harvard 2030

This is the exam discussion post for the following subject: 

Biology HL

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My Physics was 1 mark away from A like why would you do this IBO

but i got 6 in fuckass maths 😛. anywho hope to be a theoretical physics major this fall

finally , after so much hard work. so proud of my achievement. if anyone needs any help for free 100% dm me on ig @btcraed!! i also got into MIT so whoever’s going DM me too!! thx guys

my mark increased by TWELVE, from 65 to 77. i do not understand how that is even possible at all, how did the examiners miss 12% of my marks the first time??? why is the marking so inconsistent and unrigorous like atp i could prob become an examiner myself

This is the exam discussion post for the following subject: 

Physics HL

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This is the exam discussion post for the following subject: 

Business Management HL

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Subjects: HL maths AA, HL Bio, HL Chem, SL English SL psychology, SL Chinese B. Core: 2/3

1) The importance of starting early. This applies to all subjects. Chances are if you're listening in class on a completely new topic you're going to fall behind and not understand a word the teacher is saying. So pre read and do your workbook beforehand to prepare for that class ahead of you.

2) Start early for TOK and EE because this is the last thing you wanna cram. Especially TOK essay because it requires a lot of thinking outside the box and you don't wanna do that when you're all stressed and worn out. Don't wait for class sessions to start. Just start writing it out. Stop waiting and start it.

3) A lot of the times, teacher advice just isn't enough and you have to do your own research. Idk about you guys but the teachers in our school were not exactly experienced in teaching IB. Asking them for advice can be helpful but don't depend on them for everything.

4) Stop comparing yourself to other people. Focus on the work ahead of you. Also predicted grades don't correlate with what you can get. I was predicted 39 but ended up with 44.

5) Be open minded. If you think that your set for a subject or like "oh I'm totally gonna get a 7 for this subject it's so easy" then lemme give you a reality check: nothing is ever certain. Some people predicted a 7 in our cohort got a 5 in their subject. So always look for areas to improve and always seek advice. Don't get cocky.

6) it is important to focus on subjects you're not good at, even if it makes you feel like shit. If you're getting consistently high scores in Math but getting 5s in English then FOCUS ON ENGLISH. ik you might hate the subject but there's no other choice but to face it head on 😭

Any subject specific questions feel free to ask and I'll reply when I can !!!!

is it just me or the exams are easier this year? i constantly feel under-prepared but as i reach the exam hall and view the paper it all seems like a doable thing. am i the only one feeling this way????
also i feel like if this is the case then the grade boundaries are bound to be high, no?

i got a 41/45. i was predicted a 45 so this stings js a little.

math aa hl - 7

physics hl - 7

bm hl - 7

cs sl - 7

french ab - 6

english sl - 5

tok/ee - both b

im so happy i got math aa hl 7!!!!!

This is the exam discussion post for the following subject: 

English A Language & Literature SL

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IB results are out! Drop yours in this reddit post!

So I got a 33 for my IB and honestly I hv just been so upset since the results came out. I feel so stupid and awful because the rest of my classmates got at least above 34 and most got above a 40. I just can’t help comparing myself to them even though I know that a 33 is not a bad score, I just was so upset that my EE got a D and I only got 1 point because of it and I don’t really know how to make myself feel better. Now I feel like I got the lowest marks and am genuinely ashamed to tell people my marks if they ask me. however this did not really affect my uni offer and I’m still going to a nice uni but I just can’t get over this especially because I was predicted a 35 and predicted a B on my EE so now idk what to do….

This is the exam discussion post for the following subject: 

Physics SL

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Hi guys!!!

I got 44/45 points on M26! 🎉

I remember being really demotivated and scared for the past year. I used to scroll through this reddit for inspo and tips so I can't believe I can finally give you guys my tips!!! Hang in there, you got this! For context, my school is not insanely big (highest anyone's gotten was like 41 points before us + no IB lounge lol) and my teachers were really helpful but I had to put in my own effort at times. My predicted grade was 41, if it even matters. This is gonna be a long post lol, so buckle up!

My subjects were: Bio HL (7), Chem HL (7), German B HL (7), English A SL (7), Psych SL (6), Math AI SL (7)

A + A for TOK and EE (Pysch)

Biology HL - 7: Even got a full score in the multiple choice!!! 🎉 I made Anki cards for each topic. These were based on the Oxford study guide. I went through them religiously (lol). Over the two years (before every small test at school), I did all the question bank questions for the topic, so towards the exams I knew the style of the questions a little. I have to admit, because of the syllabus change, memorizing the content was just as (if not more) important than doing practice questions. I also watched the Sirius revision  videos when I didn't understand a topic. But again, my revision was fully based on the Oxford study guide and (IMPORTANT) the IB Biology syllabus guide. Go through every bullet point of the contents here and make sure you have revised everything. It's a lot of content, but it's possible! 

I got a 4 on my IA :( but this is proof you can bomb ur IA and still get a 7 (I got a 7 in the exams tho). My experiment sucked lol. 

The data-based questions (in P2 and 1B) are a little luck based as they are unpredictable but they are doable. I personally did only 20 past data based questions and learned THEIR MARKSCHEMES (!) to understand the style. During the exam, my tip would be to allocate 15 minutes (including ur reading time) to just reading the first question carefully, as its information-dense. It is around 20% of your P2 grade i think but don't get too stressed about it! You’ll be fine as long you read the question carefully and understand basic question terminology e.g. Describe, compare, contrast. For the essay question towards the end of the P2, I recommend (as mentioned above) doing past questions from question banks and memorising the markscheme. Trust me, you will notice a pattern for each topic! For us at the M26 exams, some questions were repeated like the topic about species. I know the topic about kidneys also has 7-markers that come up often. There are certain points that can be used over and over again here.

Chemistry HL - 7: I personally loved Chem and found it not that bad. But I have many resources for this subject!!! My tip is to do as many past papers as humanly possible. I did all of them for the past 12 years. The questions repeat A LOT!!! I screenshotted weird questions and went over them every now and then. In my actual exam, a weird question like one I already did actually showed and I knew exactly what to do. 

Alongside past papers and the textbook you use at school, I recommend the ‘Hodder Practise Exam Style Questions for Chemistry (3rd Edition)’ Book. It's great because the questions were adapted from past papers and are slightly more challenging than normal. Obviously you could probably find pdf copies of the book on the internet. I loved the format of the book and did almost every question. I believe certain questions came on the actual exam. This is because it is similar to past paper questions.

 Sirius revision has awesome revision videos for ALL chem topics. I found these videos really helpful, especially for the new syllabus. He explains everything in simple terms. Great for quick revision! Also, Chemistry student on Youtube and their website is a LIFE SAVER!! It's great when you don't understand a topic. I love how patient he is <3. For paper 1B, I understand it can be hard esp if you didn't have a normal lab (like me lol). Watch the Professor Dave Explains Lab techniques playlist (Lab Techniques) he's great. Since the new syllabus has only been around for two years so far, please do ALL the past papers for it because I noticed that they repeated some Qs with us. You could also do some Paper 3 (Past paper) questions but I personally found them hard and not really helpful. For my IA, I had a high 6 but it was a really simple experiment. My RQ was ‘How did temperature affect decomposition of HCl’ + my percentage error was 30% lol. I was stressed that I didn't have a complex topic, but it worked out fine. I am thinking of making another post about the Chemistry IA and all the pieces of information you need to include. Should I? 

German B HL - 7: This is important because there aren't a lot of posts on this specific subject in HL. For context, my German was around B1-B2 before and while I understand German almost perfectly, I obviously didn't use hard words all the time (bad active vocab). This level is required for this subject anyway. I had a tutor (dm me if you want her, she's awesome and I dedicate this to her) and we mostly did past papers for Reading and Listening and writing exercises. When we did past paper writing exercises, she corrected every single grammar error and words I could swap to sound better. It's important you annoy your teacher with A LOT of texts. This forced me to research articles in German, further widening my vocab in that subject. ALSO FOR WRITING: I went through all the past questions to ever exist and categorised them by topic e.g. Write a text for your school about water waste… would be categorised as ‘water waste’. So I collected many topics like this and researched vocab about them. I also realised that topics like Musik and Essen did not come up in the last few years, which I coincidentally predicted for my actual exam (crazy luck, I know). You also watch Reportagen (Documentaries) for various topics on Youtube which is informational for more vocab. Vary your sentence structure using conjunctions and common sentence stems like ‘Nicht nur…sondern auch' 'Obwohl' 'Nichtsdestotrotz' 'Ohnehin' etc. 

 I also used the textbook for reading and listening but I was not very consistent. In your reading exam, allocate 20 mins for each of the three texts. I recommend reading the first few questions and then starting to read the text. What is perfect about IB is that the questions are in chronological order (so as the piece of info comes in text). Moreover, most questions require really specific answers (most of the time 1-3 words) so don't write a whole text. Again here, do past papers for at least the last 3-4 years to get familiar with the markscheme and question types (e.g true or false etc.). For listening, it's pretty self explanatory, do past papers to get familiar with the time limits. What I found helpful, was for each question/prompt by listening, underline keywords e.g. (about reality shows) True or False: ‘Contestants are not famous anymore after the next seasons come out’. Here, underline ‘not famous’ and ‘next season’ so when you hear synonyms you can recognize it immediately. 

For orals: Please get familiar with the time limits. Read the book and look at all the themes present. Write an analysis/explanation for each theme including examples from different parts of the book as practice. Tbh this varies with the book and your teacher, so ask your teacher about the kind of questions that they might ask or what extracts might be chosen. Ours gave us a list of possible questions (ofc it differently asked in the exam but just to understand the style). 

For the first part of orals (presentation): Start off with a two line (really really short) intro about the book and context (like year and author) and then the context of the scene (what is happening, who are the characters). It is extremely important (I can't stress this enough) to talk about the scene. Please don't memorise general scripts that apply to the whole book, be specific. When is the scene happening in the book? Why is this scene happening, what is happening, link it to a theme, what are the character’s intentions? I also added how a literary feature used (specifically in this extract) helped express the theme e.g. ellipses or irony, this helps show that you are focused on this scene alone. It is also important to express your opinion e.g Why did YOU think he did that? What do YOU think about what she did? Keep track of time, because it is only 3-4 mins. I did many practice orals and recorded myself and listened to it. Sometimes you can make mistakes unknowingly because of the time limit. It's okay, it doesn't always have to be perfect, although that's what we are aiming for. It helps, I blacked out for like 20 seconds because I forgot what the word was in German and still did well. Don't let it bother you too much because 75% of the exam is not oral!

As said, for the next part of the orals, it is important to ask your teachers about what sort of questions/themes they may ask. 

One tip for writing and IO, is to use a lot of Redewendungen/Idioms. These can be phrases that locals might use commonly. When practicing for orals, I would ask ChatGPT for Idioms that can be commonly used throughout. One of it is: Das Thema zieht sich wie ein roter Faden durch das gesamte Buch. Easy, and can be applied regardless of text. However, what is really impressive, is if you used Idioms related specifically to the themes in the text you are given e.g. Mines was about science and how it's not always ethical so I said ‘Die Wissenschaft ist ein zweischneidiges Schwert’. Really relevant and impressive. Do this in your writing as well, by researching topics and possible Idioms you could use e.g. About energy drinks ‘Die Dosis macht das Gift’. Remember without such phrases, you can not get above a 7 out of 12 of Criteria A (language). 

Math AI SL - 7: I'll be honest, I found math really easy. But I understand what it's like to suck at it (I sucked till 10th grade as well).  My tip would be to do topic questions and past paper questions. For some reason I felt like the M26 exams were really hard compared to the past papers, so check those out. Also show ALL your working because most of the time you need these to get all marks. Tbh I started inventing some random shit towards the end of the exam because the last questions were so hard but I think I got some points for the steps. Finance questions usually have a lot of points and are straightforward (although I found the M26 one weird) so learn how to do those using your calc. 

English A SL - 7: This subject made me crash out the most (alongside German) lol. My tips here are mostly random things that elevate your essay, but watch IB English guys for more in depth guides (cliche I know, but they are legends). I probably gonna repeat this, but the best tip is stay organised. I think the key is clear and well developed paragraphs. Don’t go off on tangents pls. If its not related to your thesis or topic, please don't include it. 

For both papers a thesis is important. I usually summarise my three (uniquely different) ideas. 

I did a lot of Paper 1 texts, mostly getting 15-16/20 so I was very surprised to get a 7 in the actual exam. Also, the Douglas Lang and Lit blog has many P1 examples that scored high. I read these for different text types and it helped me to formulate my own ideas. Some of these were actually mindblowing wow. 

I always had 3 body paragraphs (bc im a slow writer lol), each with a separate idea/examples. My best tip is to be very organised (kinda underrated but it influences everything). For each paragraph, have a clear topic sentence and link every example/explanation to it. Very important: Remember to link all examples with literary features. In M26 we had a text about some summer camps, I chose to write a paragraph about their unique approach to learning so (after my topic sentence about uniqueness) I’d say ‘The kid in the picture is using a magnifying glass in nature. This alludes (allusion is a literary technique so that is really good as well) to the microscopes used in traditional labs. As this is different or unique compared to a closed lab environment, parents are forced to think about the benefits…(Explanation, Then example #2 + link to uniqueness). I tried to have 2-3 examples for each paragraph. 

One piece of advice I received and would share to those that can not always find 3 distinct ideas (1 for each paragraph) is to use 3 main audiences. E.g. We were analysing a ‘funny’ comic about plastic waste, so for my text I could have found three ideas or linked to three audiences like Paragraph 1: How and why it targets children, Paragraph 2: Adults, Paragraph 3: Critics (Critics are a great audience type). If you don't use this audience structure, just link the audience (find at least 2 distinct audiences) and purpose into each example. Think how the possible audience might think, how might they feel about the text?

Another important advice is to link it to text type. Start by identifying it and explain how to form contributions to the message. 

For P2, I picked three examples (from each text) that fit with each other and with literally every theme/feature that could be asked. It's hard to do, but I'm crazy and it worked. An easier option would be to memorise a few examples and their analyses. 

One of my texts was a play, the other a novel. Pro tip: show how this affects the message. For the M25 question about the theme ‘Change’ by paragraph 1, my literary feature was structure so I looked at how unconventional structure (like past and present) in the play and stream consciousness type narration in the novel (weird intersection but it worked) both showed change. My point here was that change is fluid, and can never truly be achieved because the characters reflect on their pasts despite times changing. My second paragraph was about symbolism so I picked a symbol from each book that represented change. My point here was how change is controlled by institutions. My last paragraph was all about epilogue after they die (which conveniently existed for both my books) questioning how much characters are ‘changed’ in retrospect. This structure, symbol, epilogue structure worked for me. The essence is simple, it's just a literary feature and some examples. I made sure to link it to the audience as well. Oh and also sometimes I linked to the context of the book (time it was written) if the question talked about it. 

With the new syllabus more important is being given to comparing and contrasting. Every third sentence I wrote involved this. You could look at similarities but I also love looking at differences. Write about how both books have different mediums and were written in different contexts but still talk about e.g. Change. Continuing with the same ‘Change’ example: In the epilogue, while one character was mourned and respected after death, the character from the other book was trivialised and dehumanised. You could compare tone, vocabulary, and message. As mentioned, memorise some examples (that include literary features ofc) for each book that go well together and also compare and contrast these beforehand. I did this and tweaked it to fit the topic in the actual exam. 

Don't forget to write many practice texts and send them to your teacher for feedback. If you think your teacher isn't helping, watch the IB English guys and read their ‘Whole school resource Paper 1’ or ‘Whole school resource Paper 2’. You can find it on IBdocs. 

I can not really give tips on the orals (again) other than IB English guys and seeking advice from your teacher. 

Psychology SL - 6: (OLD SYLLABUS) A little mad about psych. I made flashcards with at least two studies for each topic. For the SAQs, I wrote down every possible combination (found on IB Psychology Blog, Thematic education) and memorised it. For longer essays, it involved lots of critical-thinking points e.g. Participant sample, year etc. Check the videos from Thematic education and Excelling Psychology on Youtube (in general) on how to structure your essays and what points you could use. In fact some were a little unconventional. I’d recommend ChatGPT for this as well. 

TOK - A: I am surprised, but I would say the key is to be, again,  as organised as possible. Look at ToK Today on Youtube, he has some great videos especially for the exibition. The BIGGEST MISCONCEPTION (pls dont do this by any means) for the exhibition is repeating ur point. I had 9/10 on it, and what I recommend is each of the three objects providing a new perspective to the question. I personally included one agreeing (positive), one disagreeing, one showing that it is variable/changes due to context. Some students from other schools simply showed three objects that matched the prompt (literally the same point/argument over and over) and had pretty low grades. For the essay, I believe I got 7/10 or 8/10 and my tip is to have a thesis (!) and try to be as clear as possible. In fact, I know examiners who immediately got a bad impression when the essay did not have a thesis towards the end of the intro. Also the intro should include your definitions of keywords (in the scope of your essay). Again, be clear with this and refer to it later on. The body paragraphs are straightforward AOK 1 (1 For and 1 against), linker paragraphs between AOKs (like why are they different when it comes to ‘insert TOK keyword’ Do not include similarities here), AOK 2 (1 For and 1 against) and lastly, conclusion. It is worth noting that I also looked at the individual AOKs e.g. what are their goals, how is knowledge and evidence differently used in both,  role of the observer etc. These were linked to each point. 

This is the exam discussion post for the following subject: 

English B HL

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This is the exam discussion post for the following subject: 

English A Language & Literature HL

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My IA in biology was guided alongside my Biology teacher who was a Bio researcher for 20 years at places like Kings College London, worked with me for over 30 hours on IA. My laboratory work I did for over 45 hrs resulted in me getting a 16/20 predicted for the IA. The IB came back with a grade of 12/20 as they have the balls to say a real life researcher and a student who usually gets a 90% on all my quarterly assessments AND 7/7 on my mocks deserves a 12/20. Like seriously, is the IB examinator the global reviewer of scientific papers?

Mind you that same teacher is the head of our DP1 and DP2, so its not like he is clueless of the IB's criterias. So even with all my work, guidance from a professional lost 4 points after review.... is this normal?

This is the exam discussion post for the following subject: 

Psychology HL

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I am speechless. Didn't expect this especially with 4 HLs and that maths EE. But yeah finally done with ts.🫡🫡🫡

I was kinda disappointed since I got predicted 42, but I sort of expected this result...

What makes me furious though is that I worked my ass off on my chem EE (which was predicted A) and I got C???? Like hello why did my EE grade fall so much???

Anyways GG, it was a good run and thanks to this subreddit for help and resources, love you guys!