'IB STUDYBLR'

From what I’ve heard, the Extended Essay is something that most (all) IB students dread. From finding a focus question (which is more difficult than you’d think) to actually writing 4000 words on said question, it is a mission. Since I’m only in my second term of the IB, I’m formulating ideas about what to write my EE on and have been looking for tips on how to choose my topic and focus questions. I thought I’d share what I found and some of my own tips!!

Finish CAS in year 1. Do most of it in the early months when the work load is less

Complete the first draft of your EE by September of Year 2. Obviously the earlier done, the better. Just don’t let it drag on to the second year because you’ll be busy with uni applications, IAs and studying.

Don’t take TOK too seriously. Have fun, debate ideas, question your teacher.

Don’t neglect what you’ve learned in TOK. Keep your notes because they’ll come in handy when you have to write your essay.

Do lots of past papers. Get used to the exam style. Even if you know your stuff, the mark schemes are really specific and you only get points if you answer the question properly. Don’t just regurgitate.

If you really need to pull an all-nighter for your IAs, do it. Your IA grades count a lot. Do whatever you can to get the highest mark, because if you screw up on exam day, your IA grade will save you. Sure, you’ll be tired the next day. Just drink coffee to make it less stressful. Warning: I really do not recommend doing this too often, because it interferes with your learning the next day. Only do this when absolutely necessary. 

Don’t pull all-nighters if you’re trying to cram. You’ll think slower, make bad decisions and probably fall asleep during the test.

Start thinking about your math IA topic ASAP.  You need to investigate something that you’re ~passionate~ about, is specific and is beyond your current level. Do it early because you will have to adjust it a lot.

Bullshit some childhood story in your math IA. I did mine on ‘The 4 Bug Problem’ and said I was “fascinated with the behaviour of insects ever since I started collecting beetles as a child.” I made all of that up, but I got full marks for personal engagement. Oh, and it doesn’t hurt to sprinkle in an exclamation mark or two! 

Speak your foreign language as much as possible. Even if you know all your vocabulary and grammar rules, they won’t be as useful to you if you can’t speak naturally.

Give your friends questions to ask you for presentations. For the IOP, TOK presentation, etc. Give them questions that you already know the answer to so it’ll make you seem like you really know your shit. Also, if you get enough people to do this, it’s most likely that your teacher won’t have time to ask you his/her questions, so you won’t have to be put on the spot.

If you’re studying for your IOC, study key quotes. With the exception of poems, because you should study the whole thing. Your teacher will probably pick out famous quotes from your text for the IOC, since a lot more analysis can be done. Search these up on Google and study what other people have to say about them. 

For English, never tell the reader what the text is about. That’s not what the examiners are looking for. They want to see how well you can use your knowledge of literary terms and apply it to the text. A fool-proof structure you can use is:

Point - Your main idea 

Example - Give minimum 2 examples from the text that illustrates your point 

Explain - State the literary technique used for each example, as well as the effect it creates

Mini-conclusion - Briefly tie your explanation up with your main idea, then relate it back to the question

You don’t have to read all the texts for English. It’s probably best to read the ones for Paper 2 and the IOC. However, for your IOP and written assignment, read the synopsis of your selected texts, pick the one that interests you the most, read that, then study the hell out of it. Don’t neglect the other texts entirely, but just read through their Schmoop page, or something.

Don’t rely on the revision guide for everything. They cover the bare minimum. Only use it once you’ve understood the topic.

Don’t slack off in Year 1. If you’re applying anywhere outside the US, universities will look at your predicted grade, which is affected by your performance in Year 1. Work consistently hard from beginning to end.

DO:

Use a template. Your aim is to find similarities and differences. Thus, you need to determine common points to analyze. If you are analyzing theme, do it for both texts.

**My technique: After introducing the texts as name and author, I wrote down source, context and themes in the introduction. Then I put my paragraphs in the order of following headings for each text in a combined paragraph: Content/Theme, Tone & Mood, Structure/Layout, Language.

Put forward your comparison. Use similarly, unlike Text 1, contrastingly; so that examiner would see that you are analyzing similarities and differences in a balanced way.

