Theory Of Knowledge & EE

Yello!

 

Today's post is about the subject going by the name of Theory of Knowledge and its importance of it in your IB diploma programme and the Extended Essay that has been mentioned quite a few times but yet not to be clarified in depth.

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T.O.K.

 

The majestic language of our minds.. Theory of Knowledge (a.k.a T.O.K. because its badass). It's basically this awesome subject is here to help you understand as well as challenge your surroundings as a learning student in the IB. It's actually a very fun subject indeed because you get to let your thoughts and opinions out on things and talk about contradicting issues that are debated even today like what is the meaning of life and all that cool and thoughtful stuff.

From Theory of Knowledge you are able to gain 1.5 points for your final grade by essays, tests and we guess just class behaviour all in all. So be on your best behaviour, it is not a class for slacking off!

Now, this is what IB wants you to get out of T.O.K. so listen up:

1. Learn to reflect critically in all sorts of ways of knowing and areas of knowledge. (sounds complicated, right?)
2. Gain awareness of different cultures and others in the whole wide world we got going on here.
3. To strengthen your thinking skills (thinkers) and to understand the complexity of knowledge
4. You should become aware of the interpretative nature of knowledge with personal assumptions, regardless of whether, ultimately, these assumptions are cut down, revised or down right rejected.
5. The ability to apply your knowledge with greater awareness and credibility - this shows in our IB books when some of them have little side notes of 'TOK sessions'.

In addition, TOK is composed almost entirely of questions with the most central one being

"HOW DO WE KNOW?!"

that we know, that we know.. how to create a mind?

This all may sound a little boring to you, however, we at least have a very knowledgeable and fun teacher so we also get do really interesting things like brain teasers and debates on various subjects. We will put a few of these brain teasers for you so that you can get a little taste of 'jogging' your brain for a change!

In our opinion, debates are a lot of fun after a long day of academic studies. We can let our minds run free and think outside the box and maybe come up with some philosophical ideas. We've had a role-play debate in history with characters such as  Woodrow Wilson, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin. We've also done some other smaller group debates on issues with morals, language barriers and culture. All in all, it's all good.

For the brain teasers!

Puzzle:
Shown above are 4 men buried up to their necks in the ground. They can not move so can only look forward. Between A and B is a brick wall which can not be seen through. They know that between them are 4 hats, 2 are black and 2 are white, but they do not know which color they are wearing. In order to avoid being shot one of them must call out to the executioner the color of their hat. If they get it wrong, everyone will be shot. They are not allowed to talk to each other and have 10 minutes to fathom it out.

Question: Which one of them calls out ?

Question: Why is he 100% certain of the color of his hat ?

Tune in next week for the answer! (if you gave up, that is..)

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Extended Essay

The best part of the IB is writing a 4000 word essay during your summer vacation while all of your friends are on the beach enjoying their time off. However you can make this experience enjoyable and outdoorsy if you choose your topic wisely. To get over with the formalities, essentially "the Extended Essay is a in-depth study  of a focused topic chosen from the list of approved Diploma Programme subjects", to quote from the Extended Essay guide from the IBO site.

 ...The important facts for you to know are the following:

• YOU ALL HAVE TO DO THIS ESSAY!!
• It will be sent away to the IBO hub to be assessed
• The EE and TOK together will contribute up to three points to the total score of the IB Diploma
• You will be supervised by an IB teahcer in your school
•  As said before the essay is 4000 words long (if you go over the word limit you will be doomed or in other words you will lose points)
• The legend says it will take approximately 40 hours of work, but we have been warned that it will take more
• At the sweet end you will have a short interview with your supervisor



So far we have been choosing our topics and reading the 20 page Extended Essay Guide. Though we haven't quite started our own essays yet we have been given one important tip:

START EARLY!!!

Now, last but certainly not least! Below you can see marking range with your T.O.K studies and the Extended Essay. Be sure to read this through!

Alrighty then! See ya's next week!

The Made-Up Social Lives of IB Students

Welcome to the fun part of IB!

Ah, the wonderful world of CAS (also known as Creativity, Action and Service), the heart of the IB programme

. If all the work the IB already gives you does NOT take up all your time, this certainly will. Not only that, CAS ensures that your two years of IB will be filled with joy and activity keeping you busy at all times. Including holidays. And summer. And pretty much every waking moment you have.  We will proceed an try to enlighten you on the subject of CAS and show you how to get the most of this 'burdening' workload by reflecting on our own experiences. Hopefully. Indeed it is a lot of work on top of all the work we are already doing, but you just have to bite your lip and make the best of it. After all, go all the way or go home, that is what IB is about.

