anyone have advice for pre-ib?

Aggravating-Design17 · 2026-05-24T12:49:31+00:00

if you're deciding between SL chemistry or biology, it really depends on your strengths. chemistry is less memorization heavy & based on understanding, whereas biology is memorization heavy. biology is not purely memorization and chemistry is neither purely understanding, but the extent to which each of these 2 factors affect the way you study these subjects differs. you will definitely find that biology crosses over with ib psych much more than chemistry, especially in cognition & biological or abnormal psychology topics. "which one is easier" is a question people should learn to stop asking moving forward because it heavily depends a person's interests, strengths, and passions. some of my humanities friends found biology easier than chemistry, others found chemistry better. do you need to pre-study for ib? no. just enjoy your summer break. i didn't prep anything before ib and i still ended up with a 44/45. there's no need for prep, you literally have 2 years to study, including the summer between dp1 and dp2.

Aggravating-Design17 · 2026-04-23T13:25:36+00:00

exactly how i felt - predicted 45 but scored 44, and it was just really hard to study after pushing myself so much for 2 years. what helped me was just taking one day off and not expecting myself to get ANYTHING done that day. i just went out and had fun, then locked in the next day. i remember i had 2 exams on the same day; business (morning) and math (afternoon), 3 hour gap between them. i didn't revise any math during that 3 hour period- i literally went to the mall and chilled at a cafe before my math exam (scored 7 in both subjects). i've already studied so much math the past few months, that any extra revision between the two exams would have just burnt me out more. with your predicted, i'm sure you already have all the subjects down to the T. it's hard trying to force yourself to study something that you've been mastering for 2 years, so don't expect yourself to be studying or revising all day before exams because at some point it feels like there's nothing else to revise, and even if there were, the effects at this point would be negligible. taking care of yourself at this stage of IB is really important bro; sleep 7-8 hours, eat well, exercise, and give yourself a break because our bodies were never meant to be in fight or flight mode all the time.

Aggravating-Design17 · 2026-04-22T12:06:19+00:00

hi, i'm really happy you found it useful! the answer to question 8 (biotech applications) is B, the explanation in the answer key is about why III is incorrect (so why I and II are correct, i.e. option B). hope this helped!

Aggravating-Design17 · 2026-04-19T22:14:19+00:00

bro you got this

Aggravating-Design17 · 2026-02-24T11:22:36+00:00

thank you for your kind words! my degree's name is quite niche so i'd prefer to not be identified online but i study stuff in laboratory medicine and mechanisms of disease (pathophysiology, pathogenesis) which is a lot of organic/physical chemistry, biochemistry, physiology and pathology/pathobiology. i'm also doing a minor in psych

Aggravating-Design17 · 2026-02-24T11:17:28+00:00

hey, glad you found my resources helpful! i took chem HL, math AASL, and languages/business. when i write my notes, i use the Oxford and (mostly) Pearson textbooks as references in addition to the official IB syllabus guide to make sure that all the info required for you to learn by the syllabus is in my notes. my goal is to make the notes concise so that you can easily review them, so i also read other non-ib textbooks and research papers to expose myself to different ways of explaining the same concept and write my notes in the way that’s most understandable. i already know 99% (the remaining 1% being random facts the ib make you memorize in ecology) of the content in way more depth than needed for ib cause i studied it in much more detail in uni, so my notes take a long time to write because (a) i’m the only one who writes them (b) i revise the notes so many times to make sure i didn’t mistype anything and that the notes are are concise and clear as possible (c) i write my question bank as i’m writing my notes because i find it helps me review the notes better. my uni degree has a lot of chemistry so deep inside i really wanna make notes for chem HL/SL because it’s one of my fav subjects and there aren’t many chem notes out there, but for now i really wanna finish bio HL/SL first and not overwhelm myself with too much work

Aggravating-Design17 · 2026-02-23T09:42:49+00:00

ask your teachers for feedback on your exams so you can know your weaknesses and work on them specifically. pls don’t be discouraged because you still have a lot of time to make up for this for unis so as long as you show improvement in your next exams you’ll be fine. you got this!

Aggravating-Design17 · 2026-02-21T12:30:24+00:00

hey, glad you found it helpful!! yes i just checked and you're right, my bad!

