Many of these were written by juniors, to advise new juniors. The rest were written by sophomores, to advise new sophomores. They are otherwise in no particular order.

 

 

A Word of Advice

You are in one of the most recognized and prestigious learning environments in the entire world: the International Baccalaureate Program. Moreover, you are in the Bartow wing, which has been locally and nationally recognized for its outstanding output of well-rounded and virtuous students. Because you are under Bartow IB’s all-encompassing halo, you have made an unspoken agreement to uphold the values and the image that the school and its previous students have set for you. However, this is not a free lunch. You cannot just take that good reputation and claim it to be all of your own merit. By attending this school, you also take on all of the responsibilities that come with it. The benefits of this relationship add a nice golden tinge to the way people already view you.

My biggest advice to you is to not ruin that image. It takes a long time for you to gain the respect and trust of those around you. It is not freely given, but rather something that should be rightfully earned. Be caretakers of the reputation that you have built for yourself as well as the one that has been afforded to you by your association with this school. You are entering your first official year in the program. I will not lie to you – it is going to get extremely tough at times. There will be nights that you will not sleep simply because of the workload. There will be times when you will have to prioritize and forgo studying one subject in favor of another in more dire need. There will be times when you just bomb a lab or an assignment. Some teachers’ tests will literally kill your mind and leave you brain drained before the day has even begun. Consequently, your grades may not be as high as you are used to them being. This especially affects those of you who are vying to maintain your position in your class’s Top Ten or just try to rival everyone in general. In all this however, do not let all that stress, competitiveness and desire to be number one cloud your better judgment.

You will be tempted more this year than in your past years to submit to cheating. I know the feeling. The stakes are higher than ever, and you only have two more years until you graduate. Nevertheless, even with such a narrow time window, there is still plenty of time to have your reputation tainted. Your IB class is like a little Mafia/Soprano family (albeit, more nerdy). Everybody knows everybody else’s business – even though we don’t even care to. The second you take out your phone to look up an answer to a question or snap a picture of the test to be sent out to your friends or even just dish out what the test was like, you are already putting your integrity on the line.

There are always eyes watching. No matter how sneaky you think are, somebody will always see. Once they do, you are done for. Teachers and friends will lose respect for you. They may never say it to your face, but behind your back, they will always be whispering about how you only do well in school because you cheat. And trust me on this one; what those people say can be brutal. More pressingly, though, you risk the possibility of expulsion from this program – especially if the IBO found out themselves and investigated. In this late stage of the game, for such an event of academic dishonesty to appear on your records even only once, this could potentially affect every aspect of your high school and even college application life. Yes, colleges and scholarships do look at your disciplinary history.

Don’t take that risk. Resist that temptation to stoop down to that level. Keep your honesty unblemished. Keep your integrity intact. As the timeless adage warns, your reputation is like a mirror – you have to work to keep it clean and shiny. What people see in your mirror is what is reflected by you on the inside to the outside world. Once that image breaks, it can be pieced together, but the cracks will always be seen no matter how hard you try to hide it. Think before you even consider cheating. Is that single “A” really worth losing the invaluable faith that people have put in you?

Gabriella Liwanag

 

It has definitely been an eventful year for me and as I approach my final year of high school, it does make me reflect on the previous year. I have learned a lot from my achievements as well as my mistakes this year and I would be glad to share what knowledge I have gained with the underclassmen.

As I recollect this year I do the one major thing I learned that is worth noting on is my work ethic, and how it needs to change. The first thing probable every person will say is you have to have a good work ethic and not procrastinate, however based on personal experience I have little faith students would change their work ethic based on what I have to say. I believe people who procrastinate will continue to so and those who are on top of their work will stay there but I digress, I do think becoming more proactive in one’s school work is the most important quality a student should have and it is why I am mentioning it. I have learned time and time again that ignoring work just delays the inevitable and procrastination only makes easy things hard, hard things harder. On a side note, something funny I should mention is while writing this essay I took a break and went on the internet and while I was browsing I found this quote, “When you find yourself on the Internet when you’re supposed to be writing, you’ve already lost. It’s even beyond procrastination when you end up on the Internet.”

The second, and final, thing I will leave the students with is to not be so stressed about school. I know it completely contradicts what I said earlier but I have seen many of my friends worry over every little quiz, test, and homework assignment. Now I’m not advocating that students should just stop caring but I do think that some of them need to lighten up and realize that while grades are important they aren’t the be all end all of our future. I believe there is a good balance between the two, however I am not a good role model for this philosophy as my grades, while nowhere near terrible, have definably suffered from my more apathetic attitude towards some things. To conclude, all I really would say to the underclassmen is don’t procrastinate, remember to have fun, and of course don’t procrastinate.

Anthony Sartin

 

Dear Person,

Let me tell you about your life, because trust me I’ve been there. I’m sure you thought your mini EE was tough, I’m sure you think a lot of things have been though. I know you expect that next year will be difficult to say the least. Yet, there is hope if you follow my instructions. First, move in with your best friend immediately! Your parents may have other ideas, but those ideas are wrong! If you parents value your mental health they will support you in this decision. Choose your best friend wisely, this person should motivate you and not distract you. Most of all this person should be a fellow IB student. For the next two years of your life you will be drowning in things to do, so it is ultra-convenient to have your best friend living with you. This allows you to maintain a strong social life, without wasting time that could be spent doing homework. Best friends are also useful in explaining concepts you do not understand and quizzing you, so make sure you pick a smart best friend.

So, when it is two in the morning and you’re sitting in your car outside of McDonald’s, past driving curfew, because your internet is not working, your parents are out of town, and your group essay is due tomorrow. Just keep pushing through it. Also, do not panic, when you try to leave McDonalds and your car won’t start and you have no one to call because your parents are out of town, and you can’t call the cops because you’re out after curfew! This is just a sign from God that you need to stay in the parking lot and keep working on the essay IT IS NOT DONE YET, and at least you have your best friend next to you! The most valuable aspect of living with your best friend is that when you are up all night, you may take comfort that you are not alone.

I would also advise that you never give up on your dreams, just keep sleeping. Sleep is a privilege that must be earned. From now on your new goal in life will be “when can I go back to sleep.” Life is now that thing that interrupts your sleep. Now stop reading this essay and GO TO SLEEP (not you Ms. Frisbie).  Also, study for the SAT now, do not put it off because you will not study. I’m going to bed now (not really) and in case you’re wondering yes, my car did start and we left McDonald’s without getting in trouble. In IB there are three things: Friends, Sleep, and Grades. In this program you may only have two of the three. Though, if your best friend moves in with you, then you can have all three. (Beating the system like a boss!)

Sincerely,

Abigail Haynes

 

Dear fellow students,

As you move into your junior year at IB/BHS, there are a few things that you should consider.  First of all, I know that we all give into procrastination at one point or another; but, and I cannot say this strongly enough, procrastination is not your friend. You will easily glide through junior year if you mind your deadlines and stick to your schedule.  Time management is the way to make your last two years of IB go smoothly with as little stress as possible.

Also, it is important to remember to remember to start logging your CAS hours from day one junior year.  You do not want to be the student scrambling to log in CAS hours at the end of the year.  If you simply sit down and log into ManageBac, you will more than likely be done within twenty minutes.  Speaking from personal experience, you can easily have more than half your CAS hours done within junior year.

Finally, remember to have fun! Find something that you enjoy doing for your CAS project and find an activity on or off campus that you enjoy.  School is not everything guys and having a bit of freedom is necessary.  You’re coming into a really cool group of teachers and I know that you will have fun in their classes.

Sincerely,

Laura Dinwiddie

 

In my experiences as a IB student I can attest to three things in which you must do to be somewhat successful. These are based on my follies and may be discarded if you deem that need be and this words will be more useful to those that may not take school as seriously as others.

1. Make sure you eat
2. Find a study buddy (or someone who gets the subject more than yourself)
3. Don’t take on more that you can handle

I have had a problem with not eating this year during school, actually every year, but the effect was profound this year especially concerning this class. By the end of the day or even in the middle of it, I tended to be drowse and dozed off, usually in Mrs. Frisbie’s class where I would be abruptly awoken to the sound of her snorting (I think. I’m actually not sure what sound it is though it could possibly be snoring and mocking those asleep). This happened more times than I would like to have happened. And for those heading into pre-calc, I am not the best math student and most likely linger near the bottom of the class in the race for the best, so for those choosing this path, PAY ATTENTION. It may inherent to do that, but you’d be surprised about how many other things you can do other than listen to how to math, sleeping being a main one. Solving this problem has been as easy as eating snacks throughout the day, getting some sort of caloric intake. You need energy to keep your brain functioning and sharp so eat, no matter what your reasoning against it should be. It’s also recommended to drink water every hour, so I also bring tea with me to school, just a thought.

Unless you are the genius everyone comes to for help find someone to help you with your work, on occasions you won’t know what to do on an assignment or understand a certain concept, and having someone there who does just makes life on you easier because now you don’t need to go back into the book and learn for yourself. Having a friend explaining a concept seems to make the retention and understanding of a concept stick rather that self-taught methods. This applies to all classes. And also if no one understands definitely ask the teacher to explain, no use in sitting there in your stupidity.

At this point in your school life, you may think you have it all worked out and your schedule is worked out to the point to where you want to add more. Kudos and props to you but don’t take it too far. You can only be stretched so far before you break. Apply this to procrastinating for example. If you have an assignment due on the first of November and its October twentieth, find time over one weekend to put some work into it, for you don’t know that that weekend is also a band competition as well as your grandma’s eightieth birthday and a YIG requirement to turn in that you need to work on and you have journal questions due that day too. You don’t want too many of those days for they run you right into the ground and everything around you starts to fall apart.

So there are my wise words, take them as you will.

Ben Esper

 

Welcome new student! If you are reading this letter, then you are about to enter the eleventh year of the IB program. If this is true, continue reading. If not, please burn this letter, because it is classified and you do not have the security clearance to read ahead. Anyway, you are about to enter the new school year. I’m sure you’re nervous, but don’t be. The sleep deprivation this year will be minimal.

In the eleventh grade, you will find yourself taking a large amount of AP courses. This is normal. By the end of the year, you will have several AP exams to look forward to, so pre-planning your study time is essential. If you keep to a well-thought out schedule, then by the end of the year you’ll be coasting through the exams. It is important to remember that throughout the year, you are going to want to keep detailed notes of your studies in clear handwriting. Oftentimes, you will have to refer to these past notes so you can build on what you already know. Also, it would be beneficial to acquire a study partner so that you two can exchange notes and quiz each other. As a side benefit, this allows you to give each other notes if you are ever sick enough to miss a day.

Another hint for the new school year is to look outside the classroom for information. In classes such as Chemistry, you may find that you will need more information than the notes given. You have several options, such as reading ahead in the textbook, to using the Crash Course videos found on YouTube. This is recommended, in order for you to be sufficiently ahead of the course by the time you start on Internal Assessments for your sixth course. As a general warning, while AP courses are difficult for the learning curve, they are manageable, but IAs and IB courses take up most a person’s time during the year, so it is best to be ahead by the time they come around.

Arthur Christoffersen

 

If I were to advise a student coming into Pre-Calculus next year, the first thing I would tell the person is to use the review questions that are posted for each test. Those questions are perfect study guides for each unit, and the one time I didn’t use them to study I got a C on a test. They also shouldn’t be taken for granted because no other teacher puts that much effort into helping the students prepare. I mean, the review is explicitly for the test. Use them each time and the student can save a lot of time on cram nights.

