IB Exam Tips
Laziness is the hardest job of all, because you can never rest from it. -Shay Carl
Pre-exam Time Management
That is less than 100 days, which may seem intimidating, but it is enough to cover all the IB subjects you have studied, if time is managed well. It is due to this that we conclude that there is no more time for slacking and procrastinating, or else the consequences may be overwhelming. A ready candidate will not fret over these exams, and you can equip yourself for them, even if you slacked off in your mocks.
The time left can be easily split into 12 weeks, which makes the visualisation of a study plan much easier. Your HL subjects should take up most of this time, at around 7-8 weeks (around 70%), while your SL subjects should have 4-5 weeks. This will allow you to be comfortably ready for the IB exams, putting in the just the right amount of effort. If your HL subjects are sciences and something else, you may want to prioritise the sciences.
To avoid getting overwhelmed, a plan should be used as a useful guideline, not a strict timeframe. However, this does not mean that procrastination is of any use. Your brain must be allowed to cool down, hence breaks are permissible, even for whole days, provided you do not miss over a week of studying in total. This would vary from candidate to candidate, depending on the degree of studying they need, and the nature of their studying. Some students may managed to successfully skim through everything and retain all the information, while some others may chose to take their time and revise slowly.
The IB syllabus mentions an estimate of the amount of class time each unit would need. Use this as a guide to splitting your time evenly, because you do not want to spend too much time on a unit that IB will not focus too much on.
As for hourly planning when it comes to studying, you can sleep well if you take advantage of your day, hence minimise the amount of time you spend on breaks, and maximise the hours of studying. Block away distractions, and try to focus as much as possible. An hourly plan may work for some people, but it may be too stressful for others, so stick to a daily to-do list if you just do not like hourly plans.
Tips for scoring highly in IB exams
When it comes to general, not subject-related tips, there are quite a few recurring points that are mentioned by top achieving students. A student would often go through these passively, as they may sound very obvious too, but if the good students did this, you lose nothing by taking their word for it.
The best approach to revising for the IB sciences is practice. This piece of advice has become a cliche of sorts, but it is like so for a reason, because it is those who practice that make it out successfully. As a physics teacher once said, you cannot learn to swim by simply watching other people do it. You can use IB question banks to allow for a more smooth learning process that is not too bulky, but physical copies of past papers should be fine if that's what you prefer.
You need to understand the content, as if it were intuitive to you. You are learning if you know the information, and that will only work for a short frame of time, but you are understanding if the information is ingrained into you, and you begin to ponder it by yourself, without the guidance of a book.
Students tend to slack off on the options paper, but that can be the difference between passing and failing a subject. The options are long, and they cannot be crammed into one night, hence we strongly suggest that you prepare for them long beforehand, to keep on top of things. Having to cram for an official IB exam is just stress that you do not need in your IB life, especially not after all you had to go through to get to the exams in the first place. The third paper is of a different nature to the first two, hence you may be able to secure some more marks, because, for example, if your weakness lies in calculations, the third paper might be your life saver.
You should make notes, and colourful, memorable ones too, because this will allow you to pace yourself, instead of passive reading, and it would allow you to see the product of your knowledge. Also, you will end up with a resources that is designed specifically to fit your needs.
These notes should follow the syllabus, which should be your companion now on the way to the exams. As a candidate, you should know everything in the syllabus, and address the areas that you do not understand, until you are comfortable with them. It is better to suffer through these units that you hate now than in the exams.
If you start studying early, you can have time to consult your teacher on areas you are having trouble with. Write down everything you do not understand, and after putting in effort into understanding it, consult your teacher to clarify.
If you do this, and manage your time, you will be most likely prepared for your IB exams. Good luck!
