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How many CAS hours should you have completed by the end of the first year?

I'm starting IB soon and was just wondering how many CAS hours I should aim to have complete by the end of year 12?

My personal opinion is that you should try and finish CAS altogether by the end of your first year in IB. In your final year you have so many other tensions like finishing IAs, commentaries, EE, WLs and so on and so forth, you rather not have CAS looming over your head as well.

At my old school, they cut off the number of hours you could get from a particular activity to 20 hours/per year/per activity. So you should organise your work around that. I joined two NGOs and worked for them getting 20 hours each for Service and then did odd bits and pieces of work around school, like whenever we had interschool events and such and scraped together another 10. For Creativity I had no problem at all because I was doing Theatre/MUN/Newspaper and a load of other stuff, so I had about 150 hours of Creativity alone. Finally I did Action by joining two school sports' teams (Wrestling and Rugby) and got 40 Action hours there and again with hiking trips and snowboarding, got another 20 hours there.

When I finished the entire program, I had 280 Creativity hours, 100 Action hours, and 180 Service hours. Just join a bunch of stuff and keep recording whatever you're doing.

Reply 2

The Man of the Hour

Original post by arrowhead

My personal opinion is that you should try and finish CAS altogether by the end of your first year in IB.
That's an good strategy, but depending on how your school is running IB, it may not be plausible. Many schools/teachers want you to have good IAs and at least one WL paper DONE in your first year. For example, second year English HL focused solely on the IOC, WL 2 and the exams; everything else was done in year one! If you have a couple of tough classes like HL Maths or HL Physics, I would certainly focus on understanding the material in those classes instead of looking into the completion of CAS. And as Hypocrism states below, it is TECHNICALLY unauthorized by the IB. So if your IB coordinator plays by the book (very few of these coordinators exist), I would spread your CAS over two years. Thanks to Hypocrism for making that very very important point.

BUT I would strongly recommend doing about 25 in Creativity, 25 in Action and 25 in Service done during year one. You can have more or less done at that time, but that's the goal you should be aiming for. If you can get them all done, do it like Arrowhead says. If possible, log the hours in as you do the activities (definitely ask your IB coordinator about how you do it-- whether by online entry through ManageBac or by filling in the sheets!). Get your supervisors of each activity to sign off that you did it or fill in a testimony of your accomplishments--whatever is required. I believe they want photographs and stuff now, so take a couple action shots if need be; be sure you do some activities with fellow IB students (I think that's another requirement recently put in by IB). My school allowed me to complete many hours during the summer between IB year 1 and IB year 2, which also enabled me to get an OK-draft/writing of my EE done. I remember I did some serious thinking without the rush of IB classes. It's great if you do sports in the summer or if you don't volunteer enough-- CAS, for me, is finished most conveniently over the summer.

[Insert bragging/a discussion about everything one did during IB]
Not helpful/does not pertain to what the OP needs to know about CAS.

Here's some more stuff you should know about according to Wikipedia:
-you need two CAS activities on a weekly basis (doesn't have to span in all three categories). This is relatively new, but you will get hours done in at least one aspect of CAS.
-Moreover, students must have one CAS project which spans more than three months and bridges two CAS components e.g. creativity and service.
Finally one must prove that the CAS activities have resulted in the eight projected outcomes of the project (one CAS activity can have multiple outcomes).Nothing new, haha. Just make sure you can word each activity into meeting many outcomes and you are good to go.

To the OP, good luck and if you need some more advice, just shoot me a PM.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 3

FiniteMr

Actually, the IB specifies it should be spread between both years. Finishing in the first year is, technically, frowned upon. That doesn't stop plenty of people doing it, however.

Let's be honest, 50 hours is not a long time. Do 1 hour a week throughout the course and you're done :smile:

Reply 4

sarah95

Thanks for all the advice!
Have a couple more questions about CAS if you guys don't mind answering!

Do you need to have an equal amount of Creativity, Action and Service?

If you have an activity that fits under two CAS components, how do you count it? Can you choose which component you want to count it for, or do you have to split the hours between the two?

Also, completing CAS hours during summer was mentioned, is this only allowed in between the two years of the course or could I count hours I earn this summer? (I figure probably not, because I've technically not started the course, but a definite answer would be great!)

Oh and are there any activities that are particularly well liked by universities? I've heard MUN is quite a good one to get involved in, as it is very well respected, does anyone know if that's true?

Sorry for bombarding you guys with questions, any help would be great!

Reply 5

The Man of the Hour

Original post by sarah95

Thanks for all the advice!
Have a couple more questions about CAS if you guys don't mind answering!

Do you need to have an equal amount of Creativity, Action and Service? Nope-- just make sure you get the 50 of each component (Creativity, Action and Service). You can have more of C, for example, than A.

If you have an activity that fits under two CAS components, how do you count it? Can you choose which component you want to count it for, or do you have to split the hours between the two? You can split them as you'd like, provided you talk to your IB coordinator and approve it.

Also, completing CAS hours during summer was mentioned, is this only allowed in between the two years of the course or could I count hours I earn this summer? (I figure probably not, because I've technically not started the course, but a definite answer would be great!) Depends on the coordinator. Lenient ones like mine probably would allow you to do that (but I never took that opportunity). But officially, I don't think you are allowed.

Oh and are there any activities that are particularly well liked by universities? I've heard MUN is quite a good one to get involved in, as it is very well respected, does anyone know if that's true? Universities probably don't care about CAS hours-- however, they would probably be impressed with a variety of activities. Music lessons, MUN, sports, debating club, etc. will probably all be positively associated. Just do your thing. I can't speak for the UK schools, however, so maybe someone with more experience will be able to answer this one.

Sorry for bombarding you guys with questions, any help would be great!!

Like I said, feel free to PM me or post any of your questions on this forum. I don't think anyone minds answering them-- they are common and can certainly help others who have the same questions. Most importantly, don't worry too much about CAS until you start IB. Everything will come together and make more sense as the programme progresses. Good luck with everything.

Reply 6

Scribblet

I had 250 before the start of year 13, I know other people who had way more than me (and then one of them still managed to get 45!!!). To be honest I reckon it's better if you get them over and done with in the first year which gives you more time to procrastinate your CAS presentation and do all the coursework that gets thrown at you. I did stuff such as volunteering during the summer holidays as well which contributed towards the hours. Summer's a good time to do it as you're not drowning in other work.