QBs

I've been MLIA for a long time. It's your fault IB, not me. Anyways, here is a nice little sneakity-sneaky trick for some IB diploma students who might not be aware of its existence:
IB QUESTIONBANKS.

/zomg/ lolwut/ Hurr, wossat?/ Oh that old thang?/

As far as I'm aware, there are QBs available for Maths and group four sciences. Only a few are available for the humanities and group two languages. They're extremely useful as you can select questions by paper (eg. 1, 2 or 3), topic and level (SL or HL). Marking schemes (answers!) are included and some times an examiner's report (not useful, but interesting). Only downside is that the one's I've come across are for the old syllabus. But they're still pretty awesome.

You can get your candidate-y hands on these through your teachers (which is unlikely since many use them to compile tests) or download them as torrents.

If anyone actually has the latest questionbanks or knows where they are (hi there fellow IB candidate), me want, please&thankyou. We all want, please&thankyou :)

(leave the torrent link in a comment so that others can also download)


ALSO... For help in internal assessments, it's a good idea to search for teacher IB *insert subject*teacher support material. A result isn't always guaranteed but I know a chemistry, biology and physics one is available. You can view moderator assessed IAs with comments, which can help give a sense of what you're required to do if you're still unsure.

beeteedoubleyou (btw. ha!) for those who can't find a certain paper or marking scheme, search it as a torrent if you already haven't. Or leave a comment with your email. I can't promise to answer ASAP or have the paper you're looking for (especially anything May 2010 onwards) but something's better than nothing, riiiiiight?

Now let's continue to procrastinate. Woo!

An Update

No, the blogger of this blog hasn't disappeared, nor has she run out of things to say. I know there's been a lack of posts, but hey, staying on top of coursework is more important, right? I've started IB2 and the homework is a hell load of tasks to complete every single night.

BTW, congratulations to all the November 2010 graduates! And to those currently in IB: hang on, the effort is worth it (as I hear from previous students)!

Anyways, here are some Harry Potter themed .gifs!

Winner of the CSN promotion giveaway!

Names were written onto pieces of paper, folded, mixed up and with the assistance of my lovely mum, a name was chosen at RaNd0m.

The winner is: Neda!

Thanks to everyone who reads this blog and entered this giveaway. Perhaps there can be another one in the future (to celebrate my successful graduation, hmmmm...?)

Giveaway!

Well, I don't know how many people actually do read (not glance, but reeeeeaaaad) the stuff that's on this blog, but CSN stores have given me the chance to hold a giveaway on this blog. CSN stores sell all kinds of things (in over 200 online stores), such as cookie trays, tall lamps and leather briefcases (random things, I know!).


WHAT: a $35 CSN stores gift certificate
HOW: leave your name, email address and whether or not you're/have been an IB student (I have no bias) as a comment to this post only.
WHEN: until 1st January
FINEPRINT: international shipping (anywhere outside of US & Canada) of whatever you buy from the CSN store is not covered. One entry per person+email. If you're under 13 years old let a parent know you're entering. If not enough entries are received then the competition period may be extended.

A winner will be chosen at random , notified by email and have their victory proclaimed on this blog.

So, yeah, even if you're just visiting by, enter the competition (by commenting on this post only), because everyone loves to win (well, that is the general idea...)

____________________________________

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED

How to write an Extended Essay

Some see this extra (yes necessary) requirement as a time-suck. Laborious research, planning, drafting, writing and rewriting. The endless joy of frying your eyes in front of a computer screen!

Here, I'm going to post a brief guide, since there are several extremely detailed guides available in The Land of the Interwebz.

A) Subject
Decide from which subject your EE will be on. It is most advisable that its from one of the subjects you're studying.

B) Topic
Which area in the subject you've chosen are you interested in?
E.g: History: Cold War
E.g: English: Pride and Prejudice
E.g: Chemistry: Acids and Bases

C) Research
Tres important mes aimies! It's through research you will find out what you do like, and what you don't like.
E.g: I rather like World War Two, but I do not like the involvement of the US. This means I will not focus on US involvement in WWII.
Gather as many resources which are relevant, even if it's just a sentence. You never know when your EE focus point might change.

D) Question
The focus point of your essay. In most cases, it continues to change slightly, until a pinpoint focus in a topic is found and liked by both the supervisor and student.

