When preparing for and handling an undertaking as challenging as the IB Diploma Program, it is important to understand how to manage the demanding workload and expectations and weeks where 24 hours ain't enough to get your stuff done. From time management to stress management speaking to the management, this reality is one with very real and not fake implications - one that places an astounding (😱) amount of faith in some very very responsible students. Thus, I present to you a handy guide from a completely unqualified and very delusional individual.
First and foremost: Homework.
Homework constitutes a major part of your life as a student. Being on top of any and all work assigned to you is paramount.
That being said, ignorance is also bliss. Keep that in mind.
TOK: times of (k)crisis
I still don't know what TOK is. In class I either feel like an omnipotent being who knows all or completely lost. No in between.
Oh yeah - remember, the IB Diploma Program should have connections in your everyday life. Let the knowledge questions haunt you. Wait what are knowledge claims then. To what extent do one’s societal obligations or expectations contribute to or impact one’s identity as an individual? Should I quit and drop off the radar as a person and make my way to an obscure island in the Pacific away from the ghost of that presentation that I definitely haven't forgotten about?
EE:
This is something that only the most elusive and inhuman of students understand. EE more like eerrelevant!
Conclusion:
Even if you by some miracle or mercy of the gods have found the willpower and inner peace or power of friendship to keep going, it is imperative that you keep in mind the most important question pertaining to your identity as an IB student and prospective finisher of the IB diploma: Does this count for CAS? Why can't we just log hours instead of having to reflect on how you totally thought that so and so was a valuable opportunity that helped you further yourself as an individual whilst finding your identity and bettering the local community through the goodness of your heart and definitely not because you are being held at figurative gunpoint? How can you have the time to be a model student academically and a citizen who has a positive impact on the community AND still have the time for self care and relaxation and most importantly - sleep? I admit, I used to get more than 9 hours of sleep a night, but sacrifices must be made.
You are bound to the IBDP. You are one with the IBDP. There is nothing you need in life other than the IBDP. You have no time to relax when you’re on the third case study of the week and it’s only Tuesday. The diploma will be worth it in the end, right?
Maybe I may see things differently over the course of the next two years and change my mind, but for that, only time will tell.
Stay sane my fellow knowers.
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