Ranjika B.

How to Start Working on your IAs and EE?

Written By : Ranjika B.

For most, the Internal Assessments and Extended Essay are their first exposure to the nuances of academic writing. The IAs and EE are feared by many students, leading them to procrastinate on them and complete them at the very last second. 

 Newsflash - that is NOT A GOOD IDEA! 

 You should start thinking about your IAs and EE as early as possible, typically when you have covered some material in your subjects already. Yes, the first step in the process is STARTING EARLY. Now, that doesn’t mean you need to have a whole draft ready in your first semester. You need to plan and strategize. 

 Identify requirements and learning outcomes 

First, understand what the assignment requires from you. This varies from subject to subject, but most IAs and EE are intended to sharpen the following skills → 

• Knowledge and understanding 
• Application and Analysis 
• Synthesis and Evaluation 
• Critical Thinking and Research 

Understanding the requirements and expectations for the assessments is very important, as it helps you identify what is expected of you. Familiarize yourself with the marking criterion and learning outcomes early on. 

 Introspect to identify a topic 

Next, ask yourself the following questions - 

1. What is my personal connection to the subject/what is my favourite topic under this subject? 

1. What kind of research can I conduct within this subject? (Keep in mind access to labs, subjects you may interview etc.) 

1. What are the possible areas that I can explore? 

The answers to these questions will give you some sense of direction and form a starting step to the writing process. 

 Effective planning and scheduling 

The process of writing an IA or an EE can seem extremely intimidating, but it can be made easier by planning effectively and creating a schedule. Break down the task to the sum of its parts - for example, drafting the research question, data collection, preliminary research, creating an outline, writing the introduction, exploration, analysis, discussion, conclusion etc. Give yourself fixed deadlines for the same, making sure to take into account the deadlines set by your schoolteachers as well. As stated by Parkinson’s Law, "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” By giving yourself fixed deadlines and short amounts of time to complete each small task, you will accomplish a lot more and get ahead on the writing process. 

 Start reading and researching 

Start general reading and research, to get some idea on the subject. Remember to be flexible, the first topic you think of won’t be what you end up writing your paper on at the end. Start by reading some EE and IA exemplars along with their marking criterion. Typically your teachers will share these with you. This is an important step to familiarize yourself with the requirements of the IA and EE. Now, start reading articles, books, research papers, etc. that give you a general idea of the topic. 

 TIP - Keep track of the articles you read in a separate document. This will help you with your citations and bibliography later in the process. 

 Speak to your teachers and coordinators 

Schedule meetings with your teachers and coordinators. Discuss your plan and give a general overview of your ideas to them. They should guide you and help you understand if you are going in the right direction with your work. Once again, remember to remain flexible with your topic and change things in your plan if that is what you are guided to do. 

 To sum up, starting early and effective planning is the key to acing those internal assessments and extended essays. Remember to communicate your progress to your supervisors regularly and keep track of all the sources you reference right from the beginning. Don’t worry, nothing is as overwhelming as it appears! 

The 5-Step guide to writing perfect Essays in the IB DP

Written By : Ranjika B.

For most IB students, the IAs and Extended Essay are their first exposure to academic writing. Some of the things that many struggle with are the high word counts, citing and referencing, specific styles, formats and structure; and of course, the research process. In this blog post, I will go over the steps to writing a perfect paper. 

 Choose a focused and specific topic 

“The hardest part of any important task is getting started on it in the first place.” – Brian Tracy 

 The first step to writing a paper is to know what you are writing about. Unfortunately, the perfect topic will not pop into your head in your dreams while you sleep at night. To get an idea of what to write about, do some background reading (news articles, blog posts, academic papers, research reports, etc.) on the subject. Find out what interests you and what doesn’t. For example, you might find out that you are more interested in organic chemistry than any of the other sub-fields of chemistry.  