Topic sentences are essential. If your paragraph is based on theme, just say what you’ll analyze within the first sentence of the text.

DO NOT:

Write the full names of texts. You’ll be given two pairs: A&B or C&D. Say that you chose A&B. As you are introducing the pair, say “Text 1 is A (full name) by (author); whereas Text 2 is B (full name) by (author)”. Then forget about A and B, just go on with Text 1 an Text 2. It’s the best for the examiner.

Analyze Text 1 more than Text 2. Texts should be analyzed 50-50%. If you make it 30-70%; your essay will be unbalanced and you’ll directly lose 2-3 marks from development.

the hl english exam consists of two papers: a blind commentary and a compare/contrast essay of two works previously studied. the foundation of these two essays will always go back to the thesis, essentially the focus of your papers. in developing a thesis statement, there are 5 basic elements to include that will help you fashion the most effective thesis statement that is central to your exam papers. 

step 1: write down the title of the work

underline the title if it is a novel (which it will most likely be) or put it in quotations if the piece is a short story/poem

step 2: add the author’s name

you would be surprised by how many people forget this seemingly obvious step. make sure to spell the author’s name correctly. at this point, your thesis could look something like this:

in The Road by Cormac McCarthy

step 3: concisely describe what is literally occurring

use a short phrase to summarize the plot, straightforwardly describe what is happening to the characters. the following is an example:

a man and his son struggle to survive in post-apocalyptic United States

step 4: suggest an underlying meaning

in this step, you are looking to incorporate what the author is trying to convey to the reader in their work. it could be a political commentary, an allusion to societal problems, or perhaps a statement on the influence of religion. often, this is the hardest part of crafting the perfect thesis statement. it is the part of the thesis that you will continually refer back to throughout your essay, as you argue how the author imparts this message through the novel. in The Road, it could be any of these: 

importance of family in the face of disaster 

youth as a symbol of hope for the future

loss of compassion and morality

role reversal of father and son/passing of torch to next generation

step 5: include an overarching literary device

to support the presence of the underlying meaning you chose from step 4, you need to determine what literary device enables the author to subtly address said topic. it should be a feature that permeates the entire novel. it might be an obvious aspect, such as the author’s use of juxtaposition but it could also be a device that’s not so easily observed, such as the use of time or incorporation of flower imagery. examples from The Road include:

archetypal journey

symbolism

imagery

diction 

finally: put it all together

arrange all the 5 pieces together to form a coherent sentence. this will serve as a basis for your essay, from which you will stem your main points

In The Road by Cormac McCarthy, symbolism is used to illustrate the passing of the torch to the younger generation through the journey of a man and his son struggling to survive in post-apocalyptic United States.

In The Road, author Cormac McCarthy utilized diction to emphasize youth as a symbol of hope for the future in his description of a man and his son struggling to survive in post-apocalyptic United States.

additional examples:

In “Antaeus” by Seamus Heaney, the paradox of one’s elevation being one’s downfall is highlighted by direct references to the Greek myth of Antaeus and Hercules, which carry political undertones relating to Irish nationalism in the face of British imperialism. 

In “A Hazel Stick for Catherine Ann” by Seamus Heaney, autobiographical references to Heaney’s daughter emphasize the passing of the torch to the next generation through the description of the speaker trimming a hazel stick for a child.

How meal planning works: Shopping for your groceries and spending time to make your food might be slightly more time consuming than picking up something ready-made from the store, but I’m here to make this way easier for you !!  ʕ •ᴥ•ʔゝ☆

For those students who have a cafeteria at school, you might have noticed that the food isn’t usually the cheapest option and is definitely not well fitted to your taste everyday; meal planning doesn’t have to be hard!!

Tips:

Make time to find recipes Whether it’s creating what suits you, looking on Instagram for inspo, or watching youtube videos, always set aside a time to plan out what you need to buy and how it’s made. This saves up a lot more time in the long run as it’s all planned out! Food Gawker is one of my top favourite recipe sites to use, available for iOS too so you can use it on the go and save anything you come across!

