I hate IB

well where do i begin so i started the IB program this year and enjoyed it at first i thought it was quite interesting. i chose it over A-levels thinking it would allow me to gain a better perspective of the way uni works and stuff.

So far I'm not coping with IB the stress is slowly creeping in, the endless amounts of homework piling up leaving me exhausted every night trying to work through them in hopes of finishing so i can catch a few zzz.

There is deadline upon deadline and essays and ugh i hate it.

plus on top of that i believe that I'm not going to pass the IB program. ever since i started i have been feeling like a failure and an idiot.

All my friends think that this program was made for them while I'm sitting here feeling stupid and dumb.

i haven't been getting the grades i want in my subject despite the efforts I'm putting in everyday
the only subject I'm doing great in is english SL and i seem to enjoy it a lot .

i feel like if i go to my mum and tell her i don't like the program can i change she'll be like why didn't you tell me and stuff.

i can't handle it . i know i sound whiny I'm sorry I'm not normally like this its just I'm stressed and disappointed.

ps- my subjects are

History HL - took it with no history GCSE background
Art HL - ok i guess for now
Physics HL - I'm starting to slowly understand but not completely
Maths studies - don't judge me I'm not that good at maths
Spanish abnitio - its ok
English SL - i love it

on top of all this we do a special exam conducted by the government on the native language of where i live and i just took a practice test today and its hard and i don't know the language.

I think it might be comforting for you to know that there are other people going through the exact same thing - it's what I felt a moth ago. It's a lot better now that I've learnt to manage my time more effectively. And don't worry if you're finding the courses hard - you've picked two very intense subjects as your highers (History and Physics) that are among the hardest on IB. Btw what is that native language of where you live? Do you live in a foreign country? Or is it in some place like Wales?

well where do i begin so i started the IB program this year and enjoyed it at first i thought it was quite interesting. i chose it over A-levels thinking it would allow me to gain a better perspective of the way uni works and stuff.

So far I'm not coping with IB the stress is slowly creeping in, the endless amounts of homework piling up leaving me exhausted every night trying to work through them in hopes of finishing so i can catch a few zzz.

There is deadline upon deadline and essays and ugh i hate it.

plus on top of that i believe that I'm not going to pass the IB program. ever since i started i have been feeling like a failure and an idiot.

All my friends think that this program was made for them while I'm sitting here feeling stupid and dumb.

i haven't been getting the grades i want in my subject despite the efforts I'm putting in everyday
the only subject I'm doing great in is english SL and i seem to enjoy it a lot .

i feel like if i go to my mum and tell her i don't like the program can i change she'll be like why didn't you tell me and stuff.

i can't handle it . i know i sound whiny I'm sorry I'm not normally like this its just I'm stressed and disappointed.

ps- my subjects are

History HL - took it with no history GCSE background
Art HL - ok i guess for now
Physics HL - I'm starting to slowly understand but not completely
Maths studies - don't judge me I'm not that good at maths
Spanish abnitio - its ok
English SL - i love it

on top of all this we do a special exam conducted by the government on the native language of where i live and i just took a practice test today and its hard and i don't know the language.

This was the exact same reason I chose A-Levels over the IB. A-Levels are much more academic based

the native language is arabic but I'm from wales so yea i live in a foreign country.

That's so cool! So you speak Arabic?

well where do i begin so i started the IB program this year and enjoyed it at first i thought it was quite interesting. i chose it over A-levels thinking it would allow me to gain a better perspective of the way uni works and stuff.

So far I'm not coping with IB the stress is slowly creeping in, the endless amounts of homework piling up leaving me exhausted every night trying to work through them in hopes of finishing so i can catch a few zzz.

There is deadline upon deadline and essays and ugh i hate it.

plus on top of that i believe that I'm not going to pass the IB program. ever since i started i have been feeling like a failure and an idiot.

