish without help, than spending 20 minutes to do five problems and checking your answers at intermediate steps and working with friends. Second, always after watching a video or reading an explanation, make sure you can actually do it without the source material at hand. 

I had a really good teacher for Bio SL and I think that that helped me a lot. Start early on the IA, don't worry about not making the perfect IA. IB is where we learn we may be mediocre in some areas of life (ok I'm projecting haha but bio wasn't my strength 🙂). I found that taking summary notes of the book helped me a lot. 

French SL. I'd recommend Coffee Break French and/or HelloTalk if you want to do something fun and get ahead of your class. With languages it's actually kind of easy to get ahead and it's fun. It's kind of funny to use the subjunctive before your teacher has even taught it. If you don't want to do something like that that's perfectlyunderstandable, but do actively use French when the opportunity arises. Always talk to your prof in French. Play Fifa in French (or whatever you like to do). Spend time procrastinating watching dumb videos on Youtube about makeup or #boyfriend tag? Guess what? They're also there in French. If you interact with a Francophone or go to Quebéc, don't be afraid, just speak in French.

Re: being behind I'm not sure about IB Chem, but IB Math isn't so cumulative (unlike many math courses) so you can do really bad in a unit and then really good in the next. Don't worry, we all struggle at times and do better at others, just remember to come back in a year and a half to those concepts and study them a little. But by that time even the kids who did well on them will have forgotten them so it's okay.  If chemistry is more cumulative, then I'm not sure.