IB PHILOSOPHY Help Please!

Hey Guys!

Im in my first year of the IB, and taking Philosophy HL which I really enjoy. I don't have difficulties understanding the material too often and am ok with reading hard texts.

My problem is the way the exams work and the syllabus. My teacher is pretty terrible at explaining that stuff so right now I just sort of know vague amounts about some concepts but don't really know how to sort it out in my head or on a paper so that I can study.

I guess what I'm asking is just for someone to explain exactly what I need to know for the exam, like which philosophers, which concepts etc, and how to layout my answer

Any other tips like how to revise for philosophy would be appreciated!

Thanks for reading :smile:

Reply 1

wholock95

4

Original post by HOLAAAA

Hey Guys!

Im in my first year of the IB, and taking Philosophy HL which I really enjoy. I don't have difficulties understanding the material too often and am ok with reading hard texts.

My problem is the way the exams work and the syllabus. My teacher is pretty terrible at explaining that stuff so right now I just sort of know vague amounts about some concepts but don't really know how to sort it out in my head or on a paper so that I can study.

I guess what I'm asking is just for someone to explain exactly what I need to know for the exam, like which philosophers, which concepts etc, and how to layout my answer

Any other tips like how to revise for philosophy would be appreciated!

Thanks for reading :smile:

Hi there

So I'm a second-year Philosophy student- my exam's tomorrow in fact!- and I thought I'd share my tips for studying it with you :smile:

Ok, so with laying out your answer, I tend to follow this structure:

1. Introduction- sum up what I'll say in the answer
2. An argument/philosopher who supports the ideas in the question & my personal opinion on this argument
3. A counter-argument to the argument in 2. and my personal opinion on this
4. An An argument/philosopher who does not support the ideas in the question & my personal opinion on this argument
5. A counter-argument to the argument in 4. and my personal opinion on this
Continue this until you've said everything you can/want to say, then
6. Conclusion- sum up arguments, give your personal opinion on the question

When I follow that structure and include relevant info/philosophers, I get 6s and sometimes even 7s :biggrin:

With regards to what concepts you need to know and how to study them, that all depends on the optional themes you're studying and the book- would you be able to let me know what these are? I'm studying Descartes' Meditations for Paper 2, and Philosophy of Religion for my topic on Paper 1 (I'm SL so I only do these options, I'm guessing for Higher there's more you need to know? I'll try and help as much as I can :smile:

)

Reply 2

HOLAAAA

OP

2

Original post by wholock95

Hi there

So I'm a second-year Philosophy student- my exam's tomorrow in fact!- and I thought I'd share my tips for studying it with you :smile:

Ok, so with laying out your answer, I tend to follow this structure:

1. Introduction- sum up what I'll say in the answer
2. An argument/philosopher who supports the ideas in the question & my personal opinion on this argument
3. A counter-argument to the argument in 2. and my personal opinion on this
4. An An argument/philosopher who does not support the ideas in the question & my personal opinion on this argument
5. A counter-argument to the argument in 4. and my personal opinion on this
Continue this until you've said everything you can/want to say, then
6. Conclusion- sum up arguments, give your personal opinion on the question

When I follow that structure and include relevant info/philosophers, I get 6s and sometimes even 7s :biggrin:

With regards to what concepts you need to know and how to study them, that all depends on the optional themes you're studying and the book- would you be able to let me know what these are? I'm studying Descartes' Meditations for Paper 2, and Philosophy of Religion for my topic on Paper 1 (I'm SL so I only do these options, I'm guessing for Higher there's more you need to know? I'll try and help as much as I can :smile:

)

Yes! Thank you so much, you made it look so simple :^_^:

! My philosophy essay always get all jumbled up so I'm definitely going to follow that from now on.

I'm also doing Philosophy of Religion! And philosophy of politics. Also there's the core theme which is the bit I'm sort of struggling with :/

Thanks for replying :biggrin:

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 3

wholock95

4

Original post by HOLAAAA

Yes! Thank you so much, you made it look so simple :^_^:

! My philosophy essay always get all jumbled up so I'm definitely going to follow that from now on.

I'm also doing Philosophy of Religion! And philosophy of politics. Also there's the core theme which is the bit I'm sort of struggling with :/

Thanks for replying :biggrin:

You're welcome :biggrin:

yeah, core theme's horrible, I never know if I'm writing the right thing! But I'll never have to do it again after tomorrow, yay :biggrin:

Reply 4

HOLAAAA

OP

2

Original post by wholock95

You're welcome :biggrin:

yeah, core theme's horrible, I never know if I'm writing the right thing! But I'll never have to do it again after tomorrow, yay :biggrin:

Haha lucky you!! I think I'll just learn the basics like existentialism, mind-body, free will etc. and hope for a straightforward question

Just realised you posted this 2 days ago so, hope your exam went well!

Reply 5

wholock95

4

Original post by HOLAAAA

Haha lucky you!! I think I'll just learn the basics like existentialism, mind-body, free will etc. and hope for a straightforward question

Just realised you posted this 2 days ago so, hope your exam went well!

My exam went really well thanks, I only learned free will and determinism and mind & body and it was fine! I am now free of IB Philosophy forever, yay! :wink:

Reply 6

danny.c

I'm second year philosophy as well, or was i guess its all over now. The structure wholock95 set out is what I use too. I didn't start producing good essays until second year though, don't think I knew enough or I wasn't motivated. My IA was a level 7 though and I'm hoping for a 6 or 7 over all as I felt the exam went well. Also did you know that philosophy is one of the only exams not to be timezoned? so if youve got a friend doing it a few hours east of you its theoretically possible to find out the exam questions in advance, luckily they were easy this year I found so there was no need. How did anyone else find it? I especially liked the core picture

Reply 7

wholock95

4

Original post by danny.c

I'm second year philosophy as well, or was i guess its all over now. The structure wholock95 set out is what I use too. I didn't start producing good essays until second year though, don't think I knew enough or I wasn't motivated. My IA was a level 7 though and I'm hoping for a 6 or 7 over all as I felt the exam went well. Also did you know that philosophy is one of the only exams not to be timezoned? so if youve got a friend doing it a few hours east of you its theoretically possible to find out the exam questions in advance, luckily they were easy this year I found so there was no need. How did anyone else find it? I especially liked the core picture

I thought that Paper 2 was amazing, I studied Meditations by Descartes and the questions were a dream, whereas Paper 1 was a bit trickier, but I think I managed to babble on enough to get a 6 at least! It would have been nice to get a 7 but oh well... It's funny you should say that you only produced good essays this year, I was the same, I went from getting 5 to 7s... I think you need to have a lot of knowledge to do well in Philosophy. Glad the exam went well for you :biggrin:

Reply 8

P00116

1