Information On IB Program

Parents Forum
61

<p>IzzyJ</p>

<p>you are correct. In my experience History is the most commonly taken subject for that area, it seems that's what most schools [in my area] offered. I do have a friend here at college who took Geography instead of History. I wish that my school offered Econ, I definitely would have taken that as an extra subject.</p>

<p>As for the Bio information, I have some friends who are seniors this year who told me they were taking the Bio SAT II again, because they took the "wrong one." Maybe they took the one with the detailed facts and didn't like it? I only took Bio in 9th grade, so I was just going on what they said =)</p>

<p>m_c</p>

<p>your IBC will have the breakdown of each part of your test (paper 1, paper 2, paper 3, IA, etc), but I don't know if they have raw scores.</p>

62

<p>
[quote]
About how many hours on average do you do work each night?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>I probably work on average 5 hours a night. Right now I'm averaging about 8, with regular work to do I'm also finishing my Extended Essay, TOK Essay, 2 World Lits, TOK Presentation and studying for my English Oral. </p>

<p>It can be an incredible amount of work.</p>

63

<p>wait you are doing all that at the same time!?</p>

<p>our teachers plan the deadlines out so we dont have any big assignments due within 2 days of each other. however that also means that we never get a break. its like one assignment after another and another and another....... (May is soon isnt it...)</p>

64

<p>lynda, if enough students 'complain' the teachers at our school would move deadlines. I hear the school is now implementing a web-based system where teachers can see when other major projects are due how many students would be adversely affected by a certain due date. Quite cool if you ask me, but it seemed to work just as well when someone raised their hand and said "we have 3 english journals and a presentation in contemp. problems. due tomorrow..." ;)</p>

65

<p>At my school, the teachers actually know what the other teachers' have assigned because they meet regularly. IB is a program, each class is suppose to compliment another in some way. However, at least at my school, teachers love to load up students with work knowing fully that the students have other major projects or tests due at the same time in other classes. They do this to apply pressure on students and prepare them for the demands they will face in college. For example, during the first week in November, we had SAT tests for which to prepare, ED college applications due, regular homework and tests and finally our 4000 word extended essay. Needless to say, it was a week I am sure to remember for a long time!</p>

66

<p>worldshopper - I wonder whether it can be statistically proven that IB students perform better (or are more "prepared" for college) than non-IB students? I wonder whether any US colleges might have run some numbers to test this hypothesis?</p>

67

<p>Actually, they say that IB students experience less of a drop in grades in college than AP students. However, it is only a marginal difference. I believe the study was conducted by who else...the IBO! So take it for what it's worth. I don't know if any colleges have done their own research. </p>

<p>I will say that the kids from my h.s. who have gone on to very selective schools (JHU, UVA, W&M, Carnegie, Princeton, Stanford for the most part) and return for the IB graduation ceremony all say that IB really prepared them for college and that they find college fairly easier than they had anticipated. Of course, this is great comfort to those who are currently going through the challenging demands of the IB program. Also note that my h.s. is the first in the U.S. to implement both an MYP and IB program so they seem to want to set an example. If anyone complains about the amount of work and or the timing, the response is "perhaps you are not cut-out for IB". IB is very expensive with the teacher training, postage overseas and the IB tests of course. Our public school pays for everything and they cannot afford to spend this kind of money on someone who does not take the program seriously. There have been several times when I wanted to drop out of the program but I made a promise to myself when I was 11 years old to see this animal from start to finish. I suppose the fact that I am stubborn and follow through with commitments I make to myself has overshadowed the challenging demands of this beast. Note that I am gifted but not a genius like some of the other kids in my school. I just have the determination and motivation that gets me through. Trust me, I have had to work hard for my grades! You don't have to be super smart in order to handle IB, but you do have to be highly motivated and have a very good work ethic.</p>

68

<p>Worldshopper – I know the IB is extremely time demanding for most, if not all, students who undertake the program and I admire your perseverance and determination to “see this animal from start to finish.” I can only imagine the immense satisfaction you will surely feel when you have the diploma in hand – a condign reward for many years of sacrifice and hard work. </p>