E) Planning
Decide on the relevant subtopics.
Are diagrams needed?
Gather resources.
A basic dot-pointed list of what will be included in the essay for each sub-topic

F) Drafting
Place butt on suitable surface and type/write. There are two ways to go about this:
i) Set a goal and write an x amount of words every 'session'.
ii) Type/write until you can no more!
At this point it is the introduction, background information abour the topic and the body of the essay which is being written.

G) The First Complete Draft
4000+ words have been put to paper. This is an Accomplishment. Reread it and edit. Then show your supervisor, who will provide you with feedback. Do not ignore the feedback (unless your supervisor is clueless and has no hell of an idea what you're doing- which is very bad). It is not necessary that a conclusion and an abstract are written, since they come at the end.

H) Continual drafting
Edit and rewrite and improve your essay as much as you can. Keep track of ALL sources used. The correct presentation of the essay (formatting, font, etc...) can be implemented at this point.

I) The Final Draft
A viva voce (oh, the IBO and its fancy Latin!) is conducted. This is an interview with your supervisor regarding any more changes which can be made. Your supervisor actually records points they've noticed about your essay and other notes about the interview. The essay is checked for plagiarism.

J) SUBMISSION!
Your EE component is done and dusted. The IB warlocks will give you a mark. This mark, along with your TOK essay will contribute your final IB diploma mark, with a maximum of three.
Links
Here are a few much more thorough guides regarding the Extended Essay (in order of usefulness)
IBO official Extended Essay Guide (click on the other pages listed on the right hand side of the page to view criteria, regulations, presentation guidelines, etc...)

City Honours School EE guide
IB Survival EE for Dummies

Notes

i) To track your process, every time you make changes to your essay, either print it out (but don't bother too much if it's only 150 words or less) or save it as another file (i.e: EE edit 1, EE edit 2). This is to ensure that a Process has occurred. If, in some unfortunate case, you've been found to be the ill-omened Plagiariser, a gradual process of your work will be there to show you are innocent.

ii) My supervisor continually advised his students that one of the best topics should be from the syllabus of a subject you're studying. Why? Because it'll be like revision when writing parts of it and it'll also give in depth knowledge in a certain area of the topic.

How to not fail again or receive low marks

No one likes to fail or get ‘bad marks’ at school. But since we’re humans and make mistakes and blah blah blah, there might be a time (let’s say in our high schooling career for the sake of this blog) when we fail on a test, assignment or even a subject. Without really meaning to.
Frankly, some of my marks for some of my subjects have fell after being in the IB program. I know the same has happened to more than a few of my cohorts. The MLIIB posts on My life Is IB is further evidence.

However, this does not mean you should either a) not to IB or b) drop out of IB or c) become a robot and have no fun by working your metallic but off 24/7. Its life, you succeed at some things and can suck (or fail) at others. So the best thing to do is to suck it up and fix up your mistakes.

Here's a very general how-to

Tests

• Get the correct answers for questions you have answered incorrectly. Do this as soon as you receive your test back.
• If you don’t understand your teacher’s method/wording, find a classmate to get the correct answer from.
• Redo the question without looking at the correct answer.
• If possible, redo the test (at least the incorrect questions) at home, either mentally or writing by it all down.

Assignments

• Read the assessment criteria and see where you have lost marks
• Get feedback from your teacher, even if they have given written feedback.
• When doing the next assignment, read the assessment criteria and know where your weakness is, so you can avoid it.
• If a new assignment is similar to your low marks/failed assignment (i.e: commentary for English, lab practical write-up for Biology), refer back to your low marks/failed task to check you're not repeating the same mistakes (e.g: having a poor intro for a commentary, not providing limitations in discussion for Biology write-up)

Subject

• Most likely failed or received a just passing grade due to tests and assignments which have been failed or have received low marks. So do the above do avoid failing them.
• Talk to your teacher about your weaknesses and how to overcome them (either on report collection day or even at recess/lunchtime)

Note: Confidence in yourself is quite important, as well as actually putting in effort. Stressing and being nervous can also be good, since some people work better under these conditions.

Ally!

Ally is an IB student from the other side of the world (me:Australia/Ally:U.S). She will be a contributing blogger on this blog. Ally will cherish upon us her version of the delights of IB and impart some of her wisdom.

You can view her CAS blog here.

From Ally:

Hi there!

My name's Ally and I'm a junior at an IB school in the U.S.!
I'll be posting helpful/random things now and then...

My subjects:
Visual Arts HL
Math Studies SL
English A1 HL
Physics 1
Spanish B SL
History HL
Health