Start a meal calendar Meal calendars are just like normal calendars- except you put what you are going to cook and when. Colour code everything! If your goal is to eat healthier, highlight all the days where you have vegetarian meals; if you see that you have a marathon coming up in the next week or two, colour in days where you bring foods that contain high-energy.

Day themes Monday- pasta? Tuesday- breads? Wednesday- rice? The best thing about prepping your own meals means that you can bend this however you would like. Having days with themes could make your recipe planning much easier, just pick something from the same category according to the day- however if you like tacos you could eat that everyday of the month!!

Have a regular shopping day Some people prefer to meal plan for the entire month or just for a week, but with whichever option you prefer, shopping regularly is very important. If your school days are from Monday to Friday, shop for enough groceries on the weekend to minimalise trips to the store again. Out Of Milk for android users is an app to create shopping lists that categorises the type of food (dairy, veggies, etc) 

Set a budget Cannot ! Stress ! This ! Enough ! Give yourself a limit to how much money you’re going to spend on buying the ingredients. Always look in your fridge before going shopping so you know what you have and don’t already need to buy!! One of the easiest ways to keep track on your expenses are to use an app: Monny and Pocket Expense are both great apps to categorise the money you spend and to set a (daily/weekly/monthly) budget on the go. Having an app to record everything seems to be the quickest option for a student (and they’re free!) but if you prefer to write it down by hand then that’s cool too (゜∀゜)!!!

Don’t over plan Finding cool recipes can be super exciting BUT be aware about how long the meals take to make. Don’t go for recipes that take 2 hours prep + 5 hour cook time just for one lunch’s worth of food. Leave out days for improvisation or grab lunch once in a while instead if you have a really busy schedule- don’t guilt yourself just because you can’t make lunch every single day!

Know your level of cooking How well do you cook? If your answer is not very well, thats okay! Culinary skills aren’t required to make your own lunch, however it would make your life much much easier to pick something you can make and would like to eat.

Preparing meals (week prep) For those of you who don’t mind eating the same meal everyday for a week, then preparing and cooking all meals on Sunday night would be ideal. There are two ways you can prepare: - Cook the meal as normal but for 5 portions (Mon-Fri, or however many days you are planning to eat it for) and store each portion in separate containers for each day. - Cutting, chopping, measuring and putting the ingredients into portions (in boxes or bags or however you want to keep it) to cook it every night for the next day. This ensures freshness but still saving all the prep time as you do it in advance! This does require some cooking but it’s definitely more efficient than doing the entire process per day.

Preparing meals (daily prep) You may have to find time each night to prepare if you prefer to eat something different everyday. Although it sounds very time consuming, I suggest to plan out recipes, gather all ingredients needed for all the meals, and sort out the amount of each ingredient needed for each meal on the weekend. Weekdays might be hectic and tiring when you get home afterschool, and finding the time to cut and prepare daily might start to become a chore, resulting in a lack of motivation to stay in plan. 

Have fun!!

Here is a list of recipe ideas for school !!!

Here are some IB Biology resources that I’ve collected over the past two years. I hope they will be helpful! 

Syllabus 

First things first. The syllabus is key, it tells you everything you need to know. What to study, IA’s all your papers. Just don’t read the entire thing, be selective. 

Syllabus for Biology first examination 2016. 

Command terms as well as HL exams info can be found here!

Websites

Bio Ninja: Might look shady but it’s great and has condensed info for all topics. 

Bio Guides: This site follows the old syllabus but it has the same info basically. 

IB knowledgy: Another site with all Bio sections explained and it has related videos too. 

Videos 

Crash Course: Great for overviews, introduction to topics or revision. Also great for when you don’t want to study but you have to.

Khan Academy: Amazing videos! They explain basically everything. But it follows the US curriculum. 

Visual Videos: Great for visual learners. They explain some of the important processes with really cool videos. 

Teachers Teaching on youtube

If you don’t like your teacher or need something explained in a different way, I’d recommend these youtube channels. They teach the IB syllabus by topic and they’re really good. 

Alex Lee, Dan Rott, Stephanie Castle. 

Online Labs 

Several virtual labs on ecology, evolution and cell biology can be found here and here!

