5 Ways To Overcome The Greatest IB Struggle: Time Management
Do you know why History is so important? It is because it reviews events in hindsight and draws valuable insight, so that (as much as possible) humankind does not repeat past mistakes. Funnily, generations after generations of IB students across all schools — local or international, public or private — have struggled with time management.
We aren’t so good at our History, are we?
I have met and spoken with countless IB students, such as my batch mates, seniors, juniors, or students from other IB schools. It is astounding to note that almost every single one of them raises up time management as a real and constant struggle. And NO WONDER!
As IB students, we are thrown into the intense rigour of school that more closely emulates university curriculum than secondary school curriculum. We have to juggle a total of SIX subjects, along with their respective IAs or WTs or other weighted assignments. I haven’t even mentioned the dreaded 4000-word Extended Essay (EE) and the sophisticated study of the Theory Of Knowledge (TOK). Furthermore, we are expected to clock in 50hrs of each strand of CAS (Creativity, Activity, Service) and that means a whopping 150 hours(!!!) or else, in the words of my school’s IB coordinator:
“NO CERT!!!”
Before you implode from the stress, I just want to say that I feel you and that you are not alone. I was from the class of 2019. Having had experienced the IB curriculum firsthand, I completely understand and empathize with the struggle to manage time well. Here are my 5 hacks to overcome the greatest IB struggle.
1) Choose your CAS Carefully
As much as 150 hours may seem, the truth is that majority of students easily crush this requirement and many in fact go beyond the target 150 hours. CAS acts as the saving grace for students’ sanity, because it is literally the only time you don’t have to think about your academics or assignments. That being said, it is easy to fall into the trap of overcommitting to CAS because the escape from work is so darn alluring. All you need is 2 CAS’s with crazy high commitment and almost all your time is gone. You must keep in mind that the key to aceing IB is to manage your time and energy.
There is a tension.
On one hand, you must fulfil the IB requirement of clocking in 50hrs from each strand of CAS, plus you may want to develop or learn a skill or sport. On the other hand, you must manage your time and energy. This tension can only be resolved when you choose your CAS carefully. I suggest finding CAS’s which are able to earn you hours from more than 1 strand. For example, the Dragonboat CAS in my school clocks in Activity hours (duh) but on Saturdays they organise a weekly event to row with cancer survivors to raise awareness for the fight against cancer. While this event is optional, many of my friends clocked in a considerable amount of Service hours through Dragonboat. Open your eyes during your school’s CAS exhibition and find these “gem CAS’s”. Trust me, they will make your life easier. A disclaimer though! I must clarify that it does not work as a “kill two birds with one stone” method. Borrowing again the Dragonboat example, if you went to row on Saturday with the cancer survivors, you must choose if you want those hours to be counted as either Activity or Service hours, you cannot, in a sense, double dip. However, you are allowed to allocate a portion to Activity hours and the other portion to Service hours. This way, you can help boost the particular strand you are lacking hours in.Take special note of the commitment details — some CAS require you to train 3 times a week, for 2.5 hours each training. Some CAS are ad-hoc, meaning you can choose to sign up to participate according to your availability. Before you conclude that you should just select all ad-hoc CAS’s, I must warn that it will not reflect well on you portfolio, because it shows employers that perhaps this person values convenience above anything and struggles with commitment. Instead, I suggest choosing minimally one high-commitment CAS which you’ll stay with for the long term, and then supplementing the remainder of your hours with ad-hoc CAS’s. Not only will the variety of CAS’s reflect well on your portfolio, they will also be opportunities to learn new skills.
EXTRA HACK: On this note of CAS and time management, I strongly urge students to update your CAS reflections regularly. One of my biggest regrets was to ignore my CAS coordinator’s nagging and leaving my CAS reflections till the very end. Let me explain why. When you leave CAS reflections to the end, you need to #1 recount all your hours and #2 recall all your experiences which #3 your memory would probably have diluted over time, resulting in #4 your reflections lacking depth. A CAS reflection that shows evaluation and critical thinking reflects a mindful student and consistent reflections (even if just once a month) better reflects steady growth in skill and thought. This can only be achieved through updating your CAS reflections regularly. I have found that the average IB student will not update their CAS reflections unless they block out a time to do so. I suggest to set a reminder on your phone or calendar to set aside an hour once every month to do your CAS reflections.
2) Create a Study Plan
“A goal without a plan is just a wish.” ~ Antoine de Saint-ExupéryYou can’t score well in IB without having some sort of study plan. A study plan is absolutely necessary because if you don’t monitor how your time is spent, you will find time slipping through your hands. The human tendency is to procrastinate. The method to curb this tendency and ensure that you are on the road to aceing the IB is to create a study plan.
