How do we know we exist?

To start off my first real week back at school, I had my first TOK lesson of the year, where my teacher told us that technically, we're just waves floating around in space, since we're all made of atoms containing electrons, which are teeny tiny waves. TOK is one of those subjects where I have a love/hate relationship. Advice to students just beginning the IB, or thinking about doing it next year: if you go into a TOK class with a narrow mind, you're going to have a bad time. Take TOK as an opportunity to explore the way you see and think about the world - it benefits you in so many ways.

Last year, in our first major class discussion, we somehow began trying to disprove our own existence. I can't remember what the guiding question was, but by the time we walked out of the room, many of us felt very unsure as to whether or not what we were seeing was real. Another example that gets used a lot is the colours red and green. How do we know that we believe to be green is actually green, when others may see it the way we see red, and vice versa. TOK makes you question everything, doubt every piece of information you're given, which makes you a better critical thinker, which the IB just loves. Also, this way of thinking is brilliant when you're researching for your Extended Essay, because you unconsciously read information with a more wary eye.

Although a lot of people tend to write TOK off as a subject where you can wing everything, pay close attention. Take good notes. Try to use the TOK style of thinking in everyday life. When you come to do your TOK presentation and essay, you'll find it a hundred times easier if you have a really good grasp of the concepts and thinking behind the material.

Most of all, have fun in TOK. It's a class where you can joke around more than usual, and go off on tangents that you don't get to discuss in other subjects.