Plant transpiration lab 

Evolution lab 

Ecology lab

Past Papers 

Some past papers can be found here! 

Quizzes can also be found here and here, as well as some review material. 

Specific Topics 

Crossing over 

Study Tips

A really good way to study for all the Sciences is to print out the syllabus content for all the chapters to see what they require of you. Make sure that you have notes on all of the “understandings” that they want you to know. This way you won’t miss any information! 

I would also recommend that you have drawings on all of the important processes and structures. You could keep them in a binder or in a separate note book. This way you can understand the content better and always have something to refer back to.

Fun Stuff 

Here are some stuff I’ve found that are fun but not always super relevant. But you know bio can be beautiful and fun sometimes so I thought I’d add them anyways. 

Pretty video of protista! 

Biology songs, that are actually educational and fun. 

Planet Earth I and Planet Earth II. These are the most beautiful documentaries ever. 

Hey guys I just recently finished the IB and i scored 39 points just one off my predicted! And here are some nice tips I have gathered for your preparation for the final exams or tests!

GENERAL

Open up excel and make a simple schedule. Make sure to have a month’s time to study for your exam. I went week by week.

Biology HL

—> THIS STUDY GUIDE WAS VERY USEFUL that I BARELY REFERRED TO MY TEXTBOOK: https://global.oup.com/education/product/9780198393511/?region=international

—> If you don’t understand some concepts here is a youtube IB bio guru to help you out: https://www.youtube.com/user/misterleescience/playlists

—> DO lots of past papers: they are leaked all over the internet. Type in the subject, year, and timezone into google and a number of results will pop out.

—> Write out the concepts. Simply reading will not help, memorise each and every step. The key is to ‘UNDERSTAND’ and not practice rote memorisation.

Chemistry HL

—> First understand the concepts. Here is a youtube IB chem god to help you out: https://www.youtube.com/user/richthornley

—> PRACTICE. I really can’t stress this enough. Once you finish a topic, practice as many IB questions as possible and Immediately ask the teacher your doubts.

English A Language and Literature HL

—> As for Paper 1 all you can do is practice! Make sure you are familiar with the stylistic features because it is one of the criteria. Here is a link to help you with that: http://literarydevices.net/

—> As for Paper 2 make sure you are familiar with all the books. Make sure to have gathered enough important quotes. I would say atleast have 10 quotes per each work. The quotes should also be rich in stylistic features. Both context and content will be important. Also pay attention to theme, plot, motif, setting, and characterization.

Math SL

—> FRIST understand THEN practice till you drop.

—> Do question both from the book and past papers.

—> Remember the IB will never give you anything you cannot solve.

Psychology SL

—> The outcomes are very important, make sure to know by heart what discuss, explain, analyze etc. mean because if you don’t answer your essay according to the outcome you will score very low even if you wrote an excellent essay.

—> Memorize each and every case study with evaluation. For short answer questions evaluation is not usually needed but do so lightly anyway to mke your essay look more complete.

Japanese B Sl/ Ab Initio

—> Know your grammer, kanji, and vocabulary.

—> Practice by doing all the past papers. As for paper 2 make sure your have praticed writing essays to all the past ib prompts.

—> Answer with detail and make sure you have answered everything asked by the prompt.

—> In Paper 1 if you get lost in the reading comprehension read the previous information to guide you.

Extended Essay

—> Choose something you are genuinely interested in and feel passionate about exploring. Remember you are not graded for the hardest topic.

—> Make use of external resources very well and remember to format your work correctly

—> DONT FORGET TO CITE SOURCES! THE IB IS QUICK TO FIND PLAGIARISM EVEN IF YOU PARAPHRASED!

Theory of Knowledge

—> You have to think outside the box and be very open minded. There are many ways of looking at things.

—> Make sure your TOK presentation is really interesting and enjoyable to watch.

—> The TOK must be critical and really bring out the essence of TOK as you answer the question. Remember there are many ways to look at the question.

Creativity Action Service

—> Make sure to document your activity with reflections and photos.

—> Write a reflection every two weeks for each activity to update your progress. And at the end of each activities write a final 300-500 word reflection.

—> In the final Cas summary you can combine all your 300-500 world reflection into a single document.

