A Guide to the IB

Everyone has expectations when they join the IB, but how many are just myths and don’t actually reflect the reality? While the IB is known as a hard programme for students, this belief can be completely blown out of proportion in a variety of ways, including when it comes to the EE (Extended Essay), CAS (Creativity, Activity, Service) and the students around them. Today, I’ll talk about some of the expectations I had (and I’m sure the others around me had as well) when starting the IB, and the reality of those expectations. Expectation 1: Everyone in the IB is smarter than I am. Some people (including myself) thought that once I would enter an IB school, I would be surrounded with some of the smartest students in the country and would struggle hugely to keep up with them. I felt like the difficulty of the entrance exams would also equate to how smart the people in my class would end up being and, as you might already know, I felt the Ressu exam was the most diffi...

Across the internet, there are thousands of different resources, materials, and tutors at your disposal. But, as I'm sure many IB students come to realise, it's pretty hard to find links that are actually useful. Instead, there are offers for paid tutors, courses and books which cost quite a bit. In this article, though,  here are all the links you need for getting all the help you need in perfecting your IB scores. This includes hundreds of handwritten notes from full-scoring students, links to WhatsApp groups to ask your fellow peers how to do different questions, and some of the best online IB teachers in their field. Now, the IB world is your oyster! :) If you haven't enrolled in an IB school (especially in Finland), here are the most important links to get you started: If you haven't joined the IB, fret not: here you can find the links to Finnish schools which offer the IB programme. Browse through all the different locations that IB schools are ava...

Let me guess: you've been stressed about your upcoming entrance exams and don't know if you're prepared at all for what's inside them. Guess what? You've come to the right place because I've got you covered. In this post, I cover all the different areas you'll be covering in your entrance exams by creating an archive containing different resources from all over the world which helped me tremendously in preparing for my exams! Essay Prompts : To be prepared for any type of philosophical, unusual or otherwise unexpected essay prompts examiners may throw at you when you're trying in for a school, these resources will provide you valuable essay prep for any entrance exam you may come across.  http://nafs.gu.se/digitalAssets/1356/1356787_theworldaroundus.pdf http://nafs.gu.se/digitalAssets/1356/1356788_bla_kort.pdf http://nafs.gu.se/digitalAssets/1356/1356776_roda_kort.pdf http://isee.ivyglobal.com/isee-practice-essays Bubble...

IBO = International Baccalaureate Organisation While this may be self-explanatory, the IBO deserves some form of explanation or definition. The IBO is an international organisation which binds together thousands of pupils from all over the world to study a variety of subjects of which are taught in English, French or Spanish. It is taught on 6 of the 7 continents in the world and allows students to pursue studies virtually anywhere in the world. Taking part in this programme from beginning to end means going through the MYP and DP. However, you can enter the IB at the beginning of any of these stages (for example, I joined the IB to do the IBDP). So, you may ask, what is MYP or the DP? What's CAS or TOK? Are there any other words I should know to get familiar with the IB? Well, you've come to the right place, if you read on, I will elaborate on all the terminology you need to know to get you started in the IB. CURRICULUM-RELATED TERMINOLOGY What is the IB MYP? = ...

So, you're thinking of applying to the IB in Finland and you have questions about the entrance exams? Look no further! Today, I will be delving into frequently asked questions about applying to the IB, the entrance exams you have to do and how to prepare. How do I apply to an IB High School? When you’re in 8th grade of lower secondary school, you may need to start thinking about options of continuing to upper secondary schools. You have only 5 schools you can apply to, and you should pay a lot of attention to what order you put them in when submitting your application in 9th grade. For example, in the table above, you can see that the school I wanted to get into most was the IB Programmes in Ressun Lukio, followed by Helsingin Suomalainen Yhteiskoulu (SYK), Etelä-Tapiolan Lukio (Etis), Mattlidens and Tikkurilan Lukio. Thus, my least preferred option was Tikkurila.  As for how the point scoring system works, as stated by the Ressun Lukio website: ‘Students can...