Rejected from Woodhouse. Defo doing IB.

I've been unsure about the IB but I decied that if I don't get into woodhouse I'm fated to do the IB and I didn't and I guess It's final, I'm doing the IB. Please don't tell me all the negatives about it I just want to know how can I prepare myself for what is to come. I know how tough it's going to be and I'm willing to work for it. What can I do now or during the summer to get me ready for it. Also to get into the top universities with IB do I have to get 38 or above ? How do you explain what IB is to someone who has no idea what it is ? Can it really be compared to 6 A-levels or is that an over exaggeration.

What about the SL french do you really have to write a 350 word essay in the exam ?:confused

first of all, im doing my ib exams right now (started yesterday) and i wont tell u any negative stuff about that sota things. anyway, ib is a very tough program, and in the 2nd year the workload will be unbelievably fierce and intense and if u want an advice for that, make sure u dont procrastinate a lot and that u know time management otherwise u wont sleep well 2nd french sl 350 word essay i dont know abt french but for english sl, which was abt 30 hours ago, i wrote a commentary about 6 pages (3 front and back).
as per a 38, it is usually what nearly all medical schools in the uk look for, and a 38 is the minimum grade that can get u into any course in unis like oxbridge. getting a 38 is tough, but a 38 is considered an excellent grade as well, equivalent to 3-4 A's at A levels. IB is not like 6 a levels but getting a full 45/45 in ib is like getting 5A*'s at a levels for french though, im sure u can choose french B sl which is the easiest language subject level and ur essay would be about 250-350 words. good luck in IB and make sure u manage ur time well, i guess u cant practice that in summer cz ud have to go thro the stress to understand. looking forward to the day ull come out a survivor haha jk dont freak out

Wow. Thanks so much I feel a lot more informed. 6 PAGES LONG :O what grade are you aiming for - if you don't mind me asking - Yeah, I chose sl french, I do french for GCSE and I'm not to bad at it but not good enough to take higher level French. What is the average grades at IB are 5 acceptable ? What about the books you revise from are they informative what do you think I could do ?

Also the EXAMS OMG you have to do them at the end of the 2 years is that scary I'm so used to doing modular exams I've never had them all at once. Can you retake them ?

Do you have time to make friends ? honestly will I have a social life ?

I'm doing
Maths HL
Physics HL
Economics HL
French SL
History SL
English SL

Is that good ? Are they going to be really hard ? Are the exams really really difficult ? Do you feel you get enough time for exams ?

OMG there are so many ways to faiil ! How come your schedules aren't that tight do you do less exams ? Are the deadlines for coursework, how much coursework is there ? Do you have to learn a lot of information like really in depth stuff. Do you have to read loads of books for english ?

where to start.. first q's then ur subjects:
that is only good if u wanna be an engineer or a mathematician, otherwise ur torturing urself the worst combinations in ib r chem and bio HL with math at sl or hl (which im doing, usually for med people) and math and physics hl with econ (usually for physics people who wanna study engineering in uni) it depends about the time.. like our school we finished early, did our mocks in march 20-30 and had a month of study break. others did their mocks 2 weeks ago so jst had like 10 days of prior studying before the first exam. the HL subjects r very much in depth, SL is more acceptable fail means u dont get the full diploma, jst certificates on subjects u passed. schedule isnt tight cz its the IB my subjects turned out to be more scattered around luckily, but i do the same number of subjects
commenting on coursework in regards to ur subjects:
physics hl ud do many full lab reports with 2 to be corrected and it wud make up 24% of ur final grade
math hl 2 portfolios, make up 20% of ur grade..
econ hl not sure but i guess lots of commentaries that make up again abt 20-25% of ur final grade.. all these require A LOT of work btw.. i do sl math and it took me a full day from abt 12pm-12am to finish 1 portfolio, got abt a 16% which is 1 mark under a 7
french no idea english u do 1 world literature essay, which is abt 1500 words, making up 20% of ur grade, 1 oral presentation and 1 oral commentary, both 15% each, so a total of 50% depend on ur coursework.
history no idea but heard theres a lotta coursework to do.
if u dont wanna suffer, jst dont procrastinate and do the work on time, or divide it into a period of time so u dont need to blow ur brain off
deadlines for coursework r packed between mid feb til mid march usually.. lets not forget the 1200-1600 word tok essay u shud do, and also the 4000 word extended essay.. both have deadlines in that margin for final drafts..
my subjects are chem bio arabic b hl and eng math and business sl
my advice is, dont go for physics and math hl unless ur really willing to spend a lot of time working and sacrificing ur free time and ur social time in the 2nd year especially, and if u rnt really planning to become an engineer

That's not good I want to get into banking and economics, Uni's wont accept me if I fail right ? Oh I'm sorry about that 16% can't you retake or improve it ? What's inside a portfolio ? What are commentaries ? I really don't want to be an engineer snap ! I need to change them don't I. OMG how do you organise your time !? What subject do you think I should take instead ?

