The first group of these was written by juniors, to advise new juniors, and the second group by sophomores, to advise new sophomores. They are otherwise in no particular order.

 

To whom it may concern,

Congratulations on completing your sophomore year, you are now halfway through the IB program.  Just kidding, you only completed the Pre-IB program and are just now getting ready to officially begin the IB program.  Get ready for the “hardest” year at Bartow IB, with quotes around the word “hardest” to signify the arbitrary use of the word.  Of course, the difficulty of the program (or of anything in general) is extremely subjective; however, I believe it is quite safe to say that you may often wish that you were still a sophomore.  Despite this, there are quite a few things that you can do which will significantly influence your junior experience.  Judging by the fact that you are on Ms. Frisbie’s website reading this, it’s safe to say that you will be better off than most of your peers due to having some level of care for yourself and acting on it.  Good job.  If you’re an upcoming sophomore, you can still peruse this essay and heed my advice, but keep in mind that I have designed it with the upcoming juniors in mind.

First of all, the IB program is a reciprocal program.  What you put in will most definitely determine what you get out of it.  Cheesy or cliché as it may seem, it is fairly accurate.  You should get into the habit of doing all of the readings and small assignments before they are due, because that will better prepare you for your academic future and life as a whole.  Get a head start on everything you are able to, no matter how tempting whatever you do in your little free time is.  Spending four or five hours on a project the night before it’s due can be easily prevented by doing as little as 20-30 minutes on that project in the weeks prior to its due date.  All the IB students can joke around about procrastination being ‘our thing’ and it’s ‘just what we do,’ but this doesn’t change the fact that it’s just stupid and poor planning.  At the least, if you fall victim to the common traits exhibited by the IB student, please take credit for your mistakes.  We seem to love to play the blame game and to avoid taking responsibility for our actions, which does nothing but annoy teachers and make a fool out of one’s self.

I apologize if my tone seems negative or hateful towards you, a reader who I most likely do not know very well, but I promise that my intentions are good.  Everything I lay before you here comes from observations of my classmates and, most importantly, myself.  Perhaps educating you on our own mishaps will help to make your class more successful.  I would now like to inform you on an important thing that you may or may not be aware of that I would have loved to know back when I was a sophomore.  It’s a pretty huge one, I think, and it is that (for the most part) IB exams are easier than AP exams.  Allow me to repeat; IB exams, which you will be taking throughout junior and senior year, are easier than the AP exams you have already been taking (which you hopefully have passed the majority of).  These words come from teachers such as Mrs. Kennon, not myself.  The only IB exam I have taken is Psychology, which I can say with complete conviction was much easier than the AP Psychology exam.  So keep this in mind as you move throughout the program; the workload is more challenging throughout the school year, but the result of this is a more prepared student, which makes the exam seem easier in comparison to AP exams.

I think this is all I will offer to you for now.  Considering the fact that Ms. Frisbie requires all of her precalculus students to write this, I think it is okay that I focused on a few specific things rather than covering a broad variety.  I hope that you feel at least a little more confident about your future in IB, because being stressed about it won’t do you any good.  You’ve gotten this far, and you’re at one of the most academically rigorous high school programs in the country, so you’ll be okay, kid.  You aren’t stupid.

Nick Wibert

 

Life in my junior year of IB can basically be summarized in the following phrase: “It wasn’t that bad”. I had been cautioned previously by almost all of the sophomores, juniors and seniors during my first year that junior year would be the most grueling time period of my academic career. Frankly, barely any of this stigma surrounding junior year is accurate. I have always been a person who has leaned more towards social studies such as history when it came to academic ability, and so classes I often struggled with were pre-calculus and AP Chemistry. The science course everyone takes tends to be a major bane despite the science chosen, but chemistry is, while not inherently easy, comprehensible eventually. Seeking after school help though is greatly recommended however, as the first several weeks of chemistry are the toughest by far.

I know for a fact you’ve all heard the same line spoken to you before, and we’re all guilty of it, but procrastination never helps. Before you tune out at the sight of those same lines of text being drilled into you ad nauseum, it’s important to know that procrastination is, of course, bad. However, it’s a waste of my time and yours to tell you to not procrastinate when it’s quite obvious you’ll do it anyway, so instead, I will say that doing homework in classes you are allowed to is a great idea. Now unless you have a death wish fueled on masochism, don’t do something like finishing a biology worksheet in Mrs. Lavelle’s classroom. But if you have the time where you could be finishing homework, such as when you finish an assignment, you won’t regret making a dent in your litany of assignments. During junior year, most current juniors would agree that we have had less homework this year compared to sophomore year, but don’t let this mindset sink in. If you end up doing homework at 2AM daily, your sleep schedule might invert like a person, and that is not an enjoyable experience.

Regarding sleep, rest is one of the most vital resources in terms of making it through junior year unscathed. Yes, you can finish your homework at 12 or 1AM, but when you fall asleep in the midst of AP U.S. History, your grade is most likely going to be affected. Personally, my sleep schedule has been completely ruined since the beginning of junior year up until AP testing season, and staying awake isn’t the easiest of tasks when you’re running on around 1-3 hours of rest. Just avoid procrastinating by trying to do work in your spare time, and you can avoid the wrath of Ms. Scully, or stop Ms. Frisbie from giving you an endless barrage of free points called trigonometry quizzes. This was my soapbox, and hopefully my advice proved somewhat useful to you in any means. As long as you give a wholehearted effort and ask for aid from teachers or friends when needed, junior year will breeze by.

Christian Hernandez

 

Dear Upcoming Junior,

Junior year in IB is one crazy year for sure. From pre-calculus to Spanish, I struggled. I struggled keeping up with all my work for every class and having to go straight to work after school so I could put gas in my car. I have experienced quite a bit in the past three years and if I could go back and change a few things, I probably would. Also, I think if someone had told me a few wise words, it would have helped me along the way.

From sophomore year to junior year is a tough transition. Sophomore year is definitely more relaxed and not as rigorous and requires less work ethic; however, junior year is quite the contrary. If you come into junior year with the mentality that it’s the same as last year, you are sadly mistaken and if you are anything like me, you will stumble. I had to hire a Spanish tutor for Mrs. Calvo’s class, I had to sit with my dad for hours on end for math help when I had a few other assignments to do in addition to my math homework, and I would do my homework on break at work. I had to slowly gain my dedication and study habits I had from freshman year back and it wasn’t easy. I think as a junior, I’ve come to the realization that it’s okay to make B’s and it’s okay to not be the best (I never was to begin with). I have realized that what I have done so far in IB is an accomplishment and that I have more completed than I have left.

So my advice to you would be, be the best you can be. Study if you need to, don’t be ashamed if you have to hire a tutor, turn in your work on time, and do all of the extra credit that is given to you, it would be silly not to. Keep track of all your assignments and manage your time well. Junior year really isn’t all the hype. It’s easy if you stay organized and, as I previously stated, be the best you can possibly be.

Sincerely,

Jane-Anne Brown

 

Dear young friend,

Junior year in IB is the mythical and fated year of struggle and strife. Rising seniors tell of the horrors to rising juniors, and the stories are passed down the grapevine time and time again. I feel like it’s time to set the story straight. Junior year is certainly hard, and maybe the hardest year of my high school experience. What it is not, however, is basically everything I was told it would be.

What have you been told, I wonder, about your upcoming junior year? Probably that it is the hardest year of IB, that the teachers are much stricter, that you’ll pull a lot of all-nighters, that the stress will get to you in the end. Sounding familiar? Here, to assuage some fears, I would like to share some numbers with you: I have cried exactly 1 time this year. I have pulled 4 all-nighters (out of 180 days of school, that’s about 2%). I have gotten, on average, 6.22 hours of sleep per weekday night (and yes, I track my sleep every night). The longest my homework ever took me to complete was 6 hours. I have had 17 days with no homework at all. If all of this still does not make you feel any better, consider the following: during my junior year, I played the #3 position on the Girls’ Varsity Tennis Team. I kept a garden, which I cared for every day. I exercised for at least 30 minutes every day. I worked 10 hours a week for the entire second semester. I watched at least 300 hours of television.

What I am trying to demonstrate here is not any extreme competency on my part. In fact, I am quite often terrible with time management and procrastination. I merely want you to see that junior year isn’t something to be scared of. It is difficult, it will be a lot of work, and it definitely takes focus and effort. You will need to study, and your teachers will expect you to be competent and responsible for your own education. However, you will have free time. You will get enough sleep if you try hard enough. You can do a sport, have a job, or watch too much TV and that will be okay. Junior year is about balance. Trying to devote 100% of your time to schoolwork will drive you crazy. That isn’t what will make you successful. Pursue your interests, make time for the things you care about. I promise that the work is more bearable if you’re happy.

Best of luck,

Abby McDanal

 

Hello, friend! LOOK HOW FAR YOU HAVE COME!! Let’s acknowledge that first. I want to start off by saying that whether you’re in the top of your class or more towards the bottom, you should be extremely proud of yourself for making it this far. And remember that all your peers took the same tests and went through the same evaluation that you went through to get into this program, and to get to this point. Proceed to give yourself a pat on the back. Now that you have done that, I have some advice for you! I’ll break it down in order of what I personally thought were my easiest to hardest classes.

I’ll group Theory of Knowledge and Art together since they were my two easiest classes of my junior year, so there is not as much to be said. If you’re a sophomore then I’m assuming you’ve already had Mr. Guice and know how awesome he is. TOK is an easy A as long as you turn in all of your work. He really makes an effort to understand what his students are going through both as a group and as individuals. Mrs. Burke is just as understanding. This was my first year taking art; I was originally going to take computer science as my sixth subject but I was terrible at it and wasn’t enjoying it, so I decided to take art which I think was good for me personally. It’s an easy course and a great creative outlet.

I only had AP Statistics for one semester (I’ll finish the course next year), but I will try to give as much advice as I can. The material can be difficult to understand at times, but Mr. Naki reviews homework with the class in order to break down anything you might be having a hard time with. Homework isn’t incredibly easy, but it isn’t extremely hard either. When I was in the class, we only were given about one homework assignment a week, so it’s understandable that he expects you to turn it in on time. For me, the best way to study for tests was to do practice problems the night before.

