As the beginning of November approaches, many of our seniors have felt the pressure and stress of academics. College applications, Internal Assessments(IA), college essays and for some even the Extended Essay(EE) are just some things off of the long list many seniors need to finish. For seniors, the last year of high school isn’t just about academics but also includes more social events and extracurriculars. With so many things to do, seniors not only need to have good time management skills but also self control.

Julian Rice, currently a senior taking 3 HL courses and 3 SL courses, describes his senior year as,

Great, being the top dogs of High School, but the work and responsibility that comes with it is certainly a surprise. Fortunately, I’ve had no real breakdowns and am feeling quite good this year.”

Whereas some seniors describe the year as “hectic” or “like crap.” We can see that opinions about the senior year is certainly different for everyone but the workload is generally enormous.

Dealing with the arduous academic assignments can be difficult. Each IB course requires an internal assignment with the exception of language A courses. This means that the more IB courses a senior has, the more internal assignments that would have to be finished. Seniors Amber Meyer and Nikita Galayda described the IB chemistry course as being “extremely difficult” and the internal assessment for the course as a

long, hard and painful process.”

Arguably, chemistry is one of the most challenging courses in the IB curriculum. Currently only 8 people in the senior year are taking IB chemistry, reflecting on the difficulty of the course. With the internal assessment in mind, some who are writing the extended essay, required for candidates of the IB diploma, barely have time for extracurriculars or even college applications. Students who would want to spend time on activities other than academics or even outside of school would have to master the craft of time management and would need to have good self control.

Though students have shown an interest in the usefulness of internal assessment’s when academic levels become even harder in college, some do not show a preference for the IB curriculum and find it restricting. One anonymous student that talked to us and believes that

Even though the EE and IAs are beneficial for us, they might be harmful to students who are still learning to manage their time. Thus their progress with common apps and college essays might be affected.”

From a student’s viewpoint it is understandable. With so many assignments and a great workload to finish, many might not be able to handle the pressure and consequently hand in work with poorer quality. Furthermore, if one has bad time management then he or she could be at a great disadvantage. It’s easy to feel this way at times when we’re so stressed. Yet, another benefit of IB is that it prepares us mentally for college and for life. After IB, (hopefully) everything will feel like a breeze.

 

We can see that there are often conflicting viewpoints on the IB curriculum. Though there are some negatives about IB, we cannot deny the fact that IB assignments such as Internal Assessments and the Extended Essays can actually help prepare us for the college academics.  College level assignments often require students to do high level work which is reflected in the IB curriculum. This higher level style of work will help students develop good academic habits and make college life easier.

As we are more than halfway through the semester the most tiring portion of senior year is almost over. We hope that every senior can successfully finish all their required work and college applications. Remember,

everyday is “better than yesterday and worse than tomorrow.”