What are you allowed and not allowed to do in CAS?

[Frei]

planning the event is creativity in our school, and then they event could be either action or creaivity. the cooking would be action (unles ou made up the recipe, and were making it for the 1st time). count the hours you would be doing all fo it. hope that helps. i don;t see it ias service at all. but this is all based of how they would do it at my school.

Sounds good to me...

Generally, it would be creativity to make the food, and service to be at the event. Maybe creativity to plan it as well.. I hope he'll buy it!

[IBStuck]

Sounds good to me...

Generally, it would be creativity to make the food, and service to be at the event. Maybe creativity to plan it as well.. I hope he'll buy it!

goodluck... that is the way that it is at my school.

[lorenzo]

My coordinator ( ) says it cant count if we get paid for it, if its religious, if it isn't new/has a new element to it or if the event is a stand alone without any of our participation in the planning stage.

Oh yeah, I forgot who said it but my coordinator ( ) is also a complete nazi for our paperwork... she like

[cookiejar]

I'm confused about my school. My school recently turned to IB (i'm the first year group to go for IB- Guinea pigs I tell you!) and before they went all "Its 150 hours blah blah blah, 20 hours for a single event/thing blahblahblah" but now, they say that CAS isn't about the hours anymore. They're all, "It's how its affected you, what you gained from it."

Should I listen to them? Or should I still aim for 150 hours? T.T

[lorenzo]

I'm confused about my school. My school recently turned to IB (i'm the first year group to go for IB- Guinea pigs I tell you!) and before they went all "Its 150 hours blah blah blah, 20 hours for a single event/thing blahblahblah" but now, they say that CAS isn't about the hours anymore. They're all, "It's how its affected you, what you gained from it."

Should I listen to them? Or should I still aim for 150 hours? T.T

Hahaha my school is like that too (we'r the first lot graduating ever) You should still aim for 150 hours, but they'r trying to say that you shouldnt restrict yourself to only 150 hours. And now our co-ordinator is saying that since CAS is an 18 month program, we need to hav evidence that we'r doing cas until the end of june.

Maybe its been mentioned somewhere else, but I'm guna ask again anyway. How many hours are you guys allowed to claim per activity?

[Ruan Chun Xian]

The only official CAS rule is 150 hours, 50 of each. That means you HAVE to have 150 hours, 50 of each. They don't care how/where you get them from (well, broadly speaking) as long as it's approved by your CAS coordinator.

That said, schools often introduce their own rule such as at least/no more than 20 hours per activity - that's just school rules and you would have to follow them for the school's sake but the IBO doesn't care.

[cookiejar]

The only official CAS rule is 150 hours, 50 of each. That means you HAVE to have 150 hours, 50 of each. They don't care how/where you get them from (well, broadly speaking) as long as it's approved by your CAS coordinator.

That said, schools often introduce their own rule such as at least/no more than 20 hours per activity - that's just school rules and you would have to follow them for the school's sake but the IBO doesn't care.

So even though my school just wants all of us to pass by lowering the CAS requirement hours, I should just still aim for 150 right? Bummer man...

Does baby sitting count as CAS? My IBC is quite pathetic in accepting our proposals - as in, doesn't get back to us until 3 weeks have passed, then usually after a week, says the activity is inappropriate.

Can anyone actually list possible things to do for each section of CAS? If anyone could, I'd be ETERNALLY grateful! I mean, I've been reading through the whole thread, but I just want to be sure of what I could possibly do and what I can't do.

[Ruan Chun Xian]

So even though my school just wants all of us to pass by lowering the CAS requirement hours, I should just still aim for 150 right? Bummer man...

Are they ****ing insane? You can't just randomly decide to lower CAS hours requirement.

What counts as CAS is really really relative according to each CAS coordinator. Which is why I said IB doesn't really care. CAS coordinator approves of your CAS activities so if it passes your coordinator's test it's CAS. Like some schools would allow you to get paid for certain CAS activity (but it most likely wont be a long term job) while mine said CAS had to be unpaid. Some schools insists on CAS needing to be able learning new stuff and helping other (well technically it is) but some other schools are more relaxed on that. Rule of thumb is that as long as you have an adult to prove for you that you've completed so many hours and it's not something too stupid like washing dishes for your mum then it's CAS. Our mods here (deissi, koolgecko when he gets to IB and starts CAS) can get CAS hours from modding this forum if they want.

There's no set list or anything.

I think what your school means is NOT that you don't have to have 150 hours anymore. That part is still required. What they mean is that you don't have to get an outrageous amount of hours over 150 (usually students would carry on with CAS after 150 but it's a right pain in the arse if your school is really crazy about paperwork). Ultimately CAS is about getting involved, learning new things, helping others. So yes, the point is how it affected you and what you get out of it. Honestly if you're a decent person who does a reasonable amount of extra curricular stuff, you'd get 150 hours easily. Many people get a huge amount over 150 hours over the 2 years if they're really committed to an activity like playing a certain sports.