All my friends think that this program was made for them while I'm sitting here feeling stupid and dumb.

i haven't been getting the grades i want in my subject despite the efforts I'm putting in everyday
the only subject I'm doing great in is english SL and i seem to enjoy it a lot .

i feel like if i go to my mum and tell her i don't like the program can i change she'll be like why didn't you tell me and stuff.

i can't handle it . i know i sound whiny I'm sorry I'm not normally like this its just I'm stressed and disappointed.

ps- my subjects are

History HL - took it with no history GCSE background
Art HL - ok i guess for now
Physics HL - I'm starting to slowly understand but not completely
Maths studies - don't judge me I'm not that good at maths
Spanish abnitio - its ok
English SL - i love it

on top of all this we do a special exam conducted by the government on the native language of where i live and i just took a practice test today and its hard and i don't know the language.

I just recently completed the IB (took the Nov 2016 papers) and obtained my diploma with 41 points (776 in my HLs - History, Economics and English Lit). And believe me, I know how you feel completely, as I felt like I was definitely not going to make it through with a decent score of 33 (which in my school, is considered an embarrassing failure, despite it being the global average - so I know how it feels when everyone around you seems to be living it up with the IB). In the first year of my IB, I obtained 29 points for my mocks. Even for the second year, my mocks only yielded a score of 31 overall (and this was approx. 2 months before the actual exams). So don't lose hope, especially since you mentioned you're quite far in. Trust me, the two years will fly by

As for specific subjects you take, I know of many that end up with 6s and 7s for HL History, despite having 0 experience with history from GCSEs. Because the techniques are so different in IB and GCSE history, having GCSE history knowledge or skills isn't going to help much. I got an A* for GCSE history, and barely scraped a high level 5/low level 6 in IB history until a month before my actual IB exams. Similarly for Physics, my best friend achieved a level 2/3 in her final year mocks, and managed to get a 6 in her actual IB exams. As for your personal understanding of content, I really wasn't able to grasp the concepts in all my subjects in my first year, and was only able to fully understand all after my second year mocks.

Another suggestion for you if you really cannot handle history or physics, is to maybe bump up SL English to HL English, since you love it. I basically went through 2 subject changes within the first 6 months and trust me, dropping HL Chemistry and HL Maths to its SLs, was the best decision of my life. It will be more bearable studying something you enjoy.

Lastly, since you're approaching the start of the EE, IAs,TOK coursework grind, I suggest make those your priority, especially your IAs. You'll be amazed how much a strong IA can bump up your final subject grades by a grade boundary or even two.

Overall, just press on. Because achieving your end goal and/or exceeding your own expectations of yourself feels jizz af, although I walked out all of my final exams feeling like I screwed them up and I thought I was going to end up with an overall score of 35. But my point is, the amount of effort I put in saved my ass in the end.

Well, a bit of an update since its been a while.

I still hate IB lol
and I'm still struggling but I'm trying to manage. I'm in my second year and I'm now preparing for my mocks.

btw do you guys have tips for mocks revision and how to make an effective timetable + time management
Also, I've begun applying to uni and some of my teachers gave me an inaccurate predicted grade so I had to talk with them cuz I had been achieving that grade all year long and they made my predicted the same grade rather than one point higher. (example - I've been getting 6s all year so it's logical to predict a person the next grade up but my teacher predicted me a 6)

And if anyone has any major tips for physics pls pls pls tell me. it literally ruining my life. I tried being positive, but its kinda hard when IB sucks the life out of you.

Glad to hear you're getting through it. Don't worry, you'll make it in the end!

With physics, most people like to make things in order to remember facts (e.g. posters, flashcards) - in order to engage their brain with it. Others like to make summaries. Personally, I prefer to approach problems and then search for the information that I am missing and need to solve the problem. This keeps me motivated to actually look for information and makes me remember it. Another piece of advice I'd give is to build your problem solving skills. Knowing the information is one thing, using it well is another. The skill of using information cannot necessarily be taught, it has to be learnt by practice. In general, the more problems you try to solve, the better you will be at solving problems. Pretty much all of physics is problem solving, so this skill will come in very handy!

I would hate to have a irritable bowel as well sucks to be you