Midway through IBDP: a Rumination

What I’d like to spend a little bit of time talking about in this post is about something known as the International Baccalaureate programme (don’t worry, it took me over a decade of school before I learned how to spell that without the need of a dictionary). I write this with the presumption that readers have some knowledge of what the IB programme is, or better yet, is actually a student in the programme. This is not an explanation of what the IB programme is, or a recitation of the wonders that it will do for your international-mindedness and critical thinking and university applications. Instead, it is some of my thoughts, now that I am nearing the finish of the first year of my third and final IB educational programme, the IB Diploma. Of course, because I am only halfway through the IB Diploma, some of these thoughts can change, and probably will change, later on.

The MYP as Preparation for the DP

What’s been on my mind quite a bit as I go through the DP is what I spent the past five years of my life doing: the IB MYP programme. Despite both coming from the IBO, the MYP and the DP are very different beasts. One focuses on open-ended inquiry, concepts and varied assessment; the other on learning from the syllabus and exam-taking. (Of course, this is oversimplification; test-taking happens in the MYP and assessment in the DP is more varied than I make it sound, but you get the point).

It is often said that the MYP is good preparation for the DP programme. At this point in the DP, however, I’m not quite sure if I agree. In the MYP, there really is much less of an emphasis on test-taking than in DP. Let’s use Mathematics as an example. In MYP there are four criteria in which you are assessed on, and typically, two of these criteria will be assessed in tests while the other two will be assessed in written investigations that are not completed under exam conditions. All these criteria are weighted equally, and as such it is possible for someone to never reach the highest bands in their tests, but score extremely well on their investigations, and thus receive a full mark for their final grade in Maths. Enter the DP and you will find that with the sole exception of the internal assessment, which typically would not even be submitted until the senior year, assessment is purely in the form of test taking. Any students who had scored well in Maths in MYP on the merit of their investigations are in for a shock in the DP.

So if the MYP does not focus on test-taking, then what does it do? It focuses on cultivating skills and understanding big interdisciplinary concepts. This is not a knock on the MYP. Instead, it is praise. While I haven’t been in other educational systems and cannot comment on how innovative the MYP is, I have certainly benefitted from many things in the MYP. And it is clear that skills in the MYP are very useful for completing internal assessments in the DP, which tend to require a lot of writing, researching, analysing and reflecting: just like in the MYP. In particular, the Personal Project is geared for helping you be successful in the Extended Essay.

But internal assessments only counts for perhaps 30% of a course’s final grade. The DP really boils down to the final IB exams. And it is in this that the MYP simply does not do enough to prepare students. The Paper 1 exam in IB science courses, a daunting array of confusing multiple choice questions? Nothing like that will be found in the MYP, where multiple choice is more often than not disdained.

Overall, I think that it is a shame that the IB, which built both programmes, have failed to bridge the gap a little better.

The CAS Programme

I’ve always been skeptical about ‘making’ students do things outside of class. CAS looks like trying to turn your life into a homework assignment, and quite honestly sometimes things like community service really should come from yourself, not because someone is forcing you to do it. You don’t make someone volunteer for community service. But I wanted to like the CAS programme. Fundamentally I agree with its core ideals, of engaging with the wider community and more well-rounded development.

Yet the execution of CAS is pretty terrible. CAS in the IB is based around writing reflections about the activities you do in three categories: creativity, action and service. You have to make sure every activity you do fulfils some learning outcomes, such as “collaboration” or “global value”. The result? Students are forced to sit down and make up things about how much playing an instrument is going to benefit the wider global community, or how much collecting trash will help make them more collaborative individuals. In the end, there are times when I feel like the value of these activities decrease because of 1) the fact that students are forced to do them and 2) they have to write a load of reflections making up value about them that may or may not exist. It defeats the spirit of actually doing CAS.

There simply has to be a better way of approaching this.

…And the Many Myths about IB

Reading this post, it might seem like I do not have much positive to say about the IB. That isn’t true; I think I’ve benefitted a lot from it, even though most of the time I will not be in the mood to admit that (it’s hard to be when you’re constantly having to slave away for it). And here I want to dispel some negative myths.

Firstly, the myth of the no-sleep IB student. Of course, I’m only a junior and the real wave of internal assessments hasn’t hit me yet. But let’s be honest: if I can survive nearly a year of IB and still not be sleep deprived, then the myth of 2 years of not sleeping is simply not true.

Secondly, the myth that you must have no life to be in the IB. I will be the first to admit that I am not the best example of an IB student with much of a life (as many of my friends will be more than happy to testify), but there are plenty of people who squeeze IB in with a bunch of extracurriculars. Perhaps that’s just because they need CAS- but the fact that they can do it means it’s not true you need to have no life.