Secondly, I found that finding a lunch spot helps me to relax during the day. Junior year is very hectic, and even if they are a sophomore this can help. Knowing that there is some continuity is a comforting idea, and knowing I have that place to go has helped reduced stress during the day. Classrooms are great choices because it’s a closed environment that is away from the rambunctious Bartow High kids. So the person and their friends should pick a spot early on and make it their “spot” because it helps to stabilize at least one part of the IB school day.

The last thing I would say is to be sure that the person is doing something outside of school (other than CAS, that’s just more stress). The student is going to have an intense amount of work throughout the year, and they don’t need to spend their Friday nights cramming for something on Tuesday. Now, I’m not advocating procrastination because that only increases the stress, but I feel that it is important for them to have some chill time with some friends at least once in the week. Even just going out somewhere and watching a movie or eating dinner is a great way to relieve stress, which is the number one survival technique in IB. Also, doing extracurricular activities can form bonds with people outside of the IB life, which I have found to be an important concept. Having people that have a different mindset about academic life really helps me put everything into perspective, which allows me to calm down and to not stress over the little things like a 7/10 on a Spanish quiz. Basically it’s all about stress relief junior year, and friends are the best way to do this.

William Gibson

 

Dear Incoming Junior,

First of all, congratulations on making it this far in the program. It’s more than a lot of people have ever accomplished by this time. Unfortunately, it only gets harder from here on in. You’ve just been through what is widely considered the easiest year of the program and you are about to be launched into one hectic maelstrom of a year (at least, relative to Sophomore year). The biggest change you will notice is that pretty much all of your classes now have an AP weighting, at the least, with everything that that implies. Classwork gets harder, you get more deadlines, and you get more exams to study for. Fun right?

The most important piece of advice I have to give is definitely to not procrastinate on CAS. Just find stuff that you like to do that fits under an area and just get it done. If you do wait, you’ll be digging yourself a nice hole that you’ll have to struggle to get out of later. Remember that CAS is an auto pass/fail condition, so just do it. It really isn’t very hard if you do things that you like.

Besides that, I suppose it would be a good idea to take courses that are enjoyable as well. I mean, unless you’re gunning to be Valedictorian or something it really isn’t blasphemy to take a more laid back and less weighted course (Like philosophy hon.). Take the science course that you like the most, not Bio because it’s the “easiest”, not physics because people told you to. Just take what interests you.

Long story short, last year was easy, this year is hard. You will have more pressure and it will be more stressful. Just keep working at it and it will eventually be done with. I will say though, get used to the feeling of Junior year as soon as possible though, because it never really changes.

Good luck to you,

Zachary Gollert

 

The subject of mathematics is what I have always felt most comfortable with in school. IB Precalculus added a large quantity of new material, but the assignments and tests never felt overwhelming or rushed. The schedule for covering the curriculum is clearly well-organized and succinct, a quality that I would prefer to be apparent in all of my courses.

As far as advice is concerned, I believe I have at least some useful input. I would recommend that every student do their homework assignment on the day the material was taught rather than waiting until the next day. The reasoning behind this concept is simple; waiting until the next day will always cause a greater level of stress to develop and will make doing your assignment much more difficult due to the lapse of time between hearing the information and applying it efficiently. Completing assignments as soon as they are received will eternally be a good idea. I ask that students refrain from procrastinating on projects, especially for English and whatever AP science course they choose, for teachers in IB, as they are supposed to, become increasingly strict through high school to better prepare students for college professors that may be even less lenient on due dates. If the above advice is followed to the letter, then falling asleep in class should rarely be an issue. Aside from assignments and projects, tests will also start becoming more difficult in 11^th grade. In particular, students will be surprised that they will have to actually study in order to do well on tests in classes like English, US History, and Spanish for the first time in, perhaps, their entire academic careers. I do not usually have trouble with mathematics, but someone who does have difficulty understanding the material should ask questions frequently and ensure that he or she has maintained the material by looking back on previous lessons after completing an assignment on newer concepts. Studying and memorizing formulas, relationships, and the unit circle will also contribute to success in IB Precalculus. Finally, I request that the incoming students try to get along with their teachers and cease from making rude or obnoxious remarks because teachers already have to go through the horrible process of teaching the same material for two days in a row.

The IB program will continue to get harder as time progresses for the incoming juniors. Budgeting one’s time will become more and more important as well. I ask the new students to not take their studies lightly but work with genuine effort, for such effort will be an absolute necessity if they wish to maintain or obtain high GPA’s. I am glad that I was able to have a good experience in this mathematics course and hope for yet another success next year. Thank you.

Mason Gore

 

Dear incoming Junior,

Listen up! You’ve heard the exhausted monologues of every upperclassman in which they complain about the terrors of drive-you-to-a-mental-breakdown homework nights that dominate junior year. I can’t deny that there will be some nights that you have a lot of homework, but you need to suck it up and learn to stay up a little later. This isn’t Pre-IB anymore and you’ll actually have to put a lot more thought into the things you are turning in. First thing’s first! Don’t cheat; teachers have this magical contraption that can tell them if you are: their brains. Oh, and the Internet does that too. So, listen in class, take notes, be engaged, and you’ll probably make it through this year free of severe bruises and bumps. You will have more AP classes than you know what to do with, and it’s very likely that you will be taking extra college classes at PSC for reasons that you don’t even understand. However, I’m here to make all of these impending and ominous events seem a little less intimidating with my Yoda-like advice.

The first and foremost issue with dealing with the gargantuan amounts of homework you receive is your preconceived idea you should tackle everything that’s due one day at a time because you’re tired and want more sleep. This is a bad idea. Remember the 5 P’s: Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance. Oh, and this may be an overused phrase, but following this rule always works: don’t procrastinate. When you’re up at two o’ clock in the morning working on your dissolved oxygen lab for Mrs. Kennon, you’re going to kick yourself for watching The Office instead of getting a head start. When you get home from school, a two-hour nap may seem tempting, but diving head first into your homework will save you more time than you could ever imagine. In APUSH, actually try to make connections because come the AP exam, you’ll be wondering why you know so many facts but not how they relate to each other. Pre-calculus is easier than you would think if you pay attention to what Ms. Frisbie is saying and beware the cards will magically say your name at the moment when you least understand what’s going on. Instead of focusing on the negative details that you find in any of your class curriculums, try to understand them so you will begin to feel more comfortable and accept that no school is perfect and you just need to do your best. Besides, that’s the whole reason you’re supposed to be here; after all, you’re an IB student that’s supposed to have an innate motivation to succeed. If you don’t understand what Señora Calvo is saying, you should probably get a tutor; things don’t get any easier from here on out (Buena suerte). TOK’s fun, it makes you think. You’ll see. You’re getting a new English teacher so I don’t have any advice there, sorry. Do extra credit because those assignments come few and far between. Also, try to be somewhat self-sufficient. Who knows, maybe your parents will both start traveling and you have to move in with some random(ish) family for your junior year (anything could happen). Begin studying for your AP exams because life doesn’t slow down for you just because you chose difficult classes. Oh, and respect your teachers. Most, if not all, put in a lot of effort to be a genuinely good educator of students that make up the #2 school in the nation (Woop, woop!).

Now that you have begun to stress about the academics side since I probably failed to make it seem less intimidating, let me advise you on everything else even if I’m wrong. Start working on CAS. It may seem easy to push aside because currently you have two years; however, junior year flies by in all the ways you don’t want it to. Volunteering is awesome and there’s always something to do or somebody to help. Do extracurricular activities that matter to you. If that’s a lot of things, then great. But remember, you ARE an IB student and there are solely 24 hours in the day. You are not superman/woman (that I know of) and you need to partition your time wisely. Besides all the extra stuff that looks great on a college application, there’s another essential element to surviving this program: make friends. Friends in this school are easy to make and they are enduring relatively the same struggles as you. They’ll help you to not go completely crazy. I don’t know, the benefits to making friends in IB are pretty endless so try to get involved and enjoy your company. It’s easy to alienate yourself due to the overwhelming stress and ignore your social life, but don’t. Anyways, I’m sure you’ll do great these next two years if you use your common sense and approach your academics and social life in an intelligent way. You’re an IB kid, so I know you’re capable of that. There will be ups and downs, but I think it will be worth it at the end. Sooooo… good luck ☺

Sammie Kunin

 

The advice I would give to a friend who is a year behind me and is about to take the same courses I have just completed would be to stay focused. The problems I faced during this year included the fact that I let myself get distracted from my main goal which was completing IB. I formed an attitude of indifference towards my grades and by the time I realized the mess I had made it was too late to clean it up. I advise my apprentices to not take pity on themselves. The main problem that often occurs is that IB students compare the amount of homework they have to the students who are not in the program. At this point it is just necessary to accept the fate that is IB and don’t think about the alternatives. The students just need to know what they have to do and get it done. One of the key skills that will aid an upcoming junior would be time managing skills. The workload isn’t as hectic as it seems unless you let it stockpile and limit yourself on the time you have to do it. The best advice I could offer is to suck it up and do the work or you will regret what results from not caring at all. It may be less stressful not to care but it will catch up to you in the end.

Eva Richardson

 

Dear bud,

If I were limited to only one piece of advice, it would be: TAKE THE CLASSES YOU ARE INTERESTED IN. I cannot even count the number of people who took Biology thinking that it would guarantee them a passing score on the AP and IB exams. If you are not interested in Biology or if you do not plan on Biology being any part of your college or future life, then please DO NOT TAKE THAT CLASS. Here is the deal, if you are forcing yourself to take a course you don’t actually want to take, then you will struggle; especially in Biology. In my opinion, understanding a certain matter depends partially on your willingness to understand it. In 9th grade, we had a girl in our class who refused to understand evolution not because the subject was difficult (it certainly was not…Kennon was only telling us the basic definition of evolution), but because it conflicted with her religion so she refused to accept it as something she needed to know. Please, don’t be that person who takes a class “to pass the exams,” only to complain about it every day. I know from personal experience, trust me. I have just about ZERO interest in Business, yet I took that as my Sixth Subject when I really should have taken Psychology or another science. I loathed taking notes and dreaded the days when I had to go to class. So, in order to make up for my screwup, I’m going to take IB Psych as a senior. See? Taking classes I care about.

So, let’s assume you do choose Biology as your science. Nice choice, Kennon is a phenomenon. Well…where should I start? The beginning would be a nice place. In all honesty, the first semester isn’t as bad as Kennon says. The first day of class she told us that the first semester “will be Hell.” Well, only if you procrastinate. Remember those days when Kennon gave you two days to complete labs? NOW YOU GET A WEEK!!! WHOOHOO! But, you probably will not start writing up the lab until the night before. Bad idea. Really, really bad idea. Trust me. These labs can be done in one night, but when I say “one night,” I mean exactly that. It will take you one whole night to do them. You will not sleep. Don’t do it. Do your stinkin’ labs when you get them. The entire first semester grades are basically labs and three tests, so DON’T SCREW UP THE LABS. They aren’t hard. I promise. I did well on the labs simply because I did what Kennon wanted. There may be times when you disagree with her, but let’s be honest here….you will not win the argument. At the end of the day, she’s the one in control, and she’s the teacher WITH EXPERIENCE. Just do what she tells you to do. It’s not hard. Now, about those Kennon tests… I just have one thing to say about them. They aren’t hard either. Crazy, right? Well, let me explain. Pulling all-nighters to study for a Kennon test will kill you. You will be too tired to think of the right answer. I know you probably think that is the only way to study, but you’re wrong. You’re just wrong. You need the sleep. Trust me on this…again, I speak from experience. I used to get two hours of sleep a day in the first semester because I thought the more I studied, the better I would do. Um wrong. NO. In the second semester, I studied for a max of two hours for a Kennon test, then went to bed around 10:30. Let me just say that I had a B in Bio for the first semester and an A in the second semester. Trust me on this, just study for a few hours THEN SLEEP. MAKE SURE YOUR BRAIN IS RESTED SO THAT IT CAN RETRIEVE THE INFORMATION. That is about all I have to say about Biology. Good luck. Don’t piss Kennon off…she’ll stop teaching. Oh! One last thing! The Plants Unit isn’t hard! Don’t listen to the people who tell you it is! You’ve got this!