What I believe was my next easiest class was English with Mrs. Lavelle. As long as you try your best in English, it won’t be too bad. Mrs. Lavelle is really sweet and funny, but her number one pet peeve is simply kids not doing their work. So if there’s a reading assignment, you just have to read it, then the hardest part is over. Of course, your essays won’t write themselves, but reading what’s assigned will definitely make things a lot easier. Mrs. Lavelle also takes a lot of time to give feedback on your writing, so when you revise your essays, go back and look at your past mistakes and check for the same mistakes in what you’re currently writing. In the beginning of May is when CAS hours were due for us. Enter your CAS experiences as you go so that way you don’t need to worry about it at the end of the year. By the end of the year, I was scrambling to get everything done and CAS was one of the big things on my to-do list. Don’t be me!

Next is AP US History. DO NOT FALL BEHIND ON READINGS! If you just do the assigned readings, this class should be a breeze, but if you don’t then this class will be difficult. Don’t depend solely on class discussion. Mrs. Scully also provides a lot of helpful resources online for you to use. I recommend watching the corresponding Crash Course videos for each period, though these videos are helpful to re-watch before you take the AP test, you won’t be able to retain all the information from all 40+ videos. Some of my classmates also found their AP study guides to be more helpful than the textbook, so you could try that, too, and see what works best for you.

Now for the harder classes…starting with Pre-Calculus! I’ve always enjoyed my math classes despite the fact that if math were a person they would probably hate me. Simply put, I’m not the greatest in pre-calc. However, Mrs. Frisbie goes above and beyond in providing you with helpful resources for studying and keeping track of assignments. She posts due-dates online, review worksheets, course information, and lots more on her website as well as on Edmodo. Homework isn’t too horrible, and she goes over any problems you may have questions about. She even posts homework questions and notes from class on Edmodo so you can look at them at home. Just know that you should be very grateful to have her as your math teacher for the next two years.

Enter what I call my personal Classes of Doom™: Spanish and Chemistry. If Spanish is your foreign language class, then you probably know how well you perform in it. For me, Spanish is my Achilles’ heel. That being said, I don’t have much advice, but I can try my best. Quizlet or good old-fashioned flash cards will be your best friend. The textbook that we used had codes for different online practices, some of which were assigned to us. These are really helpful for practicing grammar; so if you have a hard time with grammar, then I advise you to do them over and over until you get everything right. By then, you should have a pretty good understanding of how to conjugate. Quizlet is best for practicing things like vocabulary. I would also have a quizlet set ready that has the definitions of all the most commonly used infinitives; they show up on every test, and you will be expected to already know their meanings. These are the methods that worked best for me, and it probably would have worked better had I followed this entire regimen for every single test we had. The homework can be pretty difficult, but it’s usually short. Remember that Mrs. Calvo does NOT take late homework!

Finally, we have AP Chemistry. Just the word chemistry strikes fear into my very soul. I’m going to get very honest here. Go ahead and judge me, but I had maybe three or four school-induced cries during the entire year and I think all of them were caused by chemistry. However, this does not mean it will be anywhere near as difficult for you as it has been for me; some of my classmates found it relatively easy while others’ feelings towards the subject were more similar to mine. This is another class that you DO NOT want to fall behind in as it will be nearly impossible to come back from it. If you’re having trouble in the beginning, get help as soon as possible either from Mrs. Loweke or from a tutor. If you have a friend who does well in chemistry, they can even tutor you for NHS hours. The best way to study is probably just doing as many practice problems as you can. Again, Quizlet is helpful for things that must be memorized.

My final advice is general, not specific to any class. The advice that I’ve found most helpful even since middle school is not to worry about what your other classmates think of you. As someone who isn’t afraid to admit that she frequently answers questions wrong aloud, this is what I believe to be is my best advice: Do not compare yourself to your peers because you are not them and they are not you. You will be incorrect at times, but don’t be embarrassed. You can use it as motivation but don’t let it get to you. Everyone around you is too occupied with what they are doing to pay attention to your mistakes. You are in school to learn and therefore will get things wrong at times, but that’s how learning works. If you already knew everything, then you would not still be in school. As I’m sure you already know, IB is a very competitive environment, but what truly matters is that you are trying your best. It’s also okay necessary to have a bit of a social life once in a while in order to maintain your sanity. Not knowing when to take a much-needed break can be just as bad as slacking off. That is all the wise junior advice I have to pass unto you. I wish you luck this upcoming year!

Isabelle Snowball

 

In Algebra 2, I was barely able to scrape by with an A. I consistently got scores near 90, and even though I understood the material I always made mistakes because I never wanted to check my work. Later, during the summer of my Sophomore year, I took online math classes that require you to answer questions perfectly, because there is no “partial credit.” Although the courses were difficult, they taught me that the most important way to save points in your math classes is to be as careful as possible, and to be mindful of what your teacher expects you to turn in.

I had always known that checking your work is important, but to me it was never worth it. Even during my online classes, when I got to the end of a long assignment, all I wanted to do was finish it. I was convinced that making mistakes was an intrinsic trait of my personality, like a ghost that I could never actually repel. Once I finished the summer, however, the fact that I had taken extra math classes gave me a new reputation as a “math kid” instead of just a “computer kid.” Suddenly, missing easy points started to feel bad; my ghost started to haunt me. Although I was never sure peoples’ perception of my abilities was valid, I was against undershooting their expectations. I started to put much more “work” into my work, and with practice I was able to fix many of my problems. Later, I realized that throughout the development I had gained a strong sense of pride in my work, that had become my primary motivator; the expectations I were undershooting were my own. Since then, my diligence has lapsed on many assignments, and although it still sucks to do poorly on an assignment, it isn’t so disappointing anymore. There is a clear relationship between the effort you put into an assignment and how well you do, but pride in my work is what enabled me to explore that relationship’s extent.

Checking your work also gives you a chance to take your teacher’s perspective, which Ms. Frisbie makes much easier by personifying the back of the book (Bob) as “some guy” who does so many math problems that even his low-ish error rate is a nuisance for students using the book. Whenever you have a dispute with Bob, you can substitute both answers as solutions in your original problem, compare their implications in the original context, and try to figure out who made which mistake and where. Outsmarting Bob is its own reward, but even if it’s really your own fault you are guaranteed to gain insight into what you’re studying, and find ways you can avoid situations that become mistakes easily. For example, Bob taught me to always be careful when subtracting quadratic equations because of how easy it is to only negate x² instead of the entire expression. Now, to spite him, I always use an obscene amount of parentheses in my math, which is certainly the ugliest way to avoid mistakes with subtraction. Even though checking work and taking precautions can be tedious, introducing us to Bob turns them into friendly competitions between us and some egghead at the IBO.

Since last year, my grade in math class has risen by 10 points. I’ve already studied most of the content, but even at Polk State I am doing significantly better. I never expected that I would be a good math student, but what made the biggest difference for me was my summer classes. They catalyzed a strong increase in my motivation to review my work, which has helped me show Bob how math works on many different occasions.

Grady Daniels

 

Dear Friend,

Welcome to your junior year! It is nothing like sophomore year, remember that this is the year IB really starts, so be prepared. This year will be very hard if you expect it to be anything like sophomore year. You will be required to have a very good work ethic and will have many hours of homework. Don’t be too scared though, not all of the classes are extremely hard.

My first class was AP Biology with Mrs. Kennon. You probably had her freshman year for Biology; she is still the same funny lady but she expects a lot. Throughout the year, she over prepares you for the AP exam with her test questions resembling the AP test. You will have to write up lab reports for every lab and will do the infamous Fly Lab. The Fly lab, to be honest, is hard because you have to catch the flies and most of them escape all over your hands. You will enjoy biology and will definitely pass the AP exam. My second class is IB psychology, your first IB exam, taught by Ms. Romaine. This class is an easy A if you do her assignments and she doesn’t test you very much. You will have to do a lot of studying on your own. The IB test is easier than the AP psychology test and you know all the questions before you take the test. AP Spanish is one of the hardest classes, in my opinion, in your junior year. Mrs. Calvo is a very strict teacher who gives you no leeway in your work. She does not do extra credit, late work under any circumstances, and grades homework on correctness not participation. She resembles a college professor.

This year I split Human Geography with TOK. Human Geography was easy because it resembles APES and will help you with APUSH. TOK is not a hard class but it makes you think. TOK challenges your beliefs. APUSH was my homeroom with Mrs. Scully. APUSH is interesting and contains some of the information you learned in AP world history. English is an easy class and is interesting. You discuss readings with your class and write journals about what you read. In English, this year, you will complete your IOC, where you meet with Mrs. Lavelle and discuss a poem and a story your class read that year. The poems and stories are discussed many times in class so you have nothing to worry about. You also have to complete an IOP, which is a 10 minute presentation to the class, about an essay you read in class. You will have a group one earlier in the year to prepare you for it. My last class is Precalc with Ms. Frisbie which is not an easy but not extremely difficult class.  While you are in this class, make sure to study for the tests and ask questions if you do not understand a topic. Also, don’t forget to turn in online assignments on time.

Good luck in your junior year!

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Cribb

 

Dear incoming Juniors,

The transition from tenth grade to eleventh grade can be shocking at first. What really helps, especially during the first nine weeks, is staying prepared. Start habits in the beginning of the year in the hopes that they will last. Unfortunately, you won’t be taking APUSH (United States History), but I’m sure that most of my advice will still apply. Actually keeping up with the textbook readings and taking notes really helps! I have found that taking notes helps in Pre-calculus as well. Writing down what you learn may help you remember it later, and notes are good for reference and studying. My most difficult class was AP Chemistry. There’s a lot to learn, even if it’s your second year in the class. Try reading through the chapters (I know it sounds painful, but it helps). The homework problems can seem endless. Just remember that IB Chemistry will be better. My best advice for English class is this: when you are given feedback on journal essays, try not to make the same mistakes in your next essay! If you’re one of the rare orchestra kids, I congratulate you for going into IB Music. Try to have fun. Music should be fun. Finally, if you are in French, you are either one of the last to take the class, or you are reading this years in the future and French has been revived! Either way, my advice would be to read some news in French, or maybe watch some French television. Languages are difficult; be persistent. If you have the chance to go to French State Competition, do it! It’s a lot of fun.

