Past IB students - when did you start revision?

[greaterthaninfinity]

As the title says.

I'm an IB2 student and IB exams are fast approaching, but I'm not motivated at all because here in Canada, universities give out acceptances before final results. I've been accepted to the programmes I want and I don't feel any pressure anymore to really salvage my grades.

Am I a lost cause if I cram for IB exams?

And if you are also an IB2 like me, when do you plan on starting revision (or rather, when DID you start)?

Edited March 31, 2010 by greaterthaninfinity

[Sandwich]

Exactly this time last year around the start of April (well it would've been on Monday when we broke up for easter.. ) I started making notes on stuff and actually started revising (well, started FINISHING the syllabus for three subjects myself, but that's beside the point)... not particularly through choice, but we'd only just been allowed to finish our IAs at this point! It's not so bad/late -- after all, you've basically got a whole month. It's kinda cramming but it's paced cramming because there's still a lot of time (as opposed to a week or two before or something!!). If you're a bit of a crammer anyway, as I know I am, it's a good time period to be able to finish everything thoroughly and practice stuff. Literally I finished revising to a standard where I felt I'd covered everything reasonably adequately -just- in time for my exams.

I can see how it'd be hard to motivate yourself if you knew you were in no matter what, though. I mean it was only fear and a desperate wish to get in which made me really push myself in subjects I detest and am crap at! xP I dunno how you'd resolve that except for to perhaps think that if you get good IB grades it stands you in better stead for jobs later in life/over the summer? Or perhaps that the better you know your IB stuff, the easier Uni will be. Or indeed just that otherwise you basically wasted 2 years of your life. Whichever works best, if any!

[__inthemaking]

I started in April at the earliest for some subjects (math, sciences) and um a day before the exam for econ (not recommended).

Clearly I started early for the subjects I cared about and later for the ones I cared less about . Also because I did every past paper for math and the sciences I could get my hands on so I needed to start ahead of time to accomplish that.

I only crammed a day before for econ because I had bio papers 2 and 3 as well as econ paper 1 on the same day and bio was more important to me (one of my prereqs for university) so I focused more on that. In the end it worked out for me and I still did well on econ but I wouldn't recommend it because it was very stressful lol.

For the languages, I studied a couple days before the exam.

And you've been accepted but keep in mind that they're conditional acceptances (for the most part, I believe)! I still had to maintain a minimum 88% average to keep my acceptance into my top choice so that was my motivation.

Edited March 31, 2010 by __inthemaking

[moneyfaery]

About 2 weeks before my first exam, I think. Or something like that. My univ exams are in a week and I haven't started... in fact, I'm not even close to finishing all my assignments. 4 more to do, oh funnn

You have quite a while left. Study hard, study efficiently, and you'll be fine

[Sonneteer_Trombonist]

All my IB exams are in May, and I started revising in the last week of March. I've found that it's daunting going through everything that I learned two years ago and half-remember, so I think it's good to start doing some light revision early, because two years worth of stuff times six or seven subjects is a lot to take in at the last minute.

[master135]

I usually started revision like a week before an exam - last moment stuff is what sticks in memory the best

[flsweetheart422]

To be completely honest, I don't remember when I started studying for exams. All, I know is that I started half-heartedly studying too soon and by the time my exams were approaching, I didn't really care that much.

My advice to you is that you take your exams and study for them seriously! I did alright on my exams, but I could have received more college credit had I gotten one point higher here or there, of if I had actually written a couple essays for my AP Bio test instead of writing a letter to the grader...

So the moral of the story is, be a better student than me. Even if you're already "in," taking these exams seriously can get you "out" of classes that are way harder at the University level. Just do yourself a favor and give it your all so you don't regret anything.

(Oh and if you're cocky like me and thought that IB was 'so hard' and that you were 'prepared' for college, wake up because it's really tough here too. It sucks, but the learning doesn't really ever end. Oh and the IB exams may be easier to pass than college ones... I know they never asked me what the period of 2arctan(x) was on the Math SL exam....)

[bLub]

well I (IB2) kinda started before our mocks which were in... can hardly remember... February... but then we had so much work to do (coursework etc) so I couldn't do much revision. But now I'm trying to revise as much as possible!! just one month left!! arrr

[CommeDesEnfants]

I kind of began to study back in March, but it was generally rather light, slow-paced revision for my sciences. I'm really trying to kick it into high gear now, especially with only a month left , but "trying" is definitely the key word there. Can you believe we May 2010'ers only have 1 month left? Sigh. Time to begin studying for history and English quote memorization...

[Green]

As I remember, I started studying around late March. It was a reasonable amount of time, but considering the amount of procrastination involved I ended up cramming everything a week or two before the exams.

I think it depends on many things. One of which is how do you study? Some people are able to read, some have to talk to themselves, etc. I took quite a lot of time because I had to re-write all my notes and read them out loud a couple of times.

It also depends on what subjects you take. I understand Biology and Psychology have quite a lot involved, and from my experience if you study hard for your mocks, then revising for your final exams shouldn't be much of a problem.

Also, I guess some people tend to revise topics they enjoy, rather than topics they struggle with and find difficult. Try focusing on what you find difficult incase you run out of time later to revise the topics you actually like (and presumably you already know).

I'm not an expert at motivation, but what I tried to do is tell myself to read/revise two or 3 pages of Psychology in about 20 minutes. So once I've completed that I felt a bit successful, and I carried on with the rest of the topic. I think when you look at the topic as a whole, it seems like quite a lot to study for and revise, so you may put it away and procrastinate or feel unmotivated. So try to break everything into small sections and give yourself about 10 or 20 minutes for a page or so.

[greaterthaninfinity]

I was so glad to read the above posts. People who started studying a week before, I am officially as of now one of you. Thanks for giving me hope. CRAMMERS SHALL PWN.

Edited April 27, 2010 by greaterthaninfinity

[Mahuta ♥]

I started my revision for the final exams during winter break. But I should say that there were times where I would spend 3 days without touching a single book..but as I said, I started my planning around that time. The REAL work started right after the mocks,if that makes sense.

[Bishup]

I've kind of been going at a slow pace but full on revision starts on the 4th of April when my A1 orals are done. Then it is exactly 1 month to my exam. I'm starting now but it's daunting. I also have this thing like Canada I only need to pace the IB to get into my Uni so I'm quite pleasantly stressed if you catch my drift.