The new term

[Xerox]

Yes the new term is here, school has started and i got my first math homework already. Every year it is the same for me, but this year i hope to change this, I come to school full of energy.
Well rested prepared for the new year, with new chances and possibilities.



The work loud is easy in the beginning, nothing to worry about in any subject, but then one day... you miss something a class a homework or anything really. Of cource you don't worry it is just one little tiny homework, or just one tiny lesson, and life just goes one. CAS starts and you kinda enjoy school and your firends there, but then you see this cool tv show and you know that you should finish math homework but the tv show is just sooo good, you will finish it tommorow. After little sleep you come to school and hurry with your math exercizes, you skip some, but you feel that you get the essential stuff and are ready for class. During class things just go along, you do your work there and still believe that everything is fine. Some weeks go by in this pase, and then one day you go home with your homework and just wonder what happend? why did we suddenly get so much homework? Revision in math, yeah you did your best, but it is just so hard...
Yeah that english essay, you really tried your best didn't you, to start early. And damn i forget the economics internal was due next week, you better take that one first. School isn't that nice suddenly, you have a lot to do, but what about the rest of the stuff? you have a busy life by now, spending the night at your girlfriends place this friday, and then sports on saturday. So where do you fitt the extra workload? But then you realize, we didn't actually get that much homework, and you survived all year anyway, so you do the essential stuff and you feel good. You prioratized what was important, first the school stuff, then some CAS + girlfriend. Of cource finishing everything was impossible, so you tried to do the best of the situation, and you are satisfied.

Life goes by and you are managing your school stuff, portfolio's are handed in on time, normal homework you try to do, but they are not high priority due to all the Internal Assesments that are due this week and stuff like that. Chrismas break is on it's way, and you feel pumped, you finally have time to that revision that you needed for math, yeah maybe skipping the homeworks wasn't that clever after all, but you still manage and now with extra time you can get on top of everything again. So christmas break comes closer, and you are going with to your grandparents to spend christmas there and meeting your cousins will be great, and of cource you take your homework with you, surely you will be bored a little bit while you are there. And so the break comes and is over, and you come back to school, realizing that you didn't really revise, of cource you had the books with you and you tried, but christmas time is to be spent together and not behind book. The teachers will understand you think. So school starts again, and it is kinda tough coming back again to the hard reality that school maybe isn't that fun as you remembered it. During the math lessons you are impressed by how the guy next to you manages to solve all math questions during the lesson, surely that guy must be super smart !! you could never do that. The terms goes on, you do well in CAS have a lot of fun, but it's not going so well with your girl, and you feel annoyed at her all the time, so you break up. Great you think, finally time to focus on school and meeting new people and of cource that new EE thingy, cool thing, i had a good topic so sure you will do great. IA's are done in time, yeah maybe an all nighter here and there, but that is just IB isn't it? There is just so little time and so much to do, teachers really can't plan when to give you homeworks...

The term is comming to an end, and testweek is coming up, nothing to worry about right? noone has time to prepare, with the cource load we have, how do they expect us to have test week? Really the teachers are just dumb why can't they see that we got to much already. So you go home and as always you watch television, studying is done in school and after 21:00 as these time work best for my. I get my good grades this way, yeah i know i didn't have good grades last term. But that wasn't my fault, just teachers planing was no good, we had portfolio due to the week before, they could have seen we had no time to study for test week then. And this time they have an EE deadline during the week!! are they crazy, let's go to the IB-councilor and complain, this is just inhuman, don't they see how easy the "normal" school kids have it, yeah IB sure is hard.

You go home after a hard day, and there you see your genius math pal sitting in the library and study, damn that guy is serious, maybe if i worked more with him i would aquire some of his math skills yeah that is it. I should get some study skills for testweek, then i would have done great...
But yeah he is the school smartass, and i could never keep up, he is always in time with stuff and so, it's like he's only studying. But that can't be right? how come he has a nice girlfriend and a job? he must be super smart, yeah that is it, not just smart, but super smart, he is so quick in finishing stuff, he must already understand everything from the start. But who cares about him anything i should get home and prepare for test week.

"no it's oke, nobody prepares anyway" you say to your mom who asks if you shouldn't study for test week, "I know what is coming, we prepared all year for this"
of cource you know you should prepare, but why would your mom care? better tell her a lie, you can work later, after heroes is finished. Test week is really a bitch, you worked your ass off, stayed up to 4 AM and still you got a 4 in Eco SL, terrible. And of cource the geek came into school all fresh and awake, he probebly went to bed at 8, and gets a 7!!! how unfair, you worked your ass off and that guy gets it for free... school is so unfair why couldn't i be smart? damn, weel test week goes on and you are doing your best, but you get avarage grades again, well not MIT for me you think, but then did you really hope that? yeah maybe you did, well you tell yourself, maybe if they had taught us how to study in grade school you might have gone 7's. Well just work my ass off during the summer, oh yeah holy crap, EE - that will be a sure A i can work all summer great. But first, it is summer and you need a break first before the new year. A whole new year coming up with new chances and possibilties.




This is just a general thing how i think it works for some students, and yes something similar has happend to me. The problem of cource isn't anything but you, the cource load isn't to heavy, and the kid isn't "super smart" he just studies and does the things on the right time, just like you did in the beginning before you got habits of sleeping little and watching to much television before doing homework. I hope someone can find some wisdom in here and maybe it helps someone to not do the same mistakes as I did.

P.S. This must be the longest post i ever wrote

[imaginelifeless]

HAHAHAHAAHA
i feel so relieved that someone actually thinks the same as me.
when i look at other friends who aren't doing the IB, i get so jealous. they can play the whole year through and just mug for the 3 months before their final exams. but for IB, if you try doing that, you realize "hey damn, looks like i wont be going to university this fall. looks like i have to take the year off to repeat certain subjects" or you go "damn, i just prorastinated my life away. now i'll be stuck in some university that i dont like doing some course i have no interest in"

[Oryxy]

You know... They say that life has no pause or no sections where you can just redo stuff and "restart" at some point, life is a continuous process. You screw up now, you screw up later in life, and your future just falls down a degree just because of procrastination. This new term I am going to work my ass off, ask questions when not understand something, don't leave anything to the last minute. Start everything ASAP. Blog more on IB Survival instead of playing video games. Do sports, piano, anything but computer games that waste your life.

Life or Death is just a term away.