When you reach second semester, stay prepared and stay respectful. Even the advice from 2002 suggests staying friendly with the rest of your classmates. Don’t let drama make life awkward. When you reach this point of IB, facing future AP tests and IB tests, Internal Assessments, ToK presentations, and the Extended Essay, you make find it easy to become angry with your peers and your teachers and yourself. It’s easy to be upset with Mr. Guice and all of the forms you have to turn in for the EE, on top of preparing for your presentation. It’s easy to be angry with Ms. Lavelle for not checking your CAS and yelling about it on her soapbox. It’s easy to be upset with yourself for become slightly lazier and slightly angrier. Fight it! Keep on caring! Don’t let it ruin the end of your year, especially when there’s another to come.

Then there’s the general advice that every junior needs. I will tell you to procrastinate less. It’s hard to stop once it starts. Pre-calculus students before me have mentioned the word “procrastinate” in their advice 487 times, and that does not include words like “procrastinator” nor “procrastinating.” If you are reading this while procrastinating, I hope you find the will to do your work. CAS (Creativity, Activity, Service) experiences are also important. You will learn about them next year, and I advise you to not wait until the last month of school before adding entries into the online system called ManageBac. I also advise you to pull out your ManageBac cheat sheet when you add entries. When you get there, it will make life a lot easier.  Finally, have some fun. Go out with friends, make new friends, live a little. Make jokes and cheer people up. IB should be fun.

Beatriz Galindo

 

By joining the IB program, you decided to take the most rigorous curriculum available to challenge yourself fully and have a better shot at going to a college that you really desire to attend. For me personally, I felt as though a regular school curriculum was too boring and wanted something that would challenge me and make me grow as a person. I am now going into my last and final year in the program, and I’ve been asked to impart a little wisdom and advice to you, the underclassmen who will take over once the class of 2018 is gone. So, let’s get one major rumor out of the way: AP Biology isn’t as tough as everyone claims it is. Sure, Kennon’s tests are pretty scary – and there are many, many lab write ups that you’ll complete in preparation for the dreaded fly lab – but the payoff is immense. I’ve never felt as prepared for an AP exam as I have after months of lessons from Kennon, so make sure to pay attention and not fall asleep during her class as much as I did.

This leads into my next piece of advice (which I’m certain you will see numerous times on this webpage), which is good time management. Every year, at every freshman orientation, upperclassmen are asked to volunteer and give some words of advice and encouragement to incoming students so they are less anxious as they begin their first year of high school. If five students speak, there is an almost absolute certainty that four of them talked about time management and not procrastinating assignments. I spent countless nights working on homework that had been assigned a week in advance and were due the following day – on top of the work assigned last class. As a result, I tended to sleep often in many of my classes and it took a lot of effort to keep my grades high; this is usually the main source of stress for IB students, known notoriously for our procrastination skills. And, since there are so many students telling you the same thing, I strongly believe you should listen to what we’re saying.

My last piece of advice for you deals with extracurricular activities and life here at Bartow High School. Firstly, make sure you find something to participate in! Granted, that doesn’t mean you should join every club or sport available to you – colleges prefer to see consistency and dedication in a few clubs rather than how many clubs you were a part of. Try something new and push yourself; the spirit of high school lies in finding who you are as a person and knowing that your peers are going through the same situation. Now, when I mention life here at BHS, I’m focusing more into interactions with your teachers and other students that are not in IB. Just because they are “regular Bartow” students and teachers does not make them any less entitled to the cooperation and help that is offered to campus to all students. Many of us are arrogant and don’t notice how we are perceived by those around us – the stereotypical IB student that is “rude, entitled, and deserving of everyone’s praise” just because we chose to join a difficult program for our education. The truth is this – we are all students here at Bartow High and should treat each other as such rather than discriminating against each other based upon the perceived “intelligence” of the other group. Go easy on your teachers as well; no one student is entitled to more of the teacher’s attention or time because of what program they are in. This was an issue this year, so hopefully you guys will listen to what we have to say and be better students than we were. Learn from our mistakes and succeed where we failed; you’ll be in my position one day, so make us proud.

Joey Penas

 

Junior year definitely was an interesting experience. This year, I truly understood the stress that IB students go through. It is very easy to get distracted but I can tell you that those due dates are much closer than you may think. DO NOT PROCRASTINATE. I always say this to younger students when they talk about high school. I know first-hand that procrastination can cause an extremely high amount of stress and frustration. At one point this year, I felt an extreme amount of stress simply because I hadn’t started to work on my assignments sooner. I had a biology lab, a biology worksheet, pre-calculus homework, and an essay all due on one day. If I had managed my time correctly, then I would have been fine. This was not the case, however. Trust me when I say this. Use your time wisely. It will slip away before you know it.

Extracurriculars are a large part of high school. I recommend joining many clubs and teams as long as you can handle the workload of school and clubs at the same time. I was in about four or five clubs this year and they truly made my junior year better. Clubs always have benefits. You can join Interact Club, which will give you many opportunities for CAS experiences. You can join NHS for the service hours. You can join YIG to fulfill your passion for government and debate. What I’m trying to say here is that you shouldn’t completely focus on schoolwork the whole time. Try to work on making yourself more well-rounded.

During high school, you become so caught up with school, clubs, and sports, that you forget to live life. Don’t forget that though this is an important time for your future, you are still a teenager with fewer responsibilities than you will have in the future. Take advantage of this. Go out with friends. Spend time with your family. Don’t forget that being a good person matters just as much as being number one in your class rankings. By spending time with others, you gain the opportunity to learn from them and you can understand that you are not alone in whatever dilemma you may be facing at the moment. Mental health is extremely important, and many times students sacrifice this for the highest GPA. If you balance your life, you will be a much happier person.

Good luck to you all.

Vismay Patel

 

If there is one thing I believe everyone (including myself) needs, it would be perspective, and with that comes empathy. As students progress further into the IB program, we tend to become more selfish and inconsiderate of others around us. Not that one shouldn’t put him/herself first — by all means worry about yourself and your path in life. But, humans are naturally social creatures that need interaction with others, hence we are all bound to experience encounters, both positive and negative. When those encounters come along, perspective plays a role on how we interpret them.

In psychology, there is a phenomenon called the Fundamental Attribution Error. This occurs when a person attributes another’s behavior more to that other person’s personality and overlooking the effect that the environment and situation has on that other person’s behavior. Chances are that you are not the center of people’s lives, so if someone overlooks you or puts you off to the side, do not take things personally because you do not know that person’s situation. Instead try to empathize with that person. We all experience the pains of the program (and outside of school, everyone experiences the pain of life…EVEN REGULAR BARTOW STUDENTS), so just appreciate the good encounters with people, and understand why the bad encounters occur.

This may be my extreme optimism speaking but overall this mindset helped me stick out junior year (and hopefully senior year). Understand people’s struggle, emotions, and the situation in which they are so that you can empathize with them. Ultimately, these feelings will pass and everyone and everything will return to its normal conditions.

Armand Ceniza

Dear little sophomores (or juniors or whoever happens to be reading this at [insert time here] in [insert location here]),

If you’re reading this, you are most likely taking IB Pre-Calc and all I’m going to say is that you should do the homework. The tests are going to be pretty much what your homework is. It may seem like you have so much homework from Frisbie, but in all honesty, it takes 15-45 minutes of your day (not including time you take to study), so that would be a total of 1350-4050 minutes of your whole school year. This may seem like a lot, but in 180 school days, not including weekends, you have a grand total of 259,200 minutes. That’s only 1.56% of your year. DON’T COMPLAIN ABOUT THIS CLASS BECAUSE YOU SEE HOW MUCH TIME YOU SPEND DOING HOMEWORK (I know writing in all caps isn’t “serious and reasonable” but it gets the point across, right?)?

Other classes you take are English II, APUSH (I think… They’re changing stuff around so I can’t help you much here), Chemistry (I’m pretty sure), your foreign language, and the two electives. English is really fun, all I want to say for this class is don’t procrastinate unless you know you can BS a good paper the night before (I have, so I’m probably not the most qualified person to give this advice… BTW, I got a good grade on all of his papers that I did the night before). Do your books early on and memorize the literary terms as soon as you can. I can’t help you in APUSH because I’m not taking that class ever, so have fun with that! Chemistry is a lot of memorization and concepts and math. Sometimes I think there’s more math than Pre-calc. Some older students/alumni say that you make a lot of food, but that was a different teacher. We only ever made food once and I doubt Mrs. Loweke will want to ever make food again. My foreign language is Spanish, and that’s just memorization. Same with French and German. Actually, good luck with whatever language you take because you will definitely need it. As for you electives, DO NOT LISTEN TO OTHER PEOPLE TRY TO TELL YOU WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR ELECTIVES!!! If you want a super high GPA and you want to be valedictorian, take AP classes to boost your GPA. If you’re like me and you gave up on that dream, take whatever elective you want, even if it’s a 4.0. You don’t want to look back and regret not taking the fun class and having a little break from IB. However, it’s YOUR schedule, YOUR GPA, and YOUR life, not anyone else’s. So depending on what you want to achieve, choose accordingly. You may think I was being hypocritical, but I was giving you a few tips, I most definitely wasn’t trying to dictate what you should do. Have fun with your classes and good luck.

Now we’re going to talk about your social life, or at least what social life you may have. The main tip is to be EXTREMELY careful about who you trust and become friends with because that one girl who you thought was super nice could potentially be a backstabber *cough*Courtney*cough*. You need to find the 2-3 people to be your real friends. I wouldn’t go past 5 though. Get everyone’s numbers so if you don’t know what’s going on, you can ask them, because more likely than not, ONE of them will know what’s going on. Don’t bother dating unless you know you can handle it. There’s only two or three people I know of that are actually dating and they seem to be fine. Everyone else is either too busy or just don’t care enough to have a SO. That doesn’t mean you can’t ask someone to HOCO, the IB dance, or go with people to their school dances, just don’t go steady. You may or may not be turning 16 this year (I turn 16 in junior year, and I am the youngest IB person in my grade so don’t ask me about this) and you’ll be able to drive. USE THIS WISELY. Basically, don’t be that one kid who never gives rides to anyone (if your parents forbid it, that’s ok, but don’t be stuck up) because no one will give you a ride if you desperately need it. Don’t use it as an excuse to procrastinate, and don’t use it to stretch yourself thin with all the extracurricular activities you “have time” for.

