I know that I haven't posted in a while. This is why I have decided to tell you about
what it is that has caused me to have to not talk with you all recently. IB testing.
I had told you about the terrors of IB scheduling, and here is how it's going so far.
One thing you have to know about IB tests: some years, one subject is killer and another
is not that bad. In fact, the IB teachers classify the years sometimes as "the year
that the Japanese test murdered" or "that one year where the History questions
were gorgeous."
So, we'll go in chronological order:
English A1 HL Paper 1: You get about a page of prose and an approximately page long poem
(give or take). You pick one or the other, and you have 2 hours to write a commentary on
it. That means describe the general feel, reference the literary techniques that achieve
this effect and kind of tie it all together with what this means in the larger scheme.
The "why do we care?" aspect. This went very well this year. Two great
choices. In fact, I'm usually a poetry person on commentaries, but I felt that I should
take a peek at the prose option, and it was very nice. So I chose that one.
History HL Paper 1: There are three sections: Soviet Union (usually Lenin or Stalin
based), Single-Party States (usually Maoist China or Castro's Cuba), and Cold War. You
choose one section. Because of what we study, Inglemoor kids usually book it straight to
the Cold War section. I was no exception. Some will go to the Single-Party or Soviet and
see if it's something they did their IA or EE on, in which case, they'll try it. You
don't know what aspect of the topic it will be. Cold War this year was Detente. I hear
that SPS was Mao's Great Leap Forward and Soviet was Stalin's Five-Year Plans. But I
didn't even look at them. So, there are a series of documents. Primary source or
secondary source. They relate to the overall topic (so, this year, detente). Then there
are a few questions about the documents. Compare and contrast documents a and e. Evaluate
the origin, purpose, values and limitations of document d. Stuff like that. Then there
is a short essay question that relates to the documents, but you can pull in outside
knowledge on the essay question. You get 1 1/2 hours on this one, I think. It wasn't bad
this year, especially since our history teacher has only once not guessed correctly on
what the topic was going to be...he just finds patterns and guesses the Paper One topic
with 11/12 accuracy.
History HL Paper 2: You get a whole boatload of essay topics. You pick 2 (Inglemoor
students choose them out of the Rise and Rule of Single-Party States section and the Cold
War section). You get 1 1/2 or 2 hours. Start writing. This was very do-able, but not the
the-smiles-are-appearing-on-our-faces-as-we-read wonderful.
History HL Paper 3: You get 25 essay questions pertaining to your chosen region (we chose
Western Hemisphere aka "The Americas"), and you pick 3 of them and write time.
2 1/2 hours on this. Inglemoor kids usually look first for the Great Depression
questions, the turn of the century American foreign policy in Latin America questions and
the Civil Rights movement questions. If there is one that's not great in those, there
are sometimes some good Cold War questions, usually a pretty good go-to on WWII homefront
and for those who are good at it, US Constitution, Constitutional Congress or Articles of
Confederation shows up at least once. I went for the Foreign Policy, one of the Civil
Rights (they had a bunch this year), and the WWII homefront (which kind of doubled as an
end of the Great Depression) question.
Biology HL Paper 1: 40 multiple choice questions. 1 hour. Designed to destroy you.
Approximately 50% will get you a 4 on this (assuming that you basically bomb the other
two papers). The grading scale is a 1-7. 4 is passing, 5 is a "good job," 6
is a "you really know your stuff" and a 7 is a "dude, you're a freaking
genius in this subject." 24-hours after the test is over, our teacher gets the
exams, and our bio teacher told us how she would have answered the questions on the
multiple this morning. If my calculations are correct, I got a 25/40. Plus, IB has a
world-wide curve.
Biology HL Paper 2: Some data-based questions...which could kill me. And then 4, 3-part
long response (pick two). It was actually kind of hard to pick two. The first was about
plants, which I hate, so it got chucked out of the mix first off. The second was about a)
Down's Syndrome b) oogenesis and c) ethics of IVF. Let's put it this way, someone told
me, "I read that question and thought, "this is Hannah's question.""
I did that one. Then the third was about a)DNA vs. RNA b)DNA replication and c)enzyme
activity. I liked that one too, and ultimately chose it as my second. The third was
about a) immunization mechanism b) pathogen resistance and c) concerns of immunization. I
was tempted by that one, but ultimately didn't choose it.
Biology HL Paper 3: Option paper. For the sciences (and some of the others...they existed
in Psych too), your teacher chooses two specific topics that you're going to study that
not every IB school does. Ours were neurobiology/behavior, and advanced evolution
studies. So, this was just questions. It went fairly well.
Calculus (Math Methods) SL Paper 1: Kill time. 10-15 questions (ours was 12 I think). No
calculator. 1 1/2 hours. TERRIBLY HARD QUESTIONS THIS YEAR. This will probably kill my
IB score.
Calculus (Math Methods) SL Paper 2: 10-15 questions (I think we were a 14). Calculators
allowed. 1 1/2 hours. Why was this so much more do-able than PAper 1? I don't know, but
the questions were all more plausibly done.
English A1 HL Paper 2: You get a bunch of essay questions. Pick one, reference
literature you read in class in the Group 3 group of literature. That's kind of like
your option in literature. Ours was drama. Have fun. 2 hours. This went quite well.
Some good stuff. Since I'm obsessed with theatre lighting, the "explain the
significance of the use of lighting" was a great question.
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