The One Where She Goes Through The IB Program Part II

Four Years of Actual Hell - Senior Year

     Hi guys, I'm back. Before I get into talking about the dreaded IB Program, I just want to say thank you so much for all of your continuous support! I'm so glad that you all liked my last post- that was like so exciting for me. I have learned that for some reason it won't let people comment all the time. Ive been trying to play around with this and figure out how to change that setting but after researching it a little, I think it is just the website.  I'm not sure why but yeah. So if you want to contact me, most of you have my contact information or instagram because I'm pretty sure you're the only people who read this lmao. But if by chance you're just that bored and have nothing else better to do than read about my boring life then you can contact me through instagram. I never look at my email so don't email me- who even does that anymore??? Or I'll probably look at your email then just never respond to it because that's just how I am. 

     Okay! IB! Fun! So I really enjoy helping people and giving them advise as how to get through this dreaded program because it is information that I myself would have liked to know when I was in this program. I will try to be as clear as possible but I'm bound to confuse some of you, especially if you're new to this IB thing- with all these acronyms and stuff so try to stay with me. If something isn't clear or you have more questions then feel free to shoot me a text. The stuff you're probably looking for is at the bottom so if you don't want to read this all just scroll down to the last paragraph.

     Okay so my first piece of advice to you whether you're going to be a junior or a senior is DO. NOT. PROCRASTINATE.  It's pretty funny because as I write this, I am currently in my dorm, sitting in my bed procrastinating three essays I need to write :)) But that's not the point I'm not in IB anymore so who gives a shit. But yeah, I know literally every single adult, teacher and parent says that. But let's face it. It's inevitable and its going to happen so just try to be mindful of it and attempt to not do it as much. 

     English- Senior year English is not much easier than junior year. First semester you read one play and a novel and study a series of poems. For me, it was Hamlet by William Shakespeare and Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton. You read both plays and study them inside and out. Along with studying the plays, we also studies 12 poems by Robert Frost. We annotated and studies those poems until we knew them all inside and out. Then at the end off the first semester, you sit down with your teacher and discuss either play for ten minutes and then one of the twelve poems for mother ten minuets totaling to 20 minutes. 20 minutes may seem like a long time. You could do so much in twenty minutes like pop a bag of popcorn, make some coffee or even walk a mile. All of these thing sound so much better than having a long weird awkward discussion with your English teacher.  But in reality, the time goes by super fast, so don't worry. Well I mean worry a little bit because you want to do well. But yeah I feel like English, while it is the easiest, it has the largest workload out of all the subjects. Almost everyone takes HL English. If you don't then that's stupid because it is one of the easiest classes to score high in. 

     TOK-So junior year you should've finished your EE. Should've. But le'ts be real, nobody did. Well actually I did. I was a good student so HA. Basically senior year TOK is finishing (or in some peoples case starting) your paper and working on the TOK essay which in itself is another level of hell. For the TOK essay, you get to pick from 6 different prompts that IB comes up with. Pick on that seems easy to write about so then you can get to word count easier. I don't care if its not interesting, if you can write a lot about it, then choose it. Some of the topics are most definitely easier to understand than others. For me, I did not understand any of them. So I was SOL. But yeah I made it work and basically just BSed my way though the paper. But don't do that. Be a good IB student and ask your teacher questions and maybe like do some research. After you submit your EE and TOK essay then you're don't with TOK! Yay! Now just hope that your BS was good enough to fool the graders. 

     Math- So depending on what class you took junior year depends this may be a little different fore you. It is possible to test out of a math junior year, and in that case you wither don't have to worry about a math or you can pick up and easy class for college credit. So I took pre calc junior year and then decided to switch to math studies/statistics senior year because I decided that mat just isn't my thing. I encourage you to take this class seriously because I did not and I regret that. I didn't fail the class, I just didn't do at well as I should've. So for math, you have to write an IA and take a paper one and paper two. The IA can be about anything you want, as long as its math related. I did mine on probability which was pretty easy. Mostly IAs for science and math are easy because all you're doing is explaining what you did and the results. The one thing I did find difficult for the papers in math is that they were not multiple choice, they were fill in the blank. This is both good and bad in a way. Bad because you can't do process of elimination but good because the examiners try to award you points for your steps. SO even if you dint get the correct answer in the end, if your process was right, then they can give your points for that. Also, all math is SL and there's nothing you can do about it so if you're good at math- those people are psycho- then that sucks for you. 

