IB Myths: What have you learned after joining the program?

[IB`NOT`ez]

IB TOK, EE, and English examiners are incompetent morons with no sense of what constitutes as quality work.

Edited April 12, 2018 by IB`NOT`ez

[aTeddy]

My top three would easily be: 

1. You can control everything.

As pretentious as this is likely to sound, I went into my senior year of IB believing that I could micro-engineer every single assessment task and make sure that I would definitely get 45 at the end, provided that I just cared a lot and worked hard. Untrue. Assessment tasks that I thought I nailed, I actually did fairly poorly in (e.g Psychology Paper 3, where I attained 14/30) and conversely assessment tasks I had resigned myself to having screwed up, I did really well in (e.g English Lit HL paper 1).

IB Moderation can also be a total crap shoot. I've been doing public speaking for most of my school career and I put my literal heart and soul into the IOP and IOC. I copped a moderation factor of -4, and there is nothing I could do about that. Ultimately, in the IB, there is a degree of chance and everything is definitely not always in your hands. You just have to accept that.

2. The IB isn't useful and the learner profile doesn't mean anything.

I'm convinced that the IB education is what educational philosophers throughout the ages would support if they lived today. The perception that the IB is not good because its too challenging, or doesn't help some university applications, or doesn't allow you to specialise your interest is either totally unfounded or misses the wider point. When I reflect upon the person I was two and a half years ago and the person I was when I graduated the IB in November, I feel like they are very different and so much for the better. Whilst, it might be partially true that in practical terms, the sheer difficulty of the IB fails to be appropriately recognised by universities, its benefits extend so much further than that.

IB equips you with an academic toolbox of critical thinking, quality writing, knowledge of academic conventions, independent thinking and working that is pretty much unparalleled by any other pre-tertiary certificate. It's actually 100% worth doing the IB for this reason alone. 

3. IB Students must prepare for many hours every night, consistently, for two years, in order to score competitive grades.

I did work hard to get my IB score, but I also had plenty of time to relax. I watched seven seasons of Gilmore Girls twice, watched all of Scandal, Grey's Anatomy and How To Get Away With Murder and played games all throughout the IB. I was also not consistent, I worked hard when it counted and relaxed when I could. It's certainly not true that a successful IB student needs to work consistently and ridiculously hard with no down time. 

Edited May 2, 2018 by aTeddy

[Certified_IB_Cultist]

"TOK is easy and fun." "IB Physics isn't that bad." "IB candidates are like one giant family."

TOK is awful, don't get me started with physics and the majority of people are jerks. Some are amazing wonderful people whom I look forward to spending more time with. Others are salty snippy picky condescending rude fakers. 

[lxith]

On 12/20/2012 at 8:27 PM, Award Winning Boss said:

• Universities love the IB and you'll be better off than your A level counterparts.
• CAS is fun and a good idea.
• You need to do loads of all nighters
• ToK opens your mind
• ToK will aid you in your university application
• It broadens your possibilities for university applications

Oh and,

• The IB learner profile isn't the biggest pile of dog poop ever thrown onto a piece of paper.

Bruh fr I haveden't done a single formative assignment (non-graded/"for learning") the entire year, and did no homework or studied and my grades are solid 6/7. And the "ToK opens your mind" is so dumb, like all this **** is common knowledge but I see people acc benefiting from it. I guess it opens dumb ppl minds?

[Ridhima]

"IB AND AP ARE THE SAME "

[AnnaHoffman]

On 4/7/2022 at 4:59 PM, Ridhima said:

"IB AND AP ARE THE SAME "

so true. Agree that this statement - it is absolute nonsense. I can't understand why there are so many people who truly believe in that. My friend has even written an article where he compares IB vs AP, where he explained in details what are the main difference between this two programs.