In brief, don’t stress too much about the “huge, gigantic” amount of homework you may have. It’s less than it really is. DO NOT PROCRASTINATE (I’d be surprised if one person even followed this rule). Do what YOU want with your electives. Don’t be a Courtney (ok, if you haven’t watched 13 Reasons Why, you are seriously messed up in your mind. If you have, PLEASE do not be a Courtney). Have friends, get everyone’s contact deets, go to dances. Don’t date unless you’re prepared for it, and drive safe.

May the force be with you, or may the odds be ever in your favor, or whatever else you could put here because I am now too tired to think,

Cody Cirrincione

 

Dear incoming sophomore,

I am sure that by now you have heard that sophomore year is the easiest year, but that does not mean that you get a relaxing year where you can slack off and procrastinate. Since becoming an IB student, I have realized that teachers associate us with procrastination. Although I see procrastination happening around me, I have yet to do it. I will not say that procrastination is the key to success because we all know that the brightest IB students are those that procrastinate; however, I will say that avoiding procrastination is the key to diminishing stress. Throughout this school year, I have acquainted myself with several incoming sophomores and a few of you guys asked “how do you keep your grades up and party every weekend?” No matter how many times I got asked this question, my answer was always the same: time management.  The workload in IB will increase throughout the years and it is very important to keep track of due dates and plan out a schedule for assignments, especially large projects. There is nothing wrong with completing a small worksheet the day before it is do, but never allow large assignments to wait until the day before. I highly recommend that once you receive a small assignment you complete it the day it was assigned that way it can be done and out of your schedule. For larger assignments, I recommend that you divided it over a period of time that way they feel like small assignments. This planning should be practiced sophomore year as a way to prepare for junior and senior year.

Time management helps with diminishing the stress that comes with completing assignments, but the other type of stress that every IB student will go through is keeping up your grades. We all are used to getting A’s in middle school. You may have even gotten straight A’s your freshmen year here in IB. I am not saying that sophomore year you are destined to get a B or C, but I will say that it is a possibility here in IB. I recommend that you lower your standards now because by knowing of the possibility and accepting it you are less likely to stress over it when it occurs. It is also very important to acknowledge the fact that school and good grades is not what life revolves around. It is amazing being smart and knowing the importance of school, but one must know their limits. If you ever find yourself stressing out over school, stop what you are doing and go do something else instead. If you find yourself staying up late doing homework, stop and go to sleep. You may hear that there is nothing more important than school at our age, but that is wrong. Your health is what truly matters and if you find yourself unable to keep up with school, remind yourself that years from now it does not matter that you failed your Pre-Calculus test, but that you were happy and healthy.

My sophomore year consisted of several realizations. I understand that everyone has their own story and struggles, but I believe that everyone will eventually develop as an individual without the help of others. In IB we all want to learn and develop our academic skills, but it is also very important that one develops their attitude. There is no doubt in my mind that all the incoming sophomores have the ability to succeed academically, but I believe that sometimes us IB students are so focused on succeeding academically that we forget to develop ourselves as people. I am not saying to go and give yourself an attitude check because the only way one can develop themselves is through mistakes. To become a better individual you must make mistakes, but you must learn from them. I strongly believe that things happen for a reason so don’t allow anything to occur without questioning possible reasons why they happened. In addition to learning from you mistakes, you should learn from other people’s mistakes as well so you can avoid making that mistake. My best advice on this topic is to forgive but not forget. I have seen our generation turn to “roasts” and “pettiness” and although they seem as jokes they are not helping us develop.

Elizabeth Gonzalez

 

Three Pieces of Advice to People Behind Me

Don’t procrastinate. Doing so will only stress you out in the future. Procrastination has little benefit, and can easily disturb your mental health, as can anything that may stress somebody out. It is too easy to lose track of your life as homework and projects build up, especially when you procrastinate on them. Don’t lose track of your life. Don’t procrastinate.

Care a little. Pay attention in your classes, even if they seem boring or too simple. You’ll need the knowledge that you have gained from these classes in the coming years, and not paying attention is tantamount to setting yourself up for failure. Find some kind of interesting hobby to do at home. The first step to caring about your time and the rest of your life is caring about something.

Sleep. Very few students here care about their sleeping time, for some reason. A teenager needs at least 8 hours of sleep every night. This fact means that if you are waking up at 5:40, you need to go to sleep at 9:40. Do it. Even if it is hard the first few nights, just try to sleep. Your body will eventually fall into rhythm, and you’ll feel better at school and at home as a result. The need to sleep is one of the main reasons that you should not procrastinate. Procrastination will keep you up late in the night doing homework, when you need to be sleeping. Sleep.

Mahlon Scott

 

Dear Incoming Sophomore,

Congratulations on a successful freshman year! If you’re reading this then it means you have achieved at least two things. One being that you passed freshmen year. The other is that you didn’t die! Kudos to you.

You will have no doubt heard from many people that sophomore year is the easier year, which in some respects, they are not entirely wrong. However, in other aspects those people have no idea what they’re talking about. For example, it is true that you will be more used to the rigorous parts of the IB education. This will make due dates and projects seem less stressful. Also, the homework amount does decline a bit during your sophomore year. On the flip side, there are more tests to study for and you probably will have more than one AP class this year. All in all, you will ultimately feel as though you have more free time.

The thing about your newly found freedom is that you now have an excess amount of time to procrastinate. Now you’re going to hear this for a long time – possibly the rest of your life – but procrastination is the enemy! Do not wait until the night before to start reading the book you are supposed to have color-marked for the next day. Do not wait until the morning of the chemistry quiz to try and learn all 21 of the polyatomic ions. Do not do your math homework in the last ten minutes of the class beforehand. It will not work out in the end. Do not take my words as a challenge. These things have all been tried and they have ultimately failed. Fair warning.

One last word of advice to you is to make sure you leave yourself some time for enjoying life. Don’t let yourself get bogged down by school work. Go out with friends and have fun. Make sure you make friends who you can talk to and do cool things with. The work load of IB may be difficult and rigorous and you may find yourself studying until well past midnight, but if you have friends who are suffering with you it makes things seem so much less stressful.

Sincerely,

Gabrielle Snyder

 

Salutations, fellow pubescent nerds.

I hope you’re excited to tackle English with a work-crazy bald man; math with a candy-bearing, walking sound effect; and countless AP courses with no promises of adequate sleep anytime soon.  Not gonna lie, I hated freshman year.  I wasn’t looking forward to another year with unfamiliar teachers, people who are way smarter than me, and the same school lunch every day.  However, this year has positively impacted my life in a way I never would’ve imagined.

I’m sure you’ve learned that procrastination is a sin by now.  It starts becoming evident when huge tsunamis of work are headed your way a few weeks in advance, so take advantage of that knowledge and get started ahead of time.  Sometimes you’ll get frustrated and start throwing the ‘h’ word around at teachers.  If there’s anything this year has taught me, it’s to start appreciating your teachers more.  IB teachers are extremely caring and helpful, I can’t imagine how it must feel to hate one of them.

Also, don’t forget that not everyone is your friend.  I don’t know about your classmates but I do know that every year there’s someone who decides to be a little snake and cheat/take advantage of other people’s work.  Try to become independent in your work, but don’t let that stop you from creating study groups or collaborating with peers when needed.

I hope sophomore year treats you right!  Buena suerte!  (If you take French, sorry.  I can barely speak English).

Sincerely,

Kacey Wood

 

Incoming sophomores,

Now since you’ve completed your freshman year in IB, you have a better idea what to expect this year within the program. I want to congratulate you on getting through your freshman year and surviving having to do Ms. Allison’s STNTs. Sophomore year does seem to be a lot easier than freshman year. I’m not sure if that’s due to there being less work or because you’ve become more efficient in managing your time. Although don’t let the thought of sophomore year seeming to be a breeze make you put less time and effort into your work. The teachers are still going to hold you to high standards on the quality of work you turn in. Sometimes the work can get overwhelming and you may want to just give up, but that feeling won’t last forever and you’ll eventually look back and be proud of yourself for your persistence.

I would advise you in your sophomore year to choose electives that really interest you. You want to make sure at least one of the two electives you choose is something that makes you enjoy going to school. You don’t want all of your classes to feel like they’re just an hour and thirty minutes of something that you have to take to get credit for them. Give yourself that outlet within your school life that brings you satisfaction. Your electives are also important because they allow you to have more of an interaction with school life outside of the IB program. Being a part of BHS can be fun as well since you can do things like join the cheerleading team or be in the band. I think doing stuff outside of the IB program is also beneficial so you gain some school spirit.

Some other things I would advise are reading and studying the textbooks when taking AP exams, if you didn’t already do this for APES. Taking AP Human Geography is also a fun class because you’ve gotten some of the background material through APES and it helps since you’ll be taking AP world history. I’d also advise getting your driver’s license as soon as possible because you discover this new freedom and independence by being able to take yourself places without having to ask your parents. Although you’ll be able to drive, I don’t advise you to get a job unless you know you can handle that or want to give up some of your free time. Being able to make your own money feels great but it takes away from after school activities and study time. Overall, sophomore year isn’t too difficult since you’ve become more comfortable with the program but it still has its challenging moments. It’s a great program to be a part of, but if along the way you think that IB isn’t for you then that’s okay.

Best wishes for your sophomore year,

Georgia Michael

 

Congratulations on making it this far! Many people will tell you that sophomore year of IB is easier than freshman year. This is not necessarily true. The workload is lighter and you don’t have as much busy work, but the curriculum is much more challenging. You will also have to be able to motivate yourself to study for your classes more than you had to in the past. However, workload and need to study will vary some by elective choices. It is in this year of IB that you will need to decide how dedicated you are to the program.

Your cultural and community service hours for your first two years of IB are due at the end of sophomore year. If you get your hours done early (which I recommend doing), turn them in early. If you wait until the end of sophomore year to turn them in, you may end up in a panic to get the signatures you need and fill out all the paperwork on time.

