Coping with TOK and CAS

[Pwhdavey]

Hi

A general introduction: I am a 2008 candidate in New Zealand. I chose the IB over the national qualifications certificate because I preferred a change to this standard system. I am also interested in travelling across the world, but then where to I do not know. I am very undecided about my future job prospects.

To the point. Though I am academically set for the most parts of IB (i.e. over the holidays I will be reading many of the novels prescribed for A1 English as well as studying for HL Biology and HL History to give me a head start hopefully). Physically however I am useless. I don't play a sport, and most people taking IB in my form are on the Duke of Edinburgh (also contributes to Service) program (as well as doing numerous sports) which will do wonders for CAS. Not that I am unfit etc but I have no sporting strengths and I do not do the program mentioned above.

As for TOK, I am quite socially unable to be able to participate in such heated discussions so intensely. Though I may be able to do the 10 minute speech, I'm not sure about this discussion aspect. In general, I would like to ask for advice, experiences (i.e. getting over this problem of lacking social skills). As for CAS, some suggestions/advice? With these factors from CAS and TOK, along with my current Maths state (I am beyond bad), I am poised to reconsider IB.

Not sure if this is wrong place to put such a self-centered topic. I.e. this topic may be locked/deleted for such a reason. Sorry if this seems so "Oh Me Me Me!".

Paul

[deissi]

Well, for action you could do jogging, biking or other "light exercise", you don't have to run fast - as long as you go outside and do it, it should be OK.

I don't have any good tips on service, but I'm sure someone will have great advice

[Guest Crammarc]

Hi Paul, just like you, I had problems with what I would do to complete my CAS hours. Now that I am finishing up IB this year (I am IB Year 2 in Canada), I pretty much done my CAS hours and I have some advice to give you As for TOK well I can help too.

As a non athletic person, I also really had a problem with trying to fulfull the Action section of CAS. While trying to figure out what I wanted to do, I tried to think of ways that I could almost combine both Action and Service together. I came up with heading over to the local rec center. In Canada its the YMCA. I applied for a volunteering position to supervise Badminton. Badminton is not a very demanding sport and can be alot of fun. During supervision I was allowed to play which I could obviously use for Action hours. So if I spent 5 hours at the YMCA that day, I could allocate 2 and a half hours to service (im volunteering outside of my school) and 2 and a half hours of Actioin (im playing sports). While at the YMCA I also got a volunteering position to do crafts with 6 to 11 year olds. Its alot of fun and you get ample amount of service hours. As for creative, join some clubs at your school, whether it be a Yearbook club to a political discussion group. Your school probably has several extra curricular activities that don't involve sports.

Yesterday I handed in my TOK essay hahaha. I DONE! As I am finished with it, I have a couple pointers. Yes you are right, TOK has alot to do with class participation. YOu don't need to constantly jump into arguments about philosophical ideals, but aslong as you point out the opinion you have on each topic your class discusses, you should get a great mark. Plus, discussing you're own opinion really helps you with understanding certain subjects in TOK, such as Plato's Allegory of the Cave. As for your presentation, it depends on your TOK teacher. My TOK teacher allowed me to present on anything I wanted, aslong as I covered all four ways of knowing (language, emotion, perception, reason). I decided to do Artificial Intelligence. What you need to do is pick a subject that interests you!! Presenting on something you dislike makes it so much more difficult. I got 18/20 on my TOK presentation which is a 7. Do something you enjoy!

[Ruan Chun Xian]

Not sure if this is wrong place to put such a self-centered topic. I.e. this topic may be locked/deleted for such a reason. Sorry if this seems so "Oh Me Me Me!".

We're here for this kind of problem.

For ideas of CAS activities, there is this thread.

What could be counted as CAS could depend on your school and coordinator but apparently some schools accept just going to the gym or walking or biking as Action.

For Service hours, are you involved in any activities in school - any school clubs or societies or anything like that? The key for CAS, I think, is to know what your hobbies and interests are and then find out what you can do with those hobbies that could give you CAS hours. Like someone said in the first thread I linked you, they got creativity hours for writing fanfiction which is posted on the internet. I never thought of that while in IB...it would had given me millions of hours.

Surely there are some kind of fundraising/charity activity at your school you can get involved with? Or community service stuff? You could do small activities and they all add up in the end. Actually the summer might be a good time for you to get some hours in. I got some service hours for my in-between summer typing up this book my grandfather was getting published. I had a friend who tutored her cousin over the summer and got something like 90 hours for it.

Ultimately the goal of CAS is to get you involved with things. If you're not a part of an activity that could potentially give you hours, join it. Really, there's no 1, 2, 3 of how to get CAS hours as everyone's situation and opportunities are different. Just look out for things that could interest you and could get your hours and join them when you get the chance. Doing things with friends make them a lot more fun as well.

I was lucky enough that all my service activities were organised by my school so I guess I'm not the best person to ask on how to actually go looking for CAS opportunity...

As for TOK, the discussions can be interesting but some people just get through the subject with the essay and presentation and fall asleep in class. I'm not saying that you should do that, but it's not fatal if you don't involved too much in TOK discussions. Your assessment is based on your essay and presentation alone anyhow (unless they've changed the syllabus to something I don't know about).

I'm going to drive you mad by saying this but the only way you could really improve on this is just to practice and dive into the discussions. Believe me when I say I know where you're coming from. I was painfully shy, beyond belief, until I was about...I don't know, 14 when I started to slowly grow out of it. I just now make myself be more forward and talk more.

As for maths, what level maths are you doing?

On a side note:

i.e. over the holidays I will be reading many of the novels prescribed for A1 English as well as studying for HL Biology and HL History to give me a head start hopefully

Impressive.

[Pwhdavey]

Thanks for the replies and friendliness. Currently I am set down for SL Maths for the diploma of course. Unfortunately our school has a limited quota of students, so Math Studies is not being offered next year. After a long discussion with the IB coordinator at school today and several HOD's, I am more confident on the IB. I asked what I could do for service, and aside from the usual activities such as charity and voluntary work, groups like student council are accepted. As for CAS, thanks for the advice. Photography also counts as part of creativity. I am thinking about doing orienteering as a team sport for action, and jogging/running as a casual routine.

TOK, well I guess I'll get through the whole debating aspect. Not very confident about the 10 minute speech mind you. As for the essay, what generalised topics are commonly prescribed as part of TOK, i.e. around the whole 'Theory of Knowledge' aspect?

As for Maths, looks like most of my summer down here will be spent on catching up in preparation for at least two of the start topics from March 2008 in SL. Right now I have to focus on getting a reasonably high mark for an Algebra exam on Tuesday; solving, expanding, simplifying, factorising, etc. And yes, hopefully I'll fit in other subjects to get ahead in.

[Ruan Chun Xian]

TOK, well I guess I'll get through the whole debating aspect. Not very confident about the 10 minute speech mind you. As for the essay, what generalised topics are commonly prescribed as part of TOK, i.e. around the whole 'Theory of Knowledge' aspect?

The TOK presentation is fun! Don't stress about it. Don't think of it as a "speech", as it's not really you standing there preaching to people. You can make it fun by incorporating the audience and such.

As for the essay, you can look in this thread for examples of past titles. If you're November 08 as I think you are, then you'd have different titles. I think Nov08 titles come out pretty soon after January. Don't worry about that either. There'd be plenty of discussion about those here as well so you can see what everyone's doing.

[Pwhdavey]

Oh, so topics are the same throughout IBO schools? That is convenient - and certainly helpful! The topics seem very deep, and I guess this "Knowledge" concept is taught through TOK.