The Student Room Group

IB ruined my life

I'd like to begin by informing about my current situation: I'm doing my last year in the IB and today was one of the few days that I skipped school. I actually should be in the economics class at this very moment. Anyhow, my EE is about to be handed within two weeks and I have about 600 words. English written tasks are yet waiting and A2 WLA remains to be undone. Math project is a joke and chemistry reports should be ready before christmas.

Before the IB I was an ordinary student with ordinary grades - nothing special about it. I had friends I liked to do sports like ice-hockey and football, depending on the time of the year. During the pre-IB my social status began to wander. I had high hopes about top universities and the teacher encouraged me. I felt I could do it.

Beginning of the IB1 year was an immediate shock. The pressure was intolerable at times. English essays were graded so ******* low that I couldn't understand it. Economics and history were very much interesting and I don't blame them, but chemistry, what the ******* hell is that. Lab reports without instructions, countless hours of calculations and ****. Finnish A2 was so boring and yet so important concerning the future unis that I dreamed of. We read books that were so entirely from the 19th century that I hated it. We spent over 2 months with a book that was about a girl who killed her baby at age of 19 and was convicted to jail due that. How interesting is that?

It gets even worse when we get closer to this very moment. IB2 began, I had been partying the summer and having a great time with my friends. However, I sensed growing distance between me and my (former?) friends. I had been working my butt off during the IB1 and my grades were still quite bad - something like 34. This was the thanks that I was getting?

Anyhow, IB2 and the increasing pressures, tensions between work-to-be-done and increasing skepticism towards the whole IB-programme. Two weeks for one book in Finnish A2, Econ commentaries suck and EE is still pushing your self-esteem lower and lower. The last time you read a book that you actually CHOSE YOURSELF is only to be found in your deepest memories. You have no ******* friends excluding your class-mates, who you love to hate and hate to love.

And here you are, whining about the cruel IB to ******* IB discussion on a day free, what I beautiful way to waste it. I've grown apart from the IB. I'm still thankful for the experiences that IB taught to me and I'm grateful for the knowledge that I may have attained during these few years. Yet, I'm angry and frustrated. Therefore, I liked you to discuss whether IB has made your life miserable - or vice versa. And on top of this, I'd like you to think about the critical approach that is over and over again addressed in the programme. Furthermore, I'd like you to think about the criticism towards IB: is it worth it?

Thanks for reading.

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Reply 1
partially agree with you though, but it largely depends on school.
I feel pretty sorry for you, though i'm in a very similar situation. What you have to do, as I have forced myself to, is reduce your social life and extra-curricular activities as much as possible, preferably to zero. There are only around 6 months left, and when it's over, it's all over and you will feel so relieved. You shouldn't worry about your results either since you worked very hard.
Reply 3
Ha, I hated the IB too! My college dealt mainly with A-levels and the teachers had no idea of what they were doing. I went the other way to you- I lost all motivation, stopped working- could barely even be bothered to revise for the exams. :/ (Don't follow that lead...!) And do your EE NOW- I ended up writing half of it at 2am the morning it was due in!
Reply 4
I think the IB workload can get a bit extreme and that they expect too much from us sometimes. But then again, maybe it's just because I hate my school and can't be bothered to put in much effort in the first place.

Is it worth it though? I don't know. I guess I'll see what universities I can get in to, then I'll see if slaving away for two years in IB was worth it or not.

Oh, and for your EE, if you still have two weeks, that's plenty of time! I went from around 800 words to my final 3700 or so the day before mine was due in; once the deadline hits you, you can write a surprising amount in one day, haha.
scherbatsky
I think the IB workload can get a bit extreme and that they expect too much from us sometimes. But then again, maybe it's just because I hate my school and can't be bothered to put in much effort in the first place.

Is it worth it though? I don't know. I guess I'll see what universities I can get in to, then I'll see if slaving away for two years in IB was worth it or not.

Oh, and for your EE, if you still have two weeks, that's plenty of time! I went from around 800 words to my final 3700 or so the day before mine was due in; once the deadline hits you, you can write a surprising amount in one day, haha.


