#ib 45

Too often, I hear people saying “how can you cram 2 years’ content in two months for the IB exams?”

The answer is, you don’t. You have to study consistently, slowly, day by day.

If you can, after class, re-read your textbook’s sections on today’s lessons, rewrite (or re-read, or memorize) today’s class notes, and solve one or two practice problems. That way, you’ll solidify the info you learned in class, and figured out if you didn’t understand something, so that you can ask your teacher later on!

If you can’t study daily, try to do it every two days or every weekend. The key is consistency and SMALL STEPS.

This is most helpful for memorization-based classes like biology, whereas you can replace the re-reading with more practice for physics/math.

Seriously though, these can save your life.

They make up a serious portion of your grade, like 20% or something. This can be the difference between a lower and a higher grade. Plus, you have plenty of time to craft your internal assessments, can get teacher feedback on them too, so actually put in effort into them! Also, never procrastinate them.

Choose topics that are easy yet interesting, and can show personal engagement through them. Don’t choose a super tough mathematical theory, for example - choose a simple, applicable and interesting idea! Instead of Fourier Transforms for math HL, why not choose integrating in polar coordinates, or multiple integrals for volume?

IAs were the thing that helped me jump from a 6 to a 7 in chemistry HL btw!

Bioninja saved my life. Spend time writing notes, the exams are done by hand so it’s the best method for knowledge retention in my opinion. If your teacher can’t help you, get a group of keen classmates together to go through the material. Past paper practice is most important! Learn those mark schemes!

Do lots of past papers

Make sure you understand key mathematical concepts