What To Expect When Joining The IB (Pre-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 the things that occur in Pre-IB also happen in IB1, so you can still get a feel for the program through this post.

You might be behind your classmates because of the different curriculum

The IB curriculum is pretty different from the regular curriculum of most high schools, and being someone that has travelled from one country to another to go to an IB school, you might be completely behind your classmates in certain subjects. 

One of my own classmates had recently come from Belgium to Finland and had previously only received an education through the European School curriculum. When she entered math class in Pre-IB, she realised she was a few years behind her other classmates in terms of knowledge, only having basic understanding of, for instance, 3D objects and pythagoras theorem. The concepts were pretty much what other students had covered in 7th grade. Because of this, there was a lot for her to catch up on and it was pretty stressful for her to suddenly absorb all this new knowledge from a completely different curriculum.

You have to participate in all subjects offered in your school

The IB Program is packed full of all sorts of interesting subjects. All IB schools are no exception to this: they all offer a wide range of subjects that most students dream of taking and wouldn't be able to take in a normal school otherwise. I, for instance, never thought I would be able to take Global Politics, Economics or Psychology in high school, but the IB gave me that very opportunity.

When you join Pre-IB though, you are mandatorily required to take many, if not all, of the subjects in your school as a taste-tester. This includes the subjects you hate as well. This sucked for me, since I spent a lot of time doing subjects I was completely confident I wouldn't pursue in the future (like Biology/Chemistry).

 Sure, it gave me a good insight into what these subjects offered, but I really hated most of the time I spent in any of those classes since I thought they were all pretty useless. In the same light, though, I can see that this would be a good opportunity for people who are unsure of what they're interested in to narrow down what they want to do in the future.

No assignments, but LOTS of homework

I feel that the general idea most people have of Pre-IB is that it was a super easy year because there weren't many assignments at all. However, I honestly feel like that doesn't offer the full picture to people about to start in the IB. Ex-IB students tend to focus too much on the big assignments like Internal Assessments and big essays like the Extended Essay as the biggest sources of exhaustion, so they see Pre-IB as pretty leisurely since you don't need to complete any of these during Pre-IB. 

Well, Pre-IB might not have these assignments but there is lots of homework for students. Considering that you're taking literally all the subjects offered in your school, and the fact the teachers are catching all students up to the same point in their studies, you are doing plenty of work.

But, don't get me wrong. Lots of homework doesn't necessarily mean Pre-IB was difficult. The homework itself was actually not too hard, but it was just a very large amount that was draining to finish off. This became especially hard when you had to complete tasks given to groups, and your group is made up of people that don't even want to do the subject in the future. This happened to me a few times, and you really need to pull your own weight along with other people's since all they might want to do is pass, whereas you might want to actually get good grades. 

Theory Of Knowledge isn't for everyone

TOK is one of those subjects that's pretty much a hit or miss. Some students absolutely adore TOK (like myself), and others literally would rather stare at a wall for an hour. If I'm going to be completely honest, I feel like you can only really enjoy this subject if you're fluent in English or you're a native speaker, and this is one of the major pitfalls of the subject. Many of my classmates that struggled the most in TOK were struggling mostly because you need to have a pretty good grasp of the English language before being able to unpack the intricacies of certain TOK concepts. I felt this was incredibly unfair, because it put a large portion of my grade at a disadvantage and they really started to hate the subject.

To get an idea of what I mean, here are some of the TOK Essay titles released this year:

2. "There is a sharp line between describing something and offering an explanation of it." To what extent do you agree with this claim?

4. "The role of analogy is to aid understanding rather than to provide justification." To what extent do you agree with this statement?

6. "Present knowledge is wholly dependent on past knowledge." Discuss this claim with reference to two areas of knowledge.

All 3 of these essay titles are quite difficult to unpack for even the native speaker of English, let alone someone that might have English as a second or third language. This theme tends to run throughout the IB curriculum and includes your TOK classes in Pre-IB, where your language abilities are truly put to the test.

I would like to include, however, that TOK is a subject you can absolutely still do well in, even if you might not enjoy the subject very much. If you really struggle in understanding the implications of certain vocabulary, follow how your teacher unpacks concepts and always ask questions from them, since they can clarify whatever seems unclear. 

----------------------------

Thanks for getting to the end of this article! If you want to see more about anything within the IB, subscribe to this website using the menu on the right to receive updates for when I upload my next post and comment on my posts! If you’re just swinging by, check back here every couple of days for a new upload :)