IB: It's Banter

You choose 6 subjects, at least 3 Higher Levels, plus Extended Essay and TOK. Oh, and exams, of course.

Uni: 1 major, exams, a thesis. Maybe some essays (like research thingy or experiment, I don't know, I'm not in uni yet remember).

I don't know much about university life, but that's what I think of university. Hopefully it's accurate. Let's just say it is, okay.

Judging from the things that you need to do, the IBDP seems a wee-bit more of a pain in the head. Okay, maybe not a wee-bit, a LOT more of a pain in the head compared to uni. I mean, you don't have TOK in uni and that itself  makes uni 100 times better already. Also, in uni, you can have afternoon lectures instead of the early ones. In IB? Well, we don't really have much choice, do we. Our school sets the class time. If your school starts late, then you're lucky. If not, well, I know your pain. I mean, now my classes start at 7.25am. Back when I was in a public middle school, classes start at 6.30am. Yeah. 6 flipping 30. I remember when was a few months away from my national exams, I have to come at 6am for extra lessons. Yeah, the school is kind enough to give extra lessons but the idea to give it BEFORE class time is just....diabolical. To put the icing on the cake, the teachers rarely came for the extra lessons! They came 10 minutes before the whole thing ended. How effective.

However, despite the "effective" way of learning back in public school, we used to have shortcuts. My national curriculum only requires students to answer 50 multiple choice questions from 4 subjects (English, Indonesian, yes I'm from Indonesia, Math and Science). Students who have cash and was not the best kind of students, they buy answers. However, this is not good. This is bad. It is cheating. Therefore, you should never do it. Being a good boy I was, of course I didn't do that. Besides, I didn't have much money. The shortcut that I took was by studying everything overnight and hope for the best. Yes, I wasn't (and isn't) exactly the most diligent student.You have 25% chance of getting the correct answer in each question and for me, 25% is good enough. Surely, I passed middle school without breaking a sweat.

In the IB, it doesn't work like that. My English teacher once said, "I used to have shortcuts in University, there must be some sort of shortcut in the IB too". I want to tell you what he did, but I don't want to get myself in trouble, so let's just not.

Well, sir, that is incorrect.

Actually, there are some shortcuts. It's not exactly shortcuts, really, more like alternatives (for those who are not yet in the IB and still choosing which path to pick).

First, don't take the IB. Simple. After you passed your GCSE, IGCSE, O-Levels or whatever it is, go to college or uni-prep classes. Or, instead of IB, take the A-Levels. They said it's hard, but still, you don't have EE or TOK and you only have 3 subjects. Awesome.

Second, if you insist on taking the IB, take the IB Course. You won't be awarded with a diploma, but you'll still get an IB Certificate. No EE, no TOK, not as hard as the Diploma Programme. The IAs are still waiting, though.

Third, this is the actual shortcut. Have an older family member who took the IB and survived, ask him or her all about it, take the same subjects and just get as much help as you can. Ask for notes, everything. Annoy them, make them cry. Not for real, of course, it's a metaphor. So yeah. I know this is not quite a shortcut either, but that's the best I can think of. Other than that, time management, which I've talked about in my previous post. It really makes your IB life easier, seriously.