[cookiejar]

Are they ****ing insane? You can't just randomly decide to lower CAS hours requirement.

That's the thing, apparently, my school contacted the IBO and APPARENTLY they said that we don't need to fill in the 150 requirement.

And honestly, I thought that it meant that we didn't need to do a HUGE amount of hours over 150 (and although its still my first year doing IB I'm nearing the 100 hour mark) I know I'll probably go over the 150 mark but I know more than a few students asking teachers, "Do we still need to do 150 hours of CAS?", and they reply, "No you don't."

I have no qualms about CAS or the amount of hours, but its just the fact that since my school said that 'its not the amount of hours now,' everyone has gone lax.

But thanks for the help anyway, I'll still aim for the 150 mark regardless of what my school says.

[lorenzo]

That said, schools often introduce their own rule such as at least/no more than 20 hours per activity - that's just school rules and you would have to follow them for the school's sake but the IBO doesn't care.

Wait... so the "no more than 40 hours per activity" things isnt actually enforced by IBO?? What if we just decide to ignore our CAS coordinator and exceed that limit, do all the paperwork and everything, our coordinator cant actually say that the 15 hrs more than 40 wont count and be backed up by IBO?

Also I just remembered another annoying thing my CAS coordinator said. She set a deadline for all the CAS documentaion for the past term and said if any activities, at that deadline, with incomplete documentation will not be counted at all. Is this actually enforced by IBO?

[Ruan Chun Xian]

That's all your school. The thing is, AFAIK IBO doesn't usually want written proof of CAS from you, only your CAS Coordinator fills in a form to say you've done CAS. So it's essentially if you don't do it your coordinator's way you could be in trouble. IBO only sometimes ask for proof such as CAS diaries/eva forms but that's only of random students. And it only happens when they think something iffy is going on - like CAS coordinator just saying students did CAS but they haven't. The paperwork you do is for that 'in case' situation.

[lorenzo]

Aww~ serious? how lame /hate CAS coordinator...

[CellarDoor]

Some areas of CAS are really confusing.

In my school, planning hours count towards CAS, which is why if you're involved in a play you automatically earn a zillion hours from rehearsals, which count towards creativity. The actual performance you can choose between creativity and service (as long as you aren't being paid for it).

Service hours, too. Is service only charity work? Helping out younger students, visiting orphanages and blind homes? If a teacher asks you do prepare a powerpoint so that he can use in his presentation for a class, really it is a favour. In my school this does not count.

[deedoz]

heey

our cas coordiantor is actually good but kinda strict like gym and stuff like that is not counted!!

she always wants us to come up with new creative ideas!!

i like our most recent activity: we are planning the schools talent show and we teach kids how to dance and stuff:P

[aishwarya]

In my school we have to do only 15 hours of one activity. For example, if your learning dance for creativity, you can get only 15 hours for dance. And then we have to switch to another activity. We can't repeat the same activity twice.

Is this just in my school or do all schools have similar restrictions?

[QueenSara]

In my school we have to do only 15 hours of one activity. For example, if your learning dance for creativity, you can get only 15 hours for dance. And then we have to switch to another activity. We can't repeat the same activity twice.

Is this just in my school or do all schools have similar restrictions?

We have similar restrictions: if you have an activity that only involves one aspect of CAS, i.e. C, A OR S, you can get credit for max. 20 hours for that activity [e.g. jogging, only action]. If the activity involves all three aspects of CAS, you can get credit for max. 20 hours per aspect, i.e. a total of 60 hours for that activity [e.g. painting school wall, creativity, acttion AND service]

[circusmind]

A friend of mine suggested creating an IB yearbook. I thought it was a great idea and so did the IB guidance counselor.

Well, one restriction in my program is that we can't do anything related to religion.

[hamani]

In my school, CAS is pretty much not that stressed about in IBers' minds even though it should be. We do not have a CAS coordinator, but the IBC does all the filing of forms and stuff. In my situation, I just go for tennis, Student council, volunteering at an orphange, get a signature and fill out the form and just give it to the IBC, that simple. But I hear that other schools in Bahrain, journals are filled and lots of other stuff ... is that the case in other countries?

[cokesandcokes]

Restrictions I know of:

-Learning to drive is NOT creativity

-"I brought my grandma a glass of water" does not count as service

-doing any activity for personal profit

Oh and he requires us to have pictures of every activity we do.

We recently organized an IB sports day for those who had no action hours- big hit here. He said organizers could count the hours as either creativity or service, so I put it under creativity. We also have an IB student group where we continually organize fund raisers and trips to hospitals, orphanages, etc. for those who need service hours.

[Vincent1416]

I played tennis before but stopped for quite a long time now. I'd like to start playing again. I've taken part in a tournament before. I have a friend who maybe I can play with. Any advice on how I can get tennis to be a new challenge to me? (I played about 7 years and then stopped for about 4)