I feel the obligation to start this thread up, since I did last year.

Anyway, IB kids need a special place to rant about our external assessments, Language 2 orals, and our exam "papers" without getting odd looks and blank stares from everyone. At any rate, we whine an inordinate amount, and we'll piss everyone else off if we don't have a place we can safely vent to those likewise beleagured.

So, introductions. I'm an IB senior, and as much as I will whine about it, I'm glad I did it. We're a relatively small class, so we've gotten very close, even if we don't always get along. Actually, our pinning ceremony was just a few days ago, and they took pictures of us, blew them up to poster size, laminated them, and we all signed each others posters. It was good.

Two months until exams! Begin the panic now.

Hello, hello
another IB victim over here :-), currently in year 12, "looking forward" to write all those assessments, and extended essay... °-°
Good luck at your exams, what subjects do you take?
And what was your favourite part of IB (if there was any)? :-)

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Per aspera ad astra.

Well if you stage out the papers, it's not so bad. But my classmates and I have a strong belief that IB kids are inherent procrastinators the world over. So have fun at three in the morning the day it's due.

I'm taking History HL, English A1 HL, Biology HL, and Spanish SL. So... like a month and a half to the exams. Man, it's hard to believe.

Shockingly (and my friends would fall over if I told them this), I did manage to find a favorite part of IB. I love seeing people interact-- character relationships are my favorite things in everything I read/watch/write, people watching is awesome. So this year I've kept realizing how close our class is. You see, we're only the second class of IB kids to go through in our county, and a lot of people dropped out of the program, so we only have like 65 kids. We're like a supremely dysfunctional family.

In my fantastically rounabout way (I'm used to padding 1,200 words, sorry), my favorite thing was the people. At our pinning ceremony recently I realized that I will never regret IB, despite the stress and the tears, because I met all these people. As corny as it is, I really do not know what my life would be like if I had never met them. It's impossible to imagine.

Screnzy 2007: What She Did (14,000 words-- no go)
NaNo 2007: To Love and To Loathe (too few words to even bother)
Screnzy 2008: no idea... well, too many, now I have to choose...

This isn't going to end well, is it? *sighs* I thought not.

Well I hope I will survive, and I totally agree with the procrastination thing, I mean, I’ve got maths test on Monday and I am writing this...well yeah i hate coordinates.

In high level I’m taking English lit, Geography and Art, on SL I’ve got French, maths studies and biology. How come you ve got only 4 subjects? Man, you re lucky

We are 1 class of IB in my school, and we ve got only about 19 kids so I was bit astonished when you mentioned 65 kids, but that’s probably because you live in USA.

I also like the people in my class, that’s as well my favourite part of IB, and CAS residential as well, we were having loads of fun there and we would go again next year so that’s one thing I am looking forward. :-)

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Per aspera ad astra.

I have a bio lab to be doing right now. She's given us like three extensions just because she had other stuff to do and didn't want to grade it, and I've still not done it. I'm not even certain that I'll do it tonight. I know I should, but biology is my worst subject, and I hate labs beyond all things, so it's up for debate.

I only have four subjects because I tested out of two last year. Plus my school system is on this cracked-out four period a day alternating schedule, so I only have 8 classes a semester. But on top of my IB classes I for some reason decided that it would be wise to pile AP Psychology too. So I have five college levels classes to deal with.

We're a really big county, and we keep complaining that the standards are lowering for IB admittance. They've split the county in two as well, so there are two "IB schools" in the county. I guess we are pretty large, compared to 19 kids. But our teachers keep going to training at schools that are only IB that are in like Utah and stuff and talking about how amazing that is.

Screnzy 2007: What She Did (14,000 words-- no go)
NaNo 2007: To Love and To Loathe (too few words to even bother)
Screnzy 2008: no idea... well, too many, now I have to choose...

This isn't going to end well, is it? *sighs* I thought not.

I'm a senior. So, this is my last year of IB, finally.

My HL classes are Biology, English, and History of the America's/20th century topics.

My SL class is French. (I took Math Studies and ITGS last year)

But, because I'm crazy I decided that I should also take AP Art History this year. So, I'm taking 5 tests in May.

I have to agree the best part of IB has been the people. We're crazy and after four years know each other way too well, but, by now, I couldn't imagine it any other way and am not sure I would want to. It really becomes one humongous dysfunctional family. There are some members that you can't stand, and you tend to argue with nonstop...but, deep down you really don't/can't hate any of them.

