Anyone who's been through IB has shared a series of experiences that will forever shape their lives and their psyches. This sounds dramatic, but ask any IB graduate and they'll tell you how true this is. This list contains some of the many lessons I learned in my time at IB.
1. Sleep is for the weak.
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It may be a cliché, but that doesn’t make it any less true. Between homework, studying, extracurriculars, and other side activities: breathing, eating, etc., IB students rarely find time to actually sleep for more than four-to-six hours a night. At least, that was true in my case. There were always the rare people who could manage to maintain a spotless GPA, captain a couple of sports teams, and catch an easy nine hours a night, but I don’t like to think about them. As far as I’m concerned they were cyborgs.
2. There is nothing in life that cannot be done the night before.
It’s a pretty good sign you’re in the IB program when you’re up at 3 a.m. working on an IA. It’s an even clearer sign when you can message any friend you want to ask for help, since they’re all up doing the same thing. It was always at these moments that I realized I had the time management skills of a squirrel with ADD, but that never stopped me from doing it again the next time a major assignment rolled around.
3. To succeed, you must first learn how to fail.
From getting your Biology IA topic rejected to failing every test in World History, IB offers an endless number of opportunities for failure.
4. Filling out the exam cover sheet and attempting to bind your hopes and dreams together with a string tag are harder than the actual exam.
Whoever invented that string tag either has a sick and twisted mind, or a budget of approximately two cents. Honestly, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge was more secure.
5. Other countries write quality literature too, and it’s definitely worth reading.
At no point in my life did I expect to walk into a bookstore and pick up a copy of "Ficciones" by Borges, or "Fear and Trembling" by Amélie Nothomb, but thanks to IB I didn’t have a choice. While neither book was my usual cup of tea, they were both worth reading for precisely that reason. While some required reading is undeniably awful, every now and again you run across books that make you think.
6. TOK: proving you can be wrong even in a class with no right or wrong answers.
Here’s to never getting one thing right in this entire class.
7. Suffering together is vastly different than suffering alone.
Having fellow IB classmates to complain with both in person and through social media makes the experience just slightly more bearable. Key word: slightly.
8. Writing an Extended Essay is like raising a child: you have absolutely no idea what you’re doing, but you’re proud of the end result anyway.
Whether you wrote it weeks before it was due, the night before, or the day of, odds are you had absolutely no idea what you were doing, other than attempting in vain to hit your word count. Turning it in was a massive relief, but a temporary one; you knew you were going to have to edit that thing, and by edit you meant actually write it properly for the first time.
9. Anyone who says you can’t pass a test by reading the Sparknotes has clearly never tried.
If there isn’t a Sparknotes for it, it isn’t a real book. It just isn’t.
10. It’s completely acceptable to look homeless during exam season, i.e. the month of May.
“Sweatpants, hair tied, chillin' with no makeup on”. When you roll out of bed to take an exam at some ungodly hour in the morning, there is no outfit that’s taboo. Pajama pants? That’s fine. Gym shorts from middle school? Go for it. No bra? You do you. The same shirt four days in a row? Who’s going to notice? Everyone’s brains are the consistency of congealed oatmeal at this point anyway.
11. Sometimes TOK is actually thought-provoking and powerful.
Every now and again a TOK presentation comes along that actually makes you stop and think, or sparks an interesting and lively debate. Just make sure you don’t blink, otherwise you might miss it.
12. Learning a foreign language sounds exciting until you actually try to do it for more than four years.
Stage 1: I am going to learn all of the Spanish, become fluent, and basically morph into a native.
Stage 2: Okay, so I’m not going to be fluent, but I can probably still get decent grades in this class.
Stage 3: I was not prepared for this. I am literally Jon Snow.
Stage 4: Five years later and I still can’t order a coke in Spanish. Sounds about right.
13. Sometimes the IB Study Guide/Companion is your only companion.
Whether it’s saving extra table space at Starbucks or keeping you company in another class while you frantically cram, the IB companion is always there for you. Like a dog, only less cuddly and full of lots of useless information you have no desire to learn.
14. Anyone who hasn’t been through IB just doesn’t get it.
No, IB is not the same thing as AP, but just so you know we take those classes too. No mom, this is not what your honors program was like when you were in high school.
15. Students in the IB program are indisputably some of the hardest working, most intelligent, and most talented individuals I’ve ever met.
If you get through the IB program, diploma or not, you’re kind of a badass and I salute you.