If you have not already joined any school sports or clubs yet, I highly recommend doing so. Colleges like to see that you are well-rounded and involved with your school. Speaking of colleges, you will take the PSAT this year. Don’t stress over it. This one is only for practice, but when you receive your score you should look at the breakdown and determine what your weak spots are. Improve your skills in those areas so you can hopefully earn a higher score on the PSAT in junior year when it counts for the National Merit Scholarship. After your PSAT scores are released, your email inbox (and your mailbox at home) will constantly be flooded with information from colleges. Don’t let it overwhelm you. Try to sort through it and spend some time researching colleges to decide what is right for you. If you don’t know what you want to do or where you want to go, don’t feel pressured. There is still time to figure it all out. If there is a particular profession you think you want to enter into, talk to someone you know who is in that profession and ask them lots of questions; you may decide you like it even more than you thought, or you may change your mind entirely.

Sophomore year is a fun one. If you manage your time well, you will have more down time (both in and out of school). There will be many sweet sixteen parties to attend, and many people will be driving. Have lots of fun, but remember to stay focused!

Erica Roberts

 

Dear Upcoming Sophomore,

Don’t sweat this coming school year, it’s not that bad. To be honest, sophomore year is much easier than freshman year. In general, don’t procrastinate, do your work, drink water, get sleep, and you’ll be fine. Some more general things I would make sure to do this year are taking an online class or two (I wish I did), get your license, join a club or sport or two, and apply for NHS. For NHS I would make sure to volunteer for something this summer and get some leadership experience; most of the people I know who didn’t get in this year said it was for lack of leadership positions. Also, make sure to have some fun; if you just do school work and sit at home it’ll be a lot harder than if you go do something on occasion.

As far as standard classes go, there’s nothing super difficult. For precalculus make sure to pay attention in class, do your homework, and maybe study a bit before tests (especially vocabulary) if you need it, and it should be fine. Remember to never write vectors as ordered pairs (or ordered triples for that matter), and if you see a big gray box on the board, you better know those trig values. For English DO NOT PROCRASTINATE. Mr. Guice will give you an assignment and you’ll be like “oh this doesn’t look that bad,” and then all the sudden you’ll have 10 more English assignments and realize that the one that didn’t look that bad actually is going to take 2 days to complete. If you take Spanish make sure you don’t just memorize stuff, but actually learn it, because it’ll come back later and all your classmates will whine and be like “wow, this is ridiculous, Sra. Portillo actually expects us to know things that we were supposed to learn,” and if that’s you whining, get over yourself. For World History, make sure you actually do the readings he assigns, because although he usually won’t check your notes to make sure you completed them, it is expected and will show up on the test, as well as the AP exam. For Chemistry, I’d say the most important thing is to actually memorize the polyatomic ions when that is assigned, because if you don’t, it’ll hurt you on every single test after that.

For my electives I took AP Human Geography and AP Statistics. If you take Human Geography, as long as you actually do your work, the class is an easy A and the AP exam is an easy 4 or 5. A lot of APES concepts come back in the class, so having already taken APES puts you at a huge advantage over the other students in the course, who are mostly freshmen. Make sure you remember what historical person did what. AP Stats is a bit more challenging. The math of statistics is actually the easy part, so you don’t need to be super strong in math to do well in the course, although it definitely helps. It is much more important to be able to know and understand the processes of working problems, especially during the second semester (the first semester I found somewhat tedious and dull honestly). That being said, Mr. Nakamura prepares you well for the AP exam, so unless you totally don’t do your work and don’t care, you should pass the exam comfortably.

Sincerely,

Alex Shamoun

P.S.  Make sure to follow the following directions:  “You may NOT write vectors as ordered pairs, even though your book does this some of the time. If you do that, you will be penalized. ” — Ms. Frisbie

 

Dear incoming pre-calc student,

So you chose the more difficult path! That’s good; it’s good to challenge yourself if you can handle it. Though motivation may be hard to come by during the year, at least you were motivated enough to take this course so now you just have to go through with your decision. My three primary pieces of advice for balancing the coursework alongside other school work would be to take comprehensive notes/pay attention in class, complete assignments in a timely manner, and to look into studying with others.

In terms of taking good notes – it’s definitely important for pre-calc specifically. I struggle a lot with learning coursework by observing and listening so taking notes during the lecture helped me a lot. For pre-calculus, copying down the definitions and examples helped reinforce the material in my brain. For chemistry, copying down the notes gave me a resource to make Quizlets with and that was insanely helpful in order to do well on the tests (you need to understand and study EVERYTHING). Although you may not have to take AP World History, my experience in that class is still applicable. You need to be self-motivated; looking back, I wish I were more diligent instead of blaming the class for my lack of knowledge. Be motivated by your will to succeed, take good notes so you can have a resource to study from and consult. If you didn’t do well, don’t blame the class or the teacher if you didn’t even try to succeed. The more comprehensive your notes are, the more you will understand the information and avoid the overwhelming feeling of suffocating when you’re cramming.

I STRONGLY advise you to do your work on time. Procrastination is doable but it is near torture. I have physically and mentally exhausted myself several times during the year because I refused to start my work until 12 AM or even past that. From experience, it actually is not a lot of coursework – it is rather manageable. I’m not saying start as soon as you get home, although that is certainly effective, but don’t put off your work as late as possible. It might seem nice to have so much ‘free time’ as I called it but honestly I’ve probably damaged my health more than getting extra sleep can ever repair. So when homework is assigned in your classes, write it down in your planner (a huge lifesaver for me) and look over everything in order to plan how to manage your time. Maybe make a to-do list and stick to it. Make yourself a cup of coffee, put on a motivating playlist, and just get your work done because it’s worth it in the end.

My final piece of advice would be to study with others! Even classes that you excel in, study with your friends if they need help and you’ll be helping out a friend and studying at the same time. Sometimes I just need to get out of the house and away from all of the distractions so I loved when we had group meetups at Starbucks because, believe it or not – everyone is more or less in the same boat as you so if you’re stressed, meet up and de-stress together! If you’re in to coffee, some of my favorite places are Concord Coffee and the Poor Porker, they both have Wi-Fi, good atmospheres, and good coffee. This year I loved to help my friend study chemistry at the Poor Porker. We grabbed a drink and just worked out the review sheet together and I helped answer questions. It’s a fun time, attempt at a social life, and helpful all at once. Your friends are all talented in different subjects, reach out and form a little group that’s willing to study together because it’s both fun and helpful.

Good luck!

Jasper Montgomery

 

Dear Whomever It May Concern,

Sophomore year. For IB students, that may bring about a sigh of relief. A time to relax and actually realize that there is an outside world. The fact that there is less homework and more time to yourself and with friends is always something an IB student loves to hear. Sophomore year is just that, except there are more tests than one would think they would get. The difference between sophomore year and freshman year is that sophomore year has less homework and way more testing. It is considered a good week if there are no tests. There is hardly a single week where you don’t have at least one test in one of your classes. Because of this, it does cause one to procrastinate a lot. Studying for a chapter test usually happens the night before because you have time to study for it. In ninth grade, on the other hand, homework was due the next class period and so it had to be done quicker.

Like I had mentioned earlier, sophomore year is full of testing. There are a few ways to make sure one is not scrambling around last minute for a test. Make sure your grade has a Quizlet group if they don’t have one already. Quizlet is a life saver when it comes to studying. If everyone puts their study sets together it will make studying for that annoying Spanish test a whole lot easier. Searching around in a textbook or on the internet will not be necessary when Quizlet is used. For an even bigger type of test, such as the AP test, make sure you buy an AP review book that has to do with the course. These books are amazing when it comes to studying for the AP test. Another good way to study for upcoming tests in your sophomore year is to actually sleep. If one stays up all night worrying about a test, chances are they are going to fail it. A good night’s sleep is really important when it comes to getting ready for a test.

Friends in one’s sophomore year become clearer than ever. You’ll lose them and also make stronger relationships with other people that you didn’t really talk to in ninth grade. This is all just a part of growing up and moving through one’s high school years. Keeping friends close is a huge way to succeed in IB. Having the thought that there are people to help one when they are in need is a really comforting feeling. Without each other, no one would make it that far in the challenging and rigorous curriculum of IB.

For anyone entering the second year of high school, good luck. This year, memories will be made that will last a lifetime.

From,

Jasmine Robins

 

Hello Future Pre-Calc Student,

First off, let me just say that this class is pretty tough. The homework, while not a lot, can get grating, the tests are extensive and really grill you for the information, and the class lectures…well, let me just say that your card will magically only be pulled when you don’t have any clue what the answer might be. The course is somewhat intensive, and you will need to put a decent amount of time into it to get a good grade. However, don’t let this disturb you. The class can be enjoyable (as enjoyable as math can be for you) and you can excel. I have two simple tips that helped me get through: find a good study tactic and you’ll get what you put into the class.

When I tell you to find a good study tactic, I don’t mean flashcards or highlighting. I mean something that can get you to focus on the material for long hours; some way that you can sit down and do math for an hour or two without getting distracted or drifting off. Many people do different things; I got a pair of headphones, went to a separate room of my house, and played some music. This is effective for a lot of people. However, you may not like music while you study. If that’s the case, find something that will keep you focused. I’ve found that the work passes so much faster when you stop dithering and just do it. Find what you need to focus, and the work will get done.

Pre-calc classes usually start with a review of the previous class’s homework, followed by a lecture that will most likely last until the end of class. It is long, and it can drag on. However, nothing makes the class worse than unresponsive students. Firstly, actually listen to the lecture and take notes, obviously. Secondly, ask questions. Ms. Frisbie is not scary (most of the time) and she knows her stuff. Ask her any question and she will most likely know the answer. Homework can get hard if you don’t understand a concept, but you could get a better grasp on it if you just ask. Thirdly, make the class interesting. This is a lecture made by a human for humans. Don’t be a robot. A joke every once in a while will not be misplaced. I make them all the time and it keeps me awake when the lesson gets really boring. Hunting and catching mistakes was also fun, even if my class was terrible at it. Basically, the class will be more interesting if you put positivity and a willingness to learn into it.

This is a tough math course. There is no way around that. It will challenge you mentally, but if you put your time into it, and go with a willingness to learn and a positive attitude, it can make the class that much easier to get through and do well in.

Best wishes,

Sam Vecchio

“Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”

— Calvin Coolidge

 

Dear Friend,

All the sophomores I spoke with last year assured me that sophomore year would be the easiest year of IB. Come to find out, all the sophomores who’d told me your second year is easy are the same ones that I have pre-calculus class with now and hadn’t taken any additional classes outside of school; and, some of them had stuck to the more basic, easy A courses—honestly, I should have tried to do what they did. My sophomore year was a garbled mess as I tried to deal with all my homework assignments from school, all my homework assignments from courses outside of school, still have a life, get eight hours of sleep, and be a good lacrosse player. I failed miserably in my attempts to successfully achieve all those goals, but hopefully yours won’t be because I am here to advise you on what not to do (basically everything I had done).

