The Official Summer 2011 IB Exams Discussion Thread

what time does the english a1 paper 1 start on tuesday?

Tips from an IB dude who took the exams last year. I, like many of you, had no days off except for that one tiny weekend. One thing I highly recommend for the cramped people: know everything. BUT...on paper 3 days for sciences, just cram them the night before (provided you have an excellent understanding beforehand). Paper 3s for sciences are repetitive, straight-forward syllabus questions. Especially for physics and chemistry.

For those doing history as well, study LOADS for it. I did IB exams last year and I had a cramped workload until the 13th like a lot of you have. For history-- you need to revise very strategically and in a lot of depth. If you aren't prepared for something like Paper 3, your marks are going to go down. So yes...I definitely found history to be the hardest set of exams simply because I spent so much time on physics the same day. My real score in history went down 2 points from my predicted simply because of physics. So yes, know paper 3 of physics well beforehand and just ignore it until the night before.

As well, make sure you don't neglect a science. I neglected chemistry...and paper 2 was the craziest thing I have ever come across for the North American time zone. It was the hardest exam I have ever done for SL. I once again let physics control my life and neglected chemistry-- and the physics exam was one of the easiest I have ever come across. Bah...unfortunate. So yes...keep both sciences together if you are doing two sciences. Good luck, everyone!

Thank you! That was really helpful. I'm trying to balance between History & Physics this week before the exams start as my first three are English A1 Paper 1 and my Maths Studies exams. I've then got English Paper 2 and History & Physics. To be honest I'm worrying the most for History... I can't believe how soon everything will be over!

Sounds like you have a very similar schedule. The history-physics is going to kill you unless you make sure you know physics paper 3 stuff...maybe right about now. Just take a night and review it all and then forget about it. History is going to be all-consuming, I'm afraid.
But you ARE taking Maths Studies, so definitely make sure you know are aware of all the mathematics you need to excel at Physics... If you are good with Maths and English, I would ultimately focus my efforts on Physics and History, haha. In fact, if you focus really really hard now...your timing is excellent and you'll be entirely prepared for the next two weeks! Good luck!

My mother and I worked out pretty much the same thing as you in terms of when to revise which subjects. Thank you so much for the advice. I've been going over the Physics equations making sure I understand them, and I've only really got Waves and a bit of Communications left. History is a nightmare, but I'm reading over a topic a night for History. Luckily I'm very confident with Weimar & Hitler as well as Paper 1 as I've been doing all of that since GCSE. I just need more detail for them. I cannot for the life of me remember Bismarck so that needs extra attention. I think I'll be revising Mao tonight...

I've got 3 exams next week, which are English 1 & Maths Studies, so not too bad.
The second week however is a nightmare. I've got 7 exams over 4 days, English 2 which has a heavier revision weighting in comparison to paper 1, plus I have Physics SL & History HL. I feel really sorry for the Maths HL students who are also doing History and Physics.
Third week I have my 2 Economics exams on the Monday & Tuesday, so no problem there. I then have no exams until my French on Monday.
It's so stupid. All the ones which require heavy revision are timetabled altogether! It just doesn't make any sense.

Good luck anyway! 3 days to go now... ARGH!

I've got 3 exams next week, which are English 1 & Maths Studies, so not too bad.
The second week however is a nightmare. I've got 7 exams over 4 days, English 2 which has a heavier revision weighting in comparison to paper 1, plus I have Physics SL & History HL. I feel really sorry for the Maths HL students who are also doing History and Physics.
Third week I have my 2 Economics exams on the Monday & Tuesday, so no problem there. I then have no exams until my French on Monday.
It's so stupid. All the ones which require heavy revision are timetabled altogether! It just doesn't make any sense.

Good luck anyway! 3 days to go now... ARGH!

I feel I am in a similar position! I have 3 exams this week, English SL paper 1 and Maths HL paper 1 and 2 (which tbh are probably my most important)
The second week however, i have 10 exams over 4 days, Maths HL Paper 3, All three Chemistry HL papers, All three Physics HL papers, both History SL papers and English SL Paper 2
Then I have a massive 9 day gap to my French SL exams, which possibly require the least revision.
People talk about the IB having 'Suicide Fortnight', more like suicide week!!

Good luck to everyone for English tomorrow and for every other exam!

Oh my, that sounds much worse than what I've got. Why am I moaning when you've got all that to manage? Best of luck to you! I'll count myself lucky that I've only got 7 exams, plus they're not as revision heavy as yours.

Really don't want to do these exams! I need a 7 in HL Maths for Warwick (studying Maths and Philosophy) and my room is currently a complete mess of past papers. Good luck to all!

omg me too! i basically have a stack of past papers, and that's after i've printed 4 sides on one sheet. ....

i need a 7 for imperial as well.. good luck on tuesday, wednesday and thursday!