Your study plan does not need to look like:
It just needs to look like this:
A useful tip: Be as specific as you can. Don’t just put “Econs IA”; Write down “source for articles, find more than one not accepted”. Somebody once shared with me that before every new topic he would spend 5 minutes to read up ahead, and after every class he would spend 1–2 minutes to recount whatever was taught. This practice helped him retain knowledge so well that he never revised at home through his JC. Granted, this person was naturally smart, but it is true that a practice of 7 minutes can save you hours worth of time spent revisiting covered topics. I strongly urge you to include this practice in your study plan.
3) Useful Tools
We may take it for granted at times, but we must always remember that we are living in the 21st century — we have the internet and technologies right at the tip of our fingertips! Finding the right tools can help you save time tremendously, especially for the ever-busy IB student.
Google/Phone calendar: If you don’t already use Google Calendar or your phone’s calendar, you should seriously consider starting. The digital calendar helps you keep track of the next deadline and reminds you which assignment is the next priority. It can become hard to do without a calendar as a IB student due to the sheer amount of assignments and projects. It is on this platform that you can create a study plan. Alternatively, a physical planner from Muji works too.
Online Textbooks: Having a digital copy of every textbook is so convenient. Not only do you not need to lug heavy textbooks to and fro, you can also make use of the search function (control/command + F) to effortlessly locate specific areas of the textbook.
Seniors: Never forget that you are placed in a community. You have access to fellow IB students as well as their successes and mistakes, such as your OGLs (orientation group leaders) and CAS seniors. Ask them for tips and tricks; They would know because they have walked your path. There are also platforms such as IB CONNECT where students have access to a global community of IB students, both past and present.
Invest some time to obtaining some of these tools. Using the right tools may very well multiply your time and help you better manage your time.
4) Let your work be work; Let your play be play
Your daily schedule must have a balance of work and play. However, when it is time to do something, focus solely on it and nothing else. For example, when you are doing work, it helps to put aside your phone or to turn off wifi/data so that your WhatsApp notifications do not ring and compete for your attention. Conversely, when you are playing, be it participating in CAS or using your phone or hanging out with friends, it helps to set aside any and every thought regarding your unfinished work. It is better to have an hour of productive work and an hour of productive rest as compared to two hours of unproductive work and rest.
Having tuition can be a great way to devote a set amount of time to studying and revising as well. It is like ensuring that you have dedicated some time each weekend to study. And that in itself shows discipline! It is also important to select tutors who are well-versed with the IB program so that you don’t waste any more of your already precious and limited time explaining to the tutor IB-specific terminologies or waiting for the tutor to familiarise with the unique questions that IB may pose. If you are looking for such a tutor, you can check out IB Lounge which is an IB-specialised tuition service. The tutors there are IB graduates who have scored well in the IB, proving their mastery of the program.
All in all, to achieve a high level of productivity, you need to be truthful to yourself in your evaluation of your use of time. As much as the truth may hurt, evaluate it frequently.
5) Consistency Is The Key
Wait no, you didn’t read that properly. Your eyes slid across those words. Read again: Consistency is THE key. The IB curriculum requires you to be consistent, not competent from the get-go. When you are consistent, you become competent. I will use the most dreaded and feared subject as a testament to this. HL Math is commonly regarded to have a very low effort to grade yield, meaning a student needs to invest a titanic amount of effort in order to achieve that Grade 7. We have all heard stories of how more than half the batch fails their first HL Math test. It is true that HL Math is not easy, but it is not true that one cannot get good at HL Math. I had 2 close friends who, out of their love for math coupled with their fear of failing and getting scolded by parents, consistently worked their craft. They were consistent in finishing homework, clarifying questions and doing extra practices. They started off with a Grade 3 in Year 5, but subsequently grew to become competent in the subject, and eventually copped the Grade 7 in their final IB exams. (You can read about how one of our tutors went from a 3 to 7 in SL Math here).
Consistency is the key not only in academics but also in project work. EETOKIA (extended essay, theory of knowledge, internal assessments) may seem like an insurmountable mountain, but when you take one consistent step at a time, eventually you will find yourself at the top. In my batch, those who did well for EETOKIA were those who consistently worked on their drafts small bits at a time. Those who left working their drafts till the very last few days ended up having undeveloped ideas and rushed exposition. It is true that some may be able to smoke it through and pull it off, but why risk it? Instead, I suggest inserting regular small blocks of realistically manageable work for your EETOKIA drafts into your study plan. The key word? Regular.This is the biggest advice I could give any current or prospective IB student — prioritise consistency over everything. Consistency in both work AND play.
Last Words
The skill of time management essential in life post-IB. Think of it as an investment, where your struggling to learn how to manage time now in these 2 years will go well with you for your next 20–30 years. Many of us have trapped ourselves in unnecessary pit-holes due to our poor time management. Let’s not let history repeat itself this time!
