<p>Is anyone else feeling majorly burned out with IB? I mean, I wasn't that good at time managing before, but seeing the worst side of midnight is becoming a regular occurrence for me. I don't know if I'm getting slower at homework, or the homework is getting tougher, but I'm getting tired, and it's only one semester down. Ugh...</p>
<p>You’re only one semester through.</p>
<p>Let me predict your future. You are going to someday get the hang of this. You’ll find this magic mix of time management, more efficient work habits (i.e., short cuts), and occasional all-nighters that promises to make IB more managable. It takes time, does not occur automatically, but you’ll do it and feel good about it.</p>
<p>And then Senior year will come and one semester in, you will laugh at your past self and learn the true meaning of pain. Akuma style.</p>
<p>But you’ll be a lot more cynical then, and therefore okay with it.</p>
<p>You ain’t seen nothing yet.</p>
<p>Although senioritis does dull some of the pain of IB.</p>
<p>Not burn out, I’m just tired, but I have gotten over it. You really need some time management to not feel like giving up.</p>
<p>LOL, Philovitist. I have 2 daughters in the Diploma Program now (year 1 & year 2). What you wrote sounded just like the advice the younger one hears from her older sister. We found that the work load/sleep deprivation is higher in year 1, and in year 2 your coping skills have evolved and it’s manageable. It becomes more important to meet deadlines for IA’s, EE’s, etc. and that’s when you start to appreciate the hard work/preparation you put in previously.</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong, my school makes it so impossible (and undesirable) to drop out of IB, I’m definitely in it for the long haul. My biggest problem is the teacher changes. This is the first year of teaching IB for my History of the Americas teacher, and he still is having issues with what he stresses in class vs. what shows up on the test. He takes points off because he wanted us to have things that he doesn’t mention, but is one bullet on his huge PowerPoints. Not to mention, next year they’re going to throw us from easy Year 1 Math SL to crazy AP Calc BC. I’m all for challenges, but I’d like a little more transition and a little less sink-or-swim.</p>
<p>I do feel bad (sort of) for the current IB seniors at our school. They didn’t do any of their EE until this year started, and they’re expected to have already given it to our EE Supervisor already for her final review/changes.</p>
<p>According to my son you are expected to be responsible for all the information in the textbooks and the teachers only go over what they want to go over but you are tested over what’s in the book too - your responsibility is to read everything - it’s not necessarily hard it’s the volume of work and the amount of data to retain. As far as getting better, I wouldn’t hold my breath as first semester senior year appears to be the hardest at my son’s school with IA’s and EE and other projects due before winter break. Extreme stress and huge GPA drop - can regain ground second semester of senior year but it’s too late for those schools that want your mid-year grades now. It’s just plain hard…and my son will defend the program up one side and down the other(he’s also an AP scholar w/ honors and should be with distinction by graduation) but I couldn’t tell you why.</p>
<p>IB is a nightmare the first year. In my school the MYP program had not evolved enough when I was in my lower years; transitioning into IB was like descending into hell on earth. It’s gotten better after first semester but it is still more difficult than any experience beforehand for me. I’m usually up at least until midnight studying or doing homework. I’ve heard it gets better, so hang in there.</p>
<p>As an IB graduate, it prepares you for similar life habits in college. So on the bright side, I didn’t have a shock of immense work loads my freshman year since I had that shock my junior year of high school. Go IB! Haha. Looking back, I survived and it made me a better critical thinker for sure.</p>
<p>The IB experience varies from school to school and student to student. DS found the first year to be manageable (to his credit, he is not a procrastinator). During his senior year, the IB workload was probably similar, but he got super stressed with college applications and the uncertainty of where he would or wouldn’t get accepted.</p>
<p>Time management is absolutely key. Are you 100% studying past midnight, or are you studying/texting/posting to Facebook? Do you tackle work well in advance of a deadline, or do you let things pile up until a day or two before a major essay is due or an exam is looming? </p>
<p>Don’t make IB harder than it needs to be by procrastinating. Develop habits that will help you not only now, but in college and your future job: Get your work done first, exercise every day, eat healthy food. Yes, you are going to be busier than your non-IB peers, but you can do it.</p>
<p>Same here! I’m a junior at an IB boarding school (only IB classes available) and we still HAVE to do a sport every trimester on top of clubs twice a week. I don’t even know the last time I’ve gone to sleep before 1am this year…I’ve found myself crying in the bathroom on multiple occasions because I couldn’t handle the stress anymore. Now ACT & SAT prep begins too…and don’t even get me started on ToK. I regret taking the IB diploma and not attending a regular boarding school with AP’s and Honor classes :(</p>
<p>Ksophia, would you mind saying what school you attend? I’ve tried to message you but it won’t allow me to do so. My email is jfralia at bellsouth dot net </p>
<p>It’s all about time management. Make sure you’re getting 8 hours of sleep a day, otherwise you’re just going to end up working more hours while doing a poorer job. So, take 24 hours and subtract 8 hours for sleep, and however many hours you spend in school and doing other essential things like sleeping and eating and going to and from school. With the left over time you have, there should be about a few hours to do homework, and then 1-2 hours to relax. The one thing about IB is that you can’t have a daily extracurricular activity - there’s just not enough time.</p>
<p>I had the most problem with IB during my first semester, but a lot of problems with not getting sidetracked into websites like this second semester. </p>
<p>I definitely felt it all the way up until I graduated last week. Now I miss IB terribly.</p>
<p>I will say that a lot of my pain was self-inflicted, though. I didn’t have good study habits and I allowed myself to slip into a state of perpetual stress One time when we were complaining about how hard the week had been, I stopped, summed up the work we actually had to do, and realized that it wasn’t much at all. We were creating our own stress because we were in the mindset that IB gave us a ton of work and that was that.</p>
<p>This kind of shock is going to happen at some point in your life anyways–when you go to college or get a demanding job–so it’s best to get it over with your junior year when the stakes aren’t all that high. You’ll thank yourself for it later/</p>