Piece of advice number one: don’t wait until the last minute to complete the assignment. Now I know you have been told this at least a thousand times by about a thousand different individuals, but there is a reason they all are telling you this; and that reason probably has to do with the fact that they’d procrastinated themselves and immediately regretted their awful decision. Procrastinating on assignments in the classes you’ll take sophomore year is a terrible idea because most of your teachers will give you homework every class causing the amount of homework you have to quickly pile up as you go from class to class. Do your assignments the day they are assigned regardless of whether the next day you have a different set of classes. I say this because, chances are, after the A day in which you had tons of homework assigned to you that you decided to put off until the next day, the B day will have an equal amount of homework for you to complete, if not more. From there it just becomes a cycle of trying to rush and finish A’s work on B day, B’s work on A day, and etc. Also, if a teacher gives you a deadline to complete an assignment, do it on the weekend when you have time. Or, better yet, do the assignment whenever you begin to just lay in bed complaining about the fact that you’ll have to do it. Nip assignments in the bud before they become a blood-sucking flea. Friend, I know you are a stubborn person and you think that you can manage to continue leading the doing-assignments-the-hour-before-they-are-due rebellious life you’ve led since elementary school but let me tell you, it gets a million times more challenging and stressful.

In addition to not procrastinating, another piece of advice I have for you is to not overbook yourself. At the beginning of the year, I signed up for millions of clubs and organizations both inside and outside of school and boy was this a horrible decision. The thing about clubs and organizations is they expect you to faithfully attend meetings and participate in the activities they hold. Combine this with thousand homework assignments you get from IB and the million chores your Mother has outlined for you to do, and it is not a good time. Overbooking yourself leads to hardcore stress and not being able to finish homework. If you prioritize activities over homework, your grades will suffer—I speak from experience. It was easy to let lacrosse snatch me as there were games every other day and practice daily; but it was a terrible choice that I will forever regret. Talk to your club leaders about your other activities and see if you can arrange a deal that won’t spread yourself as thin—maybe you could attend a meeting once every two weeks and have the secretary send you the minutes for the meetings you weren’t able to attend. In this way, you’ll still be kept up to on the club, but you won’t be potentially sacrificing homework time. Remember to not sign up for too many clubs and to always communicate with your club leaders over schedule conflicts and you should be good to go.

In conclusion, sophomore year isn’t necessarily difficult—it’s just what you make of it. Doing your assignments on time and not overbooking yourself are two ways you can save yourself a lot of stress and maintain good grades while you’re at it.

Can’t wait to see you next year!

Tanajia Moye-Green

 

Congrats upcoming sophomore,

One year of IB down, three more years to go! I hope your freshman year was tolerable but you will be happy to know that sophomore year is a little easier. What makes sophomore year easier is the fact that now you have a feel for what IB is like. You have taken an AP course and know how to manage the workload. You know your peers and can rely them for help. It could be because of the familiarity that makes sophomore year easier but the workload is still about the same. You have probably heard this so many times but make sure you manage your time.

Do not procrastinate. Nothing will be easy if you procrastinate. You will have plenty of time to finish projects before the night it is due and you should use it. If you finish an English assignment the class before it is due, Mr. Guice will proofread it so that you can make changes and submit the revised version on the final due. I have gotten a 100 on many projects because of this and it was really helpful to my grade. So be aware. Also you have more AP exams as a sophomore. I had three. This makes it difficult to cram the whole year’s worth of material for three courses the night before the exam. Make sure you start reviewing a month before exams start so that you will be more prepared. Do not goof off in class all year, not learning anything, and then plan to learn the whole course two days before the exam. This does not work out well. Be responsible.

Despite all the work, make sure you enjoy yourself. Life is full of difficulties and there will always be things that you will have to do. You have to find little moments of happiness within the work and make them memorable. You don’t want to have to look back at your high school years and not have any fun memories because you took 20 dual enrollment classes. GPA is not everything. Meet up with your friends outside of school, go to school dances and have fun.

Vrunda Patel

 

Entering your sophomore year of IB can be an exciting yet daunting endeavor. There are many great moments to be had and many exciting memories to be made. Sophomore year is not without its challenges however, and how you prepare for this year can set the tone for your Junior and Senior years.

The first thing I’d like for you to know is to NOT STRESS. Stress is the enemy. This may seem like a ridiculous request because of how difficult freshman year got at times, but sophomore year isn’t as difficult as it seems. The workload is honestly a lot less than last year and the teachers are 10x more laid-back. There is no reason to stress for homework, assignments, and tests. Stress doesn’t do anything except bring you down and make you worry. Worrying is literally DOUBTING yourself. Don’t be pathetic, don’t doubt yourself. To avoid stress, train your brain to stop caring about studying. Instead, train your brain to learn. Studying is a word that leads to stress due to our negative experiences with it in the past, but training your brain to enjoy learning rather than studying helps eliminate that stress. In theory, learning and studying are the same, but psychologically they make a huge difference. Training your brain to use the word “learning” instead of “studying” will lead to a lot less stress.

Another thing you really need to learn is time-management. Regardless of how well you think you manage your time, you suck at it. That is the honest truth. There are 24 hours in a day. Let’s subtract 8 hours for sleep and 9 more for school. Now you’re left with 7 hours. These 7 hours will make-or-break your teenage years. Seriously. Think about how much time you’ve wasted out of these 7 hours. Time is precious. 7 hours is more than enough to finish homework and get 1-2 hours of personal time in. Use the remaining couple of hours to better yourself. Learn a new hobby, explore spirituality, work-out, learn something that interests you. There are SO MANY things you can do with this time. Please don’t waste it. You will regret it.

In conclusion, please learn how not to stress, and improve your time management. The difference between the words “studying” and “learning” is profound and can make a ginormous impact on your life. The time you spend sitting around the house doing nothing will add up and will lead to many problems down the road. This letter to y’all was written off the basis of my own experiences… and trust me I’ve tried many different ways to improve my productivity and just self-improve in general. Let my failures pave the way for your success, and let my success provide the blueprint for your own success. Congratulations on making it this far into your schooling. And good luck

“Pursue excellence and success will come chasing you. Pants down.”

Shashwat Bansal

 

Dear Freshmen,

Welcome to this great program we like to call Bartow IB. You have been in this program for a year and you began to realize that it isn’t easy being in IB. This program shows you that A’s are not just given to you if you do your work, as done in middle school. This class is no different; you have to work to get a good grade.

Do not worry about sophomore year because it is the most irrelevant of your high school years. Your classes will not bombard you with as much work as freshmen year. Your math, English, and science class will be a breeze since the material is well taught and you get just the right amount of practice, aka homework. Your AP classes, however, will need a little bit more of outside resources. I highly recommend buying a study book and setting up a study schedule before your AP exams. For your language class, you should look for some outside resources such as tutoring or online sources. I understand that it may seem extra, but I promise it is worth it.

One thing you should know, for IB and for life, is that it’s okay to make mistakes and not know what to do all the time. Something I had to learn this year is that it is okay to ask for help and need some guidance to get back on the right track. Accepting how well or how poorly you are at certain subjects can help you work on your weakness and help you succeed.

Magda Beleri

 

So, you have survived 9th grade. Now, you might be wondering “If 9th ended up making me suffer this much, how am I supposed to survive 10th?” If that is the case, then the answer to your question is a resounding “by blinking.” The year is going to be pretty easy compared to the horrors experienced in 9th grade, and no matter how much your classmates cry about their homework, it’s just mere overdramatic kids doing their thing.

If I am not mistaken, freshman year was all about trying to survive IB English I with the seemingly cruel teacher, Ms. Rossi; however, as cruel as she might have seemed, she did prepare you so that when you get to the second boss battle, Mr. Guice, the impact of a strict English teacher wouldn’t be anything new. Not only is English staying rather tame in comparison to your previous experiences, but science is going to become much, much easier. Physics, as hard as it is, cannot compare to the pain experienced from taking Biology. Modeling & Simulation and French are both extremely easy, or at least in the tenth grade, so you might as well see them as free periods. The only classes you have the right to complain about to the point of annoying everyone around you are AP Psychology, AP World History, and Pre-Calculus.

Talking about having the right to complain, mostly everyone, as you might have already experienced, complain about every little thing as though they had been left behind on Earth after the Rapture. As long as you are able to ignore their constant bickering and concentrate on your own drama and your own sufferings, only socializing with your comrades when you are in dire need of help, then you should do fine because all of your resources can be spent on either studying or resting. Then again, this method only applies to people such as myself, the secluded type that don’t feel like rolling over and dying after a couple of minutes of not talking to their 55 friends.

With that being said, here are some things to keep in mind: do not worry about Modeling & Simulation – the class is as easy as easy can get; do not worry about French – but also care about the language enough to retain the vocabulary and grammar rules, you will need them later; do not worry about Physics – compared to Biology, Physics is a walk in the park; do not worry about English as much as you might be worrying right now – it is not nearly as bad as it seems; and focus on studying AP Psychology, AP World History, and Pre-Calculus – they are basically the only classes you have to truly worry about.

Jonathan Berrios

 

Dear upcoming pre-calculus student,

Congratulations on making it this far into IB! Don’t worry, the suffering doesn’t stop after freshman year. Though sophomore year is usually easier and less stressful than freshman year, the junior and senior years of IB are generally regarded as actual hell on earth. If you are going to drop out, do it before junior year. If you are planning on surviving the IB program, good luck. Working hard and staying dedicated are going to extremely important for our survival.

Sophomore year and onward is a bit unusual, mainly because almost nobody is taking the same classes. You pre-calculus students will all be taught by Ms. Frisbie, an extremely intelligent and altogether great teacher (despite what she may believe). You will do fine in her class if you listen, take notes, and stay awake. You may not enjoy answering questions in front of the class, but you’ll probably get over it. Also, actually attempt to complete your homework. Although the answers are in the back of the book, Ms. Frisbie will know if you just copied the answers and will think less of you for it.

