General studying tips
  • Chill: Please don’t freak out from the IB memes and reddit stories about how hard it is. IB is designed to be challenging but it is not (designed to be) lethal lol. Balance your academics along with friend/family/hobby time.   

  • BUT Try hard: POSITIVE CONSEQUENCE IS A RESULT OF GREAT EFFORT. Mountains look small if you look further, but if you get closer to take a step up, you realize there is a tremendously more steps to climb on. For example, before starting my gym classes, I regarded ‘getting fit’ lightly, thinking that more care for diet and more running would build me way healthier than now, and similar line of thought for many challenges I haven’t ventured upon yet. But welp 
 
  • Manage your time: Make use of your time better. Getting your work done isn’t always about how much time you have, but about how ‘densely’ you use your time. Experiment what methods work best for you,like using stickie notes or tracking your TO DO LIST digitally. Remember that general organization skills also help save time, like different folders for each subject, and keeping your desk clean (yeah I don't do that but please don't be me) 

  • Setting small goals: Set small achievable goals/to-dos especially for big processes(eg. Read notes, Do paper 1 x1, Do paper 2 x1 … is better than seeing “study chemistry” on your to do list) so you are consistently rewarding yourself, planning ahead and not scaring yourself during the studying process.
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  • Study resource: This Youtube channel explains some nice study techniques such as active recall, space repetition. Ali Abdaal (Warning: He talks about being a Cambridge Doctor a lot so it can get annoying at least to me.)



IB studying tips
  • Tips for choosing IB subjects
  1. Explore your interests by choosing a wide diversity of subjects but this doesn’t mean choosing aimlessly. If you already have a clear vision of what you want to pursue in college or the future, definitely check out the requirements and choose accordingly. For example, if you want to major in the natural sciences, UK universities usually require you to have taken Higher Level Biology and Chemistry.
  2. However, if you are not clear about what you want to study in college, it is beneficial to attend summer schools and forums outside of school to explore your interests. If that still doesn’t work for it, it is totally fine because IB is a process of learning and exploration. You have plenty of time, even in college.
  3. Choosing a new Language at ab level is not an automatic 7, you still need to work hard even though it is not the same as A or B from personal experience. If you do pick ab and you are starting from scratch, do embrace the language such as by watching movies and tv shows in said language. Try and get some of other classmates and hang out by only pleasing that language.
  4. If you are trying to figure out what you want to major in. It may be beneficial to go to a university's website and try to find the page where it says what are the mandatory courses you need for that major. It may give you a better picture of what you will be learning in that course so you can say if the topics seem very interesting or are not what you were expecting. But be open to new ideas too, it may interest you in the future.
 
  • Use syllabus: Make 100% use of your syllabus. Study guides are often insufficient, textbooks are TMI, and internet isn’t all reliable. There isn’t going to be more or less from the syllabus, and even if a question looks odd and out of place, it is listed somewhere in the syllabus. Use it as a checklist, and cover everything on it properly, and I say that 6 is guaranteed. Especially true for biology.
 
  • Studying English: Study English slowly and consistently. For English, it’s hard to see a rapid evident improvement. It is about learning a language after all, so understanding its nuances and utilizing it more freely takes a long time and complex route. Take some time every day or week to read books, articles. Take part in active learning by writing different types of texts. For other subjects it may be better to adjust your studying to the structure of the exam, but for English I personally think that you better learn the language properly and then dive into what IB requires from you.
 
  • Studying for biology.
  1. Biology can be a difficult subject to learn and comprehend, often because of the amount of content that must be known for each unit, and the complex processes you will have to memorize, such as the transcription of DNA or the Krebs cycle. However, in order to completely comprehend and understand concepts, I would recommend reviewing content that you have learned in class during the day at home for around 5-15 minutes, and see if there are parts you do not understand which you can ask your teacher about the day after. I would also recommend, when studying for exams, practicing to visually construct the biological concept in your head, like making a film about the translation of DNA in your mind that you can replay during tests. You could find a way to do this that works best for you, such as drawing the processes out, or making a “How to…” guide listing out the steps of the process.
  2. Try to organize your notes for every subunit, and don’t wait until the day before any test, because the workload is huge. Also, consistently reviewing your notes from previous sections is useful, as different sections are related and the previous sections help you to understand better on new topics. Before any test or exam, try to do some past paper questions, in order to get the feeling how the question style will be, and also look through the mark scheme to check any point you missed that potentially can give you marks. For biology, it is important that you know different command terms in questions and what the answer required, for example, for “compare and contrast”, it is crucial that you put both similarities and differences (many people lose marks due to this).
 
