The IB community

[hanniexx]

This might seem cheesy, but I feel really comfortable being an IBer. Not for, like, the work or anything like that, but because of the community the IB builds. [/advert]

My school has 11 girls doing the IB in my year, and 73 girls doing the A Level (English qualification). The A Level girls have completely shunned us, and that's made the 11 of us so close and tight. Annoyingly, but it's happened. They seem to think of us as a league of our own, which is really quite annoying.

But even on this board, for example, I just feel like there's a good community. Not just because we have something in common, but because we share the strain the IB can often give us. Like the deathly HL maths and physics exams a lot of us have gone through.

Okay. To me, I'm sounding so cheesy. That might be me seeing everyone being like "wooooo 8 more exams, get in" or "kill me now", when all my A Level friends are like "uuuggggh 3 exams. how will i survive." or it may be because the exams have, hey, finally got to me. But does anyone else feel this community? Sort of like:

Person 1: Hi

Person 2: Hi

Person 1: I do the IB.

Person 2: OMGDISGF ME TOO!

*instant connection*

Am I making sense?

[elmar]

That's pretty much how it is at my school, and I would go to assume how it is at any school that does not offer IB as the standard curriculum. IB kids have the same classes and more or less, the same schedule, therefore, the same teachers, the same stress, the same assignments, the same tests. The repeated exposure automatically forces the IB kids to like each other because they really have no one else to relate to.

Some people outside of IB don't really understand that IB is not just a "smart kids only club" and get the impression that the IQ scores of IB students are ten times greater then theirs when it really couldn't make much of a difference what program they take, whether IB or the school's standard curriculum.

It's just the way it works. I somewhat enjoy it. But on the other hand, most conversations centralize around school and schoolwork. After awhile, it gets really predictable.

[hanniexx]

Yeah definitely. That's exactly my school.

I sort of feel sorry for schools that don't have that.

Most of my friends from before the IB are going it with me, so we do have a lot of things to talk about, luckily. But I can totally see how it can get a little boring sometimes.

I think my group have been fortunate for having quite a lot of similar people, so we do talk about a lot of other stuff. I know a few years back at my school, there was a small group but they were quite different people, so they didn't get on as well.

I also find that a lot of teachers don't really see the actual different between IB and other qualifications.

[Sandwich]

There were 25 of us versus about 100 A Levellers. We weren't really very tight, some people never really talked to each other much and lots of people disliked each other.. sooo although I had IB friends I also had A Level friends, mostly from BIB (before IB ). Despite the many differences between us all, there were certainly some basic similarities which gave us a group feeling. Rather like how the soldiers in the WW1 trenches were (slightly melodramatic but whatever ), people from different backgrounds and interests who didn't necessarily get on going through the same annoyances, trials, tribulations and misery. Mostly based around the fact our school messed the IB up! Also we had some really, really weird teachers and apart from those who'd had their sense of humour surgically removed (quite a lot of people, actually), you couldn't help but crack up

Camaraderie was basic, but it was there. I expect if we'd all got on well, as you say it would've been pretty cool.

The major division between us the A Level people was A) they could socialise and hang out with each other whereas we were always in lessons through lunch etc. so our free time was smaller and didn't match up with theirs and B) they got very fed up of listening to us all moaning. I don't blame them!

[hanniexx]

The major division between us the A Level people was A) they could socialise and hang out with each other whereas we were always in lessons through lunch etc. so our free time was smaller and didn't match up with theirs and B) they got very fed up of listening to us all moaning. I don't blame them!

Totally the same. The library to them is a second common room, whilst to us it's either a lesson or very precious homework time.

Our A Level friends have given up and just tried to find us in our form room or classroom at lunch and drag us away from working.

I was thinking of that WW1 example too epic, but totally gives off the right sense of IB community I think! Haha.

How did your school muck up the IB?

Edited May 11, 2010 by hanniexx

[__inthemaking]

Definitely understand what you're saying. I'm in uni now and whenever I find out that classmates were IB graduates too, we all bond over what subjects we took, what subject we wrote our EE in etc haha. This past semester I did a semester long group project and halfway through the semester, we finally realized that 5/6 of us were in IB lol.

[sweetnsimple786]

Aww I'm sorry Sandwich!

I love my IB family! haha

I've gotten super, super close to about 6 of them, but I feel like I can count on the other 13 as well. It's 20 of us IB2s and ~550 nonIB 12th graders. One of my best friends I knew before I started IB, but the rest of them were through IB. Some of them I really only started bonding with this semester.

Yeah, we definitely talk about school because it's so important to us [which is why we're still in IB, I guess.], but it seems like we can be really crazy around each other. Around them I'm not reserved. We have the best times. A couple of people started a quote book at the beginning of the year, and when I read over it, I realize that we say really awkward things on purpose. I absolutely love my class, and it's so sad that we're parting soon.

We say that our clubs and other organizations have kept us sane because that's when we hang out with other people, but I'm just a lot closer to a few people in IB because we learned to speak our minds and respect each other first and then joke around and really get to know each other. English and TOK definitely helped. In fact, we bond over complaining, but we have some really good teachers who allow for a lax and friendly atmosphere.

[~vola]

Definitely understand what you're saying. I'm in uni now and whenever I find out that classmates were IB graduates too, we all bond over what subjects we took, what subject we wrote our EE in etc haha. This past semester I did a semester long group project and halfway through the semester, we finally realized that 5/6 of us were in IB lol.

That's the best part about being a post-IB college student, finding other people who also went through IB. The connection that you feel with people--even if you met them a minute ago--when you find out they did IB is amazing.

I do believe that a big latent benefit of IB is the sense of camaraderie, both within the group while you're all going through the program, and after graduation, when you find other people who did it too.