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C.A.S 

..? 

To begin, you will be obliged to do just about 150 hours of CAS during your two years of IB, in which you will have to do approximately 50 hours of each activity (Creativity, Action and Service). Even though this work will not be graded and will not affect your final points after the finals, you will not receive your diploma without successfully completing all your CAS hours. Including a CAS project with three or more students, which we will talk about soon. However, you will still be receiving your diploma if you are under the 150 hours by a small amount, it is not that strict.
There is this site these days called ManageBac where you can record your activities and your progress by writing up reflections. When completing your activities, you will need a supervisor at all times who is over 18 years of age and is not a relative of yours. At the end of your activity, he or she will be required to write a supervisor's report or letter on your behavior and performance. Your activity will not be completed before your CAS coordinator receives this report and you will have to write several reflections that show your learning outcomes that are the following:

 Now, choosing your learning outcomes doesn't sound too hard does it? Because it's not. What's hard is writing a few paragraphs on each one and picking your brain for the little details you did each time you went and completed a few of those hours you had earned. That my friends, is the difficult part. Below you can find a good diagram to help you get started with CAS when the time comes:

If you still feel like you have nothing to do to get you CAS points/hours, we thought it would be a good idea to show you what we are doing at the moment in order to earn CAS hours. It's always good to wonder when you are starting a new hobby or for instance, helping out your school with something, whether you can get CAS hours from this. This is the question we ask most frequently in the IB programme. Just saying.

We're going to introduce ourselves individually and tell you about our own CAS experiences.

First of all we, the Four Musketeers, have one thing in common when it comes to CAS: we are all writing up this blog as our CAS project which is obviously a great and creative solution to have as a CAS project. Simple too and doesn't require too much research.

Hello, my name is Heidi and I'll be the first to discuss my CAS activities. Hopefully this helps you when choosing your activities.

1. I participated in EYP (European Youth Parliament) which lasted for three days. From this activity I gained several hours for all activities (Creativity, Action and Service). I recommend you to participate in these types of things if you are interested in issues facing the international community.

2. Another activity that I did was being Santa's Little Helper in a "Christmas World" which was a small market held during the Christmas holiday. I helped with organizing the small cottages in which differnet products were sold. Of course I was not allowed to sell anything because I'm a minor. But it was still cool being there and helping out. Something like this is great for gaining hours for Service as well as for Action. It's not too hard is it?

3. I was one of the in-school organizers for our annual International Show with Tilda Rose, one of the Musketeers. We planned and executed an amazing show for our school in exchange for a few Service hours. However, this is probably the first and the last time I'm going to plan any show in school due to some inconveniences. This just goes to show that ´CAS can't always be a fun experience but you can still learn from this.

4. I'm also planning on getting some of my Action hours from my hobby; ice hockey. Hobbies are always something you can fall back on if you can't think of anything better to do.

5. Another good way to learn something and profit from CAS is going to driving school- of course if you are of age to do so. This is what most IB students here in Finland do in order to get some Action and/or Creativity hours.

6. Next summer I'm planning on helping at an elderly care center. This is actually a perfect way to gain CAS hours and impress your CAS coordinator.

Well, that's all for me for now.

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Alright, so, I am Tilda Rose and I'm gonna give you guys some more examples on CAS from my own experiences:

1. First of all, I participated in an art course a while back to get my Creativity hours up and learn something new since I'm building up a portfolio to apply to an Art College in the States. It's good to use this CAS to find your interests and to improve your skills and passions and maybe even increase your chances in getting into a university or college of your choosing. The picture on the right is one of my creations during that class: accounted for about four hours of CAS. Pretty sweet. 

2. I went to an elderly home for a day and got some good Service hours from this, giving me great reflections that impressed my CAS coordinator - I think.. This is always an important aspect to CAS.


3. As Heidi just mentioned, I was also an in-school organizer for the International Christmas show with her, and my outcomes of it were pretty much alike to the ones made by Heidi. 


