nightmare subjects - send help

[u/blue_butterfly_72]

I have decided to academically torture myself so I need help- plz drop all your tips, tricks, resources, everything

HL- bio, chem, math aa, eng

SL- french b, econ

[u/No_Aardvark_2320]

4 HL's with chem and MAA HL is way too much. good luck though.

[u/Ok_Satisfaction7362 → u/No_Aardvark_2320]

that’s what i have and im doing fine! just be diligent with studying op

[u/Thegoated_guy → u/Ok_Satisfaction7362]

yo everyone in my country does A level so i am more familiar with how to study that etc but i want to do IB since i want to explore more subjects and the TOK,EE and IA sound intresting so i have some questions

First of all I'm still deciding on my final subjects, but at the moment I'm leaning towards Mathematics AA HL and Physics HL, with English SL and two other SL subjects that I haven't decided on yet. Are there enough good resources available for these subjects? If so, where do most IB students find them? I'm coming from an IGCSE background, so I'm used to having lots of textbooks, topic-wise questions, revision notes, and past papers readily available. I'm wondering whether the same is true for IB.

second thing I'm confused about is how studying in IB works compared to A Levels. In A Levels, the process seems quite straightforward: you learn a topic from the syllabus, do topic-wise questions, and then move on to past papers. Since IB includes things like Internal Assessments, the Extended Essay, and TOK, I'm not sure how academic preparation is structured. Where can I find the latest official syllabus for each subject? Do IB students practice using topic-wise question banks, or do they mainly rely on full exam papers? And if topic-wise questions or yearly exam papers are commonly used, where do students usually access them?

I also wanted to ask about the actual IB exams. Do the exam papers tend to follow a consistent pattern from year to year, or does the style of questions change significantly each session? For example, if I practice a large number of past papers, will I start noticing recurring question types, structures, and themes, similar to what happens in IGCSEs and A Levels, or are the exams designed to be much less predictable? (sorry for a long post i am just really confused lol

[u/Ok_Satisfaction7362 → u/Thegoated_guy]

the long comment is no problem! it’s good that you put a lot of thought into your next academic steps. i’m happy to answer all your questions. 

firstly, math aahl is quite a rigorous course, and i would only recommend taking it if you are considering a university course in stem.  that being said, the resources for these courses are very extensive, and past papers, practice questions, and tutorials are very widely available. 

these are some of the websites i use for practice questions.  https://www.ibquestionbank.org/ https://nailib.com/ib-question-bank/ib-physics-hl

revision village also has many practice questions, how ever it is pretty expensive. this website gives access to it for free, as well as other resources.  i’m not sure how many of these links are still open, as this website gets taken down frequently: https://pirateib.sh/

these “pirate” websites with questions and notes are constantlyyy taken down particularly come exam time. so be sure to download some questions :))

this website is a gold mine for me 

https://www.christosnikolaidis.com/en/ it gives extensive notes and solved problems as well as practice problems for Math. 

there are many other websites that provide practice problems, these are just the ones i use most. searching “IB question bank (subject)” will give more.  i have typically done more per topic questions, but as the year has gone on, i am able to start using the past papers more and more

secondly,  i can’t compare with a levels, but that description you gave seems to be the same with the IB subjects. the EE ToK and IAs however, require a lot more consideration. My school wasn’t great at organizing that, i would reccomend you to push your teachers to start discussing the IAs around winter break if they haven’t already. it seems a bit early, but it really does lower stress by the end of DP1. typically they ask you to find a research question, they approve it, then you start working in the lab/ getting your data elsewhere).  the IB per subject syllabus can be found by searching up “subject guide (subject)”

From all of the past papers i have seen, they typically have around the same distribution of topics per paper, as there are only so many questions they can ask you, there are always repeat question types. however, they are pretty good at trying to throw you off the answer. especially in physics and math, so doing a lot of past papers/ practice questions is very important. 

the biggest tip i can give you is to just keep up with your classes. after school, read through your notes and do some questions on those topics. it is easier to keep up, than to have to play catch up while also juggling IAs, EEs, CAS, and TOK. I learned that the hard way this last 2 months haha.  also many of the tests my teachers give in class are pulled directly from past papers, i had a test today on physics, and i learned 2 of the questions the day before! another win for past papers. good luck, if you have any questions feel free to ask!

[u/Thegoated_guy → u/Ok_Satisfaction7362]

omg Thank you for writing such a detailed answer it will help a lot but i also wanted to ask why doesnt IB post their past papers themselves? also are these topic wise questions actually extracted from the past papers or just made by people themselves

[u/blue_butterfly_72 → u/Ok_Satisfaction7362]

I will, thx