IB Equals Instant Social Life Death

Posted 1:00pm Mon Jul 25th, 2011 by Zhen
  • 519 reads

IB: the rigorous program that prepares students for university and life beyond high school while single handedly ruining your social life. On the surface, IB is simply a two-year program that challenges and encourages students to only do their best academically and interact with the community. However, there’s much more that goes on behind the scenes.

One common misconception about IB is how difficult it is. In truth, IB isn’t hard. The only thing hard about it is managing your time, as there is always something for you to do. There is just so much to do that it is almost impossible to keep up your grades up. A lot of students tend to “sacrifice” an assignment, meaning they will hand in an assignment that isn’t their best work but they need something done. Students will then use the next assignment to help bring up their grades.

IB forces students to go outside their comfort zones. This can be really useful in some situations but IB does have a tendency to taking over our lives. As a form of cathartic release, there is even a website dedicated to funny IB-related quotes and jokes. One of my favorites is:

Soccer coach writes “V” on the board
Normal players: Oh yay! One-on-one!
IB players: What's absolute value of “V”?

Aside from infiltrating every aspect of your social life, IB brings out some odd baviour in students. IB students are obsessed with their calculators, which are your best friends in IB Math. One day I had a math test and I thought I had forgotten my calculator at home. So upsetting was the thought that I would have to sit the test without my calculator, I was almost in tears. Fortunately, I found it and lived to calculate another day.

In IB English, it’s good to know that no matter what novel you read, you can just say that it was a “commentary on society” – specifically our materialistic and selfish nature. Furthermore, someone almost always dies. For example, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka: The protagonist dies and the book suggests that it was a selfless act that led to the resurrection of his family.

When IB students say we have no social life, we truly do not have a social life. Even when you have a free night, there’s always going to be something for you to do, whether it’s fulfilling your 150 hours of CAS (Community, Action, Service) requirements, working on your extended essay or finishing homework that is due next week.  As an IB student, we have to pick between sleep and a social life, and if you’re smart, you pick sleep.

Jodie is beijingkids' student correspondent and is our eyes and ears on the ground. A junior student at Western Academy of Beijing, Jodie is also a contributor to the student-run magazine Unit-E. Check back for more of her blogs about student life.

Re: IB Equals Instant Social Life Death

ElizabethW
At 2:31pm Mon Jul 25th, 2011 ElizabethW said:

As a graduate of the IB program, I think all this is just oh so true.

All those assignments left not much time to make them as good as I wanted. Plus, I spent way too much time on CAS, I should have chosen a maximum of 4-5 CAS activities, but instead I had 11+. Which was really too hard for me to balance on top of my academics. Don't choose three very difficult high levels if you know you are not capable of these three subjects, at the same time, choose a class you would enjoy being in, where you can relax a little and let off some steam. We're only human and in the end I realize that we have to choose goals we are more sure we can actually reach.

A word of warning to future IB students: "Do not procrastinate, use your time wisely, and finish the Extended Essay and get a head start on your Internal Assessments in your first year of IB."

One might think they have a lot of time to finish IB Internal Assessments but come fall in IB2 swamped with all the college applications, it's almost impossible to do a great job on the Internal Assessments with all the limited time if not much was done to complete them in IB1.

I think in every curriculum there is a battle between academics and social life. The choice between choosing to do school work or hangout is even more serious in the IB program. Should one choose to hangout with a friend the Friday before an Internal Assessment is due or to stay home and do it knowing that you would be bored as heck with no motivation. Stereotypically IB students are coined for being "overly analytical with no social life", but I guess its only part of being an IB student. Having a social life can have many different meanings, and work differently for lots of people. You can have small friend circles, big friend circles, or just one friend you trust in. If you are very sociable and have to hangout with all your friends constantly, that might take up some time!

It is true most books read in A1 English are tragedies, where someone dies, showing an inadequate society. Supposedly there is something to be learned from all of these tragedies, I guess that is where the drama/general essay questions about tragedies come in.

Lastly, most people take the IB to ace the exams. Find old exam papers early on, it is very useful. I'd been doing IB for one and a half years and then towards the end I started looking at past exam papers, most of my studying seemed pointless. Don't study for the textbook, study for the exams, it will pay off in the end. Give yourself mock study exam sessions. It will really help for people who aren't good at taking exams in a limited amount of time. It worked for me, but I guess I could have used more time and practice.


Re: IB Equals Instant Social Life Death

admin
admin's picture
At 2:55pm Mon Jul 25th, 2011 admin said:

i'm kind of confused. Is IB an additional level of work on top of a regular high school diploma, or is it another form of high school diploma?

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Re: IB Equals Instant Social Life Death

ElizabethW
At 5:16pm Mon Jul 25th, 2011 ElizabethW said:

The IB is more like an additional level of work on top of the regular high school diploma. For smaller international schools in Beijing, if you take regular courses not IB, then you will have to sit the same classes and exams as the IB students but the teachers will demand less (Beijing World Youth Academy). For some schools (generally bigger) it is possible to take regular classes (ISB, Canadian School) that are not IB. The IB also offers certificates for students who feel like the full diploma is too intense or for those who failed the diploma.

When going to an American university IB is not the most important thing schools look for, sure IB adds flair to the application. After being accepted, they mainly look for the last report card (grades from mock exams and usual grades) and high school diploma, which is separate from the IB diploma and is given right after graduation.

The IB diploma is not released and sent to schools until August, the results came out in July 5th this year. IB is similar to AP in some respects.

Some schools have regular programs, but when most people enroll in IB it is for the full set of 6 subjects. 3 higher level and 3 standard level. The three higher level classes are equivalents of an American AP class.

If you fail IB and still have your high school diploma (which generally if you pass most classes, is easy to get), you can often times still go to an American university.