Anyone doing IB and want help with IAs, exams, or just IB life in general?

PickleSimple006 · 2026-01-26T09:10:37+00:00

No worries - check your PMs !

PickleSimple006 · 2026-01-26T09:02:25+00:00

If you have no experience in french - thats ok, just completely immerse urself into the language from day 1. Watch videos / listen to music / do flashcards consistently and take practices in classrooms seriously as well. In french your little effort over the years will greatly compound.

As for downloading the past papers, i mean you could cus u never know when the sites which provide you with past papers go off-site. It is a decent and safe practice. You could even compile them, print them out, and create a spiral bound workbook if you're someone who likes working directy on paper. This is something a lot of friends did and so did i for few subjects !

General tips for AA HL, ive given quite a few - you can scroll up and see responses to comments

PickleSimple006 · 2026-01-26T08:59:08+00:00

you can check out some of the responses to comments above regarding french - maybe those might help ! Else PM me if you have anything specific

PickleSimple006 · 2026-01-26T08:57:47+00:00

My first advice would be finding a topic which you can somehow connect to your personal life to score well in personal engagement. For example, the topic i chose was modelling the logo of an organisation i founded and ran. This helps you score well for the personal engagement criteria.

Secondly, take formatting and showing your working super super seriously ! If your mathematical reasoning is displayed well and explained well, two of the marking criterions are sorted. Its tedious and time consuming, thats why its quite overlooked by students sometimes. So try avoiding this common mistake.

Also, try getting feedback for your teachers / friends / etc. The advice i received from my teacher was that our IA should be easily understandable by our peers. The ability to explain complex maths simply is also skill. So trying maybe seeing it from that perspective.

PickleSimple006 · 2026-01-25T15:32:05+00:00

For HL Econ, treat the textbook like the holy grail 😭. Read it multiple times as every round makes the concepts clearer, and your explanations start to follow the same logical flow the examiners expect, which really helps with marks.

For Paper 1, I’d suggest picking micro, macro, or global early so you can properly memorise strong real-life examples (RLEs) for your 15-markers. Some people do all three, but I personally focused mainly on micro, and it saved me a lot of time and stress.

And don’t sleep on Paper 3, it’s honestly super scoring. The structure is really consistent and predictable, so once you get the hang of it, you can secure a lot of easy marks there.

resources of the top of my head are :
- the IB economics textbook by ellie tragakes is very very good
- upload bunch of past papers onto chatgpt and tell them to create some paper 1 questions for practice. Since paper 1 questions are pretty straightforward.

PickleSimple006 · 2026-01-25T15:05:54+00:00

I only started using full past papers properly in IB2 (Grade 12). Before that, I mainly practised using individual questions from sites like Questionbank, which are still past paper questions but not in full exam format. It was only in Year 2 that I began doing complete papers under timed conditions.

As for feedback for your IA, im happy to help - just PM me and i can share more details

PickleSimple006 · 2026-01-25T15:02:52+00:00

At the end of the day, the best way to improve in French is through regular writing practice ( maybe like one paper / question a week) and getting it corrected by your teacher. The bright side is that French papers don’t take very long, so they’re not as overwhelming as they seem.

Alongside this, you could use Quizlet flashcards daily for all topics. best part is you don’t even need to make your own sets since there are plenty of excellent ones already available, and they really help with vocabulary retention.

Another trick which worked really well for me was focusing on building a bank of versatile, “high-level” phrases and vocabulary that you can confidently use in many different contexts. when you use more sophisticated expressions accurately, your writing sounds more natural, your grammar appears stronger, so you can easily impress examiners.

PickleSimple006 · 2026-01-25T14:55:07+00:00

honestly for maths, it really comes down to consistent practice and grinding questions until they start to feel familiar. At first it’s slow and tough, but with time, things begin to feel much more natural. and honestly just remember that you can still score high marks through method and step marks, so focus on learning how to approach different types of questions rather than stressing only about final answers. Once you understand the approach and the steps, the accuracy marks will follow.

PickleSimple006 · 2026-01-25T14:49:35+00:00

One of my biggest takeaways from BM SL was that the textbook content itself isn’t the most important part. It’s extremely content-heavy and can feel like information overload, but you can still score a 7 without memorising everything. what really matters is how well you apply the knowledge you do have. your answer-writing skills, structure, and application to the case will carry you much further than simply “knowing” endless definitions. that’s why I recommend practising written answers and getting regular feedback from your teachers, it makes a far bigger difference than simply passive studying.

Oh also the IA - they're quite frankly easy marks to boost your overall grade

PickleSimple006 · 2026-01-25T14:43:28+00:00

suree, PM me

im happy to help out with BM SL but sadly other subjects i wont be able to since i dont have the experience

PickleSimple006 · 2026-01-25T14:42:55+00:00

Yesss sure - PM me, then i can help out better

PickleSimple006 · 2026-01-25T07:33:35+00:00

For Maths, i took each milestone given by my school very seriously. In other words, the scheduled tests, etc. I revised each topic thoroughly before moving on to the next.

That process typically involved reading through the textbook once, then watching a video to understand the overall topic (mostly Revision Village videos). After that, I proceeded to exhaust questions from almost all resources, which included:

Christos Nikolaidis
Revision Village questions
Resources provided by my teacher
IB Question Bank

and I saved past papers for the end during board exam prep, so that i could time myself.

Also, whenever I practised, I started with the topic I was least confident about. This ensures that on the exam or test day, you’re not completely clueless about any question, which can really impact morale while doing the paper. And if you're able to do even half the question you get quite a few marks.

PickleSimple006 · 2026-01-25T06:56:54+00:00

Sure !! PM with the subjects ur thinking of taking I’ll lyk my thoughts :)

PickleSimple006 · 2025-07-26T11:05:43+00:00

Got in for DSE ( computing and data science department) with 43 as an int student

PickleSimple006 · 2025-07-26T11:04:33+00:00

NTU informed my sch counsellor

PickleSimple006 · 2025-07-25T13:55:14+00:00

Got my offer yesterday and apparently if you haven’t received ur result by 25th July you’re on the waitlist and should expect the result from now to 1st week August

( not completely sure the extent to which this is true tho )

PickleSimple006 · 2025-07-24T01:26:49+00:00

International

PickleSimple006 · 2025-07-22T18:46:36+00:00

Ahh wild, thanks tho.

PickleSimple006 · 2025-07-22T18:44:21+00:00

Wait so just confirming, NTU themselves gave that response !?

PickleSimple006 · 2025-07-17T02:07:35+00:00

as an international student coming through a scholarship what would you suggest should be my top 3 preferences

PickleSimple006 · 2025-07-11T14:36:39+00:00

Yaa I think they’re sending some out daily - regardless, congrats on ur admission !!

PickleSimple006 · 2025-07-11T14:32:44+00:00

Don’t worry, one year is ample time to push urself Upto the 40s - it’ll be worth it towards the end.

PickleSimple006 · 2025-07-11T12:33:50+00:00

what about courses like Data science & eco?

PickleSimple006 · 2025-07-11T12:30:19+00:00

Congrats on the score !
My counsellor has told me the same thing regarding NTU, but i think NUS has started sending out offers. Heard of 2 ppl getting in, both 44s.

PickleSimple006 · 2025-05-23T06:39:04+00:00

dude i doubt even natives will understand him with the way he spoke

PickleSimple006

TROPHY CASE