7 in ab initio?

[Guest axe]

How hard is it to score a 7 in ab initio considering that you have no prior knowledge of the language? Is it even possible to write an essay in just two years of learning the language?

[timtamboy63]

Ab Initio is designed assuming no prior knowledge. You don't write essays. It is very possible to get a 7 in ab initio, assuming you work hard.

[Peanut Butter Jelly]

Tres facile.

[Knarik]

Yeah. I am doing Spanish ab initio and I really hope to get a 7.

[Where Love Died Laughing]

It's possible, but it also sort of depends whether or not you're generally good at languages as well as the amount of effort you put in. I know people who spend more time on their ab initio subject than on their HLs and are only barely passing, as well as people who did almost nothing during their 2 years of IB and then got really good grades...

[ro_1293x]

I have done relatively well throughout my 2 years of ab initio french, I'm not aiming for a 7 though to be honest because my IB grades are almost entirely pointless to me now and I don't know if I'll be continuing a 2nd language. But I never put an exceptionally large amount of extra work into french I just paid attention in all my classes and did the work our teacher assigned us. It helps that she is brilliant and a native french speaker. There are still a lot of people in my class failing so it does depend on you.

If you are consistent for 2 years and always revise your grammar and things like conjunctions and preposistions, whatever helps you spice up your writing, as well as the vocab for whatever unit you are studying you can definitely get a 7 in french. If you are not particularly good at languages, it's still possible, just need to work harder. I flunked through IGCSE French before realizing you couldn't do it without prior knowledge so left that and finally in IB I redeemed myself with ab initio

[Antrikshy]

Ab Initio is designed assuming no prior knowledge. You don't write essays. It is very possible to get a 7 in ab initio, assuming you work hard.

I am doing Mandarin Ab Initio and we do write essays.

[kirakira]

Definitely easy - for me. Ultimately, it all depends on your grasp on the language. Since first year of IB, I've picked up Italian ab initio really well because of my interest in etymology and grasp on grammar and cognates. If I had any tips for getting high marks in ab initio, they would be:

• Learn your grammar really well and be able to easily recognise conjugated verbs and how to use them
  This makes reading especially easy because you'll understand the grammatical structure (e.g. this ____ looked like _____) and then all you have to do is make sure you know what the nouns mean. When you know the grammatical structure, it makes it a lot easier to guess what the sentence actually means.
  

• Recognise cognates!
  Cognates are those words that are really similar to another language and are really recognisable (e.g. situazione obviously means situation). With romance languages, it helps if you know other romance languages because that makes it even more simple to help you comprehend the meaning of a word (facile in French is facile in Italian)
  

• Learn your idiomatic expressions
  Learn little phrases and conjunctions that you can just stick in anywhere. It really improves the flow of your language and looks impressive if you can throw some (relevant) idioms in.
  
• To examiners, seeing sophisticated language in ab initio is probably like ice cream on a hot summer's day
  If it's a latin language - SUBJUNCTIVES! If you've learned your grammar well, you can easily create your own opportunities to chuck in a whole bunch of different tenses and moods and examiners love seeing subjunctives (and subjunctive imperfect) apparently. If it's Chinese, use 四字成語 (those four character idiom things?) because they're ~*pretty*~ and very idiomatic. Make a conscious effort to use different sentence structures and tenses and shiz whenever you write.
  
• With essays, make them authentic
  If your task is a postcard or a letter, do not forget the date/address. Likewise with diary entries, make your language really emotive so put in a lot of things about how you're feeling. Make jokes and casual "hope you're doing well" etc. phrases with informal letters; with formal letters, most languages have polite rules you need to follow.
  

So, with the above tips, a 7 in ab initio is really pretty easy. Provided you have a good teacher and a good grasp on how the linguistic structure works, all you have to do is remember some vocabulary and writing essays and getting a 7 will just naturally come along.

[JoeZell]

I'm currently at a 6, but I'm not even trying. Just write as much as you can, and don't forget to learn the f**king verbs. If you revise everything you're taught, and make sure you remember it, you'll do fine.