My IB Journey

As I began my IB journey in July of 2017, I was completely clueless about how IB would be like and I had like thousands of questions running across my head. The first few days were easy, we just had to get to know our classmates and gel along. In the upcoming few days, we were told to decide our subjects and finalise them. You might have even chosen your subjects before you came in on your first day,in a meeting with your parents and the IBDP coordinator. And after all this, started the main journey. With so many questions in my mind such as how does the assessment process work, what is the assessment criteria, what books to use as main study material, what reference books should be used and where to find all the study material. These were some of the initial issues that I faced while starting the IBDP program.

With the coming time, I got to know more about IB. First and foremost tip would be to take the subjects you genuinely love and only take any subject in HL if you are absolutely sure about it. You love economics, take economics HL, it’s a very interesting and amazing subject, don’t take maths HL if you love economics. Always see the career options related to the subjects and also if you have already thought of a fixed career choice then definitely take subjects according to that. One thing Sev7n taught me was to love a subject I study and even worship it. To get through IB, you should really worship the subjects you take and Sev7n really helped me get through IB.

The tips and guidelines I would like to pass on as an alumni of the IBDP curriculum, I would suggest that first, take the subjects you genuinely like and choose your SL’s and HL’s wisely. Keep a good track of your submissions and deadlines. In IB, you learn time management and as well as many other skills, it is very important for you to meet all your deadlines for all your IAs, Extended essay, TOK submissions and all the other submissions as well. Just always keep up with deadlines, avoid procrastination cause once it becomes a habit in IB, it will spoil your learning process and your grades.

Further, know your assessment criterias very thoroughly, it is very essential to know how the marking system works in IB. Each subject has its separate grade boundaries for the grades 1 to 7, the grade boundaries for SL and HL for the same subject also vary due to the many more concepts covered if you take up HL for a particular subject. Personally, this is another aspect of IB that Sev7n really helped with. The tutors gave me various updates on the new changes that ever happened in the grade boundaries so I would always be prepared.

Moreover, you should always be really thorough with whatever topics that you choose for your IAs, extended essay, theory of knowledge essay and presentation. These topics need to be very clear in your minds so that whoever asks you anything, you just answer without any hesitation. Sev7n gave me the platform to express my ideas and helped me to form it into proper essays and really helped with the resources. In your two years of the IBDP program, you will be needing loads and loads of resources to study for assessments and finals and research for all your extended essays, IAs and what not, the tutors at Sev7n helped me at each step wherever I got stuck, they had my back.

Another important tip would be that keep practicing as many past papers as possible, there should be no limit on it. The amount of past papers available on multiple sites are numerous, so never stop practicing, that is how I achieved my scores. The latest past year papers weren’t always available online but the tutors at Sev7n were there to guide me at all times.

Last but not the least, work very diligently on the core of IB- which would be Theory of knowledge(TOK), Extended essay (EE) and CAS (creativity, activity and service). As I mentioned earlier, be very thorough and precise with your TOK and EE essays cause the topics which are precise, crisp and interesting, those topics get good grades and obviously the ones which are properly researched and cited. Keep up with your CAS, do all the things required for it, some things which I did were bake sales, marathons. These can be few examples but be creative about it, it would up your game in IB. But with all this never forget your main subjects.

The basic skill to make your journey easier through IB is to keep a good track of time- good time management and keep a good focus on your main subjects, core and always keep yourself involved in extracurricular activities. This is how I got through IB, I did really good with past year papers and worked day and night. In the end, this all wouldn’t have been possible without Sev7n.