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How many of you underestimated IB?

Poll

IB - is it what you thought it would be?

I'm sure that before we entered the IB program, some of us were ready to challenge ourselves while others were just bored from their regular classes and needed a less-boring schedule. So anyway, let's have a poll.

For me, I think I've underestimated IB - not for its course content but rather, the workload. I don't think the concepts are really hard to grasp - it's just that everytime my teachers give us homework, it's like another knife thrown at me. So how about everyone else?

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Reply 1

rawkingpunkster

Ok i'd say this..

I underestimated the coursework, i overestimated the exam papers. I think IB questions are pretty easy, but i never thought coursework will be this hard.

Reply 2

Deus

****! I have to be in classs in 15 minutes and I'm not dressed. I over-estimated TSR. *runs*

Reply 3

simarik

i underestimated the IB in regards to the internal assessments
the workload and degree of difficulty were exactly what i had expected, but i srsly downgraded the value of internal assessment, and when the deadlines drew closer n closer i realised how much of a fool i had been..also it may also be due to the fact that at our school we start ALL our internals during our second of IB, so we're juggling normal classes, internals and revision at the same time, i think thats wat made it so difficult for me

Reply 4

HMSChocolate

I underestimated the workload and the stress it would put on me. but I expected the courses to be as hard as they were.

Reply 5

Paultjuh

I underestimated CAS, the coursework, AND im probably gonna underestimate the exams :P

Reply 6

andy_cole2

i thought the coursework would be harder the exams are a bitch. i way underestimated how hard the exams would be.

Reply 7

o.Ob

Yeah, either it was luck but I took the SL Chemistry exam last year and boy did I overstudy for it. Completely owned it for lack of better words.

Reply 8

Paultjuh

yeh all the tough calculations are in HL :P

Reply 9

o.Ob

Haha yeah the 'fun stuff.' I honestly think that I got the wrong HLs. Oh well :p:

Reply 10

Eis

I overestimated the amount of work and stress it'd impose on me - but that might be because I've generally become much more laid back. I think I underestimated History HL. It's really not that easy.

Reply 11

Darkowl

I'll be honest, I didn't underestimate the amount of work required or its difficulty.

I also didn't work had at all if truth be told. I did my CAS hours by doing projects that I started, drove and enjoyed. In terms of how hard I worked, I worked very hard every now and then to make sure I kept up with the standard. More often than not I was doing it to catch up.

Regarding the difficulty of the concepts, I do not think they were hard in the slightest. By January this year (I took my exams in May) I understood everything, and by April I had most of that knowledge in a form where I could put it into decent grades.

So, yes the IB is hard work, but if it's taking over your life, whether with difficulty, homework, coursework or CAS, then you're clearly not planning your time well enough.

Reply 12

Eis

Darkowl

I'll be honest, I didn't overestimate the amount of work required or its difficulty.

Did you mean you didn't underestimate the amount of work required or its difficulty? Otherwise the rest of your post doesn't quite make sense.

Reply 13

HMSChocolate

Eis

I overestimated the amount of work and stress it'd impose on me - but that might be because I've generally become much more laid back. I think I underestimated History HL. It's really not that easy.

so did I come to think of it. I love history but it possitively killed me with the amount of things I had to know for the exams.

Reply 14

Darkowl

Eis

Did you mean you didn't underestimate the amount of work required or its difficulty? Otherwise the rest of your post doesn't quite make sense.

Um, I didn't make that mistake. Honest!

Thanks for pointing that out :wink:

Reply 15

Les_Miserables

To be quite frank, I overestimated it. I'm not gonna say that it is "hella boring and easy" - because no one in his/her right mind would say that about IB, but it's definitely not the workload I expected it to be. I'm doing about an hour each night, have had several evenings where I'm just relaxing, and enjoy my weekends. The thing is, I have long periods of doing nothing at all, then suddenly for 4 days I'll be working around the clock. And then long periods of doing...you get the picture. Anyway, the point is, either my schools have prepared me well for IB, or I'm just kind of lazy...
CAS also isn't a problem, because what I used to do before, now I simply count as CAS... :smile:

I'm glad I took it though...IB, I mean.

Reply 16

Paultjuh

we are not allowed to count things we had done before in life as CAS... it all has to be new experiences...wtf

Reply 17

o.Ob

Well, you start counting CAS hours when you start the actual IB programme. Anyway, from IB1 - now, there has been a much larger amount of workload and my hours of sleep are going down the drain. At least I'm off school one month early (although I don't think it's worth all the work I've done :rolleyes:

)

Reply 18

dan

No I didnt underestimate the IB, I just didnt understand it.

It is the norm in my school to do the IB so whatever difficulty it was, I would have most probably chosen it anyway.