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Trying to make it through the IB!! Need a pep Talk.

Hi,

Im kinda stressing out right now. I have a history and anthropology essay due this week, anthropology mock to revise for, an english presentation and a film review. :frown:

can anyone give me some kind of advise, i really need to calm down. Hopefully someone who has completed the IB. If you're not its okay, i need the distraction anyway :smile:

Thanks
IntoTheDark

Btw this is my first thread, go easy on me

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I finished the IB last year, so I completely understand how you feel. When I had so much work to do I sometimes thought 'will I have enough time to do this all?'. Truth is : you do. As long as you plan out your time carefully and work hard you'll be fine.

What helped me when I was really stressed was to not talk about it so much. Some people find talking to others helpful but I sometimes think talking can worry people so much they end up doing nothing at all. Think of each task as something to just get over with, and then move on to the next one.

Hope this helps
:h:
Reply 2
hey, i'm new here and i'm going to start with the IB iin fall. is there any thread for IB newbies? because i'm really freaking out right now. i have only a few weeks left here...and as i said i'm totally freaking out. also i'm kind of lost here so would you please help me finding the right thread? this one was the only anywhere near what i was looking for...
thanks alot.
Reply 3
Hey, I've literally just completed the IB, and while I'm not going to deny it is hardwork, it is far, far from impossible.

Interestingly, a lot of people struggle and immediately say "IB is impossible, the work load is ridiculous". Indeed, I had a few class mates who went round saying (and believing themselves) 'us who do IB we get like 6 3000 word essays a night, so many assignments and I hardly go to bed'. Try not to get bogged into the thinking that IB is there to kill us, and it will help :smile:

Follow the wise words of the above poster, if you manage and plan your time, you will get through it. Before IB, I rendered such things as spreadsheets and timetables useless, but they really helped me. Make a list/table/chart of your current workload and it helps you progress through it (I had a whiteboard with every piece of coursework/EE/Tok presentation that counted for final grades, and had a column for started and another for completed...I found it really helped to know how much I had to do.

Yes, it seems very very tough at times, and there will be moments when you have a lot on your plate, but do not leave ANYTHING to the last minute; little chunks at a time that have been planned and you'll find you are slowly working your way through it all :smile:

Hope this helps a bit and good luck!
Reply 4
hey:smile: it actually helped alot. I knd of started to calm down a bit...
are you familiar with th german abitur? do you think the ib is harder? i was going to do the abitur, but decided to go to boarding school and do the IB, since i used to be really disorganized and wanted to be kind of pushed in being more organized. Also i thought that since in germany you have a lot of subjectsthat don't actually count it might be easier to focus.
thanks for the advice anyway.:smile:
Reply 5
No, what do you have to do in the abitur? Are you German?

Interesting that you say Germany has more subjects than the IB? In England most of my friends do A-levels, and they consider IB a lot of subjects :P

And from what I've done, IB helps massively with organisation :biggrin:
Reply 6
i'm german,but bilingual since half of my family is american.
in the abitur you have 5 subjects for the finals,but i don't really get the two years before.
friends told me that you have to take RE,PE,eco/geo,maths german,a foreign language and at least two more subjects( most people take more,because they need to have 138 hours or something). i don't really get it so i just went with the IB. my sister,who is doing the abitur, tried to explain it, but i still didn't get it. and most of my friends who did the abitur say that they find it kind of confusing themselves...
where you disorganized before you started with the IB?:biggrin: How did it help you?:biggrin:
i know i'm asking alotof questions but i'm just so curious and incredibly nervous.:smile:
btw thank you soooo much for your advice.
Reply 7
Ahhh sounds confusing :P

Errr no I've always been pretty organised, which has really helped as with the IB you always have multiple projects/coursework at once, and you have to keep on top of it all, but it is manageable :biggrin:

It's helped me not so much in a tangible way, but the fact it has pushed me and kept me motivated means I'm going to be better prepared for later in life. Also found the breadth of subjects means you never seem to be lost in a conversation; some of my A-level mates are so scientifically orientated that they struggle to converse about anything else :P

Seriously though, there isn't a massive need to be nervous; there is so much hype about the IB being impossible and I think it's become the cliche: "I can't do this work, not because I'm not working hard enough but because the IB is impossible". Thing is, with a cool head, good work ethic and the ability to manage your time anyone can get through it, albeit with differing grades. Just stay on top of it and no need to be nervous :biggrin:

No worries buddy, any other questions just fire awayy
Reply 8
seriously...thank you so much. i'm slowly,very slowly, but still starting to calm down...no one ever managed to do that :biggrin:
still i'm nervous about boarding school...don't know what that's like at all :biggrin:
Reply 9
Everyone feels this way. They really do.
Reply 10
that really is good to know:smile:
Reply 11
so what subjects did you guys do during the IB?
Reply 12
HL Physics, HL Maths, HL History, SL English, SL Economics, SL Spanish Ab initio :smile:
Reply 13
i was thinking bout HL art, SL Maths, HL bio,SL history or economics,german and english(don't know which one in HL)
hows economics SL? is it hard? because i had economics and law for the last two years and the law part was always kind of easier.
and do you know where i can get cheap IB books? i don't know if im going to need them,but i want to know where to buy them jus in case.
Reply 14
If you've already done economics, do SL economics, I did none before and it was still easy :P. And history HL is still lots and lots of material to cover.

Amazon I went for. To be honest, the IB study guides (Like this one http://www.amazon.com/Physics-IB-Diploma-Study-Guides/dp/0199151415/ref=cm_lmf_tit_4) are pretty good, and then you can get all your extra reading from the internet/wikipedia/and general books :smile:
Reply 15
okay. thanksalot. btww hat did you do for CAS?
and thank you so much for your advice:smile:
Reply 16
hey, i forgot to mention that i started my own thread:smile:
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2021153&p=37940602
Reply 17
Ahhh CAS.

That was the one I was most worried about, purely because we didn't get told enough about it, but in the end it was fine.

I do lots of sports so that covered a lot of it, brought in my musical side and got involved with projects locally and at school to cover the service. CAS isn't anything too hard, just time consuming and tedious. Also remember to update it when you have nothing else on your plate, for instance I chose a couple of hours in each holiday and just blasted the reflections :smile: Whereas some of my friends didn't touch it until nearly exams...that took away what was left of their free time :P

But yeah, there are plenty of things out there to do for it :biggrin:
Reply 18
ok.thanks so much.so what school did you go to?:smile:
Reply 19
i'm bored :biggrin: who's watching football?:smile:

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