4. To add to the blog we are doing here right now with the Four Musketeers, I also have my very own 'art-oriented' blog for Action and Creativity, which is pretty cool for me and I can share all my interests with the world. If you want to check out my blog and see what I'm talking about, here is the address -> http://whereisyour-mind.blogspot.fi/ Feel free follow... ;-) This is a great and free way to get CAS hours, just talking about the things you love which is kind of my hobby since I don't have an actual one anymore.


5. As for Action, I'm planning on starting working out with my good buddy, just turned 18 years old, for a few months. So there are always creative solutions to gaining CAS hours when you are running out of options. Not to say that I am!



6. Like Heidi, I helped out in a school event as a guest 'welcomer', when our school turned 50 years old. I gave out slips to ALL those people you see on the right. MOST OF THEM. It was quite painful but worth it. So those thing always count for some hours or points- don't hesitate to ask your CAS Coordinators!

Hope this helped! 

Heyoo, I'm SusanMoreen and here are my CAS experiences.

1. I went to EYP (European Youth parliament) along with Heidi. It was a three day programme where we learned about Europe and participated in debates. This covered all aspects of CAS; Creativity, Action and Service.It was and is a good idea for CAS as well as extra curricular activity for insight as well as experience to resolve global issues. It's a global organization for youths and most countries have it so you can also choose to participate, as a plus you get great reflections on this!

2. I helped out in an elderly home every Saturday for a month. It was interesting because i got to work with the elderly and learned a lot from them. It's a good opportunity to work along with others as well as do something for the community. However, after all the work you will have a guaranteed smile on your face.

 

3. I thought it was a good idea to learn Finnish since i'm living in  Finland,  i attended a Finnish language course at our school to expand on my my Finnish skills and vocabulary. My outcomes were positive since i'm now able to speak more and with confidence. You should definitely try this if you live in a foreign country and don't speak the language too well or if you love to expand on your language studies. It is know that studying different languages can help in other aspects of studying and brain activity. 

4. I'm also planning on volunteering to work with the Red Cross . I love volunteering in different places and most of my summers were spent volunteering instead of actual work. If your town has an organization of some sought, you should go ask them if they need assistance and i assure you they appreciate all the help they can get.

When I choose my CAS activities, i try to choose something that i'm interested in and would have fun doing it and not to just get CAS points. Some of the CAS activities we do can also have an influence on my CV as well as help when applying for Colleges or Universities.



Hi! I'm Nelli and I've had to do CAS since the 7th grade so it wasn't a new thing for me coming into the IB. 

1. I've been doing a lot of baby sitting lately. It's a good and fun way to get CAS hours (especially Service, that's a tough one), but remember, it doesn't count for CAS if you get paid for it!!

2. In the autumn, I joined a 9th grade trip which lasted for four days. I got plenty of hours for all of the activities in CAS from helping with organizing activities, cooking and taking pictures. 

3. Like Heidi, I've gained many CAS hours from hobbies. I play basketball so I get a lot of my action hours from this. I stopped playing the clarinet a few years ago which I now regret since it would have been a great way to get some hours for Action. 

4. Unlike the other three Musketeers, I'm taking part in the Wanhojen Tanssit, which is kind of a prom like event for the second year upper-secondary school students to take part in. It's a fun way to get Creativity, Action and Service. 

And that is the run down by all the Four Musketeers. 

Next week we will be diving into the deep subject of Theory of Knowledge and might be introducing you into the magical world of the Extended Essays. We shall see next week, won't we... See ya's next week!

More Languages!

Hello you busy bees!

This week we are going to continue on languages, hope you don't mind. We are still yet to cover French and German as an B language and Self Taught (an independent subject, whaaaat?). We will also probably cover Visual Arts and Chemistry, but because our class weren't fortunate enough to get these classes we will have to interview some fellow IBers soon. Of course, these are not THE only IB subjects, but these are the ones that are offered on our radius. You can always find out more on the IB site -> www.ibo.org.

B-LANGUAGES: FRENCH

We're just gonna start now with French B as a language choice of the two you are obliged to pick. Actually, this choice really does mingle well with studying English Literature, believe it or not. We were too unfortunate not to be offered this subject as on a Higher Level, but we will try our best to supply you with the information you need. Three of our Four Musketeers; Tilda Rose, SusanMoreen and Nelli,  have French B as an Standard Level subject and we have to say, it is not a bad subject to have at all not to mention that it is indeed the diplomatic language, which is always good to know. Basically, the Higher and Standard Levels are different only by the recommended teaching hours, the depth of syllabus coverage, the required study of literature at Higher Level and the level of difficulty and requirements of tasks and criteria. 

