A Guide to the IB

There are lots of positives for joining the IB that people continually talk about, but there are also some negatives that people sometimes might not consider. I compiled a list of the main things that occurred throughout my 3 years in the IB to give you some insight into what it means to be an IB student, and if you're the right fit for the curriculum. This is the first part of a 3 part series, where I cover Pre-IB, IB1 and IB2.  Pre-IB You're just about to start the IB and your first taste-tester will be joining in Pre-IB. This is a preliminary year before you join the "official" IB program and it's pretty different from normal high-school. Here's a list of the different major things I found were a bit unique to the IB or were difficult and should be considered by any person thinking of joining the IB. Disclaimer: Pre-IB might not be available in some countries and, by joining an IB school, you might jump straight into IB1. However, many of...

TOK is full of super specific words and concepts that take a long time to actually even know what they mean, let alone remember them by heart. Moreover, many websites are useful in giving you all of the terms covered in TOK, but personally I only found a small fraction of them actually useful and used in the assessment components. So, I compiled a list of all the absolutely necessary  TOK terminology that you should know to ace your TOK Presentation and TOK Essay  so you don't need to sift through hundreds of terms and get overwhelmed by complicated definitions. PS. To find specific terms and sift through stuff you already know, press Control+F (Windows) or Command+F (Mac). Way of Knowing (WOK) A Way of Knowing : the method  a person uses to understand how or why something happens. They can all be used as independent methods to perceive the world. There are 8 WOKs: Language, Sense perception, Emotion, Reason, Imagination, Faith, Intuition and Memor...

Theory of Knowledge is a key subject that is only offered in the IB and makes for some very interesting and thought-provoking lessons. Some people find them a bit dry, while others (like me!) feel like its the perfect introduction into philosophical concepts. In this post, I will be giving you a summary of all the essential information you need to know for doing TOK and the assessment components in the subject.  Before beginning this article, I would recommend you first familiarise yourself with all the essential Theory of Knowledge (TOK) Terminology you will need to know to understand the subject and its components fully. Here's a post I did on TOK terminology that goes into detail about all the different terms you should know. This post is meant to cover all of the basics of the assessment in TOK, including the TOK Oral Presentation and TOK Essay. I have separate posts for how to complete every assessment component from start to finish and will be activating the links...

Honestly, my EE writing process was pretty much a train wreck. It was a long struggle, and featured being switched between 2 supervisors of which neither even attended my school and a last minute meltdown over citations. However, with a lot of hard work I ended up coming out the other side in one piece! I knew that during my EE writing process I had so many questions, and not enough information was available online that could answer most of them. Because of this (now that I'm finished with the IB), I wanted to compile a bit of an FAQ and some advice for writing a History EE. However, a lot of these same tips can be used for most EEs as well. All teachers recommend I do my EE in "what I'm interested in." How do I know what that is? Everyone is always encouraged to do what they're interested in or what their passion is. Every time I heard this in Pre-IB and IB1 I cringed because it gave me exactly 0 clarity as to what I actually could be doing. Sur...