Math!!! Pre-calc is a blast. It does take some getting used to. The teaching style is entirely different from what you’ve gotten used to in Algebra 2. Rather than having a million problems and their mothers for homework, you’ll have about 10 or less. Also, Frisbie goes over the test material in-depth. Don’t be like me. Don’t form your own mental barrier against math because you think it’s “hard.” That’s stupid, and you’re not stupid. In the first semester, that barrier prevented me from doing as well as I should have done. I looked over some of my tests and was astonished that I actually thought the material was sent from Hell. It’s really not bad at all. Just do your homework, and do the reviews! Everything will be peachy-keen in Pre-Calc, you’re in good hands. On to the next math class! STATS! Stats was probably my favorite class junior year. You’ll get a ton of homework. Naki has zero sympathy for that kind of stuff. But, it will help you so so so much! The Stats book is hilarious and extremely helpful. It also kinda helps that Naki is a great Stats teacher. Another thing…if you need help (from Naki or from Frisbie) ASK THE TEACHER. Once again, I KNOW THIS. I HAVE EXPERIENCED THIS. Let me tell you a story. Sophomore year, I didn’t understand parabolas and I was terrified to ask Naki, but I’m so glad I did. He’s not scary, I promise. He’s very kind and he will help. He’s your teacher…GO TO HIM. Oh, you think you can just ask a student for help? Um you’re wrong again. I did that for Pre-Calc, and it was arguably the worst decision I made junior year. See, I’ve done both. I’ve asked a teacher and I’ve asked a student. Do I even need to point out that the first option is the CORRECT option? Frisbie is a boss, and knows everything your little heart desires about math. So..please…ask your teacher for help, not your friend.

I think that is all I really have to say about specific classes. For English, don’t procrastinate blah blah do your journals blah blah read the books blah blah. Oh, and be ready for your entire thought process to change when you start TOK. Umm…play sports, they’re fun. Go outside. RUN! It’s a good way to relieve stress. Um, don’t cheat or I will personally catch you because I hate cheaters. Work hard, nap hard. Find a small group of friends that will lighten up your day. Don’t excessively talk about school outside of school. Don’t stress about your GPA. Don’t become ambitious to a fault, but dream big, bud.

Sincerely,

Haneen Ottallah

p.s. Sorry for the grammatical errors! And sorry if there are any typos!

 

Dear upcoming Junior,

Congratulations! You’re finally beginning the “real” IB program. The last two years you have been preparing for these upcoming two years. I’m just gonna start off being frank, the IB program is not a piece a cake. You may have noticed this when you saw the juniors and seniors balancing 2-4 tests in a day or worrying about getting CAS hours done. You may have already experienced days during your school year where you felt like the teachers just seems to have conspired before planning an upcoming week. Although the thought of junior year may seem like a frightening prospect, I promise you that if you are focused you will get through the year.

I, like many of y’all, was over anxious about what my junior year would turn out to be. I would sit and think that my life would consist of just school and that I wouldn’t be able to step out of my house for a single moment. Well, I was wrong. Junior year wasn’t as bad as I IMAGINED it to be. If you’re wondering how to take away the fear of the prospect of junior year then the best advice I could probably offer is personal experience. To be honest it didn’t work for me and it may not work for y’all. Going through junior year helped me realize that it was doable, no matter how dumb it may sound. I had good weeks and bad weeks but after a while I got into a pattern of knowing when certain teachers would give tests and so forth. I also kept a planner and a whiteboard at home to write down my HW and upcoming events so I could prioritize my time efficiently. I wasn’t involved in any sports but I did volunteer a bunch and I still managed to keep control of the HW that was due. Looking back at all this I realize that junior year wasn’t half as bad as I thought it would be.

As you enter the next year of school these are just a few words of advice I have. Number 1, stay organized. Keep a whiteboard or a sheet of paper with your HW for the week as well as events you have to do. These could even include events that are not school related. That way you can continually look at it and see what you’ve managed to get done and what you have to do. Number 2, manage your time! Time is precious, and the older you get you realize how little the hours in a day seem to be. That is why you should keep track of everything you need to do so that you will have enough time to finish everything. Truthfully, you may not be able to finish a few things but at least you’ll have a majority of it done. Finally, just breathe! You WILL make it through junior year! So many students before you have. We have all complained that we can’t do it but here we are, we did it! Remember to take everything one day at a time. Know that if you feel like you’re falling behind, your teachers will be there to get you back in track. So with these few words I would like to wish you the best in your junior year!

Sincerely,

Angela Mathew

 

Throughout this year I have learned a lot of new habits and skills. To help aid you in your next year of studies I will tell you some of the habits and skills that I picked up, as well as the ones that I should have picked up.  While these may seem obvious to you and have been stressed by others, the fact that I am talking about them here shows that it is easy to get out of these habits and can become difficult to get them again.

The main habit that I am fortunate enough to have picked up is to not procrastinate, while there may be problems with this from time to time it is important that you always try to not procrastinate, for it will only add unnecessary stress. It is important that you try to pick up this habit early on, for it is much easier to pick it up early, however, any time in the year would be a good time to start if you have not already. Another habit that I wish I had more of is to double check your work and write your work neatly. These two go hand-in-hand, for if your work is sloppy and illegible, then it would be very difficult to double check it. These habits will help you catch mistakes that you have made, will allow your teacher to address the areas that you need most help with, being able to see where you were wrong in your working and reasoning, and, above all, will help you maintain the grades that you strive for.

While these are only a few of the habits that I have learned this year, they will be extremely helpful to you next year if you do not already have them. These habits may seem easy to pick up and silly that I even need to talk about them, however, as I know firsthand, people can get very lazy and put off work and end up doing it sloppily, which will hurt their grade, add unneeded stress, and be a detriment to their learning. I highly advise you to adhere to these simple tips so that next year will not be harder than it has to be.

Matthew Murphy

 

Dear future junior,

I was you almost exactly one year ago… You’re either scared or super confident about the dreaded junior year. If you’re scared, take a moment to step back, close your eyes, and breathe. If you’re super confident, take a moment to step back, open your eyes, and smell the dang coffee! Don’t go into the new year thinking everything will go swimmingly and that you’ll get the grades you want. There are going to be times where no matter how much you prepare, you won’t make that final test grade to push the borderline B up. But, hey… suck it up, jump up, and keep fighting.

I have several reminders for you to keep in mind as you chug along one of the worst years of your life. First, remind yourself that getting straight A’s or having a ridiculously high GPA isn’t a measure of your worth. A good time to remind yourself of this is when you consider cheating or plagiarism. I know it’s so tempting, especially when you think you can get away with it. Let me tell you that when you cheat, you are merely cheating yourself. Sure you saved five minutes on a pre-calc assignment by copying your best friend’s, but when it comes time to take the test you’ll be struggling to remember the material. Do you really think it is worth risking all the hard work you’ve already put into this program? Don’t blow it on something stupid.

Second, try to establish good habits early. They say it takes 21 days to make an activity a habit. So, for the first 21 days (and hopefully more) try to do your homework the day it is assigned. This will help tons when you have a bio test, APUSH essay, and pre-calc test all on the same day. This happened quite a few times for us. Also, every night you can, sleep by 10:30. Your body will thank you. The procrastination issue is closely related to journal questions. Everyone always says to do a few a night, but I never did that. It bit me in the butt! It’s super stressful not having all of your work done by the night before it’s due. Don’t take additional stress.

Third, make sure your heart is in the right place. Always. Don’t try to get teachers in trouble if they haven’t done anything wrong. Don’t try to keep valuable information from your peers because you want them to make a B. Don’t convince a friend that an option is the best for them when it actually isn’t. I am not afraid to admit that my class is EXTREMELY competitive. It’s disgusting at times. People want to watch the downfall of others. The college admission game is a dirty, vicious one here. Brennan’s adage “A candle never loses anything from lighting another candle” is apropos here. Look out for one another and try to overcome the challenges together. The enemy is the IB program, not your peers. This also applies to choice in classes. Please consider what you want to take, rather than weight. It might only be an honors course, but it’ll be worth it if it’s your passion. I took Anatomy & Physiology Honors with Ms. Allison and I will never regret it.

Let me get back to the part about scared future juniors. If you are scared, this probably didn’t make it much better… I have good news. There is gold at the end of this rainbow. It might be Hell, but it’s worth it. You’re 16 right now, probably. What can you really do? You can’t vote, can’t drink, can’t smoke, can’t buy a scratch-off. Sacrifice the hours of going out with friends on a Friday to work on a bio project right now. College will be a lot easier because of the rigor of IB. We are the #2 school in the nation for a reason. Take advantage of this.

Sidenote: I will offer advice to anyone who asks or try to help in any way I can, so feel free to contact me.

Love always,

Dhara Patel

 

Over the past year my experiences in Ms. Frisbie’s class have taught me 3 very important things: Stay cool, study sometimes, and sleep when you can. Now these may seem very silly but I’m sure by the end of this paper you will be convinced that not only is this advice beneficial it very well may be the only way to survive your entrance into an OFFICIAL IB CLASS. Seriously this is some important stuff so don’t skim this paper over (or do I suppose, but it’ll hurt you in the long run). In actuality you may want to take notes, as it will not only will aid you in the future but prepare you for a fun-filled year of not taking. One key thing to be said before the body paragraphs commence, don’t procrastinate you’ll end up regretting it a lot. On the off chance you do procrastinate make sure you stay of the Frizz’s good side, she might, MIGHT, let you off easy.

Okay so first of let’s take a look at the first pro-tip “stay cool”. Alright, on the surface this may seem like an incredibly unimportant piece of advice, but be you not fooled! Staying cool pretty much is the only way to survive this class (and all of IB for that matter). When you get to class you will most definitely be overwhelmed with your new teacher, new textbook, new school year, and new schedule. Never fear though, instead refer back to number one. Just chill out and stay cool. When you meet Ms. Frisbie talk in a calm voice as to not alert her to a possible weak link in the pack to single out. Be sure to stay calm when you get all the new math Frizz will be throwing at you during the school year. If you freak out and start asking dumb questions everyone will hate you, you’ll slow down your own learning process due to the depression you fall into because of the hate you will be receiving, and then you’ll end up spiraling down the slippery slope of drugs and alcohol in order to cope with the social problems you yourself created. This brings us to rule number two: study sometimes. Some people in the program may suggest to you that studying as much as possible is essential for obtaining satisfactory grades. This is not the case. Instead one must study only enough to know the material, without hindering one’s own maturation and development. This development will come in handy for dealing with situations that will present themselves that cannot be solved in a manner you once used before you became an OFFICAL IB STUDENT. Basically just study when you can and when you think you need to, don’t just study for the sake of studying or looking smart when around others. If you aren’t getting anything out of it then studying is just a waste of precious sleep time. This brings us to our third point: sleep when you can. This can be considered the golden rule of any OFFICIAL IB STUDENT. Let’s face it, you aren’t sleeping much, but you want to be. This is where rule number three comes in. Sleep any time, and I mean ANY time, that you can. If you’re sitting in the middle of one of your science classes and you aren’t doing anything productive, those 5 minutes of sleep will help you prepare for your upcoming Pre-calc class which, let’s be honest, matters more to you than titrations or gravity. So enjoy your precious few minutes of sleep in all of your not-so-important classes, and be sure to use the energy you gained from your power naps to power through the rest of your day!

So let’s wrap this up: you gotta sleep study enough to pass, and stay chill. All of these rules seem to be self-explanatory but let’s do a recap just to be sure. Sleep often; take any opportunity available to catch some Z’s. Study, not too much to the point where it’s just like, “really are you studying or trying to act like you try harder than everyone else by opining up study booklets and staring at them blankly,” because nobody likes that guy. Finally just stay calm; you can make it through this. I promise you this class and your upcoming year isn’t going to be as bad as some unintelligent upperclassmen want it to seem.

Rayce Pion

 

Ever dearest Junior,

I sure hope you’re ready for a rollercoaster ride in your junior year! To give you a quick rundown, you’re reading the words written by Zachary Sandoval of the class of 2015! Seeing as you’ve made it through the fun and easy freshman and sophomore years, I hope you’ve heeded the warnings of others for the fabled junior year. Simply put, it’s a butt load of work.

Okay, perhaps the truth has been stretched a tad too much here. In fact, junior year isn’t as bad as it’s made out to be! I mean, I’ve survived it and made it to the last day of junior year to write this essay! Regardless, I know these words may be lost on you lot, but DON’T PROCRASTINATE. Like, really, I was told this by several of my upperclassmen. Did I heed their warnings? No, of course I didn’t. That was naïve of me. I ended up being that kid who stayed up until 3 am finishing up the Cellular Respiration Lab write-up for Mrs. Kennon. Like, I’m being legit, I really don’t sleep much earlier than 11 or 12 am on a good day. But never will I try an all-nighter. Neither should you. Oh, and I accomplished all of this WITHOUT A SINGLE DROP OF COFFEE. I don’t think it’s healthy. Regardless, I honestly do hope you find ways to get around to your work. But… It is possible to get your homework done with procrastination… Just as long as you’re willing to sacrifice some sleep. But, it can be done. I’m (half) living proof of that!

Enough of me, we need to talk more about your future! Just as a heads up, I will not be able to advise you on your AP English Language and Composition teacher and what to expect for the class since it is going to be completely new teacher. Sorry, mates! But, I can talk all about your other upcoming teachers and classes. Without further ado, let’s get started!

So first up is AP Biology with Ms. Kennon. I heard she was harsh on her freshmen all the time (I wouldn’t know since I didn’t do my freshman year here [long story]) so you should have a general idea of what to expect. As usual the content is awfully tough and challenging, but Ms. Kennon is also more lenient and way more fun! Plus the labs are fun to do but a pain to write up. But the Fruit Fly Lab is SO AMAZINGLY FUN! Like taking care of your test tube fly babies was so much fun J! And the lab write up (if you do it properly) is actually kind of fun and should look pretty awesome. So overall in bio, you’ve just got to TURN UP!

Next is AP Spanish with Sra. Calvo! Although Spanish is never a fun subject, what you really want to aim for is to have AP Spanish in the morning with her! I’m pretty sure she’s a morning person since it’s always way more fun than what I’ve heard from the later periods. Otherwise, just joke around in Spanish with her and do your work. Pretty cut and dry. I guess the best advice would be to VALUE EVERY ASSIGNMENT in that class. Points are hard to come by and there isn’t any extra credit. The struggle is real, my friends.

Third is AP US History with Mrs. Scully. She was a pretty good teacher and transitioned very well midway through my junior year after Mr. Goss (AKA the bomb diggity) retired. She’s pretty funny and prepares you for the exam. Your best bet would be to just pay attention to the lectures in class, review the PowerPoints before tests, etc. Also she gives lots of easy assignments to support your grade, so just work hard and play hard. I enjoyed it this year and you should too. Definitely way better than a certain history class you might’ve had in sophomore year… Just sayin’ 😉

Fourth is IB Business Management with Mr. Brennan. I actually don’t want to delve into details about his class since it’s really a nice culture-shock and surprise for the ones who haven’t had a class with him yet. He is also the tennis team coach and loads of fun. Plus he’s always got a smile on his face. Just go to the class, and you’ll understand!

Fifth is IB Pre-Calculus with Ms. Frisbie! This class is much deeper than your typical mathematics class. Firstly, Pre-Calc actually makes use of technology to enhance your life. IT’S AMAZING what Ms. Frisbie does by having it all available online to you. Otherwise, look forward to not only exploring the wonderful world of mathematics, but also taking mini side trips to study the various nuances of life and various questions of existence that may spring up in the learning place. It’s really fun! Plus Ms. Frisbie is like super legit in prepping you for what you’re going to get when it comes time for IB exams and what not. Like our practice questions and semester exams are all in the IB format! It’s pretty cool and pretty difficult. Oh and another word of advice: TAKE AP STATISTICS ALONG WITH THIS CLASS. Even if you’re just splitting the class. Honestly, the second half of the year has a heavy focus on statistics (probability, etc.) and taking Naki’s AP Stats does wonders for you. Trust me, I didn’t take the class and had A MUCH HARDER TIME than my classmates who did.

Sixth is Theory of Knowledge with Mr. Guice in your second semester. This class is amazing. I don’t want to spoil it either, so I’ll just say that it’s to your advantage to really pay attention to what goes on in class. Oh and do those Ways of Seeing Yourself. Easy points in the bag, my amigos.

Seventh was AP English Language and Composition. I had Mrs. Smith. I don’t know who you will have, so good luck. Maybe I’ll just talk about your CAS hours. Make sure you do sports to knock out those Action hours early on. Also make use of your summer and get those easy 35 hours. Otherwise good luck again!

So to summarize, as you journey into your third year in the IB program at Bartow High School, just look forward to working and working and working. It’d do you lots of good to have fun and also MAKE SURE YOU KEEP UP WITH YOUR FRIENDS. I honestly can’t stress that enough. Like friends are the best things going for you as you embark on that real IB journey. For them, the struggle is real as well. In conclusion, good luck, don’t procrastinate, and keep you friends close and your homework closer! Also if you ever need to chat, just try to find me! Key word is “try.” Thanks for reading, mate! Hope you have a fun time and heed my advice J! Cheers!

Zachary Sandoval

 

Dear incoming junior,

First, take a breath and realize that everything is going to be okay. Remember when you were going into IB as a freshman? I bet you thought you couldn’t make it then, either. Look where you are now!

First piece of advice, take it all one step at a time. Yes, be aware of deadlines but don’t let them overwhelm you. Plan out your days so that you have a reasonable amount every day instead of tons the night before. There will be days when you have an English and a bio test. I am here to tell you it will be alright. Do your journals as they come so you’re prepared for English and take time to read over your bio notes the day you get them.

Second piece of advice, take time to enjoy your friends and family. IB is only one short part of your life, make sure the parts of your life that will forever be in your life count. Your homework can get done other times besides dinner and a movie on Friday night is a good thing to do 🙂 get out and play sports, paint, whatever you want! You’ll be forced to do some eventually.

Last thing, stay updated on your CAS… this will eventually bite you in the butt but isn’t bad if you pace yourself. Get things approved quickly and have everything squared away the month you earn the hours. It will be worth it.

Anyway, I wish you the best of luck for the next two years! Make the most of this incredible program and the incredible people here.

Grace Valenti

 

To whoever is taking IB pre-calc next year,

I’ve got some advice for you, and you’d better pay attention and follow it. Let’s begin with being in class. First off, you need to take notes. You might think, “Oh, I don’t need to take notes on this. I’m good at math!” or, “I’ll just look at the notes at home after the Friz posts them on Edmodo.” No. Bad idea. I’m good at math, too, but I didn’t take notes and so I wasn’t able to retain the information all that well and therefore did less than satisfactory on my tests. Taking notes is not a big deal. Besides, what else would you do in class? It’s better than just sitting in your desk staring at the clock.

Next we have homework. Do it. “But I have two late passes. It won’t hurt if I just skip and assignment here and there!” You moron. Yes it will. If you don’t do homework because you can turn it in late, that just gives you more homework you’ll have to do later, and you won’t want to do it then, either. Get it over with. Besides, what if there is a time when you were literally not able to do an assignment, but your laziness has caused you to run out of late passes? What then? Save your late passes for if you absolutely need them. Plus, you get to turn them in for extra credit if you don’t use them.

Finally, there are tests. Study. I don’t care how good you think you are or how easy the test might be. If you don’t study, when you get the test you’ll be much slower getting it done and you may forget a thing here and there that would lower your grade. How long does it take to study your notes? (Because you will have taken notes.) 30 minutes? So what? Is 30 minutes really sacrificing that much to ensure a good grade. Tests are a lot of points and have a large influence on your grade. If you really are so smart, do the smart thing and study.

Heed these words and you will rock!

Sincerely,

Jeffrey Robinson

 

Dear future pre-calculus students,

You’ve definitely heard this before and you will hear this again and inevitably you will be up till 3am and frantically writing the last line of a paper you’ve had months to write. At some point we’ve all done it. You just put other assignments ahead of that one assignment that will be due later and well, later will happen, without fail. Then you will need to write an entire essay, when have so many other assignments to do such as labs, English journals, essays for other classes, and even math problems. You will need to prioritize the three assignments that are due tomorrow and that need to be done, but so does the part of an assignment that is a few weeks away. If you treat it like that one small part is due, you will chip it off piece by piece and get that massive paper done and not need to replace sleep with caffeine (~65mg per hour of not sleeping, personal experience). All of these assignments can be finished, you just need to stay organized.

The major assignments that will come back to get you are labs, English journals and IA’s. Those IA’s are all large assignments that can sneak up on you if you’re not prepared. The day you get a lab, do the part you can do without an experiment; the background, procedures, and materials. You don’t need an experiment for that and boom you’re halfway done until after the experiment is completed and the lab is due. The English journals are easy but take forever when done in one sitting. If you get the pages or time during class to work on it, take this time; it is your friend. There are ambiguities in some of the questions and if you do it in class you can ask for help unlike at 4am when you are tired and just know you have no option. Finally come the IA’s. They are the most difficult to do at one time as there is simply no way to do it and have an acceptable quality assignment to turn in. They are almost impossible to do without breaking it up into many pieces. Take the time to plan out when you are going to finish each part. You’ll be glad you did. There a many other assignments of varying sizes but most don’t have the due dates that are long enough to continually push off, but these assignments are the most insidious.

Finally the end of the year, after AP testing starts, you will have no time. Once AP tests start, you won’t have a class full of people till exams end. Then you have reviewing and end of the year assignments to do. Be prepared and consider yourself warned by someone who has lived through it. And you will too if you don’t befriend procrastination.

Look out, but have fun,

Andrew Noonan

 

Dear Incoming Student,

Your life in IB will become slightly more stressful towards the end of your junior as you prepare for your Extended Essay and other AP and IB exams you will be taking. Do not worry too much though, every will turn out just fine. I learned that is way more stressful to procrastinate on doing any homework your junior year whether you think the assignment will be easy or not.

As you prepare for your upcoming year, make sure that you are well rested before the school year starts because you will have many sleepless nights. As a junior you will want to explore more things about your high school life, I will warn you to be careful with what you do. Instead of attending the parties every Friday and Saturday night working on homework so you can sleep all day Sunday. When given your final quarter extra credit project in Biology. Be sure you finish all of your Pre-Calc homework so you can save your grade with late passes.

As a student taking both Biology and Chemistry, I suggest that you do not wait until the night before to do two labs for your science classes. The most stressful part of this year has been really determining who I wanted my supervisor to be for my Extended Essay and worrying about my Spanish grade. Whatever you do next year, make sure you study for Spanish and do well on the homework assignments. Enjoy your junior year following similarly in my footsteps, hopefully with much higher grades!

Best of luck,

Britney Meadows

First of all, I am going to start with biology; the AP one. The class was probably the second hardest this year, and that is saying a lot. However, if you do all your classwork, homework, extra credit, and study for your tests thoroughly, then you will probably make an A. Mrs. Kennon is one of those teachers that will make your junior year. She will do and say unexpected things that you will laugh constantly at. Overall the class is worth taking because I’m going to pass my AP and IB tests.

Perhaps the hardest class in all the IB career is AP Spanish. Not only should you be able to speak it fluently, you should be able to understand it completely. Also the way that the Spanish teacher grades the assignments needs to change. What he/she does is not grade the things that people get right, but when he/she sees a lot of errors, she/he decides to grade it. The AP test is a lot easier than what she prepares you for.

This junior year was one that I will remember forever and it was the best year so far. Even though I had 4 AP tests and 1 IB test, I feel like I am prepared for life and my teachers have helped me to be. Thanks for the great year, Ms. Frisbie!

Ryan Daniels Jr.

 

Hey, Champ!

It’s difficult, your future. And it will only get worse. So you should do whatever you want. Spend your time how you want. You are a person before anything, and you mustn’t set fire to yourself to keep them warm. It’s your life, your choices, your consequences.

Secondly, if you wanna do well in school, do it. Read your books, do your labs ahead of time, STUDY. Get good grades. Work hard. If I can do it, so can you.

Thirdly, do CAS quickly. It becomes a pain in the butt real soon. You’ll hate it, but do it anyway if you want your diploma. If not, then don’t. It’s all up to you. Also, good luck with the new teachers.

Stay sweet,

Ted Ammon

 

To whoever may be reading this:

Honestly, throughout my three years in IB so far, I can never stress enough the importance for students to not procrastinate. I, myself, do this way too much, so that the number of times I stress over upcoming projects, assignments, homework, tests, etc., goes on to infinity and maybe even beyond. Procrastinating will get you nowhere in IB. You’re going to have to do the work anyway, so why include stress and crappiness into the package? It’s not worth it. The amount of work that I put off until the very last minute always builds up into a mountain and then I start to freak out and then everything just goes downhill.

Most of my nights that I spent with my assignment and monsters (the original kind, of course) can be avoided if only I did some of the assignment ahead of time. But, of course, I never learned from all those times of suffering, and thus I continue to suffer up to this day. Therefore, I HIGHLY encourage any students entering IB to not put off anything to the last minute. Procrastination, in my opinion, is like a drug. You convince yourself you’ll only do it this once and then never again. But you are wrong. Your laziness to procrastinate will become a habit and before you know it, your grades are dropping, you haven’t been sleeping enough, and you’re really really really really really really really stressed. Firsthand experience here. Been there, done that, yeah, not fun at all.

Best wishes,

Cindy Wang

 

 

 

Hello soon to be/new IB sophomore,

Congrats! You’ve made it through freshman year with only minimal damage and are already ahead of your classmates that are just now taking algebra 2! (No offense to them of course.) This year is going to be different in a lot of ways, or at least it was for me. I took three AP classes and had precalc, but besides that, my classes were a lot easier for me than freshman year. I don’t know if it was because I was used to the workload, or if I had gotten smarter about time management, but it was easy. Too easy. I slacked off a lot this year and it cost me desperately. I got my first C ever on a report card D: my first semester grades were terrible, I barely managed to pull them up by the end, but I lost my spot in the top ten because I had let myself slack. DO. NOT. SLACK. OFF. you will want to, I promise, but the work isn’t that hard to do and it doesn’t take long, so just do it!! With things like English papers, AP World notes, and PreCalculus review papers, don’t procrastinate on them. It’s a lot easier to start working on them as soon as you get them so that you won’t have to rush through them the day they’re due.

This year was a tough year overall for me. My grades slipped, things were going on at home that didn’t make any of it easier, and I had a lot of trouble with friendships. If I had to give myself advice before I went into my sophomore year, I would say that the people you’re with right now, though you might not always want to be bffs with them, are the people who you’re going to be with for the next three years. Saying that, don’t let stupid things come between you and your friends, if you have a problem, talk to them. You’re all in this together, and there’s no backing out now, so make sure you have good friends who are going to be there for you and vice versa because you’re definitely going to need them. High school is a scary place (as you’ve already seen) and by adding IB, it becomes ever scarier.

Getting involved in a club or a sport that you really enjoy is a good idea for your sophomore year. Your teachers this year are pretty understanding when it comes to things like that, but make sure you don’t abuse the small bit of leeway they may or may not give you. Choose something that you like to do or that interests you and see if there is a club that has to do with that. If not, start one! I’m sure you can find a teacher who will sponsor it! Also, you should go to Ultimate Frisbee on Fridays after school on the band practice field. 😀

I’m bad at organizing my thoughts and giving advice so I’m gonna try to summarize everything (and add things)
1) don’t slack off
2) don’t make stupid choices
3) make sure you have a good group of friends that you can trust
4) Fris is one of the best teachers you will ever have, just make sure you don’t make her mad
5) stay involved in a lot of stuff
6) turn in community service hours
7) learn organization skills
8) don’t use demonstrative pronouns (you’ll understand this later)
Okay I’m done because I’m just rambling now. Good luck next year, sophomore!!!!!!
– Caitlyn Carey

P.S. Don’t let homework rule your life this year. Take advantage of your free time and go to sport event and hang out with friends. Make new friends! This is the year to do what you’ve always wanted to do in high school because it’s less stressful. Just remember not to be stupid.

 

Dear Incoming Sophomores,

I know freshman year in IB may have taken a little getting used to, but as long as you apply what you’ve learned regarding procrastination and work strategies to your sophomore year, I guarantee you it’ll be much easier. However, you must keep in mind that in reality, it’s not the classes getting easier, but it’s you getting better at dealing with them. If anything, the classes get harder sophomore year. With Pre-calculus, AP World History, and whatever other classes you end up taking, you’ll have a lot on your plate. But don’t worry; you’ll be able to deal with it without a problem if you follow my advice.

It’s all about balance. You have to know how to balance your schoolwork with your social life, and most importantly, your sleep. It’s pretty hard to deal with at first, but with practice, trust me, you’ll get used to it. First of all, don’t procrastinate. I know you hear this from everyone in IB – teachers, other students, etc. But seriously, don’t. When you realize how much work you have, it’s going to feel like you have an impossible load of homework that you can’t possibly do. When that happens, don’t think – just do. When you start doing the work, keep going and don’t let anything stop you. Within no time, you will have finished, or at least made considerable progress. I’m one of those people who likes to plan out a schedule for homework, but when I do, I just feel overwhelmed, and most of the time, I end up pushing it off for later. Get focused and keep going until you’re done. Then again, you may be one of those people who can manage with a schedule, and if you are, go for it. But the vast majority of us don’t seem to be that way, so if you’re part of the majority, just do the work. It makes life a lot easier once it’s over.

You may have heard some horrendous stories about AP World History and a few other classes. Well, to stifle your fears, I’d like to remind you that you’ve already been through an AP course, and this one is not too different. Sure, history’s a bit harder for some of us and the AP exam has a few essays you’ll have to write, but really, it’s not terrible. I thought it would be, at first. With world history, you need to remember to link what’s going on around the world, rather than in individual regions. It’s not hard as long as you start doing this from the beginning. Regarding pre-calculus, if you’re a math person, it’s not bad at all. In fact, it’s quite fun. If you’re not a math person, it might be a little less fun. In my opinion, Frisbie’s a good teacher. Use the resources she gives you. Study the notes before the test. Go to the websites she suggests for extra practice. Do the chapter reviews. It’s as simple as that. If you do the work, it’s not too hard of a class.

Just remember, come in to 10th grade with an open mind. Be prepared for the work and for the challenges. Keep in mind that you signed up for it when you joined IB. You made the decision to go to a school where you will be challenged. Now that you know what to expect, you won’t be taken by surprise. If you follow this advice, I assure you that you’ll be fine. Best of luck!

Sincerely,

Divya Ravinder

 

Dear IB Sophomore,

By the time you read this letter, you will have decided to stay in the IB program at Bartow High School. First, congratulations on your decision. It is not one that should be taken lightly. This program is for the driven.

I am also sure that many of you have heard that sophomore year is the “easy year.” Actually, I think it is what you make of it. If you take a difficult elective, like AP European History, it might be more work than you imagined. Granted, I am so happy I took AP European. It was a truly rewarding experience which made my love for History grow exponentially. Anyway, make sure you understand that a seven hour school day does not define you as a person. This is where sophomore year makes a real difference.

My basic advice to you is to take advantage of extra time you might have in sophomore year to get involved in activities outside of school. Put aside the superficial “I want to get into a good college” façade and choose an activity which you actually enjoy. If you don’t like picking up trash on the highway for six hours while caring for wounded puppies, don’t do it. Engage in service which is both meaningful to the community and meaningful to you. The same goes for clubs and sports. Be passionate about what you do! I guarantee you that if you love the activities in which you participate, you will fell less stressed about dealing with the time crunches which accompany them.

Do not under any circumstance start slacking. Seriously, you will realize at the end of sophomore year that your high school journey has halfway passed. Then, you might be shocked to realize that there really are no more incredibly huge opportunities to change your GPA. Junior and senior years are mainly college preparation years. Do not let your grades slip in sophomore year and expect to bring them back up the next. Do your best, and success shall follow.

As far as specific courses are concerned, don’t sweat it too much. Ms. Frisbie is the best math teacher I have had thus far. I don’t think I could feel more prepared for an exam. She is extremely resourceful and will provide you with all of the tools you need to succeed. Mr. Guice is pretty cool. You will have the most fun in his class if you actually read the books throughout the year. You can joke around, but don’t forget to take things seriously. Chemistry and Physics are nice introductory classes for junior year, if you decide to take either course at the AP level. AP World History is a lot of independent work. If you want to pass the exam, I suggest you:

• Read the textbook, read the textbook and read the textbook
• Take notes which are organized and rather detailed (but not too much; this course is more of a “big picture” course)
• Did I forget to mention reading the textbook?
• Purchase a prep book if you want a more thorough review for the exam. Barron’s AP World History worked extremely well for me.

Your language teachers and electives teachers are all wonderful as well. In fact, don’t get panicky thinking about cruel teachers. Pretty much all of the IB teachers want to see you succeed. They are there to help you not hurt you.

Finally, give yourselves a pat on the back. You have made it through perhaps one of the harder years of the IB program. It is stressful, so don’t forget to take time to relax. Keep yourself mentally and physically balanced, and you should be good to go!

Congratulations and welcome to sophomore year!

Sincerely,

Kriyana Reddy

 

IB Junior

Dear upcoming sophomores,

My sophomore year was pretty amazing yet rather stressful. It could have been so much better if I was not constantly worrying about certain assignments or classes. Sophomore year can be MUCH easier than freshman year if you do your work when it is assigned. You all should learn from my mistakes. DON’T PROCRASTINATE. It sucks pulling all nighters attempting to finish assignments especially when it was completely possible to go to sleep at a reasonable hour. You’ll learn how much you love sleep in IB. So in order to sleep more you must not procrastinate.

There are a few assignments and tips I must give to upcoming sophomores. The instructions for the 40 studies psychology are not entirely clear. YOU MUST WORK ALONE or you will get a zero. It is a 200 point assignment and it sucks. Do it over the summer. Guice and Frisbie are in my opinion two of the best you will ever have. Pay attention in Frisbie’s class and don’t spend the entire class period playing injustice on your phone. Actually read the books for Guice. Guice makes the mini EE sound incredibly difficult but it is really only about structure and it is extremely easy.

Dedicate yourself to as many clubs as you can be completely dedicated to. I’d be a part of YIG, SWAT, FBLA, and HOSA. Try to be in leadership positions and be a part of SGA. Put yourself out there.

Have fun. It’ll be an exciting time. Keep your friends close and talk to them about everything. They can relate best to what you’re doing and they know exactly what you’re feeling. Go to the movies and hang out with everybody. Go bowling. You’ll survive…

Chris Campbell

 

Hi there, sophomore!

Congrats on surviving the first year of hell.

That’s awkward, I definitely meant *IB. Hopefully you have made it through your freshman year in one piece, and don’t worry—sophomore year isn’t THAT bad! In fact, it’s the easiest year, so enjoy it while it lasts. Looking back on my sophomore year, I see it in mostly a positive light (but I think that’s because I tend to repress memories of 2 AM study sessions).

Honestly, the first part of sophomore year was a struggle for me. I was on the varsity volleyball team and balancing school and sports was not a fun experience. We would have three games in one week sometimes, and when we weren’t at a match, we were practicing. Some nights, I wouldn’t be able to start my homework until 10. This wasn’t a result of procrastination; I simply couldn’t start until then. All of freshman year, I went to bed before 11 every night. And suddenly, I was staying up until the AMs for the first time in my life. Needless to say, I was exhausted and very pessimistic. However, I don’t regret joining the team at all. It taught me a lot of time management skills, not to mention the fact that I met some pretty amazing people, so I would certainly encourage you to join a sports team!

Sophomore year includes a lot of free time. This is your time to try out new things: play on a sport teams, join a club, do some community service. Make sure that you can handle everything you decide to do. For example, if you decide to take more AP classes, then you might want to join fewer clubs. Don’t make the same mistake I did and join every single club that’s thrown at you. Instead, find the ones you’re most interested in and devote more time into becoming an active member of a select few.

As for the amount of time you’ll spend on school, I firmly believe that it varies from person to person. Life is full of opportunity costs. Sacrifice an hour of sleep for a good grade on the world test; or sleep, cram the next day, and risk the possibility of failing? Answer: NEVER risk the possibility of failure (but then again, that’s my opinion). Study well the night before and go into the test prepared. Always do your homework the night before it’s assigned. Don’t wait until last minute to start big projects or essays. Don’t try to read and color-mark a novel a day before it’s due. Don’t wait until the day before the test to do all of your world notes. Basically, don’t procrastinate, although I’m not sure if it does any good to tell you that since

1) I’m sure you’ve already heard it millions of times, and

2) I don’t think you’d listen to me anyway.

Regardless, DO YOUR WORK ON TIME. Why? Because the best thing in the world is sleep, and if you don’t procrastinate, then you get more sleep. Duh. And in IB, sleep equals happiness. So by all means, be happy! (:

Friends are one of the most important aspects in an IB career. The course is rigorous, and sometimes (a lot of the times), you’ll feel like giving up. Talk to people about it, especially your friends/classmates. They know what’s going on—they’re going through the same program. Create a support group around yourself; it’ll make life much easier. Your class will be like your family. You’ll always love your family (although sometimes deep down—REALLY deep down, that is), but you won’t always like them. I know a lot of people struggle with dislike for their class as a whole, but it’s okay. Everything will be okay in the end. Hang out with your friends, but don’t forget about your real family. They’re there for love and support and talking to a sibling or a parent helps a lot with stress (trust me, I know). And remember, family is forever.

Don’t be too hard on yourself either, not only in school, but also in real life. Take your failures in stride. If you make a mistake, learn from it to avoid repeating it. Don’t linger on it beat yourself up, it’s not worth it. The rest of the world continues to move, and you should too.

Oh, and also. GET YOUR LICENSE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE DO NOT PROCRASTINATE YOUR LIFE WILL BE MUCH EASIER IF YOU CAN DRIVE YOURSELF.

Best of luck,

Manzhen Chen 

 

To anyone that will be taking the same courses as I did in this coming school year, I have some advice that I wish I had known coming in. Before this year I was told that sophomore year was the easiest of the four years at Bartow IB. Going through the year, I realized that it was of the same difficulty as if not more challenging than freshman year. Many times I let my guard down with this feeling that I didn’t need to work as hard and helplessly watched as my grades dropped. I needed to be mindful of my assignments and my grades. It took me some time to learn that I still needed to stay sharp and study hard even though it was the “easiest” year of the program.

A problem that can obviously be found throughout the four years of the IB program that I particularly had some difficulty with in the beginning of this year was procrastination. I soon learned that it was much easier on me if I did all my homework the day it was assigned and not the day before it was due. This helped relieve some of the stress that the workload put on me. Although it did take some extra work to get myself to do homework when I did not necessarily need to, it ended up being a very beneficial strategy at the end of the day.

Lastly, I want to address organization. Without it, this year would have definitely been a disaster for me. In freshmen year, two of the teachers used to do planner checks to make sure that students were actively using the planner; however, in sophomore year, the teachers do no such thing. The planner is still an essential tool for an organized student, a key to success in this program. I was never caught off guard with tests and quizzes because I always had my planner to remind me. The workplace should also be well organized, as homework can easily be lost on a desk flooded with papers and trash.

Take it from someone who has just experienced sophomore year. It will easily fly by if one simply learns to be organized, stay mindful of grades, and avoid procrastination.

Yasmine Elmasri

 

As a student coming into Mrs. Frisbie’s precalculus class should know a few things. First of all, make sure that you do all of your homework before the day it is due. Late passes can help your grade if they are not used on late homework assignments. Pay attention in class, Mrs. Frisbie is an awesome teacher if you listen to her.

The tests will be much easier if you pay attention in class and actually do the homework. Also, study before the tests with the practice problem packets she gives you. This will help you understand the material much more than if you don’t do the problems. Math is much more important than other subjects, so focus on this homework and study more than other classes.

Respect Mrs. Frisbie and listen to her, she’s a really good teacher who cares a lot about her job. Precalc is a really fun class and isn’t that difficult. If you pay attention, do the homework and study you will fly through the class with ease.

Nevada Carter

 

When I entered my sophomore year, just as you are about to, I had been given a lot of advice about what to expect. The information helped me a lot, so now I will hopefully be able to help you out a bit. First of all, do NOT procrastinate. You have probably have been told this many times and probably will not listen, but you should. IB will be a lot less stressful if you just do your work in a timely fashion. There will be a lot less late nights, breakdowns, and trips to the kitchen for more coffee.

In addition to time management, I would advise that you get involved in as many extracurricular activities as you can. Join sports teams or clubs you’ve never even heard of. If you join a sports team it will become a huge stress reliever and you are going to want to have as many ways of relieving stress as possible. Through the sports and clubs you will meet all sorts of people and make all kinds of new friends. Also, you will be able to begin to work towards acquiring leadership positions within your sports teams and clubs. It is still early in your high school career; however, it will help you in the long run for college applications and your résumé.

The last and probably one of the most important pieces of advice I am able to give, is to eliminate distractions. This is very beneficial, especially while completely homework. Leave your phone in the other room, turn off your music for a little while and go somewhere quiet in order to work. By doing these things you will be able to work at your most efficient level and eliminate some more of those unnecessary late nights. Set somewhat of a schedule for yourself as you do your homework. For example, say you are going to work for an hour or two and then take a break and check your phone and listen to that one song that has been stuck in your head the entire time, and then resume working. Or you could also decide to just complete the assignment you’re on, depending on the length, and then proceed to take a break and after the break is over move on to the next assignment. Good luck in your future IB years!

Haley Fitzhugh

 

Dear freshman,

IB can be really intimidating at first, but it really isn’t as horrible as you probably think it is. Make the best of your experience here. Only a selected few get accepted, and it’s a great opportunity and honor to be attending this school. This is a time where you will face many challenges, so do your best!

Even though you are technically only in pre-IB right now, you should still take your work very seriously. Many people in IB care a lot about grades, and if you get good grades as a freshman and sophomore, you will have a little bit of a cushion for the upcoming years. The transition from middle school to IB can be pretty rough. The work here is a lot more challenging and difficult, so you shouldn’t be too depressed if you don’t get straight A’s or the grades you want. Many people receive their first B on their report card during these years. It’s important to realize that even though grades are important, you shouldn’t stress a lot about them. High school is more than just studying and making good grades!

I’m pretty sure all of you have heard this piece of advice before- don’t procrastinate. You will get so much more work done and actually get to sleep if you do your work early! I know most of you procrastinate, but IB will be so much less stressful if you don’t do it. My life will be so much easier if I took my own advice. Basically everyone procrastinates, but there are some people who make it through IB without pulling an all nighter. I have had plenty of late nights already, and I’m just a sophomore. I’m afraid to see what my sleeping patterns will be like in junior and senior year! If you have to stay up late, you’ll soon get used to the feeling of being sleep deprived.

IB kids are usually labeled as nerds without social lives. You should remember that high school is not only about class work and grades. You will meet so many new people, and make a lot of new friends. No matter how difficult IB can become, you should always make time to spend with your friends and socialize. Some of you will even get into relationships. The best piece of advice for that is to always stay friends first, especially if there’s a break up. Many high school relationships do not work out, and you do not want to spend the rest of your high school experience with an awkward relationship with someone. Through IB, you’ll make really close connections with your friends and even your teachers! They all know what you’re going through, so they are in the same boat as you.

High school is a once in a life time experience. It can either be the best four years of your life or the worse. Try to make it your best! Don’t stress too much about IB. It is not impossible! Many people have conquered IB and you can too! Make sure you try your best in your classes. Also don’t forget about meeting new people as well! In these four years, you’ll make plenty of life-long friends and memories!

Good luck!

Thinzar Zaw

 

Dear friend (who is a year behind me),

I want to help you be successful in the coming school year. For me, the sophomore school year was filled with fun and challenging experiences. You will have homework every night, tests/quizzes almost everyday, projects, and AP tests. However, you will also meet new people/friends and become closer with your current friends. All of these will be waiting for you to complete them. Because there is so much to do as an IB student, I suggest that you do not procrastinate, find motivation that helps you do well in school, and discover activities that will help you relax and enjoy life.

To begin with, procrastination is your worst enemy. Not only will procrastination cause you not to be able to sleep, but it will also make you cry and get headaches at 2 A.M. So, if your phone or your laptop easily distracts you, keep it away from you, such as in another room. If a teacher assigns a project two weeks before the due date, work on it a little bit everyday and check over it the day before it’s due. Do not wait until 9 P.M. on the day before it is due to start it. Planners and calendars will help you stay organized because you can write all of the assignment’s due dates in them. Also, homework may seem unimportant compared to tests and projects, but receiving a zero on homework hurts your grade more than you would expect. For example, a zero on a three-point assignment in Spanish class caused my nine-weeks grade to drop two percent. Therefore, always do your homework. In addition, studying for your tests is very important. I would suggest that you study for every test, even if you think you know the material already. Do not wait until the class before the test to start studying. Study at a place with no distractions, such as home or the library. Furthermore, it is crucial that you begin to study for the AP exams at least a month before the exam dates, especially for World History. For AP World History and Human Geography, do not expect the teacher to teach you everything that you need to know. I also recommend taking a few AP practices tests. Thus, do not procrastinate on doing homework/projects and studying for tests/quizzes/AP exams.

Secondly, I advise you to find something that will motivate you to continue doing your best in school. This motivation could be sleeping or playing a sport. You can tell yourself while miserably doing your chemistry homework that if you finish this worksheet, you can finally go outside and throw a baseball around with your friends. The idea of playing baseball will make you want to finish the worksheet quickly. Another motivation can be sleep. The earlier you finish your homework, the longer you can sleep and be wide-awake during school the next day. Motivation is important because it will cause you to work more efficiently and do better on your assignments and assessments. Also, if you do well in school and on important exams, your parents will be proud of you. Often, proud parents will reward their child something, such as money. This is just something to keep mind. Also, I think it is very important to have a few close friends who will help encourage you to stay focused. Thus, in order for you to do your best in school, find a motivation that will encourage you to do well.

Finally, I think it is very important that you find a way to relax and enjoy your life once in a while. You deserve a break after all the hard work you will have done. For example, you can take a 5-minute break after you have been working on school things for an hour. In addition, you should also spend time with friends or play whatever sport you love. For example, my friends and I normally spend time together afterschool every Fridays. If sports help you relax, then joining the school or community team would be a good idea. Whatever helps you de-stress and enjoy life, do those activities every so often so you don’t have a mental breakdown.

Best of luck,

Brenda Wang

 

Dear upcoming sophomore,

You should look back on how you did during freshman year and find out why you got the grades you got before you start the 10th grade. If you want to do well in the upcoming year, you should probably find out what was working for you and what wasn’t academically so you can keep doing what you’re doing or so that you can find a more beneficial alternative. You’ll hear from pretty much every junior and senior that you have to manage your time wisely! Manage your workload so you can fit other things into your schedule too, and then you can do other things besides studying and doing homework. Those are two huge hints in how you can survive in IB in my opinion.

When I study or do homework, I usually listen to music so it’s not boring but you should do whatever works for you so you can stay focused. Try to pay attention to whatever you’re doing the first time you do it so you don’t have to keep trying to learn the same thing over and over. You should definitely give yourself breaks here and there when you’re studying and doing homework. I don’t think it’s good to just sit and do work from the time you get home to the time you go to bed (even if it’s only for a couple of hours). Here’s a huge tip that no one seems to follow: Don’t procrastinate! At least don’t procrastinate on the big projects and assignments because we all know it’s inevitable that we will procrastinate on our work, but try not to do that with long tedious projects. You’ll definitely get more sleep if you limit your procrastination.

I had different ways of studying and learning for each subject, and you probably do/will too. In Pre-Calc pay attention to Ms. Frisbie in class, do the homework, study well, and you’ll do fine. She gives plenty of extra resources and help through her website and extra credit for the class. In English just do what Guice tells you to do. He’s really chill, but he’s still a teacher so don’t goof off too much. If you’re planning on taking Psych during sophomore year, read the pages she assigns for homework and TAKE NOTES while you read. If you can focus while reading every time (taking notes help), you’ll remember the material much better. Study your flashcards too because they help a lot with the tests, especially the AP exam. The same goes for APWH but there aren’t any flashcards involved. A good way to review the time periods as wholes is to get an AP review book; it helps tons! If you don’t understand something in Spanish, ask the teacher!!! It’s better to understand the grammar and the vocab as soon as possible and as best as you can because everything is intertwined.

Basically, you should manage your time and workload by whatever works for you and stick to it! Listen to your teachers’ instructions and try not to procrastinate! If you do those things, I’m pretty sure you’ll survive.

Stephanie Joseph

 

Dear freshman,

If you don’t like stress I would suggest taking no more than 2 AP exams. The easiest one that I took was Human Geography, so for an easy 5.0 take that. If you’re striving to be the top of your class you should probably understand that sleep probably will not be a top priority. You should try to relax at times and start your work or studying about an hour after you get home. If you wait until 10 pm because you really just don’t want to do it, then you’re basically committing to not wanting sleep or a good grade if you chose not to do the assignment.

Always do your homework and turn it in on time. If you are bad at testing like I am sometimes, then homework will help to level out your grade. Plus a zero, even on something as small as 5 points, can drop your grade a few percentage points. Especially in Spanish, a homework grade can make or break your A. In Human Geography always take advantage of the extra credit opportunities offered. They can help to give your grade some fluff. Most classes aren’t too bad as long as you pay attention and do the work to understand.

Try to make teachers like you as well. If you have an 89 and your teacher thinks that you’re simply a doll, they might just bump it up to a 90. So try not to make any teachers hate you, that wouldn’t be helpful at all. From experience, when teachers dislike you, things get pretty awkward. Always study for tests and exams as well; even if the class is easy to you at least you should review. When teachers give you reviews always do them, more than likely they’ll be very similar to the actual test. Also, even though it may be extremely tempting to stay up all night on social media sites and not sleep but 0 out of 10 would recommend that. It makes anything you do the next day 1000% more difficult. Try to sleep at least 5 hours or so, unless you absolutely have to stay up.

Good Luck!,

Lauren Vaughn

 

Dear Precalculus student,

The fact that you have made it this far in life is an achievement in itself so congratulations! Since you are planning on taking Precalculus, you must have some level of proficiency in mathematics and have probably found math in school easy up until now. I this is true for you, I have bad news and some good news. The bad news is that you will probably have to exert substantially more effort in Precalculus than you had previously exerted in Algebra 2 or Geometry (unless you’re just a beast at math). The good news is that you will have Ms. Frisbie to guide you along the way and lead you to the promised land of success in mathematics (and I’m not being paid or threatened to say this). In order for you to succeed in Precalculus, I would suggest doing your homework and acing every test.

My advice for sophomore year in general is to enjoy it. This year will almost definitely be the easiest, most relaxed year that you will ever experience during your four years in high school, assuming you don’t drop out. Junior year is the real start of the IB program and, sadly, everything you have done up until this point in time is only considered pre-IB. During your last year before what many upperclassman IB students endearingly refer to as hell, you should try to get as much sleep as possible. You’re not going to have much work to do this year so I suggest that you do not procrastinate and do it well.

With the added time that you will be blessed with during sophomore year, I suggest that you try to join as many clubs as possible in order to find a pastime or hobby that you can enjoy for the rest of high school. If you join a club that you don’t especially fancy, do not fear! You can just quit! Furthermore, most importantly, it is imperative that you that high school isn’t all about the tests and homework but rather the experience. As long as you can balance schoolwork, extracurricular activities, and a social life you should do just fine during the coming year.

Sincerely

Aaron Sandoval

 

Dear friend,

In 10th grade, you will be taking a lot of rigorous courses, but it’s okay because as long as you keep calm and stay sane, the year will slide by without you even noticing. For Pre- Calculus class, I advice that you memorize all of your formulas and try to understand concepts as Ms. Frisbie teaches them. Never hold back to ask Ms. Frisbie questions on things you don’t understand, as long as you don’t ask irrelevant questions that make her mad. Be mature. In other courses, don’t underestimate the teachers. For example, Mr. Guice’s class may be easy in the beginning. He may not give you a lot of work in the beginning of the year but he grades harshly on the essays and towards the end of the year, he gives you tons of work to do. Overall, the main point is to not procrastinate. DO NOT wait until the last minute to study for a big test or finish your final copy of the Mini Extended Essay. Do all of your summer homework and do not cheat on the 40 Studies for Psychology.

In addition to your courses, you may also want to participate in after school activities. Learn to manage your time to balance your after school activities and your homework time so that you can get enough sleep. I know how important sleep is to IB kids, believe me! Also, if you are going to sign up for a club learn to stay engaged in it and make sure you meet a lot of new people. A social life is just as important as your study life. Also, make sure that you also keep up with your hobbies, like sports or music.

Finally, don’t carry so much weight around in your backpack. There is honestly no reason to. Compress your folders into one and then organize them separately at home. Organization is a major importance in IB. Get a locker if needed. For AP world history. Make sure to take notes on all the readings. The quizzes are easy so don’t worry about them but the notes would be helpful to go over for test as well as the big AP test too. In Spanish, don’t stress it. Just try your best to understand the grammar and memorize the vocabulary. Get ready to speak out loud a lot. I hope my advices help you but if you have more questions, just contact me.

Sincerely,

Prit Patel

 

Dear Future IB Student,

My main advice to you is to stay organized and to stay focused throughout the whole year. It is imperative that you keep an active and healthy lifestyle as you progress throughout the year. In terms of IB PreCalculus, it is important that you keep a simple study habit and study a little bit every night. It is also important to do the assignments every night and ask questions on the problems you had with the assignment. This way, you will have all your doubts cleared up and you won’t have to suffer from not knowing a topic when you take the test. Also, you should not procrastinate on the chapter review worksheets that you get for every chapter, and attempt to do every problem. The chapter review worksheets will be very useful when you take the midterm, final, and the IB test. If you miss class, you should never procrastinate on makeup work. Also keep your ego in check. If you think you’re really good at a topic in school, you should never skip studying it because you think that you can pass it without studying. Getting an A without studying in impossible in IB. But, you should still study by your strengths. If you are good in math, and you think that you only need to study a little bit to pass it, then you could spend your time studying for a baffling psychology test. Some classes may be easy and not require that much studying, such as World History or Physics, but it is important to review them a little bit before the test. When it comes to AP tests, you should maintain a personal review schedule throughout the year, where you review a topic once or twice before the AP test. That way, by the time the AP season rolls over, you can breeze through the tests. It is not impossible to pass an AP exam if you haven’t been studying all year, but that requires a lot of cramming a week before the exam, and that is really stressful. In all, it is important to be focused and balanced in what you do and keep a healthy schedule to take you through the year.

Best Wishes,

Rohan Nakka 😉

 

Dear upcoming Sophomore,

First off, congratulations on surviving freshman year! One down, three more to go! Hopefully, you learned not to procrastinate and to effectively balance your schoolwork and social life…who am I even kidding? Only robots would be able to perform such a miracle, and since you (hopefully) are not a robot, you probably haven’t mastered this skill. Anyway, sophomore year wasn’t as horrible as I expected it to be; the workload wasn’t too bad, and I rarely had to worry about my semester grade dropping to a B in any of my classes. My schedule this year was: Pre-calc, AP Stats, English, Physics/Chemistry, AP World History, AP Psych, and Spanish.

Pre-calc – Frisbie is a GENIUS. Not kidding. She really knows her stuff, and is EXTREMELY helpful with explaining concepts and whatnot. Pay attention in her class, and don’t be afraid to ask questions, no matter how stupid they may seem to be. Also, try not to be so obnoxious when pointing out mistakes; you do NOT want to get on her bad side. Grade recovery quizzes are a lifesaver. Take advantage of them.

AP Stats – It’s a really easy subject, and Naki does a great job of teaching it. Basically, the calculator does all the work for you, and all you have to do is interpret the data. Just do your homework, and you’ll be fine.

English – Guice is incredibly chill, and so is his class. Make sure to take notes on grammar and not to procrastinate on his essays.

Physics – Webb knows his stuff, but tends to get off track a lot. He doesn’t really care if you pay attention or not, so do so at your own risk. It’s a pretty easy class, just plugging in stuff into equations and solving. Not hard at all.

Chemistry – Unlike Physics, you actually do work in this class. Most of the concepts are easy, and Brooks gives you so much extra credit that you could fail the final exam and still get an A in the class.

AP World – Two words: CRASH COURSE. Wright teaches, but he’s so laid back that no one really pays any attention. Read the textbook, take detailed notes, and watch Crash Course World History (with the amazing John Green) as a supplement.

AP Psych – Reynolds does assign a lot of pages in the textbook to take notes on, but she does a good job of preparing you for the AP exam, which is mostly vocabulary. Don’t wait until the last minute to do the notecards!

Spanish – Make flashcards for the vocabulary, and spend a lot of time studying the grammar! You’ll learn a bazillion different tenses this year (pluperfect, imperfect subjunctive, etc), so it’s important that you keep track of them all!

Soo yeah. Some random tips: take a nap as soon as you get home; it’ll help with the late-night studying. Try not to tick off your teachers. Create some kind of a timetable for what you do after school. Join some clubs like YIG or A-team. More importantly, spend some time with your friends and try to enjoy this all while you can. The best (or worst) has yet to come.

Sincerely,

Saher Kidwai

 

This year has been very fun and enjoyable. I loved all my classes and teachers as well as becoming closer with friends. I really would recommend that the upcoming sophomores try to push themselves, so that they are ready for the difficult junior year. This year I had Precalc, AP Stats, English, Spanish 3, AP Human Geography, AP World History, and Chemistry/Physics. I really enjoyed everything about this year and I hope next year is the same.

I would advise a friend to make sure to put hard work into their classes.  This year Spanish was my most difficult class and requires a lot of studying to succeed. Also my AP classes required a lot of hard work in order to learn and understand the material before taking an AP test in May. It is important to try to be the best you can be to open opportunities later in life.

Finally, I would recommend to be active in academic life as well as social life like being in clubs and sports. I really enjoyed being part of the golf team and making many new friends.  Also, social activities allow for interaction with students from all 3 schools. This will help make friendships that will last a lifetime.  I have really enjoyed this year and hope next year is the same for everyone else.

Keegan Schaal

 

Dear freshmen,

I am sure you have heard some awful things about how hard IB is, but I know that you can make it through this program. All you need is hard work and determination.

I encourage you to learn to manage your time. It will often feel like there is not enough time in the day for you to possibly complete all of your assignments. This is not true. I have discovered that there is always time during school to complete your assignments, however, make sure that you don’t stop paying attention in class as you attempt to do your homework. For me, it has always been easier to complete the hard work first and then complete the easier homework assignments.

With that being said, another main thing you should try not to do is worry. Do not pile on stress! Join a sport, or do yoga, or participate in some sort of activity that helps you relax. Do not worry about your grades too much; IB is far more rigorous than most of you are used to. So, don’t worry about getting your first B, or C (however, if I were you, I would start worrying about a D). Although I don’t want you to worry too much, I still want you to care. Do not let your grades go down the drain, do not give up, and always try as hard as you can. Oh and NEVER procrastinate!!!!!!!!!

Furthermore, as the year ends, you may hear that 10th grade is easier. However, this is based upon the courses you choose. As a result, I urge you to choose your electives carefully. I believe that 10th grade is the best time to try to get a feel for how the real IB, in 11th and 12th grade, will be. As a result, I took extra classes on the side in order to learn how to manage my time better and to better prepare me for next year. I encourage you to choose rigorous AP courses for your electives. Signing up for a dual enrollment course is another option also.

Lastly, do not let that amount of work destroy your life. I encourage you to leave time for yourself and for your social life. Go out to watch a movie with your friends sometimes, or go to the mall. Don’t forget how to smile and don’t forget how to have laugh and have fun!

Neeshi Patel

 

Dear Upcoming IB Sophomore,

Looking back, I think sophomore year has been pretty darn awesome. I’ve heard it’s the easiest, so don’t stress out. I don’t have much to say except for the most cliché piece of advice you will hear for the next few years of your IB experience. Don’t procrastinate. No, really, don’t do it. Unless you’re like me and you feel most productive under pressure. In that case, procrastinate all you like.

However you decide to handle schoolwork, make sure it doesn’t get in the way of your friendships. Lemme tell you something. When you live and breathe school, your only friends will be other people who live and breathe school. A.K.A your classmates. So don’t ruin friendships over silly competitiveness. No es bueno. Your classmates will be the only ones who can relate to you and put up with your incessant ranting about how hard the last Spanish test was. Just don’t screw up your friendships.

As for the classes, you’ll absolutely love Guice’s class. Except when he makes you diagram sentences because those really suck. But in general, he’s probably the best English teacher I’ve had so far. Except when he makes us diagram sentences because those really suck. If you have Ms. Frisbie this year, you’re really lucky. She’s the best math teacher hands-down. (And I’m not just saying that because this assignment is a grade for her class.) Oh, for APWH, don’t just memorize for the quizzes. Also, I hope you take Stats. It can be difficult sometimes, but Naki is a great teacher so you have nothing to worry about.

Good luck next year and make the best of it J

Prajakta Kulkarni

 

Dear freshmen,

When you enter your sophomore year after summer vacation, you need to be prepared for the shift in the pace. While a common theory is that sophomore year is the easiest of the IB program, you must act diligently nonetheless. Do not procrastinate until the last second. Always be proactive whenever you need to make up assignments. Do not play until you have done your homework. And of the utmost importance, study often! If you follow these suggestions, you can avoid the mistakes of your predecessors.

The IB program is one of the most rigorous in the world. While this means that there will be the occasional assignment that sucks up your time like an industrial-sized vacuum cleaner, the teachers are merciful enough to give you multiple days to do such assignments. Many students complain that IB does not give enough time to do the projects. While this is true about five percent of the time, the other ninety-five is caused by the laziness of the students. Many students procrastinate until the last minutes, and then complain to cover their mistakes. They obviously will not admit this when confronted, yet strangely admit this fact to their friends, the problem is common to almost all of us, your predecessors. If you avoid procrastination, IB will not be as stressful as people claim. Another way to avoid stress is to be proactive when making up work. Teachers will continue their lesson plans when you are absent. The universe does not revolve around you. People who act like this are, in my opinion, extremely annoying and appear way too often. The teachers are extremely busy, and cannot wait around on you. If you need to make up an assignment, ask them at a proper time. Do not, no matter what, even come hell or high water, wait for the teacher to act and then whine that they have not given you your missed assignments. They are your responsibilities, and complaining about it annoys them. Another complaint about the IB program that can be solved by proper action is the amount of sleep. People constantly gripe, “I went to bed at 3 in the morning. IB gives too much homework.” Or, “Necesito dormir,” which means “I need to sleep” in Spanish. The things is though, this problem can be avoided. Personally, I finish around 7 p. m. on most days. The only time I stayed up until 3 in the morning was when I foolishly decided to play video games, watch television, and literally do nothing until 11 o’clock. And even still, I only stayed up late because I had to wait because I put my calculator on the charger only after I began working. Another piece of advice is to study often. The common study method is cramming, in which everyone studies everything right before a test. This increases the amount of time that a person has to stay awake. Then, the majority does poorly on tests due to exhaustion. By studying often, you can break the necessary information that you need into chunks that you can learn gradually. These two tips will keep you well rested even in the IB program.

The sophomore year has the potential of being a relaxing year for IB students. In order to make it such, you need to follow four pieces of advice. Do not procrastinate until the last minute. Be proactive when making up assignments. Do not play before doing your work. And study often.

Good luck,

Ian McKinney

 

To the upcoming pre-calculus student,

CONGRATULATIONS! You have made it past your first (or second) year of ib. I will now address the upcoming sophomores. You have made it past your entrance to ib, and to be honest, the first part of your year will be easy. No hard classes, not a lot of work, and some freshmen to pick on. It will all be great. I really recommend that you take this time to participate in extracurricular activities, such as TSA or HOSA.

Secondly, you should really get your community hours logged in. As a sophomore right now, it is the last day of school, and while I have more than sufficient hours, I realize now I cannot find records. It is the last day and I am asking the orchestra director and Spanish teacher to sign the records too. I will tell you, it is a pain.

Finally, the end of your year will be sub-optimal. You will find many assignments due in English, and your finals will be coming up, and everything will be falling into chaos. Or so it will appear. Just keep everything together and everything will be fine.

Nicholas Christoffersen

 

When I entered my sophomore year, just as you are about to, I had been given a lot of advice about what to expect. The information helped me a lot, so now I will hopefully be able to help you out a bit. First of all, do NOT procrastinate. You have probably have been told this many times and probably will not listen, but you should. IB will be a lot less stressful if you just do your work in a timely fashion. There will be a lot less late nights, breakdowns, and trips to the kitchen for more coffee.

In addition to time management, I would advise that you get involved in as many extracurricular activities as you can. Join sports teams or clubs you’ve never even heard of. If you join a sports team it will become a huge stress reliever and you are going to want to have as many ways of relieving stress as possible. Through the sports and clubs you will meet all sorts of people and make all kinds of new friends. Also, you will be able to begin to work towards acquiring leadership positions within your sports teams and clubs. It is still early in your high school career; however, it will help you in the long run for college applications and your résumé.

The last and probably one of the most important pieces of advice I am able to give, is to eliminate distractions. This is very beneficial, especially while completely homework. Leave your phone in the other room, turn off your music for a little while and go somewhere quiet in order to work. By doing these things you will be able to work at your most efficient level and eliminate some more of those unnecessary late nights. Set somewhat of a schedule for yourself as you do your homework. For example, say you are going to work for an hour or two and then take a break and check your phone and listen to that one song that has been stuck in your head the entire time, and then resume working. Or you could also decide to just complete the assignment you’re on, depending on the length, and then proceed to take a break and after the break is over move on to the next assignment. Good luck in your future IB years!

Haley Fitzhugh

 

There are some key things to remember when attending IB. The first is to always stay on Ms. Frisbie’s good side, no matter what. For every class however, it is important that you do your work on time. Having a planner and actively using it can save you a lot of time and stress. It’s good to have friends to rely on, but they can’t help you with everything. You should keep track of your own time and classes, and ask for help in case you accidentally missed something.

When I say to plan your time, I don’t mean create a schedule of weekly activities and get work done according to that. I know methods like this are not helpful for everyone. Personally, this seems like a waste of time. By planning, I mean to keep track of your work. Always know when things are due, and make sure you get them done. DO NOT PROCRASTINATE! If you have free time, and you think all of your homework is done, you’re wrong. There is ALWAYS something that you need to get done, and you should at least get started.

The number one most important rule is to always be on Ms. Frisbie and your other, not as important, teachers’ good sides. Don’t do stupid things in class, don’t be loud, disruptive, or disrespectful, and do not talk when the teacher is talking. For example, let’s say you’re really thirsty and a fried is bringing you a drink from somewhere like McDonald’s. You have to walk out to the parking lot to get it, and you would be risking a tardy from your first period teacher, who in this situation could be Ms. Frisbie. Forget it. Leave the drink. Nothing is worse than risking that tardy. You should instantly get to class right away. The consequences of being late for that reason are very undesirable.

Essentially, to get through high school all you have to do is finish your work on time, and stay on the good side of your teachers, especially Ms. Frisbie. Your life will be soooo much easier if you do these things.

Shivam Patel