Are the OSC revision courses worth it?

I find the OSC revision guides really helpful and I've been looking at the OSC exam revision courses for Spring. But they're really expensive :frown:

Has anybody been on one? Are they good? Are they worth the money?

Reply 1

arrowhead

I went for it, I can tell you that the Pre-IB and Mid-IB OSC Course is pretty useless and a complete waste of money. But the pre-exam revision course just before the IB exams is pretty useful and I can singlehandedly attribute my meteoric rise from a mid-6 to a high-7 in Economics HL to the OSC Revision course. In terms of History and English, OSC didn't teach me anything new, but helped me revise a lot of things I had forgotten. But just for Economics alone, it was worth the money.

Reply 2

SandipM :)

How about sciences/maths/languages?

Reply 3

cspd

Original post by arrowhead

Thanks for the reply! Which pre-exam revision course did you go on, exactly?

Reply 4

blindpet

I did Mid-IB at OSC cause I didn't trust my teachers and my 5 weeks there were well spent. You get examiners as teachers who can try to answer your questions (I had some they were unable to answer :-/). But generally they were good, especially the math and economics teachers I had there.

I imagine the pre-exam course is just a condensed version of the Mid-IB course so while I can't comment on whether they are worth it, a revision course is a good idea. There are cheaper alternatives as well in Austria or with Lanterna: Sweden, London and the US. At Lanterna you get ex-IB alumni who got 40+ points and they tell you how they did it and pass on as much as they can. You also go through the whole syllabus and practice many past papers, since I teach psychology for those I can recommend them highly as the students have lots of fun and appreciate being taught by someone closer to their age. It creates a unique atmosphere.

One last thing: Don't overrely on a revision course, it's no substitute for normal teaching. Revision courses are for clearing up minor things not fully learning large topics.