We have three required core themes: communication and media, global issues and social relationships which is quite a nice balance, don't you think? Oh, and in addition, at Standard and Higher Level, teachers will pick two more themes from five options that are given to them and finally, two works of literature are studied at Higher Level only. All this actually applies to all B languages that you can choose, we only chose French here because it seemed relevant and we can talk about it from experience.

Alright, so here are a few things you should know about B Languages and how you will be assessed during the two years:

1. Your interactive, productive and receptive skills will be honed through contextualized study of language of your choice, texts and themes.
2. You will be exposed to a variety of authentic texts and you produce work in a variety of communicative contexts
3. Your key goals will be intercultural understanding and plurilingualism
4. You will be assessed both internally and externally
5. External assessment at Standard Level consists of exercises to demonstrate understanding of texts
6. External assessment at Higher Level consists of exercises to demonstrate understanding of texts based on the core themes, two writing exercises and one based on the core and the other based on the options, and finally a written assignment based on one of the literary texts
7. Internal assessment at both Standard and Higher level tests your abilities in listening and speaking in a conversation format: consisting of an individual oral based on the options and an interactive oral based on the core ( three classroom activities assessed by your teacher )

Now. The Finals slash exams. From the previous post on Languages, the overall percentage of the Final exam was 25%, the same goes for French once again. Just as in all the other languages, in the subject of French we have two papers; Paper 1 and Paper 2 and also an Oral assessment  that will be performed

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The Oral assessment is recorded via cassette tape recording or digitally via a CD recorder. You are expected to speak for 3 to 5 minutes on a subject of your choice the followed by a question period between your teacher and you for about 2-3 minutes. The question period has been made as a way for you to show your level of depth in the French language, so that's pretty cool. The best tip for this oral assessment that we can come up with is to practice your French accent, but indeed that is not all; choosing a topic related to the French Culture would be most helpful for your assessment grade and additionally a topic that is of your keen interest, something that would make you enjoy and have fun while talking about it ‘in French’. Naturally.

Paper 1 is intended to test your reading comprehension and the time given to you is approximately 1.5 hours.  Basically the test consist of a text and exam questions of about 50 questions, some are true or false questions, fill in the blanks or matching synonyms. Having a strong understanding of French vocabulary and grammar is good because, obviously it really helps your understanding of the text. For example, we just had a test a few months back and we had this reading comprehension test, oh my goodness we tell you. We hadn't practiced too much of the everyday vocabulary and we did not understand much what the texts were talking about. These tests can be pretty tricky and we cannot emphasize how much it helps you if you read columns or articles in French during your free time just to get yourself adjusted and ready for these things. Everything you need to know is not necessarily covered in school, especially vocabulary. 

Paper 2 is also a 1.5 hour performance and  basically, it tests your writing skills, a very important skill for you to master in the IB French system. A list of choices is given to you and you must choose only ONE and write a minimum of 250 words on it the topic of your choosing. You can always write a bit more, maybe 100 more but keep in mind that you can be penalized for too many extra words or the examiner may choose to just assess your work until the word limit, in which case maybe he or she will not read your conclusion which is one of the most important parts of any essay that you write. So, just keep that in the back of your brain during the Paper 2 exams. 

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SELF-TAUGHT.

Next up we are going to talk about Self Taught as an independent subject which is an A language of your choice and you cannot choose this as a Higher Level subject. Of course you have to be quite fluent in this language because this is a demanding choice especially because you are doing it independently. However, it doesn't have to be your mother tongue, for instance one of our beloved classmates has chosen Mandarin Chinese even though he is a full Finnish citizen but he has lived in China for a long time. If you choose this subject you have to read literary works throughout the two years, write all assessed components and perform oral examinations. And these works obviously have to be done in the language you chose as a self taught subject. Even though this subject may be quite difficult at times, we are sure it will pay off later especially if you enjoy this language and want to excel in it. We encourage you not to forget your -possibly- mother tongue so that it has a strong presence in the rest of your studies. Maybe it will give you a new twist to studying, who knows?!