<p>What I haven’t settled in my own mind is a line of reasoning I’ve heard so often: “the IB diploma program is an intense, demanding program, the successful completion of which will prepare a student well ( better than an unspecified, “other” college preparatory program?) for the rigors of college academics. Furthermore, there seems to be a perfectly positive correlation (r = + 1.00) between the degree of difficulty and the subsequent preparedness of students for college courses. The more difficult teachers can make the IB, the better prepared the students will be to handle the stress and demands of college and later life.” </p>

<p>I attended a meeting where a fellow IB teacher stated: “…but my students come back after a year of college and tell me how grateful they are that I had assigned 10 hours of homework each night. They told me how “well prepared” they were for their courses in subject Q, and how the college courses in subject Q were a Sunday school picnic by comparison! Because students were so genuinely grateful for the vast quantities of work I assigned, I am considering upping it to 11 hours per night! For sure, short term student pain will increase but, profound, long-lasting gratitude will follow.”</p>

<p>The only response I could come up with was in Japanese: “moshi-moshi?” (“hello? hello?”)</p>

<p>I bludgeoned both sides of my head with a spanking new Stanley Steelmaster to insure there hadn’t been blockage of my ear canals; I wanted to be sure my auditory sense hadn’t gone hopelessly haywire. Then, drawing on my immense analytical strength, I did a few “mental math” calculations: a typical IB student takes 6 courses – 3 at the HL and 3 at the SL. Assume for now, 10 hours per night for just the HL courses; then 3 times 10 = 30 hours per night. Lacking confidence in my ability to handle two digit multiplication, I double checked myself on the TI 83. Yep. “30”. By golly, the old sea dog could still multiply!</p>

<p>Now, how could 30 hours be squeezed in between 8pm on Monday and 8am the following Tuesday?</p>

<p>Totally clueless.</p>

<p>MUST, just MUST, be some test of the Special Theory of Relativity, which postulates that time does not flow at a fixed rate. In some mysterious fashion, the gravity of the IB or the curvature of IB spacetime must somehow bring about time dilation. </p>

<p>MUST, just MUST, be some kind of scientific experiment in disguise or else, I had simply fallen off the pumpkin truck.</p>

<p>Then I began thinking about a few things Albert Einstein purportedly said about learning, teaching and education:</p>

<p>“One had to cram all this stuff into one's mind for the examinations, whether one liked it or not. This coercion had such a deterring effect on me that, after I had passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific problems distasteful to me for an entire year.”</p>

<p>“Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.”</p>

<p>“Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard duty.”</p>

<p>“Most teachers waste their time by asking questions which are intended to discover what a pupil does not know, whereas the true art of questioning has for its purpose to discover what the pupil knows or is capable of knowing.”</p>

<p>“Humiliation and mental oppression by ignorant and selfish teachers wreak havoc in the youthful mind that can never be undone and often exert a baleful influence in later life.”</p>

<p>“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”</p>

<p>“Imagination is more important than knowledge.”</p>

<p>“The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.”</p>

<p>Finally, “the aim (of education) must be the training of independently acting and thinking individuals who, however, can see in the service to the community their highest life achievement.”</p>

<p>Severe limitations in my processing bandwidth prevented me from squaring what went through my mind with what I heard, read and experienced. Able, bright, highly motivated students such as yourself described the intense time demands of the program – staying up until 3 in the morning to write some commentary on a piece by Jean-Paul Sartre; many told me of their the “love – hate” relationship with the IB but that how in the end, they felt it was worth it. </p>

<p>For me, the quintessential simpleton, cognitive dissonance in spades.</p>

<p>I walked out into the crisp, early evening air and looked forward to watching the beauty and magic of Ronaldinho as he thrilled legions of football fans in Madrid’s hallowed Bernabeu Stadium….</p>