I agree with this. In fact, I probably took only 2-3 days to write my EE? Then again it was a Business EE - which wasn't particularly difficult.
Reply 6
Danticat
I'd like to begin by informing about my current situation: I'm doing my last year in the IB and today was one of the few days that I skipped school. I actually should be in the economics class at this very moment. Anyhow, my EE is about to be handed within two weeks and I have about 600 words. English written tasks are yet waiting and A2 WLA remains to be undone. Math project is a joke and chemistry reports should be ready before christmas.

Before the IB I was an ordinary student with ordinary grades - nothing special about it. I had friends I liked to do sports like ice-hockey and football, depending on the time of the year. During the pre-IB my social status began to wander. I had high hopes about top universities and the teacher encouraged me. I felt I could do it.

Beginning of the IB1 year was an immediate shock. The pressure was intolerable at times. English essays were graded so ******* low that I couldn't understand it. Economics and history were very much interesting and I don't blame them, but chemistry, what the ******* hell is that. Lab reports without instructions, countless hours of calculations and ****. Finnish A2 was so boring and yet so important concerning the future unis that I dreamed of. We read books that were so entirely from the 19th century that I hated it. We spent over 2 months with a book that was about a girl who killed her baby at age of 19 and was convicted to jail due that. How interesting is that?

It gets even worse when we get closer to this very moment. IB2 began, I had been partying the summer and having a great time with my friends. However, I sensed growing distance between me and my (former?) friends. I had been working my butt off during the IB1 and my grades were still quite bad - something like 34. This was the thanks that I was getting?

Anyhow, IB2 and the increasing pressures, tensions between work-to-be-done and increasing skepticism towards the whole IB-programme. Two weeks for one book in Finnish A2, Econ commentaries suck and EE is still pushing your self-esteem lower and lower. The last time you read a book that you actually CHOSE YOURSELF is only to be found in your deepest memories. You have no ******* friends excluding your class-mates, who you love to hate and hate to love.

And here you are, whining about the cruel IB to ******* IB discussion on a day free, what I beautiful way to waste it. I've grown apart from the IB. I'm still thankful for the experiences that IB taught to me and I'm grateful for the knowledge that I may have attained during these few years. Yet, I'm angry and frustrated. Therefore, I liked you to discuss whether IB has made your life miserable - or vice versa. And on top of this, I'd like you to think about the critical approach that is over and over again addressed in the programme. Furthermore, I'd like you to think about the criticism towards IB: is it worth it?

Thanks for reading.


I think you have pretty much just summarised .. well..me! Starting the IB i had extremly high expectations, and after a couple of weeks everything just went really ******. I hardly went out on weekends, even though I did this so often before, and I think my social life greatly suffered because of the IB. I still believe that I learnt a lesson because of IB, but if I could turn back time, I really would not do the IB again, with A-levels you can go to the same Top Unis without all this hazzle and not lose all your social life! I think we should be happy that its soon over, another 6 months!! Then we can all party and get drunk :woo:
Reply 7
I felt like you did during IB2, but I wanted to let you know that all of that stress was worth it. I recieved multiple scholarships for university and all is well. BTW 34 is a fairly decent score (its higher than the average). Hope you make it through.
Reply 8
Danticat
Furthermore, I'd like you to think about the criticism towards IB: is it worth it?


Uh, no, it's not :biggrin: I would rather have done A Levels. Philosophy, German & IT. But nooooooo. I have to take frickin' Spanish (school doesn't offer German for IB) and Maths and Ecosystems and English. Ugh. I can't wait till it's over.

I feel for you though! :frown: Console yourself with the fact that you aren't the only one suffering! :wink:
Reply 9
Not from my experience but from what my friend who did IB told me, its bloody hard. Universities understand this though and have a lot of respect for IB students. But just keep at it you are nearly finished, time will fly..you'll be at uni and everything will get better. Just work hard, minimise your social life and you will be fine.
It's worth it. You did say you were an average student, and from doing the IB you got 34 (which is a little bit higher than the world average). How is this surprising? Your IB experience depends a lot on how your school handles it and how you handle it, i'm sure a lot of IB students felt the same way as you, i do at times.

However, remember that grades don't really mean anything until your predicted grades, this (December-March IB2) is the toughest months of your life, it's when all the IA's EEs, ToK and all that **** starts piling in. You have to pull through it, dont give up now, and it will all be worth it.