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 Last up we thought it would be a nice idea to put up this demonstration of the groups you have to choose your subjects from, even though this is given to you in almost any IB-related talk or meeting but anyway, here it is. 

And a few links for you to lighten the mood a bit and give you a good and solid- maybe slightly blown out of proportions, not by much though - idea of what you are getting yourself into. This all is to encourage you to be an international and knowledgeable student!

Some facts about being and IB student.. -> http://www.buzzfeed.com/jessicamisener/27-sure-signs-you-were-in-the-ib-program

That's all for now and next week we are going to dig deeper into the subject of Theory Of Knowledge (a.k.a TOK), all the little thing that comes with it like the Extended Essay and possibly we will we talking a little more about Visual Arts and Chemistry. 

Sayonara,

Tilda Rose, SusanMoreen, Nelli & Heidi

First languages: Finnish and English

Good morning fellow IB students!!

As you may know by now one third of the Diploma is language oriented. This basically means that you have to study at least two languages which may include English and some other language like the language spoken in the country where you are right now. Of course, if you are a keen linguist like our Nelli here, you can opt for a third language resulting in a 50% language component.

Today we will start by talking a bit about the language spoken in Finland which is.. any guesses? Yes, you know it. Finnish!! Unfortunately, only two out of four Musketeers study this mentioned and by all means, pleasant subject.

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We, Heidi and Nelli, chose Finnish as one of our subjects because we only read books and do essays on them. So no grammar taught anymore. If you like reading consider choosing First Language option. But if you are not keen on reading then this is not a subject for you. For Higher Level there are 13 books to read and for Standard Level there are 10 books. And these books are divided into four categories: Translated Literature, Literary Genres, Novels and finally, Themes. We don't have an actual IA on this subject but we do have a similar writing task.

Let's start with Translated Literature. This is 25% of your final grade. Higher Level students read three books and Standard Level students only have to read two.  Some of our books are actually easy to read and interesting unlike the English books which you will read about soon. Of course this is only our opinion, you make your own later. One of our books was The Kite Runner. The writing task we mentioned is on the Translated Literature and it is 1200-1500 words. This is less than the IA word limit which is around 2000 words. We had to do  two short analyses on each book we read.

The next category, Literary Genres, include 3 literary pieces for Higher Level and 2 for Standard Level exactly like with Translated Literature. These pieces will consist of a novel, poem and a play. Standard level students only have two of the mentioned pieces, so your teacher will most likely choose the ones you will have to do. Unfortunately, you cannot choose. Additionally, out of one, or even all of these pieces - if it truly is what you want - you will be obliged to do an oral test (it is like a discussion analyzing one or more of the pieces) which will be recorded and sent to the IBO. We bet that the recording part of the whole process sounds the most scary to you, but don’t worry!  You’ll have had a but-load of practice discussions in class. This recorded oral test will sum up to be 15% of your grade, which isn't too bad. We imagine this will be just about the same in your school, whatever country you are in at the moment.

The third and the most important category is the Novels- category. Now if ever is the time to pay attention.. Higher Level students have the honor of reading four novels and Standard Level students have to settle for a lousy three novels. Your final exam essay question will be based on these books. So it’s advisable for you to buy at least these books for yourself if not the others. One of our novel in this category is a Finnish classic: The Unknown Soldier by Väinö Linna. You should check it out if you are into Finnish... culture... or something. This category sums up to 25% of the final grade so do remember to read up your books. 

The picture is quite accurate, representing us in the battle against the IA’s and EE’s.. ;-) 

For the last but certainly not the least will be the Themes category. Both Higher and Standard Level students will have three books on which you will have to do a presentation. Again. Not too much else to say about this than that it will affect your grade by 15%.

In the subject of IB Finnish, we have to keep a reading notebook and we do advise you to get one too if you are planning to study Finnish or some other language your school provides. In these notebooks, we make notes on the books we read, so that when the time comes to start studying for the final exams, instead of reading all the books again and again, we can just revise by reading our notes. It may consume some time from hanging out with your friends, but we assure you, when it is final exam time you will not be sorry. That is why we recommend putting a lot of effort into making proper notes that you can still read after a year's time, since they will really pay off when you are studying. 

So we get to the lovely topic of the final exams in IB Finnish. The exams include two pieces of writing: one of them is a comparative essay on the books from group three, the second piece of writing is a long 'comment' on a text that you will get when the exam begins, so there will be no time to prepare for that one. The long comment will come up to be about 20% of your final grade. Also, you will have to write as much as you can in the given time for there is NO WORD LIMIT. Bummer.

