How can I improve my predicted IB grades?

Ok, to be honest, I've been slacking preeeeetty badly during the last few months. Now I wanna right the wrongs so that I don't end up in a crappy uni...
My exams are in May 2015 and I'm getting more and more anxious about my predicted grades. These are:

HLs
English Lang&lit 6
Economics 6
History 4/5
SLs
Spanish 6
Bio 6
Math Studies 4 (don't laugh, the guy sets 95% as a lower 7 boundary; by official IB grading standards I would have a 6)

That makes 32-33 total. Do I have a chance to get enough points to get into a good uni? I've been thinking (well, dreaming...) about KCL or even St Andrews... Although for the latter I've given up most of the hope.

Any advice? Do I have enough time to improve my scores to those upper 30s before application period starts? How to do it anyway?

Reply 1

RayApparently

I'm taking the IB next year and this whole 'predicted grades' deal has been concerning me. I assume you just need to convince your teachers you're stronger than they think. Modular tests? Coursework? If al else fails, their's always bribery.

Reply 2

IFoundWonderland

I'm interested by your history grade - what topics are you doing?

(edited 2 years ago)

Reply 3

LuckyMe

It's actually not too late to improve your grades. I'm also taking the May 2015 exam and from what my teachers say, they look at your overall performance before sending your predicted grades to your colleges. So if for instance you sit up an manage to get your score to say 34/35 this term and next term you are making 36+..... Most certainly your predicted grades are going to go up. It not easy I must admit.....but you have summer to catch up on your slack.....If you're really determined, you can do it

Reply 4

adrianajvl

Well, the way my school does it is that we have our final year exams at the end of IB1 which is in a couple weeks for me, and they will base the predicted grades on your results in those exams and your overall scores throughout the year. Will you be having final exams? If yes, then start studying asap and make sure to excel in them. If not, I would look at your IAs and improve those. The teachers should allow you to write more IAs than they have assigned you to do - therefore if your IAs aren´t as good try writing new ones and make sure to learn from the mistakes you´ve made on your previous ones. Honestly, you should be aiming for 7s in most of your IAs. You can do as many as you want to, therefore if you work hard you´ll get to the top grades eventually. And I think that your teachers should appreciate your sudden effort you´d be making.
Then it´s just about talking to the teachers seperately - do they have any projects going on that you could help them with? Any charities they organize? Any extracurricular activities? If yes, participate in them and help the teachers with something. Make them remember you in a good way. Kiss their asses. Be their friend (almost). And then when it´s time for them to make predicted grades talk to them, show them how much you want to get into St Andrews and ask them if they could improve the grade. Promise you´ll do your best in your final year and will redeem yourself.
And if you have a big problem with History or Maths (be it the subject or the teacher), try to up your strongest subjects to 7s. I.e. if you´re really good at English and Spanish, try to push them up that one grade, the difference between a 6 and a 7 is usually very small. Might be less work than improving that 4 from History and will get you those extra points you need.
That´s all I can think of, really. Good luck!

(edited 2 years ago)

Reply 5

PumpkinNox13009

Original post by RayApparently

i'm taking IB next year too, so i'm no expert, but i people at my school says that if the predicted grades are a lot higher than your actual ability, your limited choice of uni would require higher scores. But when your actual results are a lower than your predicted grades, you would not get accepted into any uni. this is especially since you can't cramp-study for IB if you want a good score, you've got to keep good time management and whatever

that's what i heard, anyway.