Hello to all prospective IB students!
Most students that are in the year before embarking onto Further Education (International Baccalaureate, A Levels, SATs, APs) have finished their exams and have started their summer holidays. Some of them may even be planning to study the IB Diploma Programme when the new term starts. If this is you, carry on reading!
I’m sure that you know the fundamentals of the International Baccalaureate by this stage, especially if you are studying it next year! But, if you don’t I would strongly advise you check out the following websites that will be able to give you an idea of what to expect, IBO DP website & International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme Article on Wikipedia, these sites will be able to explain the IB much better than I could ever hope to.
Now, you have an idea of what to expect, it may seem a little bit daunting! But if you are willing to put in the hours and work during your own time and organise! I’m sure you shall be fine.
I’ve got all this free time, what can I do to prepare myself? – Well, it’s up to you. If you want you can try and learn some of the content now, or you can just wait until the course starts. I would recommend that you start learning during your free time as there is alot of content to learn, especially when you’re studying six subjects, doing your 150 hours of CAS and ToK and the Extended Essay. You should probably get in touch with your school now if you can, see what textbooks they recommend you buy and whether they will provide them, or you can have a look at the the textbooks reviewed here and decide which will be best for you.
What should I do to prepare myself? Just spend a few hours a day, not every day, just a few days per week, reading up in the textbooks and answering the questions, making notes, researching on the Internet. Just do something that will make you more familiar with the course! Don’t over do it though, otherwise you will find your motivation may suffer when you do actually start full time.
I don’t want to prepare now, I want to enjoy my summer! Good! Remember, it’s up to you. The IB focuses on directing students to learn for themselves. If you would rather spend your last ‘free’ summer doing fun things then go for it! Remember, the summer holiday between IB year 1 and IB year 2 will be very busy with work and internal assessments.
Once again, It’s up to You whether you do work or not before the course starts! I would recommend you do a little to give you a brief head start, it will help in the long run and when you do start the work load won’t be as big a shock to you than if you did nothing! Good Luck! Have Fun! Prepare!!
Similar Textbooks:
#1 by Rawan on June 22, 2009 - 7:41 pm
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Hi
I would firstly like to thank you on your blog i found it very helpful. However, though i was able to get my hands on the English A1 SL reading list, inorder to set myself ahead this proved much harder for my other subjects. As I can not get my hands on the IB text books from my school as we must (as a school policy) buy them from the school, and they are given on the first day of school. Therefore, buying them from amazon for x hundered dollars to flick through them for the summer vacation is pointless. Futhermore, I would not know where to start studing from the sylabass as all the teachers ar new and my group are the first IB grduates in the school. Therefore how would you prupose i study for:
1. Biology HL
2.Chem HL
3. History HL
4. Math SL
5. TOK
BEST REGARDS
#2 by George on June 22, 2009 - 9:28 pm
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Your school policy is to purchase the textbooks from them? That is odd. In that case you could ask if you could buy them early before the term? Or ask them which textbooks they will be selling at the start of the course and maybe buy an additional book to help. At the end of the day, it’s up to you. You could for now just start reading around the subjects, furthering your knowledge on what you already know…
As for the syllabus, it is likely that your school will follow the course chronologically using the book they choose to use. As far as I am aware all IB textbooks follow the same order. If you do decide to study a little at home from a textbook you buy from the school or from Amazon or elsewhere I would recommend that you start from the beginning and see how much you can cover, that way when you start the course you’ll have some of the fundamental knowledge covered which will make things slightly less stressful.
Also, I’m going to compile a list of websites that will be of use for IB students, providing IB resources and useful content specifically tailored for them. For now here are some helpful Biology websites, the first gives a breakdown of the syllabus and the second contains some very useful explanations. I hope you find them useful.
http://www.geocities.com/biologyib/
http://click4biology.info/index.htm (This website is amazingly useful, it is essentially a textbook on the web, diagrams and useful explanations!)
Good luck for your future Studies!
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#3 by Hazel on September 20, 2009 - 8:18 pm
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am i right that you cant do three sciences?
thanks
#4 by George on September 23, 2009 - 6:10 pm
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Hazel, that is correct, you can only study a maximum of two subjects (One in Group 4 and the other in Group 6 instead of an Arts subject)
#5 by Nielsen on October 3, 2009 - 8:08 pm
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It is possible to do three sciences. One guy my year does it, with Biology and Chemistry HL, Physics at SL.
Also four people do it in the year above me. Most of them do all sciences HL and then Math at either HL or SL.
It is not recommended to do three sciences, which mean taking seven subjects, but it is possible if that is what you want. It means a lot of work though, and it almost always lower your grades in the other subjects.