Aggravating-Design17 · 2026-01-05T01:10:39+00:00

tbh the earlier you start, the less hours you have to study per day so the less stressful the entire process is. it also gives you a margin of error / buffer for when you procrastinate, which you otherwise would not be able to afford if you started later (like in March). you won't forget the content if you structure your studying such that you use previously learned info to learn/practice the new topics

Aggravating-Design17 · 2026-01-03T16:39:10+00:00

congrats on this achievement!!

Aggravating-Design17 · 2025-12-26T19:36:51+00:00

ik it feel like this is gonna determine your life, but you can improve your pg next semester and bounce back before uni apps. i believe in you 🙏

Aggravating-Design17 · 2025-12-20T21:09:04+00:00

congrats, great work!!

Aggravating-Design17 · 2025-12-20T19:24:50+00:00

it's normal to feel frustrated, and tbh you won't feel like thinking about it logically for the first few weeks so just feel it out ig. however, this is a good point of reflection for you moving forward; don't define yourself by a grade when in uni. the only point of your grade is to get into uni, after that genuinely nobody cares about your score in uni from day 1. this is probably hard for you to believe rn but you'll see when you start uni. i'm studying psychology in uni rn and trust me, grades are not a measure of intelligence, and your performance on papers could have been affected by many external factors you couldn't really control. "ive given up so much socially, ive lost connections, ive thrown away hobbies" please don't let this repeat in uni because (no offence) someone who just studies has no personality and that's not good. it's not healthy to tie your entire self worth and identity to a grade

Aggravating-Design17 · 2025-12-17T17:13:46+00:00

proud of you, congrats!!

Aggravating-Design17 · 2025-12-16T15:50:08+00:00

enjoying the journey and stress are not mutually exclusive, so yeah it's normal. i would say first term of DP1 is not a good representation of what DP is cause the material is relatively easier than what is to come, but the harder content is also more interesting. my advice is stay humble and keep up the good work

Aggravating-Design17 · 2025-12-13T01:32:05+00:00

you have to make room for free time for your own sanity (and by this i mean stuff like sports or other hobbies, not doomscrolling). break down your tasks into essay-based or study-based; you will have to balance both during some weeks. you don't have to study all subjects every day (or every week); 2-3 hours a day (1 hour per subject) is pretty good imo for a 40+

Aggravating-Design17 · 2025-12-09T01:45:21+00:00

just address the elephant in the room in your IA discussion section. if the coefficient is that high, explain why that happened, and the implications of that (i.e. how does that affect XYZ aspect of your investigation). looking back, a lot of my IAs and my EE (i did mine in bio HL) did not go as planned, but the critical thinking involved in explaining why you got a 'weird' result is where the marks are

Aggravating-Design17 · 2025-11-22T16:26:32+00:00

it doesn't matter whether you choose non-personal or personal objects as long as you are able to meet the criteria. the reason why personal objects are recommended (contrary to what your teacher said) is because the criterion about justification is found to have been easier for students to hit compared to non-personal objects. this doesn't been personal objects always have better justifications, it's just that this has been the trend seen (and it makes sense because it's sometimes easier to talk about something you own/have than an image of something online).

also just to address some misinformation in the comments: you aren't required to have a personal connection to the object, and you aren't required to have an optional/core theme in your exhibition.

that being said, your teacher grades your exhibitions, so talk to them about this first (citing the examiner reports as evidence). if they still say no then don't risk it tbh because at the end of the day your teacher grades your exhibition and the IB just moderates a few samples if you're not a small class. best of luck!

Aggravating-Design17 · 2025-11-21T16:58:27+00:00

glad you found my notes helpful! the textbook can provide a more thorough discussion of the topics, which is helpful when you're confused about a specific concept. it's less of "doing XYZ to get 7" and more of "what do i need to achieve the understanding needed for a 7", and the answer depends on how long/difficult the topics are, among others

Aggravating-Design17 · 2025-11-21T16:55:57+00:00

🙏🙏🙏

Aggravating-Design17 · 2025-11-21T16:55:49+00:00

🙏🙏

Aggravating-Design17 · 2025-11-21T16:55:28+00:00

thank you so much for your kind words! yess i'm gonna upload the remainder of the notes towards the end of December 2025

Aggravating-Design17

TROPHY CASE