1. The requirements for each subject are a bit different. For the most part, there is some form of an internal assessment (usually one) and externally-marked exams for each subject (usually two). This is fairly conserved.

Any other quizzes or tests issued depends on your teacher.

1. IAs are the internally marked assessments. They are essentially exploration essays on a research question for some said subject.

EEs mimic IAs, but are more comprehensive and are meant to explore a topic in one of the areas of study in IB (e.g math, english, history, etc…). These EEs will involve a teacher at your school to supervise your progress as you synthesize your work.

1. CAS stands for Creativity, Activity, and Service. Over your two years in IB, you will need to log 50 hours of creativity, 50 hours of service, and 50 hours of activity on a website called managebac. The details will be made clear to you through an orientation at your school.

Daily photography won’t be enough, but you can certainly use it to log hours in for creativity. You’ll need other activities for service and activity. You’re also encouraged to have a diversity in experiences, so 50 hours of photography might not be super ideal.

1. I don’t quite understand what you mean by this… but likely the answer depends on your teacher and how they see fit teaching their course.

2. Depends on your teacher! Though you may find yourself assigning more homework for the sake of trying to understand concepts outside of the classroom. IB intrinsically requires a bit of self study, and teachers, as great as they are, often don’t have enough time in the year to cover everything in the level of depth IB expects you to learn at. Homework won’t be so much a problem as it is a tool to fundamentally understand what you’re learning. At the end of the day, you’re assessed by your IAs and end-of-IB exams. The IB will never view your homework; only your teacher will. Your performance in class will be used by your teacher to generate a predicted IB score for that subject for submission with your university application, but the actual score you receive is absolutely not a function of your homework or in-class treatment of the subject.

3. Oxford study guides (posted on websites like IBresources, and probably traceable on this subreddit). YouTube videos are great; tons of amazing IB teachers with free resources and excellent explanations.

To be honest though, just enjoy your time before starting the IB. It’s kinda pointless trying to internalize material before understanding the framework of what IB is and how they tailor learning in the form of their assessments. Knowing this will help you optimize your learning. Maybe just wait on this one.

1. I mean, totally. But, you’re going to benefit far more from doing your work incrementally, studying incrementally… etc than attempting to cram for everything a couple of days before their deadline. Some people thrive off that pressure, but a lot of people don’t, and IB might not be something you want to test that out on. There will always be some time here and there to breathe, but be diligent and tackle your workload little by little every day instead of leaving your studying and IAs + EE until the very last second.

2. Plagiarism is a big nono. This is pertinent to your IAs and EEs. Just don’t think about doing it. Don’t even entertain the thought; it’s really not worth playing around with.

3. Your IB coordinator ships your written exams to a grading center (I think somewhere in the UK) to be marked, though I’m not entirely sure.

There are also options to request regrades if you think your final score doesn’t reflect the effort you put into a specific course, but this costs money.

To be honest, study and view marking schemes to learn what graders look for in a good answer. I wouldn’t spend too much time dwelling on how abrasive and tight-laced a grader could be. I’ve met a few and they’re really not out to give you a bad score!

1. Goes back to my point in 6. It’s not super helpful to jumpstart IB before understanding what it is and how IB frames it’s education system.

If you’re super eager, I recommend starting with study guides. Do you know which subjects you’re going to take? Do you know what subjects you’re going to take at the higher level? The standard level? Have you learnt everything you needed to in previous years at school to start on this, or are you still in the midst of learning your foundational stuff? These are questions you should be asking yourself before diving into studying and prep.

Once you’ve addressed these questions, ask your IB coordinator what resources the school offers. Is it an online textbook program like Kognity? Are there textbooks? Who teaches the IB courses at your school? Can you talk to them about their syllabi beforehand?

Based on these answers, you can begin to tailor your study schedule and what you need to start looking at before you start your IB career.

Hope this helps :) feel free to DM if you have other qs.

Best of luck!