—> MAKE SURE TO FOLLOW THE CORRECT GUIDELINES.

Internal Assessments

—> DO YOUR BEST IN THESE, they can really help you lift your final grade!!!

Studying for an exam (or it is called revising in some parts of the studyblr community) can be stressful. When is studying for an exam fun anyways. Everyone tests and studies differently but here are some tips that have helped me with studying for exams and passing the exams.

Before the Exam Date (~2-3 weeks out from the exam):

I tend to study at least two weeks out the material that will be on the exam. If the exam covers chapter X-Z, I break up the chapters and review everyday.

I DO NOT cram all my material in a day or pull all nighters. This has never worked for me and plus, I value my sanity and sleep too much.

I review and do my homework problems as soon lecture get out.

Any questions I have about the material, I go to my professor’s office hours during these couple of weeks before the exams because MOST students wait the day of the exam and I don’t have time to deal with people who waited last minute to ask questions.

I do not study ALL day. Nope. I hate looking at the material all day and I spend about 2-4 hours on the material per day.

1 Week Before the Exam Date:

All homework should be completed by this time and the only problem solving I will do is for practice exams/quizzes.

I begin reviewing my material by either teaching it to other people, writing it all out, or rewriting important concepts over and over again.

I begin winding down on material. I do not let up on studying, but I also don’t spend hours reviewing/studying

Night Before the Exam Date:

I review a little bit that day and I try to relax that day. I have lots of test anxiety and I have to make sure I am stress-free on exam day.

1-2 hours before bed, I put my books and material down and do something fun before bed such as reading a book for fun.

The Exam Date:

By this point, I hate looking at my material for the exam and I am so sick of looking at it so a lot of times I don’t bring it with me.

I listen to music before the exam, something calming.

I do not like to be near people before the exam. My chemistry friends were so negative and mean, I just didn’t bother with them during exam day. So I would isolate myself.

I do a lot of deep breathing exercises to calm my nerves and think positive thoughts. It works so much for me especially with my test anxiety.

After the Exam:

I go home or do something constructive like exercise after the exam. I do not like to think about the exam at all and I vacate the testing area as soon as possible because I do not want to hear about how people did.

I do other assignments for other classes if I have homework, but I won’t do anything for that class I took a test in. Again, I don’t like to look at the material after an exam.

Things to Think About:

 Writing a commentary or essay on a text you’ve never read before in exam conditions can be daunting, but with the proper approach to it, you can ace your way through it with little to no stress!

Before the exam

Familiarise yourself with how we read and find meaning in any text.

What are the effects of different types of structure, narration, rhythm, action, diction, sound, setting, characterisation, figurative language, tone, atmosphere, imagery, subject, themes, ideas, etc.

Knowing the common devices authors use to create meaning allows you to identify them more easily in any given text.

Practice, practice, practice!

Find any past exam papers available, even if they are for a different type of certificate, and practice them under exam conditions.

Take excerpts out of a random book and practice, whether it be from a library, or your own personal collection.

The more you practice critically analysing a text, the easier it will become. If you don’t have the time to sit down and write out a complete essay, even planning how you would structure your essay and the ideas you would discuss is beneficial. This really cannot be over stressed, the more you write on unseen texts, the more comfortable you will be tackling another in a serious exam situation.

If the essay must be handwritten, this will also give you an opportunity to ensure your handwriting is legible and you are used to writing for prolonged periods of time.

Compare ideas in a group.

I always find working in groups for English to be highly effective. By discussing a text with a group of friends, someone will probably express an idea you had not considered before and you’ll be more open for alternate interpretations and more likely to recognise them in your own time

Critique your past essays.

Whether they were prepared or unprepared essays, identify areas where you need to work on to improve your essay writing.

Recognise your strengths as well and make an effort to try and include them in all your future essays!

During the exam

Read the text several times.

Before reading it, look for anything that immediately sticks out. For poetry, is there a distinctive shape? For prose, how is the text separated - one block of text, or several paragraphs?

Your first read should simply be for initial impressions. Is there anything that strikes you as important? What is the main idea of the text after only reading it once? What is its tone? 

