Passing the English IB exam

[heartworthy]

It's senior year, second semester, and I'm counting down the days until graduation. However, the class I'm stressing over is English. For the colleges I've applied to, I have to get 6 or 7 on the HL English IB exam to earn any credits. Truthfully, I'm just wondering how much I can slack off to still earn that but I am a little stressed because both of my World Lit papers were written the night before and are not high quality.

If anyone has taken the test already, could you explain what scores you got and the effort you put in the class to get them? Or if you know anything about Paper 1 and would like to explain because I have no idea and it's worth 50%!!

thanks in advance

[Abu]

Your post is rather funny. You need a 6, your world lits are not of high quality and you are wondering about how much you should slack off? The answer lies in your question.

FYI, English A1 HL is one of the hardest subjects to get a 7 in. If you don't get your act together now, and it's less than 3 months for the exam, prepare to be very surprised. Unless you have a natural ability to do well that is.

Paper 1 is a commentary on an unseen text.

[deissi]

To supplement to what Aboo said about Paper 1: it is only 25% of your grade, not 50%.

[__inthemaking]

I took the May 2008 exam for English A1 HL and ended up with a 5 even though my teacher thought my IAs were 6's .

I honestly don't know what I did wrong on the exam, I was actually feeling pretty good about it and thought I would end up with my predicted mark (a 6) but I didn't. Everyone in my class did pretty average though, nobody got a 7 and only 2 out of the 5 people that were predicted 6's before actually got the 6 (the other 3 of us got 5's). So my only advice would be to allocate your time wisely on the exam, jot down an outline first before starting your essays and know the works really really well.

[sweetnsimple786]

Paper 1 is a commentary on an unseen text.

Clarification: "unseen text" as in one that the teacher has assigned in either

English 11 or 12?

[Abu]

Clarification: "unseen text" as in one that the teacher has assigned in either

English 11 or 12?

What are you on about? English 11 or 12? Get out of your American terminology, English A1 comes in 2 flavours, SL or HL. Not 11 or 12. Furthermore your teacher has no say in the final exam.

[fez]

What are you on about? English 11 or 12? Get out of your American terminology, English A1 comes in 2 flavours, SL or HL. Not 11 or 12. Furthermore your teacher has no say in the final exam.

Wow, could you have been any more mean? English 11 or 12 probably means English A1 in his junior (11th grade) and senior (12th grade) years.

To answer the original guy's question...

The "unseen text" will be selected from something you have likely never seen before. You will be given both a piece of prose and poetry, and you choose one to write a commentary on. The passage is the same internationally, but I believe it varies on SL and HL. On the Sl test, you have less time to write, but you're given guiding questions.

[Stereoisomer]

From my perspective, Aboo wasn't been "mean". Most of us are not from America.. This is actually a GLOBAL IB site, by saying English 11 instead of IB1 English etc etc may pose confusion.

ANYWAY,

@heartworthy:

OK first things first, English is not a subject that you would expect to earn an easy 7. It is especially challenging at Higher Level. To give you some idea, only 7 people managed to obtain a score of 7 in our class of 08'. So pease don't just "slack off". If you want that 7, then be prepared to bury your head in mountains of textbooks and study until you drop. (OK sorry, I am just over-exaggerating).

Good luck:) I really hope you can get those college credits

Edited May 3, 2009 by MistyRose

[Ruan Chun Xian]

When in Rome, do as the Romans do, people. You're doing IB. Talk in IB language or no one will understand you. I get very frustrated when people come on here and ask stuff like, I take IB French 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, whatever blah blah...or IB Pre-Calc. There is no such thing! There is [subject] HL and SL. That's it.

[/off topic rant]

[sweetnsimple786]

Thanks Fez. That's exactly what I meant

And Aboo, if I had known what to call the first year of Language A1, I would have surely used the term. That's pretty intuitive, you say. Yeah, I know. What can I say? I can be a bit dense sometimes, and growing up in one of the more backward provinces of the US doesn't do much to help. So please don't mistake my ignorance for arrogance.

Edited April 27, 2009 by sweetnsimple786

[Abu]

And Aboo, if I had known Language A1 refers to the first year of Language A, I would have surely used it. That's pretty intuitive, you say. Yeah, I know. What can I say? I can be a bit dense sometimes, and growing up in one of the more backward provinces of the US doesn't do much to help. So please don't mistake my ignorance for arrogance. If you have anything more to say about me, bring it on

Language A1 is the course/subject that you study as your mother tongue through out the 2 years of IB. What set me off was, neither was your sentence grammatically comprehensible nor was your terminology correct. And I'm not saying you're arrogant either, you're on an international forum, get your facts straight.

'bring it on'? I'm not looking to get into a fight here. If you are, I suggest you take your feisty nature somewhere else.

Thanks Misty.

[Zasxee]

I have also heard that the English A1 Exam is the hardest to acheive a 7 in.

My friend who graduated last year actually obtained a 7 in English A1 HL (the only one that year). But he had an almost perfect score on his World Lit. papers.

If you want a 6 or a 7, you have to get 7's on both Paper One and Paper Two (or perhaps a 6, it depends on your other grades as well) so no slacking off (especially since Paper One is only a few days away....)

Random/Off topic: I do agree with Aboo and others; Global site = international terms (real IB terms/names).