A Guide to the IB

You might have been seeing a few mentions of EYP floating around this website, popping up randomly whenever I mention a recent trip I went on or something. Well, in this post I will be telling you why you, as a European, should be joining EYP (the European Youth Parliament)! It's an incredible volunteer-run organisation that deserves much more attention than it gets. If I'm being completely honest, you won't leave EYP without having extra knowledge: you will create friendships that will last for a lifetime (cheesy, I know), learn about politics, current affairs and (most importantly) yourself. So, what exactly are the benefits of joining EYP? 1. You learn about current affairs and collaboration The European Youth Parliament, as the name suggests, is a simulation of what the European Parliament actually does when dealing with different issues within the EU. This makes it a super fascinating experience where you can actually get super in-depth kno...

Rhyme scheme: When analysing poetry in the IB, its super common to refer to the rhyme structure of certain pieces using bundled up letters like ABAB CDCD or ABBA, and this can be confusing if you aren't familiar. To find the rhyme scheme, we are going to be looking at the sounds at the end of each line. For example: I do not like green eggs and ham. I do not like them Sam I am. I do not like them in a boat. I do not like them with a goat. - Green Eggs and Ham, Dr. Seuss When you pay attention to the sound at the ending of the line, you may notice a pattern: ham rhymes with am and boat rhymes with goat. Therefore, this follows the rhyme scheme of AA BB ( ham/am /boat/goat) An example of a more hidden rhyme scheme could be: Bid me to weep, and I will weep, While I have eyes to see; And having none, yet I will keep A heart to weep for thee. If you apply the same knowledge to this his rhyme scheme is A B A B ( weep / see / keep / thee ) Pastoral poem:...

PreIB POEM ANALYSIS: TO MY SISTER BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH Before you read on, I would like to remind you that this was written in PreIB and I WOULD NOT recommend you approach a text in the same way I do here in later poem analyses in IB1 and IB2. However, I found that organising my notes in this way when analysing really helped me get a very basic understanding of the structure of the poem and the writer's possible underlying message. I'd like to say, though, that I haven't included any notes really on the impact on the reader of the poem , which arguably is one of the most important parts of analysing a poem. However, for some type of knowledge about what type of analysis I started with and how I organised it, read on: THE POEM ITSELF   TO MY SISTER BY WILLIAM WORDSWORTH IT is the first mild day of March: Each minute sweeter than before, The Redbreast sings from the tall larch That stands beside our door. There is a blessing in the air,  ...

CREATIVITY Regular activities 1. Makeup When finding things I could do for creativity, I was told by teachers that I could do anything from writing to painting and drawing. While I already did plenty of these things before the IB started, I instantly knew that doing those same things during the IB would be a struggle, since I only found time to draw, paint or write on rare occasions. I began to think of things I did during my day-to-day life that I could in theory try to squeeze in as something similar to those types of activities. When IB1 started, I remember joking to someone about makeup as an activity similar to 'painting your face' and then it hit me... maybe I could do makeup for CAS hours, since that was something that I already was doing every single day! Sure enough, I showed my CAS supervisor a few examples of me doing 'wilder' and more experimental makeup and she loved the idea. She even said that makeup wasn't very different from pa...