The number one mistake IB students make

(The number one student IB students make is)  Without a doubt,  thinking they can cram their revision into 2 months or less. Think about it. That is about a week or more per subject. Perhaps you have been consistently keeping up with your school work and have done light revision throughout your 2 years, then starting revision 2 months before the exam may be a viable option. But if you haven’t and you suddenly want to burn the midnight oil, I can tell you from experience that doing so usually doesn’t turn out well.

               I’ve seen students try. True, some do end up getting decent grades. But most end up regretting their many days spent procrastinating. At IB Lounge, we have had students seek help from us 2 months before their IB examinations. At this point, they do not seek any grade above a 6 but rather, to hope that we can save them from failing.

               Truth be told, not everyone can be saved. If you try to seek help less than 2 months before the exam and without a strong foundation in your subjects, chances are that we won’t be able to help much, at most to the point where you won’t have to leave your whole paper blank.

               Most of our students who have been with us for a longer period of time (3 months or more) experience an average improvement of 2.307 grades. This is something that we are happy about since that usually equates to a 5 or a 6. Sometimes, even 7s.

So, why is it such a bad idea to START studying only 2 months before the exam?

               Considering IB students study 6 subjects (3 at HL and 3 at SL), having a 2 month window means that you will only get slightly more than a week to study each subject.

Let’s look at Economics HL. It is divided in to Micro Economics, Macro Economics, International Economics and Developmental Economics. Just imagine having to read through and understand the entire textbook in 10 days. That is only 2.5 days per component! This does not even factor in the time taken to practice questions or to look through past mistakes.

Or how about Biology HL which has slightly more than 10 topics. This means 1 topic per day, excluding practice.

               Imagine how fast you would have to read through, understand and internalize the content. Imagine not taking any breaks because you simply could not afford to. Imagine the stress you would have to endure..

               The worse part is, you may not even have fully understood… or even read certain topics.

Then, you might be asking now “When should I start studying for the IB exam then?”

               I was tempted to say as soon as possible. But no. That is not good advice. Studying too soon can have its problems too – like burnout and fatigue. This is different, however, from doing consistent work.

You should do consistent work. Make sure you listen and understand what is being taught in class on a weekly basis. Submit your homework and your assignments. Constantly learn from your mistakes.

But do you really need to study for your exams from the get go? Like, intense studying? To be honest, not really.

So, when should one start? It differs from each student but I will share my own experiences.

I started studying during the June/summer holidays. This was ample time for me to prepare but also allowed me to do so at a comfortable rate. In the end, I did not feel burnt out but instead, felt fairly confident.

I had enough time to not only create proper examination notes but to also really understand what I was studying. I also was able to prepare through practice, and more practice. Understanding and reinforcing the mistakes I made throughout my IB journey was integral to my final result.

Ultimately, I had just finished revising on time and I don’t think I would have been able to do so, at least at a relaxed pace, if I had started any later.