That's not good I want to get into banking and economics, Uni's wont accept me if I fail right ? Oh I'm sorry about that 16% can't you retake or improve it ? What's inside a portfolio ? What are commentaries ? I really don't want to be an engineer snap ! I need to change them don't I. OMG how do you organise your time !? What subject do you think I should take instead ?

Hey, I'm sorry I can't read what aeyurttaser13 has written because the text-speak is doing my head in so apologies if this has been covered.

Firstly, let me start with saying that most myths about IB are not true, and IB is a really great programme. It can definitely be tough and sound daunting at first, however, rest assured, this need not be the case. IB largely, and much more than other qualifications, is a manageable qualification – this means that if you learn how to approach it, how to do things, and what’s the best practice, you can succeed with relative ease while if you fail to understand and approach the IB properly, it can become the bane of your life. So work smart not hard, and you'll do well and might actually enjoy it!

Your subject choices look great, Mathematics at HL will suit you very well for a career/further study in banking or finance, together with Economics for grounding in economic theory. Physics at HL is also a great course, however, do bear in mind that all HL courses are difficult, so make sure you choose those that you actually enjoy - if you do that, you won't find them difficult, and won't mind the bit of extra work you have to put in. So make sure you do like Maths, Econ and Phys. This is also true about SL as well - subject choices make or break candidates - but choosing what you enjoy at HL is crucial.

Social life is easy to have when you're doing the IB, I definitely had one and 90% of my classmates did too. There's always a couple of people who don't get how to do things and get too bogged down in unnecessary work or detail and spend too little time sleeping and enjoying themselves but that's the exception, or it should be anyway.

The way aeyurttaser13 listed ways to fail I think is entirely unrepresentative - very very few people fail. To get an E in TOK or EE, for example you basically have to not do it at all - and to get 24 points means getting 4 or less in everything, which means doing practically no work and not listening in the lessons. So, as you can see, for vast majority of people whether they're going to get the diploma is never really a consideration.

As for the amount you write in exams - it can sound daunting, again, (if someone told me I'd write 18 pages in 2 hours before I'd done IB I'd tell them they need to get their head checked) but it's not really that big a deal. The reason why you write so much is because you know stuff and just need to get it down on paper - surely not a bad thing! When it comes to exams it really is just get the questions and write down the answers as quick and well-developed as you can - not rocket science, really!

As for coursework, each course has an Internal Assessment component - for English it'd be a few essays, for economics, commentaries on articles, for physics practicals, etc. These are spread throughout the 2 years usually so it's not all at once, however, most people tend to find they procrastinate at first and then suddenly need to pull a few all-nighters - but it's all good fun, and you can avoid it if you plan properly and are good with deadlines

These are the questions I noticed - again, I'm sure aeyurttaser13 has explained most stuff, just thought I'd weigh in, as I think IB gets a bit too much bad press around TSR. I really did enjoy it, had fun, and a social life - and am not a 'geeky' person, nor a genius, by any means. Let me know if you have any other questions (or any that I have missed and that you'd like answered).

Hey, I'm sorry I can't read what aeyurttaser13 has written because the text-speak is doing my head in so apologies if this has been covered.

Firstly, let me start with saying that most myths about IB are not true, and IB is a really great programme. It can definitely be tough and sound daunting at first, however, rest assured, this need not be the case. IB largely, and much more than other qualifications, is a manageable qualification – this means that if you learn how to approach it, how to do things, and what’s the best practice, you can succeed with relative ease while if you fail to understand and approach the IB properly, it can become the bane of your life. So work smart not hard, and you'll do well and might actually enjoy it!

Your subject choices look great, Mathematics at HL will suit you very well for a career/further study in banking or finance, together with Economics for grounding in economic theory. Physics at HL is also a great course, however, do bear in mind that all HL courses are difficult, so make sure you choose those that you actually enjoy - if you do that, you won't find them difficult, and won't mind the bit of extra work you have to put in. So make sure you do like Maths, Econ and Phys. This is also true about SL as well - subject choices make or break candidates - but choosing what you enjoy at HL is crucial.

Social life is easy to have when you're doing the IB, I definitely had one and 90% of my classmates did too. There's always a couple of people who don't get how to do things and get too bogged down in unnecessary work or detail and spend too little time sleeping and enjoying themselves but that's the exception, or it should be anyway.

