how to ace pre-ib all subjects, especially math ?

[Guest Niham]

Ok, I'm just entering high school in september and am taking Pre Ib. My math score is a little low in seventies and on my exam I hadn't had time to finish some questions, like two-four. But I'm doing math with my friend who taught pre ib kids before maybe once a week. But I really want to get my mark HIGHER, I just need tips on how to maintain and do well in Pre ib on all the courses. Technically any course in pre Ib. Anyone who can help is GREATLY appreciated. And really good study habits that will be helpful? Thank you.

[Summer Glau]

Well pre-IB is not an official program recognized by the IBO (unless by pre-IB you mean the MYP). So it's not a program everyone does like the IB Diploma program, so it will differ wherever you go. Fortunately your profile says you're from Canada and I am as well, so hopefully I can be of some help

Math was also my weakest subject coming out of pre-IB. However I managed to do OK in it because I did more than the required homework. Like if the teacher assigned question 2, letters aceg, I would do 2aceg and then check my answers at the back of the book. If I got them mostly right, I would move on to the next question. If I got a lot of them wrong it meant that I didn't understand this question (or sometimes the back of the book was wrong but usually it was me who was incorrect). So then I would try to look back at my notes to see if there was a similar example in the lesson that I could follow, or look it up in the textbook. If it's a word problem, try looking things up online (you'd be amazed how many people post queries about the EXACT same math problem on Yahoo answers, and people there will actually help you figure out the answer and post all of their mathematical working they did to arrive at the answer). Try to UNDERSTAND, and not memorize the solution. Get where they're coming from. Once you understand, do more problems just to make sure you get it.

Oh. Put a star next to the problems you didn't get right on the first try. When you're reviewing for your tests/exam, go back to as many of those problems and redo them. You may not have time to do all of them but do the hardest ones first so you're prepared for hard questions on tests. Actually sometimes test questions are taken straight from the textbook sometimes and if you're lucky, it may even be a problem you did for homework before or something eerily similar. So the key is to do your homework and make a note of the problems you didn't get.

If you still don't get it, move on to the next question and ask your teacher or one of your more mathematically-inclined friends to help you the next day. The key is to not let concepts go misunderstood or worse, not understood at all! Don't be afraid of looking stupid, it's better to look kind of silly now for not understanding something that seems basic to everyone else than to let it go not understood and then do horribly on your test because that same concept you were struggling with popped up on the test. When reviewing for tests, do all the review questions your teacher gives you, and then go back and redo those starred problems I mentioned earlier. Don't just look over them, actually sit there and start working out the answer from scratch.

For your other courses...well how the system in Canada goes is that your teacher ultimately gives you your grade, not some outside examination like in the IB. So learn to pick up on stuff your teacher likes to see and include it in some of your work. If you notice your science teacher loves to teach you guys about cells in biology, study that more because since your teacher likes it they will probably put a question about it on the test. Honestly I think this mentality is one of the big downsides of the Canadian education system but I'll save that for another day... xP Anyways if your teacher seems to be very enthusiastic about a certain topic you're studying, chances are they like it and they will test you on it, so pay attention! Do those random assignments your teacher gives, even if they sound stupid, it will help your grade and that is what matters.

For English...English at my school was pretty much the same as the non-IB (academic) English course, just that we read a few more advanced books. Just read the books (actually finish reading them!) and take note of how your teacher likes you to structure essays and such. You can do well in science by reading the notes/textbook and doing homework if you find it helps you understand. In French just do the grammar exercises you get for homework, because most of pre-IB French is just grammar. Master your basic French tenses (indicatif present, imparfait, passe compose) and know when to use what tense because it will help you a ton when you write compositions in IB. IF you can learn the somewhat more advanced ones like futur simple and other grammatical points likes the verbes pronominaux then that's great, but master the basics first before you move on to harder stuff. Humanities stuff like geography and history I found to be pretty much the same as the regular kids do, just try not to slack too much in those courses because they do count in your overall average for the year and you want to keep it as high as you can for stuff like scholarships later on

Also, don't be afraid to grade grub if you honestly believe you deserved that extra point It won't work 100% of the time but sometimes it does when you don't expect it

Hope that helps!