For IB in general, you have probably heard the same advice over and over again. That’s because it’s good advice. Make sure you don’t procrastinate — it may provide temporary satisfaction, but it will hurt you in the future. If you are able to, get a head start on homework and complete it the day that it is assigned. Meanwhile, try to balance sleep, school, and whatever of a social life you have left. Try your best in every class, and remember that your GPA isn’t an accurate measure of your intelligence, creativity, personality, and ability. Good luck!

Heaven Buchanan

 

Dear future sophomore,

There are many things that I would personally suggest to you in order to make your sophomore year successful and one to remember. One thing that I still have not fully learned myself but would definitely suggest is to pay attention in class. I know I never pay attention in class, and I always say to myself that a couple days before the test I will focus and study hard. Yes, it does work. However, what a pain it is! In the couple of classes that I actually did pay attention and diligently did my homework, I was much more prepared for tests. I did not have to do long cram sessions, and on top of that I was much more prepared for the final (EOY or AP exam) at the end of the year. I cannot say the same for the classes that I never paid attention in, put minimal effort into homework, and crammed for each unit test. I think the best way to stay actively involved in the class is take notes. I know for the two classes I did, I was well prepared for unit tests and the end of the year exam. However, for classes I stopped taking notes for and just doodled in my notebook, I cannot say the same.

Next, I would suggest (even though I have not successfully done this either) to stay out of drama with classmates and teachers. Everyone is pretty much going to be stuck with each other for the rest of high school. So there is really no point in creating enemies. If you are nice to everyone and don’t let anyone bother you, sophomore year will be a lot easier. I personally know staying up and battling with people over text is not the best use of your time. Not to mention, many awkward situations can be avoided if everyone loves each other. The drama is really not worth the extra effort. Similarly, with teachers drama is especially not good. Try and make sure to be on every single teacher’s good side or else you really will have a tough year ahead of you.

Lastly, I recommend to get involved in extracurricular activities. I know in ninth grade I did not get involved in any extracurriculars associated with the school (I still did piano and tennis on my own time) because I thought I did not have time and would not be able to still maintain good grades. However, if you really want to do something you will be able to make time for it. Colleges want extracurriculars. I went from participating in nothing at school to joining six clubs and one sport team (tennis) in sophomore year. Did my grades suffer? They were not where I wanted them to be, but they were still A’s. I do not regret my decision at all. Colleges would much rather see that someone has A’s and is actively involved than someone who just gets all 100s. So in conclusion the three things I recommend to do in sophomore year to be more beneficial and easier is pay attention in class, avoid drama at all costs, and get involved with the school (take on some Bartow pride).

Sincerely,

Sharanya Singh

 

Dear future Sophomore,

So you have finally made it past the dreaded freshman year. Congratulations! You may be excited for sophomore simply because you have heard about how it is the easiest year. Nevertheless, keep working hard because sophomore year is not exactly a cakewalk. It is still filled with difficult trials that require maximum attention. I will tell you my advice for the classes I have taken my sophomore year.

Pre-Calculus: If you are as unlucky as me to have this class first period then good luck. Pay attention in class because Ms. Frisbie will ask you questions and catch you while you are not paying attention. This can be quite embarrassing when you are caught “with your pants down”. Do not rely on late passes to bail you out of homework because they can be used as extra credit.

Human Geography: This class is easy as long as you have taken APES. Every assignment is worth 100 points (unless she has changed that for your class). So do not worry too much about missing an assignment or doing bad on one test because you can recover.

Statistics: This class was trouble for me because I did not pay attention enough and I did not do my homework to learn, I simply did it to get it done. This laziness of mine caused me to do not so well on some quizzes and tests. Pay attention and do your work well.

Chemistry: This class is pretty interesting considering we did a lot of labs. Study your polyatomics because they are very important. As long as you are willing to study, you should get very far in this class.

French: Study French outside of class. I cannot stress this enough. Outside exposure and constant exposure is key for this class.

World History: To be honest, I stopped taking notes and doing work seriously in this class. I wish I would have studied more. If you are good at history then this should be no problem. For the rest of us, crack open the textbook to score a 5 on the AP exam.

English: This class is pretty tough. I really recommend that you actually read the books Mr. Guice assigns. The quizzes he gives you are mostly based on quotations meaning that spark notes will not help you. You must also learn how to be comfortable with public speaking because this class requires quite a bit of it. On one final note, do the assignments he gives you a month early when he gives it to you. This will alleviate most stress and give you time to make the assignment a true success.

Clubs, sports, and etc. are important, but this year should be more focused on connections and fun as fun stuff is hard to come by in the other years of IB. I have a feeling that you will not follow all of my advice. Heck, I doubt that you even finished reading this. It was worth a try though. Just relax and sit back because, believe it or not, it gets easier (until junior year).

See you on the other side

Jared Zulueta

 

Dear Soon-to-be Sophomore,

Hopefully you’ve learned how to manage your time better than you did during freshman year. Personally, sophomore year is not as hectic, but there are more responsibilities, AP Exams and tests overall. I got to take more naps this year so that was definitely a plus and I also didn’t stay up till 2 am to complete an assignment (I stayed up to interact in the group chat, of course.) If you would like to get more rest and free time this year then you will have to not procrastinate as much.

I took Spanish 3 in sophomore year and Sra. Portillo is amazing and very mom-like. She is quite approachable and I understand the material better than in middle school (watching “Caso Cerrado” helped a ton.) To succeed in this class , like any other class, studying is vital. Review workbook pages and take notes in her class. If you have questions, she will help you. Do not be afraid to go to Spanish tutoring.

I’m not the greatest at math, but Ms. Frisbie and Naki are excellent teachers. Just make sure you do your homework and if you don’t understand something, do not be afraid to raise your hand. I’m sure Math Studies is great also. Ms. Frisbie’s website has lots of helpful resources, so do not forget to refer to it.

Ms. Romaine is one of the most generous teachers I have ever met and she is very helpful. Use the resources on her website for tests! You won’t have to check the website as often as Rossi’s. Reading the textbook is also very helpful for the tests! AP Psychology is one of the most interesting classes I have ever taken and I look forward to IB Psych.

Mrs. Loweke is fairly new to IB, but her teaching skills do not reflect that. She is an amazing teacher and I feel more confident in science. Mrs. Kennon is awesome also!!

Mr. Wright is a walking encyclopedia when it comes to world history. Make sure you actually take notes in his class and read the textbook, so you do well on the tests and AP Exam.

Mr. Guice is a great teacher and gives really good advice. Keep up with the grammar and always be prepared for a literary terms quiz. The literature and poems in this class are very interesting.

More advice!! :

1. Please don’t wait until the week before the first day of school to start your summer homework (READ AND COLOR MARK HUCK FINN ASAP!! DO THE POSTER WITH AMPLE TIME!! REVIEW THE MATERIAL IN YOUR LANGUAGE CLASS!! ETC.)
2. Volunteer at every opportunity you can! My favorite volunteer opportunities from sophomore year include the Bloomin’ Arts Festival, the Haunted Jail Tour and Relay For Life. (Key Club provides great information on volunteer services! You should join!)
3. Group chats are lifesavers. Not only can you study with your group chat, but you can acquire a lot of information and be reminded of things that need to get done. Also the memes are pretty enjoyable.
4. Your mental and emotional health is way more important than an A. If you need to take a little break from studying to do something you enjoy or just to relax, then please do it (don’t abuse this though.) School can be stressful, regardless of what school you attend. Life goes on after you get a B or C (or D or F) on an assignment or test and all you can do is move on and learn from your mistakes, but use every opportunity to help your grade (Ex: Grade Recovery Quizzes in Pre-Calc.) Your GPA is something to be proud of; however, you can still get into a good college and be successful without being in the top 10 (shocking right?)
5. Friends are not competition. You should receive encouragement and praise from your friends and give encouragement and praise to your friends. Don’t be “that” person. Also, never be afraid to stand up for yourself. Whether you have to defend yourself against a lazy moocher who never does their homework or against a snarky person (defend others too!!)
6. I recommend to take Vitamin C daily because there’s always someone who is sick and a strong immune system is key.
7. Don’t become that person who texts and drives or snapchats and drives. That’s very self-explanatory.
8. Upperclassmen might give you looks that you interpret as “dirty looks” (because they do appear that way), but don’t let them intimidate you.

I hope sophomore year is an overall great year for you!

Best of luck,

Jada Hewitt

 

So you have decided to stay in the dark place known as the IB program. I commend you for your bravery since you have already experienced its homework assignments, and yet you still choose to come for another year. Allow me to tell you that sophomore year will be easier than freshman year was. You are already accustomed to the homework load which has not increased by much and some teachers will be flexible in their due dates to make things easier for you.

The first step to being successful in sophomore year is to stop procrastinating on your homework. As you have already learned the consequences of procrastination in your freshman year, it should motivate you to do better with time management in your sophomore year. Some teachers also give a lot of advance notice on homework assignments such as Mrs. Frisbie who gives the homework assignments for the whole quarter at the beginning of the quarter or Mr. Guice who will give about a month for any major project. These services allow for easier time management which should help with your procrastination.

I also recommend that if you are taking Pre-Calculus next year, then you should also take AP Statistics with Mr. Nakamura. You learn about all of the Statistics unit from Pre-Calculus in AP Statistics early in the year and the Statistics unit helps as a reminder before the AP exam for Statistics. I also recommend that if you are taking Spanish, you study by yourself a lot at home so that you are prepared for the parts of the Spanish tests which Senora Portillo makes herself which are fairly difficult. That’s all the advice I have for you so I wish you all the best.

Alvin Thomas

 

Dear soon to be sophomore friend,

Sophomore year has been filled with many events, some good and some bad (mostly good though). Freshman year was pretty rough, but sophomore year gives you much more time to do the things that you want, like sports. I recommend that you participate in a sport, even if it is only for this year. Sports or any other extracurricular activities can help alleviate stress throughout the school year. I chose to take part in the swim team this year and it was one of the best experiences in my academic life. Volunteering would also be a good use of this newly available free time in sophomore year. I honestly wish I had volunteered more. Take advantage of this time and take part in multiple activities.

