IB MOCK EXAMS?! - Struggles & Tips

Look at this guy running around in panic and fear, wishing to escape the explosions happening behind him. Now this is exactly how most of us are when we get out the exam room. We don’t want to know anything anymore, we’re scared, and the only solution we can think of is to pack our bags and leave the destruction we have caused right before us and say “I’m done here”.

But that’s where you’re mistaken. When you constantly leave a hot mess like that, you won’t only be done there, but you’ll probably be done with your IB as well. Just kidding. Or am I?

So don’t just run away from your problems. Face them. People who run away from their problems are irresponsible, immature, undependable, thoughtless, ignorant, and 100% me. Me. I am that person. So, again, I understand the temptation.

Let’s be real. Examination is almost NEVER easy, especially when you are tested on subjects that you know very well are challenging in the first place but yet you still decide to take it anyways. Yes, you, I’m especially referring to you, Math HL students. If you are one of those students and you put zero effort to improve, this is probably what your paper will look like to you.

Question 1: Has the teacher even taught us this?
Question 2: Really?
Question 3: Why am I taking this subject again?
On question 4 you question your decision of taking the IB in the first place and by question 5 you will start questioning about your purpose in living.

The next thing you know, IB has successfully shifted your desire from changing the world to changing classes.

But NO. Being a senior, you have this revelation that urges you to become a better person. Therefore, I’m going to pass down that legacy to you. Here are 7 crucial steps in order for you to never, EVER, or never again, experience the above scenario:

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Getting Started

THIS IS THE HARDEST PART. Most of the time, 99% of our energy is used for preparing the study and only 1% of it is actually used for studying. This is code red. If you find yourself doing this, I recommend you to get help from the ones closest to you so that you are reminded of the duty you should be doing. Sure, maybe you can enjoy some time for entertainment and food, but be strict on yourself when you know that you ought to stop. Better yet, set an alarm at the time when you plan to start studying! Then, lock yourself in a room with no gadgets whatsoever so you can focus on your tasks.

Notes & Question Bank

Super duper important. Hello, yes, you’re in IB. You have limited time to get your work done so every second counts. Don’t bother going through the textbook ALL OVER AGAIN unless you have ample free time to prepare. The technique is to go through all the concise notes you have from classes and go straight to your question bank or past papers so that you’re used to the questions frequently asked in the subject. If you're really stuck on a question, THEN refer to the textbook for answers. Think of your question bank and examination as Hannah Montana and Miley Cyrus. Exactly, they’re similar! (Although in both cases the latter one can get kind of crazy sometimes)

So don’t study hard guys. Study smart.

Acronyms and Mnemonics

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but the stupider the better. I personally make the stupidest and sometimes the most inappropriate acronyms but guess what, I’ll always remember them.

Here are some (appropriate) examples:

OIL RIG: [O]xidation [I]s the [L]oss of electrons, [R]eduction [I]s the [G]ain of electrons (Chemistry)

King Phillip Comes Over For Great…Sandwiches: Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species (Biology)

How about for math, you say? Well, here’s an acronym you can use: FML. Uuh.. It stands for functions, maximum&minimum, and limits. Yeah, that’s it.

Prioritize your time

First, you have to prioritize your time on studying for the exams first (boy that is a loooong topic to discuss so I’ll just get back to that sometime later).

Secondly, the rule also applies for actually doing the exam paper. You must prioritize questions with bigger marks. Don’t dwell on difficult questions worth only 1-3 marks to miss out on the 20-mark questions! The score will probably be out of 40 to 120 anyways, so 3 marks won’t mean a lot. Strategize!

Hamburgers, NOT Hot dogs

Apart from the content, structure is equally important in writing your exam papers, especially essays. This especially applies to your first and second language subjects. Structure your essay like a hamburger! That is, start with the appropriate introduction, content, and then the conclusion, complete with all the information you should include in each section depending on the specific subject criteria. Don’t just stuff all your fillings like a hot dog, guys. Order it. Also, the proportions of each paragraph should be balanced. Let’s take it this way. You don’t want to have a hamburger full of lettuce all the way from the bottom to the top and have your burger beef cut as thin as a sheet of paper, do you? Will it look, or taste nice? No tell me, will it? NO. So stop.

Revise even minutes right before the exam

Get this. When dealing with subjects that involve memorizing, I used to not remember ANYTHING I have learnt the days before when actually writing the paper. However, in the last 5 MINUTES of the exam I suddenly felt like I became an encyclopedia and start writing so fast that everyone thought I had a seizure. No, please, let me know if this also happens to you because I’ve been feeling like there’s something wrong with me all this time. So, constantly REVISE, fellows! I'm telling you, sometimes, the last words you read before your exams are the ones that are going to come out in one of those questions.

Can’t stress this enough – DON’T OVERTHINK!

Have you ever encountered a series of true or false questions and you wondered why you keep on answering “T” 5 times in a row? Did you feel like you were doing something wrong? Aware of the oddness of it, you decided to change your answer from True to False. But then again, you ended up with a dilemma of whether or not to proceed with the change as you were afraid that your teacher might purposely create these questions to troll you. You then over-analyzed every possible scenario that you could come up with when you decided to change your answer. Hence, you ended up spending 10 minutes for a 1 mark question. Right when you thought it stopped there, you then later found that all the changed answers turned out to be wrong.

CODE RED NUMBER 2. Just. Don’t. Overthink. Be confident with your first answer if you feel like you have really thought through it in the first place!

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Soo, yeah. Discipline yourself to actually start studying, study from your notes and the question bank / past papers, use acronyms and mnemonics for memorizing,  prioritize your time, structure your writing in the exam paper, and don't stress out. Yup. These are about the most important things.

If you follow these steps, I assure you that you’ll walk out of the exam room like Horatio from CSI over here:

Or like Six from I am Number Four here:

Because gender equality. That’s why.

#StopTerrorism #BombingIsntCool

But you must wonder, “This is only for exams though! How about the IAs, EE and TOKs which also take up MAJOR proportions of our final grade?” Whoah, hold your horses guys. Since exam is coming soon, let us focus on our exams first. About those things, I’ll discuss them on my next post ;)

So, good luck with your exams, brothers and sisters! You will surely ace them. See you on my next post!

-L