CRAM CRAM CRAM
Posted on January 17th, 2008 in Quotables, School/IB Program, World for the Week |
Ah, so the dreaded IB Mock Exam season is upon us. So are the English Oral Exams. So are a bizallion other things. A lot of people are going out of their minds right now walking around dazed holding a thick package of Yeats poems in one hand, and Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar in the other. Basically, the Oral Exam is a mandatory External Assessment. We’re given 18 poems (Yeats and Heaney), 1 novel (Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf), 1 memoir (Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje) and 1 play (Julius Caesar, choices depend on the school). During the exam, we randomly draw a 30-50 line package from the available 80 or so choices, get 20 minutes to prepare notes, and then have 15 minutes to analyze the passage and answer questions. Everything is taped on a cassette and sent to the IB Headquarters in Switzerland. Since I’m in Higher Level English, we’re expected to do about 200% more than the Standard Level people in terms of materials to be covered and depth of analysis. What a pain in the ass. I’m presenting tomorrow at 2:50 pm. DON’T GIVE ME JULIUS CAESAR OR ONE OF HEANEY’S OBSCURE POEMS. THANK YOU.
Has anyone seen the new Macbook Air? I don’t care about its functions and whatnot since I rarely buy Apple products, but look-wise, it’s stunning.
And isn’t the slipcover just adorable?
Haha yes, I’m all into the aesthetics and design!
Here’s how my next few weeks look.
Fri. Jan 18 - English Orals, Physics Test, 2 Labs Due, French Performance
Sun. Jan 20 - Youth Parliament Cabinet Meeting
Mon. Jan 21 - History Paper 1 Due
Wed. Jan 23 - Math HL Test on Solids of Revolution (Calculus)
Fri. Jan 25 - NO SCHOOL, STUDY!!
Mon. Jan 28 - University Alumni Interview AHH!
Tue. Jan 29 - Math HL Mock Exam, History SL Mock Exam
Wed. Jan 30 - English HL Mock Exam, French SL Mock Exam
Thur. Jan 31 - Chemistry SL Mock Exam
Fri. Feb 1 - Physics HL Mock Exam, Math Portfolio Assignment (Wow, in one week, about 80% of our term mark is decided!)
Surprisingly I haven’t been over-the-top stressed. Other stressed people are keeping me sane. And to finish off with a quotation…
Math HL Teacher: —–, you’re sleeping in my class again. Did your girlfriend keep you up last night?! *roars of laughter*
Student: *quietly to self* No, I was having a Menage A Trois with Yeats, Mrs. Dalloway, and Julius Caesar.
Ahh… gotta love math class!
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I'm Crystal, a Canadian who thinks she can take on the world simply by getting up each morning. They call me the caffeinated IBer wandering on the Internet. 
11 Responses
Dear god, the IB program seems a royal pain in the rear. It’s far more rigorous (and ridiculous) than anything I’ve ever seen. Colleges really ought to take that into account :/ Best of luck to you on all your mocks and assignments and whatnot!
LOL @ the quote
If they’re mock exams, they aren’t the actual exams, right? Do they count as midterms? Good luck though!
I can’t believe that you actually have to tape analysis. For the AP, it’s MC and 3 essays on analysis. No taping at all. Taping only sounds like something for language–haha, I guess I learned something new today.
LOL! That student in your maths class officially wins at life! I wish I were that witty!
@ Yingna - Yep, they’re just a taste of what’s to come, count as Midterms and 50+% of term 2. Hmm… time to learn two years of junk in a week!
Good luck with the exam.
The macbook air does look good but I’m not sure about the slip case, looks more like an envelope and the functions are terrible on it.
oh I did the IB exams too…everyone in college was like OMG THIS IS HARD but I was totally chill cos IB was waaaayy harder. I’m so glad I did it thoug, because it was such a good prepatory two years for university. Goodluck on mock exams, and don’t stress because everyone I know, including myself did much better on the real ones than the mocks. My final score was 4 points higher than my overall predicted, bonza! HL english is a breeze, just BS as much as you can! hehe
Good luck with your exams =) and with your schedule. It seems so tight. All the best
Good luck with all the English junk. I believe the entire English program at my school is completely screwed up save for one class, the 11th grade AP Prep class. The rest is just trivial and irrelevant nonsense.
The MacBook Air looks so nifty. I’ve never bought an Apple, so I don’t know if I’d be willing to make the switch now… when I buy a laptop for college. I need to be compatible with everyone else, and I haven’t read many great reviews about MS Office for Macs.
Good luck with all those exams! I hate having so many things due at/around the same time. :ouch:
That Mac Air design is awesome. I usually use PCs, but even I would buy that!
Oh my goodness… it’s not a wonder why the students are walking around half dazed then… I wish you the best on your exams!! Hopefully they’re not as hard as it seems…
I’m not a Mac person, that man… that is a stunning look and amazingly thin!!
Oh my, knowing that I have to go through that English oral exam ordeal next year frightens me. Good luck with that and your mock exams!
That Macbook is ridiculously skinny. I ought to buy one of those. Right now, I have stick with my PC