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Now, its English time, which all of us are indeed studying and are obliged to study. Well, who wouldn't in the IB? As you know, English is THE most important language that one needs in IB - or maybe even around the globe - and the main reason why so many students attend this programme! This is a mandatory subject in the IB either at Standard Level or at Higher Level. All of us Four Musketeers and pretty much our entire class has HIGHER LEVEL English because we are just cool like that. Just kidding.. Or are we?

Jokes aside, English consists of a lot of  reading, analyzing, writing tasks as well as presentations. Right now we are preparing our FOAs - which stands for Further Oral Assessment - where we are allowed to choose between a debate or a presentation on language in a cultural context. Every students has to speak for five to seven minutes which means that a group of three would have a fifteen to twenty minute presentation approximately. We are not allowed to go over seven minutes per person and will only be assessed for that time. We will have two of these FOAs during the entire two year programme, the first one will not be recorded but the second one will and will be sent to the IBO. Additionally, we will also have to do our own individual oral presentations... Scary, huh?

By now, we have finished one written task on a fictional novel (do not call these books, this is prohibited in the IB!) called 'The Great Gatsby'. It was a fun and an easy-going experience all in all, we got to release our creative side and write a fictional piece continuing the story or just writing an article on the events that occurred in the novel. Of course, you'll probably not be studying this novel or the novels/plays we are about to read because they vary from school to school since the teachers get to choose the what will be read and what will not. We actually won't be having Internal Assessments on this subject due to the fact that we FOAs and written tasks so, these compensate for them quite nicely.

In test conditions we will have two papers in Higher and Standard Level; in Standard Level, Paper 1 consists of a comment on one of two texts within one and a half hours and in Higher Level, a compare and contrast text on one of two pairs of texts within two hours is required. In Higher and Standard Level, passages for analysis may be complete pieces of writing or extracts from larger works. There is also the possibility of commenting on a visual text or an extract from a longer piece. Possible text types for analysis include: advertisements, opinion columns, brochures, extracts from memoirs, or travel writing.

For Paper 2 in Standard and Higher Level, you will have to answer 1 out of 6 questions, Standard and Higher Level students will receive the same six questions. Easy enough? We think so too. In Standard Level exams, you will have 1.5 hours to complete Paper 2 and in Higher Level exams you will receive an extra half an hour to complete. Each paper will count for 25% of the final grade, which doesn't sound too harsh. So the test score will be only 50% of your actual grade. Don't worry about it too much! Another good tip for good exam results in Paper 2 is to remember quotes!! According to our teacher, you cannot receive a top grade unless you have explained a few quotes in your text/analysis.

Well, that's something for you to process for the day and we sure do hope you learned something. Next time we will be discussing the Arts and B languages like French, German and self-taught. We will be looking forward to it!

Mathematics

 

Top of the week to you hard workers!

 

 

In the past week we've been quite busy coming up with our - just about final - Business IA questions and coming up with a FOA (Further Oral Assessment) for English. We will also be talking about this in the future. Instead of that, today we will be talking about Mathematics, which is an obligatory subject in the IB system.

 

To make up a short introduction, you can choose between four different levels of Mathematics: Further Mathematics Level ( Most schools do not offer this ), Higher Level, Standard Level and Standard Studies Level. At this point, it is worth to consider your plans in the future, whether you actually need to take up extra time for your math studies. For instance, if you are planning a career in the business world, HL, SL or studies will all suffice. Of course this all will depend on your choice of university and you should research this before choosing your level. Also, if you are planning to study arts, law or languages then Math Studies is more than enough. It is known that in the United Kingdom, most universities will not accept you if you are studying Math Studies, so that is also worthwhile considering. If you want to study physics HL or SL in the IB, you will need Standard or Higher Level Mathematics. However, there are always exceptions to the rules depending on your school.

 

IN HIGHER LEVEL AND STANDARD LEVEL MATHS: IN PAPER 1, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO USE CALCULATORS. IN PAPER 2 YOU CAN!