  • Studying for Chemistry: It is important to do past papers, because for chemistry, it requires more thinking skills. For chemistry, it is usual that some questions seem to be very difficult, however, when you look at the mark scheme, the answer is easier than you thought. This is because for IB chemistry, they require more on application of the knowledge.
 
  • Tips for Math: For those who want to do EE on math, or want to be a mathematician. I want to present my opinion that math is one of the subjects with huge discrepancy between the real world and high school math (ib math is hard I agree). High school math mostly brushes on the concepts, and is focused on solving the designated problem, whereas the real challenge is understanding the problems in our world, finding ways to interpret it mathematically. So I recommend that you dive more into this subject on your own or beyond the high school context.
 
  • What to do if you have bad teacher.
  1. Complain about the bad teacher to make yourself and your friends feel better, laughter will get you through the day.
  2. Don’t waste much time complaining about a bad teacher because there isn’t much you can change about it within the academic year when he or she is “teaching” you. If he or she is truly incompetent, get into the mindset of knowing the teacher will not assist you or help you. Take matters like engaging in the coursework, understanding the requirements in the syllabus, or studying the content into your own hands. Accept this fact and spend more time studying the subject at home or with others in your class.
  3. Try to get on the incompetent teacher’s good side. Incompetent teachers often do not grade pieces of work properly and would rely massively on first impressions.
  4. You and your teacher should have a mutual relationship. Don’t be scared to communicate with your teacher. Remember, they are always there to “help” you. You should let them know how they should improve and what method of teaching you are most comfortable with.
  5. If you have a bad teacher, it is crucial to get ahead of the syllabus when learning their lessons. Bad teachers are usually teachers that cannot be bothered to teach or do not know the subject as a whole too well. They usually go off topic. Therefore, it is important to focus on what the main goal for that lesson is and to not be distracted by the teacher. But this does vary from teacher to teacher.
 

Preparing for the final exam.
  • Throughout the two years, don’t just study for the topic exam… a big one is coming for you soon. Organize it well, thoroughly so that towards the end of Y13, you don’t need to reorganize, but review what you did till now. Understand fully how you learn the best. Are you a visual learner? Auditory learner?
  • Re-read the class notes / text/ notebook/ read about three times
  • Read key sections again right before the test, for long novels read the first and last chapters. (e.g. when they steal the suitcase)
  • Read actively, write down and highlight, annotate
  • Copy the quotes down and key terms
  • Make things visual: images
  • Learning technique: rhymes or songs, cue cards, associations
  • Test yourself: practicing, put yourself in exam situation
  • Make a timetable
  • Make a study plan
  • Read the requirements (syllabus) 
  • Identify your strengths and weaknesses: “about” often come after a verb, articles, prepositions, reading to improve vocabulary (a variety of books), read news, listening to movie, TV shows and commercials (pronunciation), listen to the radio
  • Make questions: for multiple questions choose the best answer not the correct answer. Elimination. When making multiple questions make the choices count.
  • Memorization- make the cards, give examples on the back too
  • Be PREPARED, ready to go
  • Brainstorm when you are taking the test, planning
  • Outline and write things down
  • NOT solely focus on revising the areas that you are already familiar with, try something difficult, something that you are still not that comfortable with and dive into the deep end.
 
  • Give yourself enough time to study – don’t leave it until the last minute
  • Make a study plan – half hour before you sleep don’t do anything
  • When you go back home split your time until you have dinner
  • Schedule things in the morning not late. Disciplining yourself. Color code it.
  • Have a study space- get rid of all distractions
  • During exam week- don’t drink red-bull or high sugar and caffeine drinks. Eat fruit.
  • Fish, yoghurt, nuts, blueberries helps too!
  • Don’t have processed sugar and drugs.
 

  • Drink plenty of water- be hydrated
  • Go to the toilet before the exam
  • Stay away from the exam hall (other students discussing the exam might distract you)
  • Don’t study when you are very tired
  • Sleep well. Go to bed earlier.
  • Bring all the materials you need- bring several pens
  • Have a watch
  • Read the instructions carefully
  • Using cue words, command terms
  • Underline a few words, be an active reader
  • Psychological effects: bring the pens you always use to study, bring your own calculator etc. because by borrowing things from peers or teachers and using things that are new to you will affect your performance on the exams.