Please suggest a guide on how I should do IB to get 45 on 45?

I just got back my results and got 44. I got a 6 in French which was a surprise because that had been the one I'd consistently got 7s in from the first year, so I suppose what I'm trying to demonstrate is that you shouldn't go into the IB with that mindset of 'I have to get 45 out of 45', because even if you do everything exactly right, you might miss a point or two due to nerves or due to a difficult paper.

The other thing is, try not to look at it as a total of 45 which goes down as you lose points. It is better (and more appropriate) to look at it as a number starting from zero that's growing, as in any case, this course is meant to help you develop and grow in the two years, demonstrating a progress and growth in your 'number' as well.

There is only one method that is foolproof to getting 40+ (I don't want to say to getting 45, because luck can sway the top results). In my college and with everyone I know, the people who worked the hardest and studied the most, and truly committed to their coursework etc fully, were the ones who did better than they expected. Work out a really good revision plan and stick to it, and create a pattern in your life to your level of work per night. In my case, I'd got so used to sitting at my desk from 5 till 10 every night that it felt so weird when I finished to have got those hours back into my life, as I'd forgotten they existed outside revision. They now seem to drag aimlessly in comparison!

Finally, do not underestimate the power of coursework. It can make the difference between two grades. And coursework is not under exam conditions and you have plenty of time to complete it, so the first priority is to make that as perfect as you possibly can. It is the only area in which you can guarantee that your performance generally won't be affected by nerves or illness or a nasty surprise. So make the most of it!

Good luck, stay calm, and give yourself treats here and there, or you'll soon lose the will to live! And sitting at the other end now, I can say that the entire tedious process is worth it in the end.

My advice would be to not even attempt it. I'm serious. I got 44 in the IB a couple of years ago after obsessing about getting 45 for the entire two years. It drove me to the brink of insanity. Out of approximately 30,000 people taking the course each year roughly 30 of them will achieve 45. They will all be exceptionally smart, obsessively dedicated and will essentially have no life outside of studying. Even with all these things in place, there is a substantial element of luck. You may complete an exam paper which 9 times out of 10 would be awarded a 7 only to recieve a 6 because you got an examiner in a bad mood.

By all means study hard and do the best you can (within reason), but don't obsess over getting a perfect score. It's really not worth it.

Um, the best advice I can think of giving you:

1) Don't kill yourself.
2) Don't kill your teacher.
3) Don't procrastinate.
4) If you're taking a difficult subject (like Maths HL or Physics HL) practice everyday (especially for Maths)
5) Aim for a score that is suited to the future subject you want to get into for at Uni. (Eg: For Law in the UK, Oxbridge requires a prediction of 38, so my aim was 38+ and I did that in the end).
6) Follow the instructions to the very last letter and never hesitate to have something clarified.
7) Do your labs conscientiously.
8) Finish your EE and WL(s) in the summer before 12th grade. You will regret it fi you don't.
9) Don't start prepping for the IB before your 11th grade, the next two years will be a novel kind of hell for you, you might as well enjoy the time you have left. Besides, as motivated as you are now, if you start prepping now, you will burn out most probably before you reach the end.

I found that after my first year of IB I started to lose motivation. So, it may sound stupid but to help remember what I was working towards I put up a picture of the university I wanted to get into and the amount of points I needed above my desk.

My advice would be to not even attempt it. I'm serious. I got 44 in the IB a couple of years ago after obsessing about getting 45 for the entire two years. It drove me to the brink of insanity. Out of approximately 30,000 people taking the course each year roughly 30 of them will achieve 45. They will all be exceptionally smart, obsessively dedicated and will essentially have no life outside of studying. Even with all these things in place, there is a substantial element of luck. You may complete an exam paper which 9 times out of 10 would be awarded a 7 only to recieve a 6 because you got an examiner in a bad mood.

By all means study hard and do the best you can (within reason), but don't obsess over getting a perfect score. It's really not worth it.

Hey, as the previous posters said, I'd say try to get 40+ instead of obsessing over 45. Secondly, if the point of doing well is to get into your ideal university, you need more than just x points, you need to take subjects the professors care about (e.g. if you want to study economics and management at oxford, it is better to get 43 points and a 6 in maths HL than 44 points and a 7 in maths SL/studies).

Finally, if you are doing maths HL I would reccomend the Sevenoaks revision course in april before the exams.

I think a 7 in HL Math would be most desirable with E&M at Oxford in mind

If your work is good enough for a 7, you most likely will get a 7. In my school last year, of 78 IB candidates, 4 got 45/45 (28 got 40+); it doesn't therefore seem likely that only 30 out of all 30,000 candidates should be getting 45/45.

The precise figure is 0.17%.

"Only 65 (0.17%) of the 38,200 pupils who sat the exam last year scored the perfect 45 points."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/education/article4321718.ece


Compare this with the percentage achieving an A* at A Level: 1 in 12 or 8.3% and I think you'll find that my depiction of the difficulty of acheiving a perfect score in the IB is fully justified.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/education/article4321718.ece

It is a common phenomenon, across all examinations, for high achieving students to be concentrated in a few exceptional institutions. This makes sense because these are usually the most selective schools which boast the best teaching and facilities. It is a stasistical fact that the vast majority of IB schools do not have a single student achieve a score of 45.

I accept that all students are subject to the same variabilty in marking standards in given exam. However, an IB student typically takes twice as many subjects as an A level, and thus has twice as much exposure to the afrementioned variability. I also refute your claim that somebody who deserves a seven will nearly always recieve it. Any student who submits an exam paper which should narrowly be awarded a seven is at significant risk of receiving a six instead. When the margins are tight examiner subjectivity, or essentially luck, plays a fairly major role in what grade is awarded.

Yes, but that expresses my point perfectly as well. Since my school, which could be called one of the "exceptional institutions", had 4 students scoring 45/45 in the IB, it's clear that it's not just a matter of luck: high-achieving students will have a very high propensity for doing well, and the highest achieving students will most likely score around full marks. And thus, it is hardly fair for you to tell the OP (who has not given us anything to indicate that he or she is not among these highest achieving students) "not to even attempt it" just because it's a difficult challenge.

In comparison with A-Levels, I would say that A-Levels still offer more opportunity for top students to stretch themselves, as it is obviously far harder to score 100% UMS over three A-Levels than it is to score 45/45 in the IB (because universities collect UMS marks for A-Levels, but not the raw marks for IB).

My mentality is, aim for the highest but don't be disappointed if you don't get it. It puts me into the mentality of 'work the best you can to be the best'

My friend goes to kings college and he said the 12 people there got full marks, yes it is difficult but not impossible.

Granted i only finished my third week but i really want to do well.

So get the most you can out of the course and remember that if there was a full proof guide to getting 45/45 then everyone would be getting it and make the prestige of getting 40+ useless

Kings College, Cambridge or Kings Colllege London?

Sorry I forgot there were two. its London