     Science- Again, similar to the math, depending on which science you took junior year, you're probably going to take the same one senior year. For this class  you're going to write and IA and depending on if you're HL or SL a paper one and two and possibly a paper three. The IA is basically you coming up with a question, creating a hypothesis and preforming an experiment. You're basically being a scientist and like actually doing real science. So that's cool if your test goes right. Then your paper is just you writing about it. Talking about the process and your results and stuff. Then the paper one and paper two are for SL people. Paper one is multiple choice and paper two is fill in the blank. Paper three is your option and fill-in the blank and multiple choice. I took biology and did my IA relating to plants. Something about light. I honestly don't remember. It wasn't even that long ago wow.. I must be consuming too much gluten. Paper three is for HL kiddos who just are either really good ad science and want to major in it, orrrrr they're psycho. I was one of those psycho students. Unlike history, if youre in HL then all three of your papers are mixed material from junior and senior year. There is not separate paper that is specifically for HL students. So what its he point for paper three you might ask. Well I don't know but I have theory that it's just to torture the  people who decided to purposefully embark in the truly daunting path of HL science. but I could be wrong, you never know. 

     History- Okay so all your meed to know for history is that it SUCKS ASS. It really does. If you take SL history, then all of junior year history was a complete waste of your time. If you take HL history, then that sucks for you because you have to sit through one more paper than SL people. For your IA in this class you should've worked a lot with it in junior year and theoretically have it finished, but you probably don't so you finish it this year. Along with your IA, you also have paper one, paper two and maybe paper three. Paper one focuses mostly on first semester material. It is basically applying your knowledge to DBQs and situations. Paper two is mostly second semester material. Instead of getting a little something to give you a head start like paper one, you have to come up with all the information yourself, off the top of your head. Its hard. Trust me. Then again I'm bad at history. Paper three is for all of the people HL ing in history. This paper is just based on your junior year. Yeah = you probably forgot all of that stuff because it was literally a YEAR ago! 365 WHOLE DAYS. I don't know how they expect us to remember all of this information they feed us, but whatever. So paper three is just prompts. You pick like three I think it is, and respond to them. Pretty straight forward if you know your stuff. 

     Spanish- I tested out of Spanish my junior year so I don't know how this works. They're apparently changing the curriculum anyway so what I did isn't going to be the same so we're just gonna skip over this.  

     Psychology- So if you're SL- ing in this class, then its pretty basic. You have an IA (oh wow shocker) and a paper one and paper two. For your IA, you pick an experiment that was done before and you replicate it. You record your data and much like the science IA, you explain how you did your test and the results. Really straight forward. You have to do a little analysis but nothing that hard. Paper one and paper two are based off of all the information you learn throughout the year. You have to know the studies! Know the aims, methods, results and any critical evaluation you might need to describe the study. HL psych is just a repeat of SL psych. You do all of the same things, it just that you have a paper three to add on. Paper three is pretty simple. You learn about research methods and how to conduct and experiment in psych 2. You also learn about disorders such as depression, anxiety, etc. IN paper three you get a situation and you have to evaluate it. Write what type of experiment it is, what type of results they got blah blah blah stuff like that. 

     Free Class- okay, so if you have a free class, then you should either intern or get a modified schedule. If you get a modified schedule then I suggest that you should (depending if you play a sport or are in a club) have it at the beginning or the end of the day because then you just get to go home and that's away the best. If you are in a lot of club or play spots then I suggest you either pick up an extra class or have a free period and intern or something because when you have a modified schedule, you're legally not allowed on campus. This means that if you have to go in early for a club or stay after school or a sport then you have to leave the school and find something to do for an hour, and that's not fun because its a waste of time and you get nothing done and that this worst feeling. Then you have to come back and its just overall a hassle so save yourself and try to schedule and pick your classes wisely. If you intern, then you get service hours and its basically like a study hall because you dint do shit since the admin doesn't trust you with anything. But you get all the good office tea which can be funny sometimes. All of this is according to my experience and particular school, so I guess it really depends.

     So I guess what all of you are wondering by now is "Can this girl just skip all this fluff and tell us if it was worth it and if she got her diploma??!!" And I can confidently say, that after four years of hard work, blood, sweat and lots and lots of tears, I did not get my diploma. So now you're probably wondering why tf should I take this chicks advice if she didn't even get the diploma? Well you don't have to, I am just explaining my experience and what I think I would've wanted to know before I committed to this program. I do have to say tho, that by embarking in this program, I have come out a totally different person. I have made so many friendships and feel part of a family which is so comforting. I really appreciate all of my teachers and what they have done for me. I defiantly don't regret going through the program because I came out as a better person. I also learned a lot of valuable lessons- life lesson and college tips. I've been trained how to write a 5 page paper in an hour (granted I know what I'm doing and I don't procrastinate) while it may take other students a day or more.  I also feel that its good for people who want to go to big universities. My SAT and ACT scores weren't wonderful, but I think because I did the IB program that's what got me into the school. I'll talk more about that in my blog about college which I think I'll post the beginning of August. WOWOWOWOW. That was a long ass post. But I hope it helped. Maybe. Possibly. Even just a little...?? If you have any questions just let me know!! Also I'll probably try to post something every week, most likely on Thursdays because Thursday is an extremely underrated day of the week. Sooo yeah. - Maya  

IB Pinning Ceremony 

Senior Awards Night 

IB Banquet

Graduation !