How are new IB students coping? – : a research by a Vaid Tutoring IBDP CAS student
If you are a current International Baccalaureate (IB) student and are feeling left behind, exhausted and overwhelmed, know that you are not alone.
I am an 11th grade IB student and I recently participated in the Work Experience Programme (WEP) at EdQwest as part on my IB CAS. I wanted to carry out a task that related strongly to what I was going through as a new IB student and said to myself, “maybe other new IB students are feeling overwhelmed just like me.” So, I designed and carried out an online survey of my IB peers to get an idea of how they were coping.
According to the survey, 67% of the respondents stated that they found the amount of work notably daunting. See the table below with responses that range from 1 to 5, where 5 stands for “too much work”. It seems clear that IB students are struggling with their workload.
At the same time, however, it seems as though these students are somehow managing their time reasonably well. Many IB students expressed lukewarm feelings about the degree of their time management, but no one thought they were absolutely failing at that task. This gives us a rough idea that IB students may simply need a bit more time to adjust to the density of IB school assignments.
These facts might help relieve a lot of fear surrounding the IB course that students often harbour. The survey also communicated that most of the IB students expressed intense anxiety before entering the curriculum. This seems to be a recurring pattern each class group holds before their later high school years. Some students expressed how they had many questions before the school year, but later were all answered as the year progressed.
Nevertheless, this doesn’t mean that one will never face obstacles throughout the IB course. Yet, if you acquire and utilize some tips, it will be challenging enough to actually train your mentality for education while maintaining the stress levels so they stay manageable. Almost all respondents conveyed that the biggest distraction for studying was social media. So, it may be a brilliant idea to limit social media use and create strict schedules for when and how long you can use them.
Furthermore, it is important to create personalized study habits that work for you! You might want to experiment with a few different methods and take inspiration from others to ultimately help you focus and study. The slides below are some suggestions of applications current students use and of their study habits. My colleagues at EdQwest, all ex-IB students, pointed me to their social media channels that are full of good general IB study tips as well as tips on how to score high in different subjects. Here is one such link: https://www.instagram.com/p/CUcfKQAJ4uJ/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Many IB students tend to find tutors to help them enhance their learning experience. This will be an extremely useful tool when used properly. Tutors can help you immensely in understanding topics in which you feel you are struggling. Finding a good and fitting teacher, when you need one, might help the IB program a bit less intimidating.
Lastly, I want to emphasize the importance of sleep. There are so many research papers based on this topic which you can explore and show just how essential sleep is to our brains. According to the survey, students get an average of only 6.2 hours of sleep. Although it will be hard to get long hours of sleep during exams, try your best to sleep for at least 8 hours.
Despite being a long and difficult journey, the IBDP offers a unique experience to those who chose to take the course. It challenges IB students to reach their full academic abilities and potential. IB students often misunderstand this time as a period of constant work and despair. However, when time and the quantity of work are regulated, you should be able to find a balance between your academic and social life. After all, the IB coincides with the mark of the end of high school, and simultaneously the start of a new chapter in one’s life.