 

Now, to dig deeper into the subject we will start with Higher Level Mathematics. Some people within the system consider this the most difficult and demanding amongst all the subjects. However, we don't really agree with this, because we believe Higher Level Physics is way more demanding. We are not saying that Higher Level Mathematics will be easy, it will most certainly not, it is indeed highly time consuming, demanding and just doing your homework will not be enough to survive in this subject. Not to scare you guys, but in this subject, being smart will not suffice anymore, you need to practice, practice, practice. Or be a genius, whatever you like. It is not impossible, we assure you, but it will need enormous amounts of commitment and interest, just like Higher Level Physics. It is good to have Higher Level Mathematics if you are planning to study maths in the future or pursue a scientific or architechtural career.

The ground we cover in HL Maths is greater than what is studied in Standard Level and basically we just dig a little deeper into the subjects such as Calculus, Algebra, Trigonometry etc.

 

YOU CAN ALWAYS DROP DOWN A LEVEL BUT YOU CANNOT CLIMB UP.

 

Standard Level Mathematics is somewhat easier than Higher Level Maths, but it still requires effort and contionous practice. So don't think your getting away easy, you're not. This is a good choice of level, because it will be accepted in univrersities around the globe and provides a good basis for your future studies. We recommend you to choose this, if you're not quite sure what you are going to study in the future and feel as though Higher Level will be too much for you to handle. We do recommend you to aim high though! There's not much else to be said on Standard Level Maths, as the title says it is standard level. No rocket science involved.

 

YOU CAN DROP EVEN FURTHER DOWN IF NECESSARY, IT IS POSSIBLE! BUT AGAIN, NO CLIMBING UP.

 

 

If you feel as though Higher or Standard level mathematics is still too much and you do not see yourself needing mathematics in your future studies, this is the choice for you. It is not math for dummies, as it is often perceived as. This level is not provided in every school, for instance, in 2013 this level was implemented in our school. Before it, people had to survive with Standard Level. The basic concept of Mathematical Studies is to learn the every day mathematics what you can implement into your daily life. The same topics are covered but in less detail, which is great for people who aren't interested in mathematics. In test conditions, you can use calculators in both papers; paper 1 and paper 2.

 

 

 AFTER THIS, THERE IS NO DROPPING DOWN OR CLIMBING UP. IF YOU ARE DROPPING DOWN YOU ARE DROPPING OUT, FOR GOOD.

 

 

In test conditions for all these levels, it is good to know that one point = one minute. For Paper 1 we have 90 minutes to complete the paper and 90 points to score. Use your time wisely, if you feel as though you're not going to solve the question, skip ahead so that you don't waste your precious time. Don't think too long!

 

For us, during the second year of IB, we will start on our Math Explorations where we will have to come up with an equation of some sort and prove it in everyday conditions. Of course, for different levels there will be different requirements. But that's a given.



History & Business and Management

Happy New Year!

   I hope you enjoyed your vacation, because there is a lot of work ahead of you now.. Soon we will start on our first IAs (Internal Assesment) so we will be talking from experience in the next few weeks or months. Now, we will dicuss the enriching world of History and Business&Management, the more relaxing subjects if you will.

   We are starting our first IAs with History, which is a good subject to ease into the IB world of research. However, even though we are just starting on our History, we are already researching our Business and Management Research Questions and forming a plan which we are going to use to gather all the necessary information to write up our research which is due in just less than a year. History is good to round out all the science in your selection of subjects and a great way to gain some perspective on the grand scheme of humanity and our recent history like the World War 1,2 and for Higher Level, the French Revolution. Basically just the significant wars of the 20th century.
    In test conditions, Heidi and I, us Standard Level students have two papers: Paper 1, which consists of a Source Study (we have been practising plenty for it, we will issue this on a separate post later) and Paper 2, a long answer question. Higher Level students, like SusanMoreen, have Paper 3 in addition to the previous two, an honor to do another long answer question.
   To adress the issue that turns most poeple off history, is remebering all the dates, years and times when the smallest issues happen that you couldn't care less about. Well, in IB History we don't have to remember all those dates! At least not in the final exams, it depends how nice your teacher is to you during those two years in between.
   According to the only Higher Level History student, SusanMoreen, in our group of Musketeers, Higher Level History is exciting, because you get to learn about France, its history and Napeoleon. They have to write loads and loads of essays including the most recent one on Napoleon and his rulings. By being in Higher Level, you get a deeper understanding on the issues that are studied in Standard Level classes, which is a good benefit to have even though its more time consuming. And when we say time consuming, we mean it. In HL history you will be reading a lot of books and extracts so it's good to have a profound interest in the subjects that are being delt with.

