You’re Starting IB in September: Then read on

Subject selection 

You’re picking six subjects. Three HL, three SL. Or whatever your school’s system is.

Most Year 1 students pick subjects based on what sounds impressive, what their parents think they should take, or what their friends are doing. 

This is how you end up miserable. These choices are fixed. There is no add-drop period in the IB. Be wise. 

IB is two years. Two years of reading about this subject, writing about this subject, thinking about this subject. If you pick something you don’t actually care about, you’re going to spend two years dreading the subject and hating every minute of it. 

Rule of thumb: How interested are you in this subject? Can you see yourself still engaged in this subject in 8 months for example?

That’s it. That’s the whole decision-making process.

If you love biology, pick biology even if everyone says math is “more prestigious”. If you hate physics, don’t take it because it looks good. If you are not talented , do not take Visual Arts because you appreciate art. 

You’re going to do better in subjects you care about. That is a given. Use this fact. 

The “rigorous” subject with better “prestige” that you hate won’t help you more than the subject you actually care about.

September is going to feel completely different. Here’s why.

Week 1 and 2, everything is shiny and new. Everyone’s being nice, teachers are introducing courses. 

By week 3 or 4, classes are getting into actual pace. You realize you have a lot of assignments and they are a bit different  than what you were used to. You’re starting to feel the difference of the IB.

By end of month 1 , you realize: oh. I have a lot to do. 

There are papers due. There are reading assignments. There are problem sets. They’re all somehow due in the same week. And what the heck is this TOK? What exactly are we supposed to learn there? 

The weird part isn’t the amount of work for most actually. It’s that the type of work is different and it requires more thinking and analyzing on your part. 

In previous years you memorize facts and recall them on a test. In IB, you learn concepts and then you have to think about what they actually mean, how they connect to other things, why they matter. That takes a different brain. Not more intelligence and more brain. Different brain. And yeah, that takes adjustment. The sooner you train your brain the easier IB gets. 

Nobody’s there to push you either. Teachers don’t remind you about assignments. They don’t chase you down if you’re missing something. That’s on you. You are totally independent. 

What’s actually hard 

The hardest part of Year 1 isn’t the workload like I said.. It’s that nobody’s there to remind you of your schedule. 

You have to manage your own time. You have to ask for help when you don’t understand something. Teachers aren’t going to chase you down. Everything is on you. 

That independence thing — that’s the real challenge!

Everything else is manageable believe me, they just feel hard at first. 

Reading assignments look intimidating until you realize you don’t have to understand everything on the first read. You can just… read it. Then read it again if you need to. Math problem sets look like they’re going to take five hours until you actually do them. Essays feel impossible until you write your first one and realize it’s just… not that bad. 

The things that are genuinely hard: Managing six different classes with six different teachers with six different expectations.And the dreaded TOK.  Balancing deadlines that seem to always coincide. . 

Things to actually do

Figure out your study habits. Before school starts, think about this: are you a morning person or a night person? Do you focus better with music on or silence? Do you like working in one big block or in chunks? Do you procrastinate?

Once you know how your brain works, build a routine that works with it. This actually saves you from months of forcing yourself to study in ways that will deplete your mind and soul.

This is actually the first thing that I do with my private students that I coach. We build a schedule. 

Pick one thing to stay connected. We don’t want you to become robotic. It is not the point. Mix leisure and work in a timely manner. Do NOT stop your hobbies. Allocate a consistent time for it. Otherwise you will just exist not connect.

That’s it. Not a summer study plan. Not getting ahead in the curriculum. 

The thing nobody says

IB Year 1 is going to be disillusioning for most. You’re going to feel behind sometimes. You’re going to question your subject choices. You’re going to have moments where you think you will never get good results and even think of quitting.

You can do this. Not because it’s super easy. But because by tim you just get better at managing it.

By the end of Year 1, you won’t be the same student you were in September. You’ll have learned how to think differently. You’ll realize that you are better at managing your own time. You’ll know what you’re capable of. You will have regained your confidence that you thought you lost somewhere in between. 

I am not trying to be poetic That’s just what happens.

You’re ready. You don’t feel ready. But you are.