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International Baccalaureate (IB) Tips &

Practice

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For those just starting

If your child/teen has just entered an IB program there are a number of things to keep in mind.

1. Time management is vital. You are often juggling around many projects at once.
2. Cramming strategies in IB are generally less successful than in regular programs
3. Assignments are language intensive. You need to take a disciplined approach to handing in assignments to make sure that you are precises and using critical thinking as you approach your assingments. The writing assignments in grade 10 resemble assingments in public school at grade 12
4. You will be expected to do college level research and be able to analyse research that you collect
5. Math is often integrated with practical projects
6. If you were an A student before, do not expect to be a 45 score student. Often you will see your grades take a hit but don't panic.

There are a number of sites that offer advice about how to be successful and it is worthwhile to make sure that you or your offspring reads a variety of advice before starting. A website that gives advice for a high score is from sharetheideas.com

Helpful IB Sites

 By far, the most important website for all IB students is the IB Question Bank, which is provided by official IB organization. but you will need to subscribe by fee to be able to purchase them but nevertheless it is worth it. 
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The official IB website posts tests for students to practice with in Language A1ts, Second language, Individuals and societies
experimental sciences and mathematics and computer science. Another source for IB exams is WizIQ which posts tests in math and science courses. If looking for past paers you can get a good collection from all subjects in a posting of IB past papers here.

IB Tip #1 Evaluating Research & Knowing When To Cite

Get a good headstart on research methods. You will be asked to evaluate research in terms of the advantages and disadvantages.

Journals 
Advantage - most credible, peer reviewed, objective   
Disadvantage - hard to read and can be quite technical

Books 
Advantage - credible, often link to more research, reviewed   
Disadvantage - finding specific research infirmation can be hard in a book

Encyclopedia
Advantage - neutral, objective 
Disadvantage - shallow and purely factual with no depth

Newspaper 
Advantage - easier to read, a good springboard for further research, credibly affirm dates and events,
Disadvantage - some sensationalism, bias

Wikipedia 
Advantage - peer reviewed, comprehensive, tends to be neutral, a good first step fro finding more research   
Disadvantage - lack of depth, not good fro specific research questions

Websites 
Advantage - easy to find, efficient collection, can provide links to further research
Disadvantage - often biased and credibility is sometimes questionable

The top ones are journals and books. We need to rely more and more on them but we can use the others to help get us started. Begin by looking at journal abstracts and learn to copy and paste information onto a prearranged structure. 

Learn the citation rules, particularly for MLA. A good website for that is by the IBO organization. The key thing to realize is that it is ok to have a lot of citations and that even when you do use your own words, you still must reference where the source of the information came from. A good rule of thumb is;

1. Cite if you are using any quantitative data even if you knew it before
2. Cite if it related to information that is not common knowledge such as where a person was born or how many family members or chemical compositions etc...)
3. You can cite opinions but only as it carries authoritative weight to your arguments
4. Try to have topic openers or transition statements that are not cited. If you are making a mini-thesis statement that you are about to give evidence for, then you do not need to cite.​

Tutor Help in IB

If you would like to prepare with a tutor before registering for IB contact the IB Tutor page

If you wish to register registration page and filling out a form or emailing us directly at [email protected] . Alternatively you are welcome to call us at 613 447 1622 to check if a time is open.