High School Class of 2015

Pre-College Topics High School Life
4806

<p>@CE: No, you’re totally fine! IB isn’t nearly as well known as AP in the US.</p>

<p>IB-International Baccalaureate-is basically a system where you slack off from grades K-10 (in the US; dunno about other countries around the world) and then suddenly get bombarded with a bunch of crap in 11-12th grades. IB students in 11th and 12th grades have to take six subjects, one for their native language, one for a foreign language, one for a social studies course, one for math, one for science, and one for the arts (though the arts class can be switched for another foreign language/science/social study, I’m pretty sure).
Most students take 3 HL (higher level and thus harder, more intense two-year course sequences) classes and 3 SL (standard level and easier, less intense one-year course sequences) classes. Some take 4 HLs and 2 SLs. The major overachievers take 7 subjects total to combine the full IB diploma and the certificate program. :wink: Though why anyone would ever want to do that I dunno.</p>

<p>In addition, there are the 3 core requirements every student must complete in order to get the diploma: CAS, TOK, and the EE.
CAS is Creativity, Action, and Service-students are required to log 50 hours in each of the three categories. For example, for creativity you could count hours practicing an instrument; for action, hours spent exercising in an school sport; for service, community service hours.
TOK is Theory of Knowledge. It’s basically the study of how we know things and it’s supposed to broaden everyone’s minds and all, but I dunno if that’s worked considering some of the IB seniors at my school :stuck_out_tongue: But anyway, you need to write about a 1500 word essay and give a 10-minute solo presentation and you get ranked A-E overall based mainly on those two components of the course.
The EE is a massive paper not more than 4000 words in length usually completed during the summer between junior and senior years. It is a research paper, and is required to have a question that is the basis of your paper (the student basically is answering that question in the EE) as well as a mix of sources and an emphasis on one of the subjects (e.g. math, chemistry, history). This paper is also graded on an A-E scale.</p>

<p>That’s the (long) basics of IB. There are many more details, but I don’t particularly care to go through all of those right now. :stuck_out_tongue: I will say, though, that I am striving for (but probably not going to get) a perfect 45/45 on the Diploma.
How do you get those points? Well, you can potentially gain 3 points from the combo of TOK and EE, depending on how well you do in those.
The remaining 42 points come from your 6 chosen subjects. Each subject has external/internal assessments that determine your level in those subjects on a scale from 1-7. I’m hoping for 6 7’s, but I doubt that’ll happen. :(</p>

<p>^Dang that was long, sorry. :o</p>

4807

<p>@fostej…Gracias.</p>

<p>@Elven…wow. That’s a wealth of knowledge right there. Interesting. I kinda wish my school had that.</p>

4808

<p>@CE: Haha I’ve made it my business to pretty much ask every single junior/senior in IB (from last year; haven’t really gotten around to it yet this year) what they think about it and what their lives are like…</p>

<p>Yeah, I like that IB forces you to either manage your time or suffer in pure torture as you try to finish all the crap you need to do. :stuck_out_tongue: But as I said, grades K-10 are nothing compared to 11-12, so yeah I’m still procrastinating now…</p>

<p>IB is a very costly program to manage, though, and it seems especially over-priced if only very few juniors/seniors are in it like in my school. Literally at least 75% of the freshman class comes in as IB students (it got a lot less this year, though), and then after sophomore year the percentage plummets to about 20%. :p</p>

4809

<p>Finished all of my break hw except for Precalc. Now I just gotta do that…it’s gonna be a long night.</p>

4810

<p>@goodnoodle: :stuck_out_tongue: I didn’t study at all for my US History test tomorrow… fun! :slight_smile: At least I’m not in the full IB yet, and not in APUSH. I only have to study 80 terms instead of whatever ungodly amount the APUSH classes got (probably like 200 :p)</p>

4811

<p>I never study for my tests, and its showing in my performance. I keep getting Bs. Thr next 3 weeks I’m going all hardcore nerd.</p>

4812

<p>Hard core nerd?</p>

<p>Can’t fall asleep</p>

4813

<p>It is morning here. I leave for school in an hour and a half. Need to start revising!</p>

<p>I’ve had to prioritise, which means no biology revision, only what chemistry I can do over breakfast and history only after the other exam are finished, which means about an hour over lunch.</p>

<p>I never study for tests, and it doesn’t show in my performance. Doesn’t really encourage me to do so. These exams don’t actually count for anything, but they’re a practice for very important exams in the summer, so i should be taking them seriously.</p>

4814

<p>@kyp i guess hardcore nerd for me means actually doing all of my hw haha</p>

4815

<p>@ElvenRanger same. but people that want actual cards delivered can just ask and have them delivered. My school says its “going green”, do it did this and stopped giving students free agenda books. Lol.</p>

4816

<p>@the people talking about IB</p>

<p>Some of the private schools 'round here are introducing that. Up 'til S4 (10th grade) you just go along with the normal programme though, as the level of work is similar to people doing the Scottish curriculum.</p>

<p>To be honest, it doesn’t really appeal to me. I’ll be doing English, Maths, 3 sciences and computer science next year, which would be impossible under it. I suppose if you’re interested in a wide range of things it would probably be good, but I’m looking forward to dropping Modern Studies* as soon as possible (it’s an interesting subject, but the exams are awful).</p>

<p>*A subject offered in Scotland that’s a mixture of politics and sociology. We’re actually studying the USA right now.</p>

4817

<p>Exams were better than I expected, considering I did about 2 hours total revision for all 4. Just 3 tomorrow!</p>

<p>Anything interesting happening anywhere at the moment?</p>

4818

<p>FINALLY got my PSAT scores…College Board sent out an e-mail with the access code thingy…I did really terrible (according to the website, 87% better than other sophomores in the nation, so I guess that’s pretty good), but it was a terrible 146…grr…that said, it was without studying, but still, pretty terrible. I left out a lot of questions because I kept second guessing myself. Oh well, I’ll just study hard for the real deal.</p>

4819

<p>Some of the most idiotic tweets I have ever seen. Things trend because you put them in tweets <em>facepalm</em></p>

<p>"#cut4bieber? stop this trend! Even tho I believe this is not trended by beliebers but this makes us stupid! Cutting is never right!! "</p>

<p>"Is #cut4bieber really trending? What is wrong with the world? It sickens me that teenage fangirls think it’s okay to joke about these things "</p>

4820

<p>^When I first read that I thought they were talking about cutting hair…</p>

4821

<p>Have you not seen the pictures?!?</p>

4822

<p>No .</p>

4823

<p>I’m not quite sure how I’m still functioning on so little sleep. I fear it may show in my exam results, 4 and a half hours tomorrow :/</p>

4824

<p>Hey ce. The scores aren’t that bad.</p>

4825

<p>^Well, probably 95% better than my school’s, but that’s only a 1400 projected SAT score! But I’ll be studying hard for those.</p>