 Once you have an idea of the general area of research that interests you, narrow down on a focused and specific piece of research within that topic. Remind yourself of the scope of the assignment, frequently referencing the mark scheme and subject guides to inform yourself of the same. Narrow down the scope of your topic and frame it in terms of research question where required. Remember to be flexible, the topic can always change as you learn more information. This can happen due to many reasons – you learn new information that changes your original opinion, lack of reliable sources to refer to in your chosen topic or changes and developments in the subject that outlaw your original topic. 

 Begin the research process 

Once you have some idea of your topic, start researching specific information on that subject. Make sure you understand what research method you need to follow. Some assignments, like the Global Politics Engagement Activity or the Group 4 Lab Experiments require you to conduct primary research. You may want to start framing interview questions, securing the materials and lab equipment for your experiment or seek out subjects for your study. For secondary research based IAs and EES, start collecting all possible sources, keeping track of them in a separate document or as web bookmarks to reference later on in the writing process. 

 The hardest part of the research process is knowing when to stop researching and when to start writing. Out of sheer curiosity or cluelessness, you may want to keep researching and delay the writing process. There won’t be a voice in your head telling you to start writing, but you do have strict deadlines to meet. It is useful to remind yourself that you can continue researching even while writing. It is time to stop researching when –  

•  You have a brief overview of the topic 
• You have read sources from multiple perspectives 
• You have collected, compiled and are ready to draw inferences (in the case of primary data) 

 Write a rough draft 

At this point, you will have a brief idea of the main argument that you want to make. You should start writing your paper. Each student has a different writing process, so do not be stressed if you discuss with your classmates and they already have a draft ready. You may want to start by creating a mind map or an outline to map the flow of the paper before you start writing. Get out a piece of paper, or open up your computer and start jotting down your ideas. Mind mapping is a good exercise to start with, as it shows you which parts of your though process flow well together and which ideas do not fit. However, some students prefer to start writing and edit the paper over multiple rounds. No matter which technique is suited to you, you should start writing a rough draft of your paper.  

 The introduction should have the main research question of the paper and give a rough overview of why this is a relevant topic to research, why it needs to be discussed and how you plan to answer the research question. Remember to re-write the introduction at the end of the writing process so as to better reflect what your paper is about. In the body paragraphs, provide different arguments and counterarguments. For Group 1,2 or 3 essays, you may want to use the PEEL Structure. 

 Point -> the claim that you are trying to make 

Evidence -> the evidence to support the claim 

Explanation -> explain how the evidence helps prove your claim 

Link -> link back to the main research question to maintain the flow of writing 

 For Group 4 or 5 essays, you will typically be using charts, graphs, experimental proofs and so on that you will be analysing and discussing. Make sure to include tables of your raw data in your paper. Process the data into graphs or equations as required. While writing your paper, make sure to explain why you have collected this data, what trends or links the graphs depict and make inferences which link back to your main research question. For example, a student doing a Mathematics Investigation may want look at the correlation between height and running speed. This data can be used to generate a scatter plot. When writing the discussion, the student should refer to the value of the correlation coefficient as well as the scatter plot to explain what trend is being observed, and what that means. 

 Finally, the conclusion should re-state the main argument, briefly sum up all the arguments and inferences presented so far and an evaluation of the strengths, limitations and further scope of the investigation. You may use the conclusions of each body paragraph and rephrase them to form your conclusion. Remember that the first draft will never be perfect, and at this stage your goal isn’t perfection, but it is to have a draft of your ideas which you can structure, polish and format later.  

 Edit, Edit, EDIT 

The hard part is now behind you. Read your draft, out loud if possible to check the flow. Make sure everything is concise and simply explained in very clear terms. Ensure that the arguments flow well together and are relevant to the main topic and research question. Complete multiple rounds of edits until you are happy with where everything has ended up. Do not be afraid to move around chunks of information to different paragraphs, where they fit better or eliminate unnecessary information. Finally, check for spelling and grammatical errors.  

 Citing and referencing 

The final step to writing a perfect research paper is to include citations wherever you have quoted, paraphrased or borrowed an idea from someone else, Use the same citation style throughout the paper and create an alphabetised list of references or a bibliography at the end of your paper. If you have diagrams, charts or tables, ensure that they are adequately labelled, numbered and linked to the relevant appendices (if applicable). 

 And you’re done! So get yourself a warm cup of tea or coffee, sit at your workspace and get to work on your essay! 

How to start researching universities for DPY1 students

Written By : Ranjika B.

The dreaded question that plagues the minds of DPY1 students: “Which university do you plan to go to?” If you have absolutely no idea on how to start researching universities, you’ve come to the right place. In this blog post, I will outline the factors to consider when researching universities and various tools you can use to create a list of universities you wish to apply to. 

Prioritize and make choices: Main factors to consider 

The first step to researching universities is narrowing down on the choice of major. For some, this is a very easy step as they have a clear idea of what they want to study from an early stage. For others, this is extremely perplexing. Remember that you do not need to have a fixed plan for your college major right from the beginning. Try to identify the subjects that interest you and look up possible majors in that field. In the beginning, you may have many options that interest you. Narrow down the choice by considering the following factors → 

1. Location: Do you wish to study abroad or study close to home? Depending on the location, you can narrow down your search. If you wish to study abroad, identify which countries have universities with good programmes that interest you.

2. Public or private university: Depending on your interests and finances, you may choose either a private or public university. Typically, public universities are free for the residents of that country, or have minimal tuition fees.
    
3. Financial aid or scholarship: Recognize whether or not you require financial aid and scholarships, and look for the programme that interests you which offers such opportunities. Note that many scholarship opportunities are dependent on your nationality. There are merit-based and need-based scholarship opportunities, some that combine both these aspects.

4. Career prospects and network: Find out the placements of graduates from your college major and the career prospects for you after you graduate. It is also important for you to have the opportunity to network with your peers and professors.
    
5. Admission requirements: Identify the requirements, for example, your academic grades, extracurriculars and volunteering experiences, that you need to get accepted into the programme and whether you would be able to meet these requirements or not. 

Additional factors to consider 

1. Housing: Does the location offer student dorms or would you need to rent an apartment? Typically, universities in the US and Canada have student accommodation in the form of dorm rooms, whereas in Europe students live in shared rented apartment. Identify which is a better fit for you.

2. Transportation: Does the location have a good public transportation network? Residential university campuses are usually equipped with all sorts of facilities, which makes the transportation costs minimal. However, for other universities, consider how well connected the transportation network is.

3. Extracurriculars: Does the university offer the extracurriculars that you’re interested in? Find out if they have a music, sport, dance, film etc. club for your extracurricular interests.

4. Safety: Is the location safe and student friendly?
   
   
5. Acceptance rate: Depending on your grades and experiences, would you get accepted into the university based on their acceptance rate?

6. Demographics of the student population: Is the university international and inclusive of students from various ethnic or religious backgrounds, or LGBTQIA+ student.

7. Social life: Are there activities and opportunities for things you can do when you are not studying? 

Create a list of schools  

Taking into account all these factors, create a list separated into three columns: 

1. Reach schools: Schools that have a lower acceptance rate and that are harder to get into, with a good programme of interest you.

2. Likely schools: Schools that you could get into if you continue working hard in school and consistently score your current/higher grades.

3. Safety schools: Schools that you could easily get into based on your capabilities and interests. 

Remember, this list can be long now, but narrow it down by the end of the academic year. It is also important to be realistic in setting your goals. Make sure to apply to at least one safety school so that you have something to fall back on in the event that you do not get into your desired university. It is always important to have a back up option. In order to identify your likely schools, check their admission requirements and see if you already have the required skills or if you can easily achieve them by putting in a little more effort 

Tools to Find Universities 

Now, you might be reading all these factors and worrying about where you can find this information. Luckily, there are many tools you can use to find the universities that you may apply to. 

1. QS World Rankings: QS rankings is one of best tools for researching universities. It allows you to see where different universities rank globally. You can also see subject specific rankings, which can be very useful for you to identify programmes that are suited for your major. Moreover, it provides detailed information about the university, such as the tuition fees, number of international students and career outputs. It is also extremely global, meaning you can find information about universities in all parts of the world.
    
2. Cappex: Cappex is a website that allows you to personalize your university search. It is an extremely useful tool that allows you to compare different universities, and even filter for the different factors. It allows you to fill in your personal profile, find colleges that would fit you and your interests and even find useful scholarships. It has a limited catalogue of universities outside of the United States.
    
3. College Navigator: College Navigator is a similar tool to Cappex, but it is specific to the United States, one of the most popular student destinations.
    
4. College Fairs: Many of the times your school or government will organize college fairs where you can speak with representatives of various universities and find out the answers to all your questions. It can be useful to research the universities that will be in the college fair before attending the event, so that you can narrow down the representatives you want to speak to and make a list of questions that you have. They are also a good starting point, in case you do not have a clear idea as to where you wish to study, because they can give you some clarity about what you want from university.
    
5. Family and friends: Of course, the best people to help you with your search for universities are those closest to you. Ask your friends where they plan to study, or your seniors and older friends why they chose their university. 

Start Gathering Relevant Experience 

Now that you have some idea of which universities you would want to apply to, identify what these universities look for in their students by visiting their websites, speaking to current students and speaking to your school college counsellor. One useful tip for IB students is to use your CAS experiences in meeting those requirements. Some universities have a strong focus on extracurriculars and volunteering, and the CAS reflections you write for similar experiences will be very useful for you to write your application essays in the future. 

Make sure that your IBDP subjects are in line with the admission requirements, for example, some university programmes require Mathematics HL or English HL, and also require a minimum grade in these subjects. If you feel that you require extra help in those subjects, consider getting a tutor to help you meet those admission requirements. 

Finally, make friends with your teachers! It is difficult to understate the weight carried by the letters of recommendation in your university acceptance decision. If you are on your teacher’s good books, you are more likely to receive a positive letter of recommendation that will aid you in your application. 

Good luck on your university search! 

The Ultimate Guide to Finalizing IAS

Written By: Ranjika B.

If you’re reading this blog post, you probably have your IAs due very soon. If you’ve made it so far and have a complete draft, CONGRATULATIONS! The hard part is behind you. With just a few flourishes and edits, you can finalize your IA for submission. In this blog post, I will guide you through proofreading, editing and structuring your IAs. I will provide you with an editing and proofreading checklist, so that you can rest assured that your IA is completely error free and can score a 7. 

As Stephen King once said, “To write is human, to edit is divine.” The goal when you are writing your IA first drafts is to put down as many words as possible. Give yourself a pat on the back, because you have come so far in the process! With one complete draft in your hands, you can now move on to proofreading, editing and structuring your IAs. The exercise of simply polishing your IAs can take it from a low score to a 7. 

Proofreading 

Proofreading refers to critically reading your paper and identifying all sorts of errors and rectifying them. Do not try to proofread immediately after finishing your paper because your eyes will gloss over the mistakes and not be able to recognize them. Come back to your essay after a good night’s sleep, a cup of tea or coffee and a fresh pair of eyes. Read your paper, out loud or to another person if possible. The act of presenting your work to someone else will make you more critical of your writing. Try to view your work from multiple perspectives, and at every point and transition in your writing ask yourself “Does this argument provide a satisfactory answer to my research question?” 

Proofreading checklist: 

1. Is the relevance and personal engagement with the RQ clear?
   
   • Relevance: Have you clearly established why your RQ is important to research in the subject? 
   • Personal Engagement: Have you provided evidence of strong personal interest in the subject matter? 
2. Is the focus narrow and specific to the scope of the assignment?
    
3. Does the research and arguments stay specific to the scope of the assignment?
   
4. Is the writing focused and particular to the research question?
   
5. Have alternate perspectives, theories and counterarguments been presented
6. Are all the concepts, theories, terms and ideas clear and simple to understand?
7. Is the voice, tense and style appropriate and consistent?
8. Have you used credible sources, and included a citation whenever required
9. Does the writing fulfill the marking criteria for the assessment?
10. Have you stuck to the word limit, font, page number and spacing requirements
11. Have you numbered, labelled and organized any tables, charts, images, graphs and appendices?
12. Do the different sections of your paper flow in a natural and appropriate manner?
     

Asking yourself these questions are imperative to the proofreading process. Strive to answer a “yes” to all these questions. If by any chance you answered “no” to one of these questions, edit your paper until you have a yes. 

Editing your IA 

The proofreading steps should have allowed you to identify all errors and correct them accordingly. If you were missing the relevance or personal engagement, add sentences to cover those bases. If you identified any major content related errors, these are some examples of what you could do to fix them. 

• Find real life implications of the concepts you cover to add relevance to your writing. 
• For personal engagement, you may share any personal experiences that explain why you would be interested in the subject, or show how you have gone above and beyond in your research to answer the research question. 

• If the focus has become to broad, omit any information that is irrelevant to your RQ. For instance, if you are writing a Psychology IA replicating a study about short-term memory, and go in-depth into explaining theories of memory, narrow down your focus to theories of short-term memory as opposed to going in depth about other types of memory that go beyond the scope of your research. 
• If you identify a biased perspective in your writing, include an alternative explanation or a counterargument. 

Structuring and Formatting Checklist 

Once the major errors in argumentation are rectified, you can move on to make structural and formatting changes. Take the following steps to help you format and structure your IAs. 

• Use a spelling and grammar check 
• Complete your sentences and add any missing punctuation marks. 
• Change the voice, tense and style to make it consistent. For example, if you are talking in the past tense, make sure all the sentences are in past tense 
• Any tables, graphs, charts, photographs, equations, calculations, etc. should be labelled, numbered and placed in the correct section of the paper. 
• Follow the structure set down in the marking criteria in the IBDP subject guide. For example: the section titles should be Introduction, Aim and Hypothesis, Exploration, Discussion and Analysis for a Group 4 IA 
• Make sure that you have a complete table of contents, with the correct page numbers for each section. 
• Make sure that the cover page has the title, word/page count and subject 
• The citations should be complete and follow the same style throughout. For example, if you started your citations in the APA format, make sure that all your citations are also in APA. 
• The bibliography should have an organized list of references, in an alphabetical order. 

With these tips and checklists, you should be able to take a rough first draft and turn into a final submission IA! I wish you all the very best with finalizing your IAs. 

How to Easily Prepare for your Final IB Exams: Study Smart, not Hard

Written By: Rashi S

Congratulations, this is the last mile! You will be done with the IB as soon as you pass your final exams. I would like to give you some ideas, advice, and tips for your final DP exams which I am sure will help you to pass them with flying colors.  

 Start Planning Early 

Starting to plan early for your IB Exams is vital because it will largely determine how much time you have for studying and your study strategies. You must have mastered the skill of being organized due to your internal assessments and essays deadlines by now. You should apply this skill to make an exam schedule (highly recommended) as well; it will help you manage your time better and will put different elements into perspective. Make a schedule that will give each subject the right amount of time. Not every subject will require the same preparation (e.g. HL vs SL subjects and subjects you find easy vs. challenging), so know which ones you need to focus on the most. Some students prefer to start preparing for the exams they have first, whereas others prefer to start preparing for the exams they have at the end and finish off with the ones they have at the beginning. In short, formulating and following an exam schedule is recommended, and consider the elements discussed above when making one. Additionally, manage your time effectively in and out of exams. Make sure to have small breaks in between your study blocks in your exams schedule. Your mind cannot focus the whole time and you need to de-stress and clear it every couple of hours, to regain focus and recall information. Set a time limit for your break, a ten-minute break every 90 minutes or 1 hour 30 mins is effective and sufficient. Use the break to do something that will re-energize you without leading you to procrastinate, such as a short walk. You should go back to studying directly after your break without any excuses to putting studying off or thinking of how much is left. I like to use Google Calendar to make my schedule. Overall, be organized and manage your time well to have an effective review period before your exams. 

 Study Techniques 

Use the study techniques that you have found helped you in your previous exams and try the ones that I discuss here to help you retain the information that you are reviewing. First, now is not the time to study every topic as if you are studying it the first time. Trust yourself and that you have learned the topics several times enough, for you to do a quick review covering all topics of the subjects. Focus only on the topics which you find challenging. If you already finished your MOCK exams, use that feedback on them to see which areas you still need to improve and focus on them. Try the SQ3R Method, which is useful in helping you understand and absorb information faster. Moreover, ensure that you are doing spaced repetition. Several studies have consistently illustrated that spacing out learning is more effective than cramming. You can use tools such as flashcards to help you do this and most importantly, starting early is crucial, like the first section emphasizes. Next, dedicate time to solving exam papers. Utilize the question bank and ensure that you solve every paper (tip: focus mostly on the past papers of the last seven years from the current year; the IB syllabus changes every few years and thus, if you try and solve very old past papers, you may come across command terms and content that the IB no longer uses/teaches). Furthermore, solve past papers like your external exam with time constraints and resources you are allowed to take in for it, such as the formula booklet and calculator. Doing past papers makes you more familiar with the format of the questions, consequently making you speedier in solving them as well. This ensures that you have a clear understanding of the demands and implications of the question, along with effective time management skills needed to finish a paper within a limited duration. To summarize, use the study techniques that you have observed have worked successfully for you in the past, do spaced-out learning, and dedicate time to solve exam papers under conditions similar to those of the actual DP exams. 

General Top Tips 

It is necessary to take care of your mental and physical health especially before and during the exams. I recommend keeping the option of getting a tutor always open. When I was doing the DP, particularly in Y2, I often felt anxious due to the university application deadlines, the increase in the difficulty of the content, and so on. Therefore, I got many tutors at distinct periods of my DP journey to help myself with different subjects and for mentorship as well. Looking back at it today, they taught and gave me useful strategies and tips that contributed to the score I achieved. Getting a tutor before or during the exam period can be particularly helpful as he or she can teach and give you game-changing techniques and tips. This will aid you in clearing all your doubts, boost your confidence, and will help you maximize the points you score in your exams. Next, try and relax the night before your exam (e.g. with deep breathing exercises and positive self-talk). Although you may do a quick review or solve some questions, do not overdo the past papers the night before or last-minute. This can affect your self-confidence, leaving you feeling overwhelmed and panicked, which can negatively affect your performance on your exam. Ensure that you get enough sleep (6 – 8 hours) the night before your exam and that you have a good breakfast before you leave for it the next morning. This will help you perform better on your exam as sleeping well daily aids in strengthening memories that you have formed. Moreover, ​​take it one exam at a time. Give every exam paper its share of focus, and do not dwell too much on an exam that you think you have not done well on (although, admittedly, this is easier said than done). Even though it is normal to feel upset when you do not do that well on one paper or subject, this should not consume your time and effort. You will still have other exams that will need your full attention. Stay motivated and give it your best. Remember that the grades will not be fully allocated based on the external examinations only, you will have your internal assessments as well. In brief, take care of yourself especially before and during the exam period by exercising, eating well, getting good sleep, do not overdo the past papers last minute as this can negatively impact your performance on the exam, and take it one exam at a time. 

 I would like to wish all candidates the best of luck in their upcoming IB examinations! Know that you have a bright future ahead of you if you believe in yourself and genuinely work for it. Keep calm and carry on!