The hardest month of my IB has been this one that just passed. The day that you start the IB, everyone tells you the same thing - "It's a marathon, not a sprint." They also tell you that the first couple of months of second year are hell on earth.
'Aint that the truth.
One of my biggest issues with the IB is the way the internal assessments are spaced. Now, a lot of this is done at the teachers' discretion, and that's half the problem. A lot of them save IAs until early in the 2nd year, because you have the knowledge to do them effectively. And while that's useful, it's a pain in the butt when you suddenly have half a dozen internal assessments all due within about a month, plus Extended Essay, TOK assessments, and regular classwork and homework. Throw in any extracurriculars, and CAS, and your plate is very full.
This month I've had to do:
- Extended Essay (Deadline THIS FRIDAY)
- Mock TOK presentation
- Geography IA
- English FOA
- Math IA
- Mock German IA
- Chemistry labs (they're forever there, no getting rid of those anytime soon)
Other IB kids in my school have also had to work on Economics IAs, History IAs, Language A & B IAs and more. And coming up soon, we've got the real deal TOK presentations, and the TOK essay, and December exams, and English IOCs, and the real German IA, and English Written Tasks...the list never ends. And to think, all we have to look forward to are the May exams.
We also have to take care of preparing content for our pages in the Yearbook (finding photos and writing a short paragraph), and for students applying to the northern hemisphere, college applications. World's getting scary.
Anyway, we're three days away from a ten day break, which right now feels like the finish line. I've had a few almost-sleepless nights recently to try to stay on top of things.
So to sum it up:
