Four of Overseas Family School’s perfect scorers from 2021’s International Baccalaureate exams share their top study tips!
Most parents would agree that exam season is one of the most stressful times for everyone at home. Exams can be nerve-wracking for your child, especially if they’re sitting for the most important ones in their academic year, like the International Baccalaureate (IB) papers. On the other hand, it’s also natural for parents to feel worried and wonder if their kids are coping well with exam stress.
To help you and your child cope with the upcoming exams, we asked four of Overseas Family School’s (OFS)’s perfect IB scorers from OFS Class of 2021 to share some study tips that have helped them through their exam period…
1. Learn to appreciate each of the chosen subjects
By Samarth Gowda
Samarth struggled with subjects like HL Mathematics and SL French when he just started his IB Diploma studies. Instead of ‘fighting’ these subjects, he looked for ways to appreciate and engage with them intellectually. “I tried to find ways to connect these subjects with things I liked,” he shared. “For instance, I tried watching some of my favourite movies and TV shows in French instead of English, and changed my phone’s default language to French! This forced me to constantly engage with the language to understand what I was watching or doing, which greatly helped my fluency and vocabulary in the process. For Maths, I watched videos on interesting mathematical patterns or problems from YouTube channels such as 3Blue1Brown and blackpenredpen. These videos showed me how powerful and fun maths can be, which helped me stay motivated and improve at studying Maths in school!”
2. Plan ahead, but don’t be afraid to take breaks!
By Miho Hamada
Given the workload, studying for the IB Diploma is no easy feat. As such, perfect scorer Miho planned her studying time accordingly by trying to tackle small portions at a time to avoid feeling overwhelmed. She added, “Of course, not everything goes as planned, but at least attempting this allowed me to make sufficient time for all the assessments.” But that doesn’t mean you should be studying all day, in fact, Miho is also part of OFS’ Tigers basketball team. Wanting to stay healthy both physically and mentally, she decided to continue playing in the competitive basketball team until her final exams. “I believe that joining the team and playing until the final IB exams pushed me to plan ahead and procrastinate less, which consequently put less stress on myself,” she said.
3. Make notes and try doing past years’ papers.
By Noam Segel
Noam only spoke limited English when she joined OFS in Grade 10. While the school’s rapid English language acquisition program supported her and helped her to transition quickly to mainstream classes, Noam also made it a point to make notes and revise each topic while they were being taught. The top scorer shared, “make notes ahead of time so that when you get to the final month, you can focus on summarising and revising them. I also recommend attempting to solve past year papers and revising past assessments to make sure you fully understand your mistakes.”
4. Give every work your best.
By Sunaina Borkar
Staying consistent is something that has helped Sunaina through her studies and exam period. Whether it’s a mini project or an important exam – she has always strived to put her best foot forward for each of them. “I always strived to do my best for every piece of work, whether it was a unit test or a final IA. And in the end, all that effort added up and enabled me to build a strong foundation that I could carry with me into my IB exams. If you try your best to start off with a solid base from the beginning of IB, come exam time, revision will be a lot less stressful, and you will definitely get the results you’ve worked for!” she said.
OFS’ 2021 cohort produced five out of 1,200 perfect scorers worldwide + a 96.8% passing rate
OFS’ IB results are even more remarkable in light of its inclusive, open-entry admissions and exams policies. As the school believes that every student can succeed, OFS students are not preselected into the Diploma program. Any student who wishes to pursue the IB Diploma program is allowed and encouraged to do so. In the May 2021 IB exam session, over 150 OFS students were awarded IB diplomas, with an impressive 33% of the diplomas awarded to the prestigious IB Bilingual Diplomas as well. The school’s 2021 IB results are a testament that the school’s policy does indeed lead to more personal successes.
Congratulations to cohort 2021, and all the best to those who will be sitting for their exams!
This post is in partnership with Overseas Family School.