Dropping out of IB?

[ibprocrastination]

So lately I've been contemplating dropping a lot. At my school, if you decide to drop the full diploma you can still do IB courses and you'd have to do the three core subjects anyways, but it won't be as stressful and demanding as the full diploma. I'm already in my last semester of the IB, where we're supposed to be done with almost every IA, EE, etc. The thing is, I haven't written a complete EE-- our deadline was last week and I only got told a month ago (while i was doing college apps) that I had to change my EE subject from World Studies to English. To add to that, we submitted our final Math IA's in December but my math teacher has requested me to write a completely new IA with a unique topic in just under three days :).

Honestly I wouldn't have contemplated dropping because I was predicted a 38, and I don't take extremely hard subjects. I have a 6 in english hl, 7 in arabic hl, 6 in psychology hl, 7 in spanish ab initio, 7 in biology but a 5 in math AA sl. But this year with COVID and almost half of my IB experience being put online (I'm M21), I've just lost motivation and my mental health has gone downhill. Also, Math AA is the subject that causes me the most stress because my teacher always expects the worst of me and everyone else in the class gets level 7's, so she hates my guts. I honestly don't see myself taking the IB Math exam because I practically haven't studied it in almost a year, and I have to bs an IA by the end of the week. Literally everyone around me tells me to drop because of how stressful the past few months have been for me (I caught COVID during mid year exam season) but I just can't bring myself to do it because I've already made it this far. Even though continuing would probably ruin my mental health I'm stuck and don't know what to do...

[Indiaca]

This is probably not what you want to hear but I really suggest sticking it out. Have you talked to your counsellors/parents about this? Also as a fellow Brit, I know that a lot of universities in the UK pretty much require the diploma (well, I think). BUT know that this is 100% your decision.

Mental health wise I totally get what you're going through. I personally suffer from anxiety and stressing myself out so much. What you've accomplished in the last two years with the entire pandemic situation making it that much harder, is absolutely amazing and you should be extremely proud of yourself! I really recommend taking a step back and just looking at what you've already accomplished. By recognising that you are so incredibly strong to get through all of that, you will find the strength to finish.

With the maths: don't panic. You're grade is perfectly good (whether your teacher thinks that or not) and you will be fine for the exams. Just study for it and go over each topic (especially the ones you don't understand). Make sure you ask the teacher for help! That's what she is there for. And that fact that you have a 5 in maths means you decently understand what is going on, the studying will just be reminding you of what you already know.

And I'm sorry but I have no idea how to handle the EE situation.

 

I wish you the best of luck in whichever path you decide to take.

India