The way aeyurttaser13 listed ways to fail I think is entirely unrepresentative - very very few people fail. To get an E in TOK or EE, for example you basically have to not do it at all - and to get 24 points means getting 4 or less in everything, which means doing practically no work and not listening in the lessons. So, as you can see, for vast majority of people whether they're going to get the diploma is never really a consideration.

As for the amount you write in exams - it can sound daunting, again, (if someone told me I'd write 18 pages in 2 hours before I'd done IB I'd tell them they need to get their head checked) but it's not really that big a deal. The reason why you write so much is because you know stuff and just need to get it down on paper - surely not a bad thing! When it comes to exams it really is just get the questions and write down the answers as quick and well-developed as you can - not rocket science, really!

As for coursework, each course has an Internal Assessment component - for English it'd be a few essays, for economics, commentaries on articles, for physics practicals, etc. These are spread throughout the 2 years usually so it's not all at once, however, most people tend to find they procrastinate at first and then suddenly need to pull a few all-nighters - but it's all good fun, and you can avoid it if you plan properly and are good with deadlines

These are the questions I noticed - again, I'm sure aeyurttaser13 has explained most stuff, just thought I'd weigh in, as I think IB gets a bit too much bad press around TSR. I really did enjoy it, had fun, and a social life - and am not a 'geeky' person, nor a genius, by any means. Let me know if you have any other questions (or any that I have missed and that you'd like answered).

I'm doing
Maths HL
Physics HL
Economics HL
French SL
History SL
English SL

Is that good ? Are they going to be really hard ? Are the exams really really difficult ? Do you feel you get enough time for exams ?

OMG there are so many ways to faiil ! How come your schedules aren't that tight do you do less exams ? Are the deadlines for coursework, how much coursework is there ? Do you have to learn a lot of information like really in depth stuff. Do you have to read loads of books for english ?

That sounds really remeasuring thanks Few more questions though

How do you approach it so it's not so daunting ?
How long does it take you to get used to the way it's structured ?
How did you do it ?
How did you feel when you first started it ?

Is there a very LARGE jump between HL and SL is it a lot more work ?

If I take SL english could I still do an english degree ?

What about the exams at the END of the two years what happens if you fail ?

How do you apply to uni through IB ?

Should I be nervous ?

Are the syllabuses for IB similar to A-levelor totally different ?

What kinds of things are vital to know ?

Can I prepare myself from now ?


Sorry to bombard you guys with questions I'm just trying to prepare myself.


THANKKSS

That sounds really remeasuring thanks Few more questions though
How do you approach it so it's not so daunting ?

How long does it take you to get used to the way it's structured ?

How did you do it ?

How did you feel when you first started it ?

Is there a very LARGE jump between HL and SL is it a lot more work ?

If I take SL english could I still do an english degree ?

What about the exams at the END of the two years what happens if you fail ?

How do you apply to uni through IB ?

Should I be nervous ?

Are the syllabuses for IB similar to A-levelor totally different ?

What kinds of things are vital to know ?

Can I prepare myself from now ?

Good luck, especially with Maths HL. Unless you're exceptional, don't expect higher than a 5.

Don't treat it as such. It's really easy to make it a bigger deal than it actually is in your head. Just cut down on procrastination.


Not long. I knew nothing about the IB before I started it. I got used to it in a few days. I probably knew more about the IB than a lot of others after a while. Just make sure you know don't put work off until very close to the deadline. It'll make you unnecessarily stressed.


Read above.



Surprised... excited... mehhhh just more school



It depends on the subject but overall there's an adjustable jump from SL to HL if it's easier to put it that way. Unless you join HL biology at the end of your first year or something


No, you'd need HL English.



I don't know, but you won't fail (i.e not get the diploma) sometimes you'd actually have to try and do that poorly.



Same way as A levels. Just with your predictions from first year mocks.


No.



They're quite different but a lot more interesting (imo)



Nothing yet.



Read some of your English books if you're given a list? Work on some language vocab?

You don't really need to do much yet. Stop stressing out.



That isn't really true.

Okay, I think that's every burning question I had thanks so much I'll try not to stres out I just want to be prepared.

You'll adapt over time but you'll be fine

I printed out some HL econ' papers and urm. I'm going to die WTF !!???

I printed out some HL econ' papers and urm. I'm going to die WTF !!???

You are an idiot...seriously stop stressing out on something u havent started yet...
How the hell would u be able to do that paper when u havent been taught the syllabus...just sit down and shut up u little stressbaby