So our high school only has around 14 IB students, and we are all about half way through our junior year. I along with most of these other students consistently strive for and maintain straight As, but we all also want to learn how to de-stress when the work load gets large. Does anyone- past or current IB students- have any good tips on how to continue working really hard in the program but still get some of the rest and relaxation you need to stay healthy? Any tips would be well appreciated!
Thanks, and good luck to any IB kids out there! Keep trucking!
Practicing meditation and mindfulness on a consistent basis is probably the most effective way to manage the stress. Check out simple guides on the Internet, and pay more attention to consistency of practice than quantity of time spent meditating. In the school where I work, we have started a mindfulness group for the IB juniors, and it’s definitely helping.
My IB Junior says doing homework relaxes her and relieves her stress. Its simple, but it makes sense as the homework pile goes down the stress goes down.
She also gets exercise by participating in school sports and gets 8 hours of sleep which I think helps.
I would football tackle a teacher or 2 after a test… always helps destress… But if that leads to complications…
Try being militaristically disciplined about your schedule. The reason why IB is difficult is because it encroaches upon your normal day to day life. You simply cant afford to let 1 assignment or reading not happen exactly on time. I have a daughter about to graduate from an IB HS - she will be taking 4 HL exams but somehow managed to attend and keep the schedule for 5 HLs - which is murderous, to put it bluntly.
When you finish school, your mission should be to finish your homework, test prep, readings etc right away after school. Do not take a nap, then look at your assignments etc. Finish everything related to studies and then go out to exercise, shop for groceries with your parents, hang out with friends etc. Do not take long breaks between your studies. They are counterproductive. Just finish all your school and IB work and then do not pick up anything to do with studies till you go to sleep. And do not text with friends etc while finishing homework etc. These distractions are not accounted for in how the IB program expects you to study. Concentrate at a feverish pitch and then relax with discipline. It worked for me when i was your age.
I cry when I need to. No joke either. XD Also, doing a sport or working out helps. It takes your mind off of things and you feel really relaxed after a workout. I also read a lot and listen to music to de-stress. Napping helps too.
What I do is an afterschool sport (mine is distance track which I personally think is one of the best stress-relieving sports out there) that helps me cool off steam big-time. Endorphins are one of the biggest natural stress-relievers we have! Unfortunately, sometimes running itself gets stressful if you’re faster than average and your coach expects certain things of you
Also, I find having a rigid time frame for doing homework helps alot. Before, I used to have really bad time management that led to me doing everything last minute - which was not good for my grades or my health. After I started to give myself more rigid time windows for work, such as “finish five questions on the study guide we got today” and giving myself a rigid time slot for each individual problem / group of problems such as “20 minutes, finish five key terms and take a break,” I’ve found that I’ve been a lot less stressed with schoolwork. Having a less flexible, “I’ll do it later” mentality helps a lot with both working on things earlier and having a more-planned out day, both of which really help to minimize stress.
Go to the gym an hour a day… go alone or go with a friend. My daughter has gone almost every day her entire high school career and it literally has saved her, that and doing her homework in coffee shops. Weird but true. There’s a coffee shop that allows in dogs and that’s where she goes much of the time if she’s not in the library.
@Lost4Words haha omg I cry too!! Sounds like exercise is the way to go! Thanks for the awesome tips @physicspsychic (btw you username) and @mauiluver !!! You guys r awesome!
I agree with @mauiluver . I think exercise/gym helps alot. I have a group of friends that go to the gym 3 times a week afterschool. Oh and eat alot of fruit, helps with the refreshness and health. And doing ib socials once in awhile helps the ib group as a whole.
I’m a senior in the IB and I think that the best way to de-stress is by making sure you get enough sleep! This is so important, I cannot stress it enough. Junior year is the perfect time to sleep as earlier as possible, because you don’t have the weight of all your Internal Assessments, Written Tasks, Extended Essay, TOK Essay and college apps to worry about. Organization is necessary, but don’t stress over planning your time since the moment you are given things to do, because in the IB one homework can be as short as five minutes or as time consuming as three hours, and more often than not the time it takes you to complete tasks will be very different to what you expected.
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