Chose the wrong subject and now I think I'm going to fail

[KNH99]

Hi everyone,

I've been extremely stressed out recently and I feel that I've made a terrible mistake. 

I'm currently taking Arabic A self-taught and I've quickly realized that although Arabic is my mother tongue, I haven't learned it in many years and therefore the curriculum is too difficult for me and I don't believe I can pass, and if I do, I would get a bad grade which I don't want. However, the other alternatives are German B and German Ab Initio. I should note that it is now nearly the end of IB1 and this whole year I've been doing Arabic. I want to switch to German, but because I have several years of experience in German, I feel that my school will object to me pursuing German ab and only allow me to take B which is difficult, but besides that, I've missed an entire year's worth of work which makes it essentially as much of a gamble as me taking Arabic A. I'm now extremely worried I will not pass because Arabic is completely not in my range of abilities and German B is already challenging as is and on top of that, having to catch up on a year's worth of work is a dreadful thought. I really don't know what to do. I know I made a terrible misjudgment when I chose Arabic A but to be frank, I did not anticipate it being this challenging especially as it is self taught meaning I have no classroom-environment support. I'm beginning to even toy with the idea of taking the certificate instead so I won't have to take Arabic A or German B but my parents are pretty opposed to that idea. I really don't know what to do. 

Any help or advice would be appreciated. 

Edited June 8, 2017 by KNH99

[IB`NOT`ez]

34 minutes ago, KNH99 said:

Hi everyone,

I've been extremely stressed out recently and I feel that I've made a terrible mistake. 

I'm currently taking Arabic A self-taught and I've quickly realized that although Arabic is my mother tongue, I haven't learned it in many years and therefore the curriculum is too difficult for me and I don't believe I can pass, and if I do, I would get a bad grade which I don't want. However, the other alternatives are German B and German Ab Initio. I should note that it is now nearly the end of IB1 and this whole year I've been doing Arabic. I want to switch to German, but because I have several years of experience in German, I feel that my school will object to me pursuing German ab and only allow me to take B which is difficult, but besides that, I've missed an entire year's worth of work which makes it essentially as much of a gamble as me taking Arabic A. I'm now extremely worried I will not pass because Arabic is completely not in my range of abilities and German B is already challenging as is and on top of that, having to catch up on a year's worth of work is a dreadful thought. I really don't know what to do. I know I made a terrible misjudgment when I chose Arabic A but to be frank, I did not anticipate it being this challenging especially as it is self taught meaning I have no classroom-environment support. I'm beginning to even toy with the idea of taking the certificate instead so I won't have to take Arabic A or German B but my parents are pretty opposed to that idea. I really don't know what to do. 

Any help or advice would be appreciated. 

Apologies that I won't be able to provide advice for all your questions, but perhaps some consolation: I dropped from Indonesian A to Indonesian B near the end of IB1, and you'll be glad to know that there is no real "work" in the first year for Language B subjects as the Written Assignment and Oral Assessments are meant to be done in the second year. The only things you'd have missed are perhaps school assessments and a longer exposure to the language via verbal discussions in class, activities, and practices. It will be challenging, but you also have the summer to reimmerse yourself in the language, plus if you haven't tried already, Language B Assessment Papers tend to be much easier than expected to almost anyone.

[kanda_sorata]

Drop Arabic A and move to German AB initio - as simple as that. Get your parents to do it though, because they are paying your tuition fee after all. Your school can in no way interfere with your parents' decisions about you, so just have your parents go to the school and simply switch classes. I don't see any problem in that...perhaps I missed your point?

 

[kw0573]

I consider language b most feasible to do in one year. Your German will improve greatly if you immerse yourself in the language. See if there are local tours conducted or discussion groups in German. Find German language TV shows and radios. 

[KNH99]

1 hour ago, kanda_sorata said:

Drop Arabic A and move to German AB initio - as simple as that. Get your parents to do it though, because they are paying your tuition fee after all. Your school can in no way interfere with your parents' decisions about you, so just have your parents go to the school and simply switch classes. I don't see any problem in that...perhaps I missed your point?

 

I've learnt German before so I'm not a complete beginner meaning I don't know if I would have that option. 

[amelf]

I like crisis management, I have dealt with some pretty desperate cases for IB French and we aced the exam. Whether you choose German B or Arabic A it is going to be extremely challenging, but it won't be the last challenge of your life. 

1. Establish your monthly, weekly, and daily study goals: list of grammar, vocabulary themes, and conjugation that are required for the exam and implement them within your goals. This way, you will make sure to respect a timeline to cover all the requirements. 

2. Have 1 or 2 daily study sessions with 1 goal for each. Regularity will be essential. No regular session = failure, as simple as that. 

3. Immerse yourself in the linguistic culture to improve your vocabulary and the ways in which you structure sentences: 

- Find well-known journals and read x number of articles per week (great for reading exam practice). For my students I recommend 2 short articles per week. Choose articles that are related to the vocabulary topics. 

- Watch movies, even if it has subtitles, it will help you for your speaking exam, your brain will pick up new words. Similarly choose movies/documentaries related to your vocabulary topics. 

4. Practice makes perfect: practice with as many past papers as possible. With my students, I do a whole exam per week (paper 1 & 2 + oral exam). 

5. Strategy for the reading exam = based on all the past papers you completed, think about the formats of questions they usually ask, how to best answer it, what are the most common tricks.

 

[Acamar]

Is your German good enough for a basic conversation and a very short and simple essay? If it is, German B should be doable. 

(My only experience is with Chinese B though, but I think the difficulty of language Bs are similar.)

It seems you haven't confirmed that you can't take ab initio yet though. You never know until you try.

Language A is on a completely different level. It seems more than twice as hard as a language B to me, so language B might get you a better grade in half the time.

Sorry, I can't help much. Good luck!

Edited June 9, 2017 by Acamar