Less than 24 hours to go – what to do?

Tomorrow morning IB History Paper 1 is scheduled for all students taking history, whether at HL or SL.

All schools are taking exams on one of three subjects:

• Peacemaking/peacekeeping
• Arab-Israeli Crisis
• Communism in Crisis

Most of our students are currently in Math Paper 2 – what can they do between the end of that exam and the roll call for Paper 1 tomorrow?

Of course, they should get a good night’s sleep, but that response will probably cause eyes to roll from Reykjavik to Tierra del Fuego, so let’s focus on what may reassure them:

• Review the exam itself, paying attention to the demands of each question
• Go over the command terms – do they know what it means to:
  • explain the message conveyed
  • compare and contrast
  • evaluate ‘with reference to origins and purpose’
  • analyze
  • discuss
• Review their notes: this is the least content heavy of the exams; it is more skills based. So, while detailed knowledge will help (especially with question 4) it is not as necessary as it will be for Papers 2 and 3.

Many of students will have Chemistry in between Papers 1 and 2 so they need to be pragmatic with their last-minute studying.  If we could teach them the necessary information in 48 hours we would have done so ages ago and saved everyone valuable time.  Since that is not the case, they should focus on what they can do given they have another content-heavy course in between two history exams.

Tomorrow: last-minute tips for Paper 2 (short answer: relax, review, repeat – oh, and shower, too)