IB is hard and unis know that (top unis do anyhow), and if other students havt heard of it before, theywill realise how hard it is when they know you. Despite missing my HL offers (they wanted 36, 666, i got 40, 665), they still let me in (i'm pretty sure its cuz they appreciate the fact that i did the IB), if i got AAB in A-levels and they wanted AAA, they wouldn't have let me in.

Besides, you get to feel special when you introduce yourself and ppl stare at you dumbstruck when they hear how many subjects you had to study in your last 2 years. The time management and workload in IB allowed me to cope fairly well with Bristol Law (where they throw you in the deep end), while my friends are already missing lectures and/or not doing readings because they're not used to the workload.

Do your best, you're almost there. You've already chosen this path, make the best of it.

EDIT: oh yea, if your school didn't tell you, it's their fault: IB is a 2 year course, and by 2 years, i mean from day 1 to end of exams, you're not supposed to have a break, every holiday should have been used to work, if you managed to do that then there should be less problem.
Reply 11
I gotta say, i can't see where you are coming from, but i do feel sorry for you, i understand that in some places, its worse.

i don't find it all that bad though. I never find myself overworked, and most weekdays i don't do more than 1hour of work. Weekends i will do maybe 3hrs. I'm no genious, but i do the work i need to do to get good grades, nothing more.
Reply 12
I never had that experience, and don't know anyone from school who had it that bad (yes, people got low grades, and some failed, but they never worked particularly hard). I'm thankful I took the IB because it helped make me the person I am now. At times it was hard, but looking back on it, and looking at where I am now (at a great university, doing a course I enjoy) it certainly didn't harm me. I'm very glad I took it in fact, and had a great time in the process :smile:

Plus, if you think you can't handle the IB, wait until you've graduated. Education just carries on getting harder! I think a lot of people moan about it more than they should...not that I'm saying your complaints are groundless - I really do sympathise.
Reply 13
My brother and two sisters did the IB, I think they regretted that choice. Not as much about the work itself, just the amount of it and the fact that it all came in one go.
Reply 14
Glad i'm not doing IB then.
Reply 15
my friend. all i can say is it will be over soon and i sympathize. i finished the IB last year..passed to my amazement and im in med school now...
just repeat this to youself: THIS TOO SHALL PASS!!
Survived last week with WL1 due, Eng presentation, Chem test, Math test, and EE final draft due. It'll be fine from now on. :smile:

And IB is worth it, although at times, it doesn't feel like it.
Hmmm. I don't hate the IB (yet! :P Lol) But I guess it is something that can kind of overwhelm you ... just try and remember why you took it. Take it as it comes one thing at a time. 34 isn't bad -- it's the equivilant of four A's at A level, so by nobody's standards are you failing - you don't have to compare yourself to anybody else. That's never good :s-smilie: You'll do worse if you do that.
Right now, there's nothing you can do about being on the IB, so maybe you'd feel a bit happier if you did just kinda say you'll just work as hard as you can and do your best - you can never do better than that so you might as well be happy with it :-)
Soz if this is annoying advice! Lol. Hopefully I wont be back here in a years time reading this and wandering how the hell I could write it!!!?
Good Luck wiv it tho ! Keep on pushing!
XxxxX
Reply 18
I'm not big on the ol' academic work. I hated secondary school and wasn't even thinking about carrying on post-16, and yet ended up doing IB. Most of the work I don't bother doing to be honest. An essay here or there isn't going to be missed if i have some massive-arse piece of work to be in soon. I do what I think is important, and I'm doing just fine.

When my work load was getting too much I had to go at it with a positive attitude or it wouldn't get done, so I would take my notes etc down to the woods, or sit on a cliff, or the beach... you get the idea. Being in a calm and tranquil place made it all better somehow.

You're a hard worker - it'll pay off.
At times, I've found the IB to be stressful, but never to the extent that you are mentioning. Yeah, it's a lot of work, but if you break it down and do things little by little, it's manageable. I still do a lot of extra-curriculars; during rowing season, I don't get home til 20:00 most nights. I think it basically comes down to how much you procrastinate! Don't worry, though, I'm sure you'll get through, and in the end it will pay off. :smile: