How to get a 7 in IB Philosophy SL?

[MT SOL]

I wrote a fairly solid CA, and now I just have to ace paper 1 and paper 2 of the exam in May. Does anyone have any tips for how to study for IB Philosophy?

My Philosophy class was pretty thorough. Should I just re-read everything we've studied from day one? That seems incredibly boring - reading material I've already read. How do you recommend that I study?

[Sandwich]

I just looked at the syllabus which states the following:

Possible topics for study

· Interpretations of the human condition from diverse world perspectives: for example, Eastern, African, Latin American, Western traditions · What, if any, are the relationships between mind and body? · Self-consciousness, language, agency, dreams, spirituality, imagination, intuition, passion, reason and emotion, aggression, moral values, empathy, creativity

· Could animals or machines be persons? · Human nature: individuality, universality, diversity · The question of self: Is it possible to know oneself? To know others? Solipsism and intersubjectivity · Freedom and determinism · Our existence in time and place; biological and social necessities; gender and social conditioning · Existential anxiety; meaning and meaninglessness; responsibility and authenticity

And then proceeded to go through what we'd studied making brief notes on the main points I could bring up in an essay and coming up with for/against combinations of ideas and arguments (given that that's what you'll have to do in the essay). Do the same for your option, and then just learn the set text. You can look at past questions to see what kinds of things they ask about in the set text section.

Essentially do whatever it takes to be able to BS whatever comes up in the exam with enough knowledge about some relevant form of Philosophy.

[Crazy Gemini]

Go on other IB schools resources, one good one that I've relied on throughout my two years is Sevenoaks. One of their philosophy teachers also wrote a booklet on the core theme that was pretty useful.

I wouldn't suggest re-reading things, but then OCR philosophy of religion AS and A2 textbook is pretty useful.

I used to make chatter boxes for my AS exams a couple years ago they were quite useful for testing myself.

And as always those all important timed essays, they're not fun, but they do sure as hell help.

Good luck