I hope I'm still welcome here, as I am technically no longer an IB student; although, I suppose, once an IB student, always an IB student. I graduated last June (yes, I'm living proof--the pain DOES end!!!).

I had English A1 HL, History HL, and Physics HL; my SL courses were French, Mathematics, and Music. In the end, I ended up with 4s in all of my subjects except French (5!!!) and Physics (3, surprisingly...), and a 0 on my ToK/EE section. I think it was mainly my ToK that brought me down; my presentation ran over by about ten, fifteen minutes. (I was working alone.) I was actually quite proud of my Extended Essay--which, by the way, I was the first one in my class to turn in--on the symbolism of the characters in the Chronicles of Narnia. Because of that 3 in Physics, I missed my diploma by one point. I ended up having to retake the English exam because it was the only HL course that could possibly raise my score (I had enough total points, just needed a 5 in an HL exam to counteract the 3 in the other HL exam).

As I told a friend of mine at the IB diploma ceremony when he e-mailed us asking for our experiences, if I could sum up my IB experience in a single sentence, it would be the following: "You don't get brownies because you're weird." I've been collecting quotes since about January of our freshman year. I have about five hundred of them just from our IB years. Things misspoken, things mistaken, things probably better left unsaid (here I am thinking of Tony saying "You could blow on it too, Daniel. Just stick your head down there and *blows*". I hope he was discussing ways of cooling off his chair, but even though it's been seven months I'm still not sure). This collection actually has helped me. No, I'm serious. Apart from being a great stress-reliever and an excellent conversational piece at parties (my entire dorm hall knows me as "Bronwyn, the girl with the quote collection"), it somehow keeps me close to everyone I knew. It's like...wherever I am, I'll have a part of them with me at all times, and it's the good part, the funny part, the part that can help me remember all the rest of it too. At our twenty-year reunion, I'm not going to go up to Donovan and say, "Hey, Donovan, remember in freshman Biology when we did those questions on genus-species classifications?" No, I'm going to go up to him and say, "Hey, Donovan, remember in freshman Biology when we were watching "Contact" and you fell out of your chair when you realised that Eugene had incinerated himself?" He will probably look at me funny and answer "No", but that's not the point. The point is, it's the lighthearted moments that will stick with me. That's pretty much what defined my IB experience.

If you have any questions, I suppose I could try to answer them...

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Hi and all hail to the surviving seniors! I'm a freshman who has decided to take on Screnzy for the fun of it since I'm a writing addict (better adiccted to words then to some of the stuff that some of the other kids at school are hooked on...). I'm looking for some honest advice on what to expect for the next three years of my life. I've got senior resources at home, but they also told me that I would have about 7 hours of homework a night (the record, I believe, is 5.5 hours, and that happened only once when I took procrastination to a new level). So, any good advice for the (stupid) freshie and newbie?

"Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accesable and wisest of councleors, and the most patient of teachers" -Charles Eliot

Double post--Oops!--I warned you that I was stupid.

When it comes time to pick out your Extended Essay topic, pick something you REALLY like. You're gonna be stuck with it for quite a while, and even if it's your favourite thing in the world, you WILL get sick of it.

Other than that, really watch the procrastination. And make sure you time ALL of your presentations.

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Pages written: 0
Cups of coffee consumned: 0
# of times I've skipped class to work on the script: 0
# of characters I've added to the original work: 0
# of times I've wondered what the hell I was thinking: 4

omigoodygoodness *SQUEEEE!*

Wow, just two minutes ago, I was stressing about all the hardships regular students have to go through, and how much harder it will be for me next year (I'm starting Full IB in grade 11). And, like SarcasmSpirit, I was thinking about how I'll piss everyone off with my "Oh, I'm an IB student" crap. Though it's not crap at all, as far as I know.
So thank you so much for starting this topic! I'll most likely be here all of April '09 and '10, though not as much this year, as I'm not IB - yet! Wow, IB people on the Internet, daring to do Screnzy and some NaNo. Amazing! I'll still be awestruck by this all week, it's so cool! But one good thing should come of this: I was thinking back when I decided to try out NaNo '09, that if I can do 50 000 mediocre words in one month, I sure as hell can do 4 000! Threes cheers for the EE!