The second reading should be for content. What ideas are at the forefront? What is the author trying to communicate? Underline and note aspects in the text about this. Colour-coding your annotations can be helpful here!

In your third reading, you should start noting the style. What stylistic features are prominent? There will likely be a lot on imagery, syntax, diction, structure, etc. Focus on the most important ones and their impact. Is there more to it than meets the eye?

Deconstruct the question if you are given one so you fully understand what it is asking you to do.

Probably stating the obvious, but it is so important to understand what the question is asking you to write about. Understanding the question can mean the difference between a standard essay and an amazing one. 

Don’t just identify a familiar word in the question and use it to write about whatever you want. Make sure what you’re going to write about addresses all parts to the question. If you’re asked to write about how and to what effect something has had an impact on the reader, don’t just write about how; you must write about to what effect as well! I usually underline the most important parts of the question so I don’t forget to write about them. 

Define relevant key terms that are important to the question. How is a character made interesting? What is meant by unreliable? Try to subtly integrate these into your introduction.

Plan your essay.

An examiner will usually be able to tell the difference between a planned and unplanned essay. Planning gives your essay structure, coherence, and makes it easy to follow. 

You can take a linear structure, addressing aspects of the text line by line. Alternatively, you can take a conceptual approach - discussing narration in one paragraph, imagery in another, etc. In my experience, the conceptual approach usually scores higher, however it is really up to the text you are analysing and what you are comfortable writing with!

If you aren’t given any prompts or a guiding question, make sure your argument is really clearly outlined in your introduction, or else you’ll leave the examiner guessing as to what you’re writing about.

Make sure to include important quotes and examples in your plan so you don’t leave them out when you write it.

If you are stuck as to what your line of argument should be, I usually like to address how various techniques are used effectively to communicate the theme. It’s a general and open ended question that will fit any kind of text, so long as you identify the techniques and devices!

Essay must-haves:

Include a macro sentence as the first sentence of your introduction. Draw the reader in with a statement that broadly covers the ideas you are going to cover. 

Every paragraph must start with a topic sentence and end with a concluding sentence that links it back to the aim of your essay. This also ensures that you actually address what you set out to talk about.

Integrate quotes and examples smoothly into your arguments. Small phrases and individual words especially give your arguments concrete evidence, and allow you to work the detail of the text.

Proof-read your completed essay.

There is nothing worse than to come across a simple grammatical mistake that was overlooked in a really well organised and argued essay. Try to read your essay through twice before handing it up to try and identify these stupid mistakes we all make under pressure. 

Oh no! 

80% of people failing sounds rather suspicious to me; were you using IB grade boundaries? Were your mocks based off IB past papers? If the answer is ‘yes’ to both of the above questions, I’d suggest maybe getting a tutor, because it seems like there’s something up with the teaching in your school.

Here are a couple of tips for Math SL: 

Practice questions! Math is all about practice. You can find loads of past papers online- do the ones from around 2010 onwards. Try them under timed conditions, and don’t look at the markscheme until your time is up. 

The markscheme is your best friend. The markscheme actually goes through how to do each question, so if after doing a past paper, there’s a question you really don’t get, you can work through it by looking at the markscheme.

Don’t rely too heavily on the markscheme though. After working through the question by using the markscheme, wait a day, and then come back to it. Don’t look at the markscheme and attempt to solve the question again, from scratch. If you get the right answer, that means that you’ve understood how to do it.

The formula booklet is life. Make sure you know which formulas are on there, and which ones you’ll have to memorise. When stuck, flick through it for ideas- it’ll help you figure out what to do.

Learn how to use your graphics calculator. Your calculator has loads of great features that’ll be super helpful in paper 2. It’ll solve quadratics and simultaneous equations for you, and sometimes, a trig/calculus question can be solved in a couple of minutes by drawing the graph on your calculator and using x or y solve. HOWEVER IF YOU DO THIS please remember to sketch the graph on your exam paper, so the examiner knows what you did.

Always show your working. Even if you don’t get a final answer, you can still get loads of marks from showing your working. I know that in my Paper 2, I screwed up the last question, but I still got marks because most of my working was correct. 

