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Math SL EE HELP! Where do I start?


IBwhyme?

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My EE is due the first week of February and I haven't even started it! I've chosen my topic and done some research but I don't know how to begin or what exactly is needed in a Math EE...I've also heard rumors that Math EEs don't have to be 4,000 words. Does anyone know anything about how long they need to be or what you have to do for one?

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First off, are you serious!? There is noway you can do an EE, with all the stages it has to go through in a month, it's like only your first draft. Most people start WRITING their EEs starting from March of IB1 and have the 2nd/final or 3rd/final draft done by november.

I have got no idea what you're been doing all this time, but, since it's way too late for me to say this, I think all EEs have to be 4000 words.

How can you not know what you have to do in it when apparently you have done researches? Not many people do Math EEs, so it's hard to find someone to give you urgent help.Ask your supervisor, they're suppose to let you know about everything before even starting the EE.

I don't know how to begin or what exactly is needed in a Math EE

Why in the world are you doing a MATH EE then?

Having said all this, I really hope I misunderstood the whole post and that what's due the first week of feb is the first draft, lol.

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I don't envy you...

Yeah, I think math and science EEs tend to be shorter. Mind you the 4000 words is an upper word limit, so technically you could write 1500 words. Usually, that's not enough to get good marks though. But I think you could pull off a 2800 word EE for math and do fine. It really depends on what your topic is and how much you're expressing using a medium other than words, like pictures or graphs. The thing is you don't want to look at "4000 word EE" and think 'man I have to write 4000 words.' You want to think 'dang, I only have 4000 words to express my knowledge and understanding, so I better be concise. I've spent a lot of time researching and through this paper, I'll show off.'

So check this out to see how you'll be graded: http://www.ibsurvival.com/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=109

Your IB coordinator should have already mentioned it. Also your supervisor probably has some EEs that he or she can show you to help you figure out a possible layout.

I'm guessing your final product is due in February because mine is too. Do you know what your research question is? My school does all of this stuff really late, but even we had to turn in a first draft of the EE earlier this month. Maybe if you tell us what you're thinking and what you've found so far, we can help you figure out a plan?

Typically, what you do is you have something that you're kinda interested in. You start researching and find a lot of random information that gets you to ask more questions. The more you research, the more questions you have. You eventually have to come to a point where you realize that you need to pick a narrower topic and start specializing there. And if you can't find a suitable topic to do your EE in, you have to go broad again and then narrow to another point, at which point you'll be pretty frustrated. Anyways, what exactly do you need help with?

Edited by sweetnsimple786
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First off, are you serious!? There is noway you can do an EE, with all the stages it has to go through in a month, it's like only your first draft. Most people start WRITING their EEs starting from March of IB1 and have the 2nd/final or 3rd/final draft done by november.

Um, sorry, I refuse to believe that. I know of people who have started and finished their EEs in a week, so it's totally possible. Maths EEs take longer, sure, but it can still be done in a month.

OP - I believe the reason you want to do a Maths or a Science EE is so that it's shorter however you'd need to be a genius in maths or at least do Maths at HL to pull off a decent Maths EE. Do something in the arts such as History or English A1, it's much easier than a scientific EE and quicker to do thus enabling you to get it done in no time at all.

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Um, sorry, I refuse to believe that. I know of people who have started and finished their EEs in a week, so it's totally possible. Maths EEs take longer, sure, but it can still be done in a month.

Yeah ok, fair enough, but it wont be a good one. Anyone can think up a 4000 words essay in a week let alone just typing it.

However that doesn't mean you should leave it till the last month, in fact for someone who doesn't even know what they're suppose to do or even what they have to do yet, this is very late. I prefer saying it's unlikely to be possible when someone asks me, otherwise they would take my comforting words for granted and keep on procrastinating. But yeah I agree it should be possible.

Anyhow back to you 'IBWHYME', as they said, Math EE will take longer and you have to be a super genius. You can easily change your EE to anything much easier and simpler, for example, choose a literary book you like, pick out a theme in the book and write the essay discussing how the author used whatever devices he used to make this theme stand out, or something like that. This is just an idea I got off the top of my head, I am sure you can think of something better. :vampire:

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Well I wrote mine at this time of year (actually I distinctly remember slaving over it on New Year's Day last year... bad times...) to turn it in for the first week back (2nd week of Jan) so it IS possible.

However, you need to seriously put in the effort if they want your final version in by February. As other people have said, drafts and proof reading will take you time if you want to get any real benefit from them and even once you've finally written your essay, you're looking at at the VERY least (assuming your supervisor is efficient and there's very little to change about your essay) at about a week to move from the draft to the final version. More or less if you want to get a good EE, you should do it early or do it late but REALLY knuckle down and know what you're doing.

Maths is a very difficult EE subject to score highly in. As other people have said, you can't really muddle through but do need some element of "genius" and ideally to be doing HL Maths, because of course they don't mark your essay dependent on whether it's SL or HL that you take. These things aren't essential, but I imagine they're useful. I recommend you buy a subscription and read the files on the site because looking at example EEs is very important for you to work out what standard is required and what sort of an answer is actually substandard, despite appearing superficially to be a decent essay.

It is very worrying that you've done your research and come up with a title and still don't know what you're doing. I'm going to assume this means "how to start writing the essay" as opposed to the content! You may feel slightly directionless at this stage, which is pretty normal, but if you honestly haven't a clue at this stage you are a wee bit stuffed if you were aiming for a good mark. What I found most helpful, not that I did a Maths essay, was looking at the exemplar essays (google 50 Excellent Extended Essays - not sure if there is a Maths one but if there is, it's VERY useful) and then modelling how I was going to go about my argument based on how they went about theirs. So if they started out with a subparagraph defining the problem (and indeed the subject specific guidelines suggest this is a good thing to do), I started out like that. If they proved their argument in steps, I proved my argument in steps. You can use these things as a framework, along with the subject-specific guidelines Sweetnsimple linked you to, and gradually it'll come together if you put the time in. My suggestion is to work on it intensively over a few days whilst you're in the Christmas holidays still. Once you've bashed out the first version of your essay, even if it needs tweaking, you'll be out of the dire straits of a last-minute essay :vampire:

Also discuss things very closely with your supervisor. You don't want them to dictate your essay, as that might lose you points, but be very positive with them in terms of making them validate your decisions. They don't do any work that way, but if you're ever unsure about something go "Do you think X really works here?" and if they mess you around about it, press them (e.g. "The bit I'm most worried about is that, if you look HERE at the subject guidelines, you'll spot it says "BLAH", and so I'm worried X is not BLAH enough..."). That kind of thing. Milk them for all you can!

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Well, i started by EE in July and handed in the first complete draft in october, after realising that my EE was ALL WRONG ! i had to repeat the WHOLE thing and it took me lets say a month and 2 weeks? it was sure difficult, but mine was Arabic B, which is a language B course but you mate, Math ? that must be 10 times difficult than language B especially starting it now !

Well, Good Luck =)

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