    As for Business and Management, it's a good subject where you can survive with common sense, of course only if you have any. It's a good course to understand the business side of things and learn to cope with it in the future. For this class, you won't need HL or SL mathematics, Mathematical Studies will also do just fine in HL and SL Business and Management. Right now we are just finishing Marketing and have talked about Organizations and starting up a business. Our next topic will be financing, which is very benefitial when thinking about our futures to come as consumers.
   When we begin on our B&M IAs, for HL students primary research (surveys, interviews) and secondary research (internet, books) are required but SL students get away with just secondary research. Your research question must deal with a company that is facing a problem, and you will have to provide a solution to it. Us three Musketeers have Higher Level Business and one Musketeer who doesn't have it at all, so we cannot tell much about SL classes but we are sure you will get the idea.
   In test conditions, us HL&SL students have two papers: Paper 1 consists of a case study which we will get a few months before hand to get prepared. Paper 2 consists of structured questions based on stimulus material. Doesn't sound too hard does it? The case study in the final exams will also be used in the MOCK exams (to be issued later) so you will be quite familiar with the text and dealing with it in exam conditions.

See ya next week!

Four Musketeers

Subjects

Hello fellow IBers!

Our plan for today's post is to talk about IB subjects in all their glory. Yey!

Together us Four - one has joined to our glorious group, the lovely and beautiful SusanMoreen - Musketeers have Biology (SL&HL), History (SL&HL), Mathematics (HL&SL), Finnish (HL), English (HL), French (SL) and Business&Management (HL) and Physics (SL). Our school's IB Programme in Finland also provides Visual Arts which we couldn't get in our school due to a lack of students. We won't have time to go through all of these in one post, but today we will focus on Biology and Physics as subjects.

To begin, from nearly all these subjects, we will have to write an Internal Assessment on a subject that we can choose ourselves. The only exceptions are in English and Mathematics where in English class we will have to perform an oral presentation which will be recorded and sent to the head, the IBO. Sounds scary? We think so too. In mathematics we will be writing up an exploration on whatever you want with just one term: it has to be related to math, as you can imagine.

A few weeks ago, we had our first legit IB test week, where we had depending on the subject, either two or three papers, Paper 1 and Paper 2 and in some cases Paper 3 (like Higher Level Biology). It can be said that the tests were quite challenging, because we had a limited time period where every minute has to be taken advantage of, especially in Mathematics where you have to earn one point per minute. Not to scare you guys too much, but this is what you will face sooner or later in the IB programme.

So, let's talk about Biology! Basically our fall term of IB1 in Biology has consisted of several lab works and reports with quite a bit of theory on extremely small things like DNA and cells. For Standard Level students, the exam consists of two papers; paper 1 consists of multiple choice questions (25% chance to get it right even if you haven't got the faintest clue!) as for paper 2 has short answer questions and one long answer question. For HL, there is one additional paper, Paper 3, there is another long answer question to tackle. Biology is a great choice if you are truly interested in life, but if you think you are choosing biology over chemistry, YOU ARE WRONG. We will give you three words: Chemistry of life. You cannot get by without knowing some chemistry in biology, atleast not here in our school. Biology isn't an easy choice as a subject but it is worth while to consider it seriously and there is a lot to be learned about in which you can apply to life later in life.

Our new member has Physics, which us other Three Musketeers do not have. Physics can be a very difficult subject in Higher Level aswell in Standard Level. But we ensure you, it is fun. The first exam week test contained of Paper 1 and Paper 2. Paper 1 once again included multiple choice questions where you have a 25% chance to circle the correct question and Paper 2 which consists mostly of calculations and short answer questions. We cannot tell you about Higher Level physics quite yet, but we will try to obtain an interview from other IB students from the other grades who may have some time to tell us all about it. In Physics you will also have experiments along with the core studies and yes, you will have to write up a report on it. Currently in our Physics class, the results haven't been as good as with the Biology students, but we are hoping for a great change in that issue. We are certain that with enough effort, time and passion you can survive this subject!

Unfortunately, we do not have IB Chemistry in our school but we will hope to pull some strings and get another interview for you and talk a bit more on that later. As for now, our class is starting so we must get back to studying, sayonara for this week friends!