[this was previously posted on bookfirefly] 

(Advice in this section can also mostly be applied to English Literature SL, Literature for other languages, as they have the same basic structure. English Language & Literature students may be able to find some useful advice regarding Paper 2 in this section, although the other components of the subject are rather different).

TOK ESSAY SCAFFOLD 16/05/16

Hey guys! Here are some useful tips for writing TOK essays. Enjoy!

·      Try and stick to the word limit. This is super important. You should try and write 1400-1600 words per essay, as the word limit is 1600 words. However, If you go over the limit by I don’t know, 50ish words, its okay, there is no need for you to delete anything.

·      Introduction (between 200-250 words)

Ø  DEFINITIONS, DEFINITIONS, DEFINITIONS. Whenever you get a TOK essay title the first thing that you have to do is to read it thoroughly and identify the key words. For example, if you were given the title:  - “There are only two ways in which humankind can produce knowledge: through passive observation or through active experiment.” To what extent do you agree with this statement? –What are the key words here? The key words are clearly passive observation and active experimentation. You should therefore try to come up or look up appropriate definitions for these terms. What I usually do is either get dictionary definitions or just mix different definitions for these (which I find in dictionaries, online, etc.) in order to create my own.

Ø  Knowledge questions: this part is pretty simple yet really important. You should be able to come up with at least 4 good knowledge questions that relate back to the title/topic of your essay. Example: question -> Examine the ways that empirical evidence should be used to make progress in different areas of knowledge. Knowledge questions: To what extent do the natural sciences rely on empirical evidence? Therefore, to what extent are scientific discoveries reliable? (How reliable and useful are the results of controlled experiments?) To what extent does math use empirical evidence? Do theorems use empirical evidence to exist? Can math be disproved? Have axioms been found through sense perception?

Ø  Once you have established the question with these key defitions you should try and establish and present your argument; what are you going to try and prove throughout the essay? This should be done by mentioning both your arguments and counterarguments in the introduction. I will be posting one of my TOK essays in which I got an A (6.5/7) and which I corrected and annotated so that you guys can kind of get a feel of what TOK essay introductions are about.

Ø  Also, remember to state all of your knowledge questions!!! 

·      Body paragraphs:

Ø  These should contain both your arguments and counterarguments.

Ø  P1: should be about 300 words long and should not only contain your (explained) argument but also personal and “famous” examples that refer back to and support the claim/to some extent prove the claim. These examples could be the ones that you’ve studied in class or ones that you’ve found on the internet. Also use examples from your personal life!

Ø  P2: should be about 300 words long and should contain a counterargument. Explain it and USE EXAMPLES!

Ø  P3: should be about 300 words long. set up your argument, explain it, and use examples!

Ø  P4: should be about 300 words long. set up your counterargument, explain it, and use examples!

·      Conclusion (100-200 words long)

Ø  All you have to do is sump up your arguments and refer back to the essay title. Its pretty simple!

·     References, footnotes, and bibliographies:

Ø  You MUST have references! Not everything that you write down can be taken from the top of your head/from your notes.

Ø  Footnotes: Your teacher should teach you how to footnote but in case you don’t know:

FOR BOOKS: authors name, name of book, (City, publisher, year), page number.

WEBPAGES: webpage name, link, date last accessed

Example:

Michelle Stacy, The Fasting Girl: A True Victorian Medical Mystery (New York, Putnam, 2002), 18.

Ø  Bibliographies are pretty simple. I use the Harvard referencing system. This is the link to the PDF that will show you how to add links, etc. to your bibliography https://www.staffs.ac.uk/assets/harvard_quick_guide_tcm44-47797.pdf

 WORD COUNT AT THE END OF THE ESSAY!

So, tomorrow is the first day of the May 2016 session of final exams for IB students all over the world (aaaaaahhhh!) and it starts off with English A Literature Paper 1. This is a guide to annotating your extract and structuring your essay. It is based on some advice from the Oxford IB Skills & Practice book, the IB syllabus that you can find here and stuff that my teachers have told me and some feedback I have received from IB examiners. Hopefully you’ll find this helpful!