69

<p>Over the last month, I've spent an average of 0 minutes on homework a night. It's all in your time management. I do homework in classes when we're not doing anything, or in the morning when I get up. I'm doing quite well in the program (4 A's, 3 B's) and I'm happy with the amount of effort I put out. I play bass in a lot of groups, and play varsity lacrosse (5:30 am to 7, and then 2:25-5 daily). I still have time to enjoy my life.</p>

70

<p>Visirale – clearly, you have been blessed with astonishing, beyond six sigma, athletic, intellectual and musical prowess. May you draw on these strengths to make substantial contributions beyond the lax playing fields. With your background, Hopkins, my alma mater, should be a cakewalk and you will, no doubt, be selected captain of the varsity team in your freshman year. I wish you “fair winds and following seas…”</p>

71

<p>I'm taking that as sarcasm? </p>

<p>Anyway, I'm not D1 material... in fact I've never seen anyone south of north carolina on a D1 roster.</p>

<p>Sorry if I sounded cocky...</p>

<p>And the zero hours of homework are offset by the late nights before papers are due and what not. It can be either a cycle of very high stress situations and pretty calm times, or it can be just pretty stressful continuously.</p>

<p>I choose the former.</p>

72

<p>Visirale - Very intelligent choice. Truly, I wish you the very best whereever you go. You bring much to the table; I hope you will maximize the gifts you were given. May you do kind, good things for those less fortunate.</p>

73

<p>If students take 2 SL classes as anticipated then perhaps the first year of IB can be difficult; but if they spread them out over 2 years, the first year is no where as stressful as the second. Most students practice hard on leaving it all to the last minute whenever that may be. (I know, I had one at home.) And even if they don't, they all pay around December to March of their second year. But in the process, I do believe if they haven't already, they learn time management skills. They learn how much time it will take them before a paper is due, how to pick out the important stuff from the fluff to focus on for exams. The first year is fun, it's exciting! The second year, they learn how to jump through those hoops of fire without getting burned.</p>

74

<p>Time management is definitely the key. Two cases for example. My boyfriend and I are both in the program and taking almost equally challenging course. I (Math, Physics, English HL, Economics, History, German SL) and he (Chemistry, English, History HL, German, Math, French SL). </p>

<p>The first year I worked very hard. My World Literature I was on its fifth draft by summer. I worked on my Extended Essay the entire summer. I applied ED to one university in October. Now I'm just finishing up everything. Every now and then I get a little stressed, but most of my work is done. TOK final essay is in, TOK presentation next week. A few more things and come January I am done. </p>

<p>He on the other hand procrastinated almost everything, changed his EE topic the night before the first draft was due. He managed his time very badly and is now paying for it. He is still on his first draft of WL, just starting TOK. He's pulling all nighters almost every night. In addition to this he has the stress of applying to 9 universities. </p>

<p>If you do your work on time and manage it well it's not too hard. But if you procrastinate it at all, it will come back and bite you. And trust me when it does it is rough.</p>

75

<p>Yeah, I got chew marks all over my ass. :(</p>

76

<p>Haha. I'm starting to get them, but I know people infinitely worse off.</p>

77

<p>The worse thing about IB is that it is a program, as in the program runs through summers AND holiday breaks. They tell you what to do in the summer and winter breaks (yes, Spring breaks too) and you do it.</p>

<p>The amount of work (research, essays, papers, etc.) to do over winter break is huge! Not to mention I have tons of college applications and essays to write. </p>

<p>Sorry, just needed to vent!</p>

78

<p>I know the feeling. It's Christmas Break next week, and I won't be doing much celebrating- I have an Extended Essay and World Lit to finish. There is no break until its over.</p>

79

<p>I agree, next week is basically when I'm writing my extended essay, though I have been researching since the summer. Luckily my world lit paper isn't due until the end of january!</p>

80

<p>My World Lits aren't due until Feb, but my teacher wants another draft in. I've been working on those since last Feb. or so. I've been working on EE since May. And I'm still not done.</p>