Although there is much more free time this year, that does not mean you get to slack off and procrastinate. This year will test you and give you many opportunities to procrastinate, but do not give in to the temptation. I suggest finishing homework as quickly as possible and then using the extra time to do whatever you would like, perhaps binge YouTube videos. Sophomore year can become drastically easier if you do not take part in procrastination. There will be books to read in English class and it is very important to not start them the night earlier because then it is more likely to not finish. Most English test/quizzes are easy as long as the book is read. From my personal experience, I can assure you that starting the book early is the best route to getting a good grade.

Along with starting readings early, I advise to start studying for the future AP tests before the test date is very close and I also advise getting review books. I recommend buying a review book for your AP tests and marking through the important things as you go through the school year. This would make it easier to study later when reviewing for the test. Cramming before AP tests can get very stressful, especially when you do not have review books. Starting to study earlier in the year rather than later is a great way to prepare for AP tests.

In all, I recommend that you take part in many extracurricular activities sophomore year to take advantage of your time. I also suggest not procrastinating this year, since it will cause the year to go more smoothly. Lastly, start studying for AP tests early so you don’t have to cram the weekend before. These tips will help sophomore year run efficiently, while making it fun as well.

Sincerely,

Sarika Chauhan

 

IB isn’t easy, that much you should be aware of. It’s something you’ve been told, it’s something you’ve heard countless times. However, in part, you might also be overestimating just how dreadful IB is, academically or otherwise. IB students like to complain and talk about how hard IB is and how they have no life. They’re not lying, per se, IB can have some difficult tests and a workload not typical to an average school BUT it’s not like you’re going to some kind of high school hell incarnate.

IB students like to exaggerate about such things, and it’s only logical. In part it’s just the culture, for lack of a better word, of students in the school. It’s just like an inside joke that’s echoed for years and years through each generation of students. I believe it’s part of what makes an IB student- an IB student. Also it’s a sort of way of expressing pride? Expressing that we’re IB students and making it in a difficult school, I guess? Finally, consider many of the students that go to IB: students with tiger moms/dads, students who are overachievers, students that might have never gotten B’s in their life. So of course those students hold a lot of anxiety over grades and freak at every percent drop like it’s the end of the world.

Consider this: IB provides connection to people like you, a whole community of people who you’ll probably get along great with. You’ll just get to know your classmates naturally, given that the grade size is limited. There is no one in my grade that I’m not friends with on some level. So really it makes you feel free to be yourself. You’ll get to meet some of the best teachers you’ve ever seen, in one place. Teachers that you can get along great with. Things are maintainable as long as work is done smartly and without procrastinating, most of those heavy workloads are from waiting too long to do the assignments. Remember, as well, that IB is a considerable degree more advanced then what you might have been used to, so don’t be too concerned about lower grade, the fact that you went to IB counts for something alongside those grades. That being said don’t slack… don’t turn into me. I am very bad at slacking.

David Fullenkamp

 

As a freshman, you should take APES and Biology. Your Sophomore year, you have a choice of which math to go into (unless you took geometry). I would recommend you take Pre-Calculus, unless you are horrible at math, as it is a helpful course that covers subjects that extend into other areas like statistics and even a little physics. The workload is very constant, and is given well ahead of time in case of absence. The homework can be challenging at times, but almost all of the problems are gone over in class and can be corrected before you turn them in. I haven’t heard much about Math Studies, but I know that it is slightly slower paced for those who are not mathematically inclined. Also, if you are planning on visiting Ms. Frisbie, do it in between classes rather than during class, seriously. AP Statistics is an elective that you can take and is a good course as it can be applied to most sciences and helps with two chapters in Pre-Calculus. Mr. Nakamura is a great teacher and prepares you well for the AP test.

The next choice you have is your science. I am currently taking chemistry, and I thoroughly enjoy it, but I have heard that physics is a fairly easy course in terms of grades. If you do take chemistry, try to ask questions and understand the lessons while Mrs. Loweke goes over notes, as some of the lessons do end up being complicated. The tests go over concepts as well as the application of those concepts, and the math can get jumbled together, so I would recommend writing neatly. If you plan on taking biology in your Junior and Senior years, chemistry is the route to go.

Languages are a pain. None of them are perfect, as Herr Porter (German teacher) is a little intense at times, Mrs. Portillo (Spanish) is said to be erratic, and I’ve heard that French students don’t learn as much as they should. Personally, if you can keep up with online assignments, I think German would be the best as the teacher knows the language well and it shares many similarities with English. Be prepared for multiple pop quizzes and unannounced tests near the end of whatever chapters of the book you are working on as he doesn’t tell you in advance whether you will have a test or a quiz (or neither), but it is usually on the last covered lessons in the book. He has lots of sympathy when an entire class fails a quiz and will not count them, so don’t be too stressed if everyone starts crying when they see an unfamiliar lesson being tested. Also, getting a partner to help with VHL (the online activities) is crucial and will help your grade tremendously.

Alex Skladanek

P.S. Ogive is pronounced ō-hē-vā

 

Dear incoming sophomores,

Congratulations on getting through the first year of high school and pre-IB! Compared to freshman year, sophomore year was much more relaxing. There was more time for me to socialize and not stress about school. The teachers are all very nice and relatively relaxed in terms of homework given; however, they still teach the course material very well. Here are some tips to help you succeed next year!

As you have probably been told numerous times by now, procrastination is a bad habit. While the punishment for procrastination is not as severe as it could be in junior or senior year, not procrastinating should start to become a good habit for you. Even though I had less homework in sophomore year compared to freshman year, I slept even later than before. I left my A day assignments until the B day before they were due, and I left my B day assignment until the A day before they were due; as a result, the days before big assignments were due were filled with lots of coffee and little to no sleep. Next year, procrastinating will impact my sleep and will affect yours as well, so start early and stop procrastinating.

Since sophomore year is much more laid back, you should try and join more clubs and other extracurricular activities. Personally, not having homework causes me to be very bored. I would watch YouTube and play videogames for hours since I had nothing else to do. By participating in extracurricular activities, you can stay occupied (in a good way). The extra activities also look great on a college resume!

Good luck on your sophomore year! Remember to study hard but have fun as well. IB is not just about grueling work and long nights. Make the most of your easiest year of IB.

Jason Zhang

 

Overall, I advise that you try to stay organized, ask for help, and have a hobby on the side.

Organization is key in keeping my stress levels down. This past year since none of the teachers really required certain sized binders, a specific number of notebooks/folders, or a particular way they wanted us to take notes, it was vital that I came up with my own organization techniques. Even something as simple as labeling notebooks can help when you’re packing your backpack the night before (or even the morning of) school. I especially advise having some sort of reminders for homework and projects, whether it be using the provided calendar, or putting reminders and alarms on your phone.

In the past, I was never one to ask for help, I tended to try to figure things out by myself even if I really struggled with it. My second piece of advice is to ask for help when you need it. This seems like an obvious one but a lot of people, especially IB kids, find it difficult to get past their pride. By asking a teacher or peer, you learn what you were missing and it saves you a bunch of time.

My final piece of advice would be to keep a hobby aside from academic related things. It’s important to take a break from school work every once in a while and relax your brain. I know that for me, being able to step away from homework and do something I like has made it much easier for me to stay just below breakdown level (mostly).

Fabiola Casillas

 

Dear Future IB Sophomore,

I have been assigned to give you advice about your upcoming school year. To begin I will inform you of my classes, I took Spanish 3, English, World History, Pre-Calculus, Modeling and Simulation, Chemistry, Engineering. To open, Spanish is a very weird class, the teacher will ask you to learn the language while also quizzing and testing you relentlessly. It seems counterproductive, because in my head to learn a language is to have the language engulf you, use it everywhere you can, but in Bartow this is not the case because more likely than not the only person you will speaking Spanish to is the teacher.

Moving on, English with the bald grammar lord himself, Christopher Guice, will hopefully be fun while also engaging. You will have to not only read the books to read them but also read the books for their meanings and themes, crazy I know. Pre- Calculus is a very tricky class, don’t let this class just slip under your radar as just another math class, this class is important as it prepares you for the classes to come, the teacher herself, Mrs. Frisbie is a very understanding teacher so do speak out if you’re lost. (NOTE: don’t be quiet in her class just speak your answer and get over it, if it’s wrong oh well, everyone does make mistakes.)

Finally, Modeling and simulation with Kneer is changing so I don’t how that is going to be for you, while Chemistry is a solid class I think. So the teacher for chem is Mrs. Loweke who teaches well and is always willing to help, just don’t bring up SAM in her class, she might get a head ache. Before we move on always remember those polyatomics, and Engineering is changing and the teacher is leaving so I don’t know what to say. My denouement to this essay, Literature term that Guice wants us using, is that times are a changing at IB so do stay strong during these difficult times ahead.

Sincerely,

Jacob I. Gutierrez

 

Everybody says sophomore year is the easiest year in IB, but that isn’t necessarily true. For me, sophomore year was more challenging than I expected, not because I slacked off or anything, but the classes became more intense. The work load is more than freshman year, especially since sophomore year is supposed to prep you for the more rigorous junior year. My advice to you as you enter sophomore year is not to let your guard down. Don’t expect sophomore year to be as relaxing as you may have hoped. And also, do not procrastinate. Manage your time. If you were unsuccessful accomplishing this during your freshmen year, then you better nail it down by sophomore year.

Since sophomore year is when students start taking different electives from each other, I’m only going to describe some of the classes you all will share. In Precalculus, Ms. Frisbie does an excellent job in preparing you for your exams. Her intelligence is well beyond anyone else’s at this school, which she uses in part of her teaching. Her class is always interesting because sometimes, you’re not always learning math. She is extremely organized and posts all the notes on Edmodo in case you were absent. Her dedication in helping her students to achieve success is something I admire about her. In English, Mr. Guice makes learning in his class very enjoyable. He teaches grammar well especially to someone who hardly had any prior experience. One thing I like about Mr. Guice is that he assigns due dates for his assignments on a day where you are given a reasonable amount of time to complete it. My advice to you is to take advantage of the extended time so that you’re not staying up the night before trying to complete an assignment given to you weeks in advance. Chemistry was by far my most successful class during sophomore year. I had no experience prior to chemistry, but Mrs. Loweke was able to teach it so well that I was able to grasp the concept right away most of the time. She presents powerpoint notes and then assigns homework as practice from the lesson. Something that may be a drawback in her class are her 200-point tests which could benefit or kill your grade. These opinions were solely based on my experience so it may be different as you enter your sophomore year.

Sophomore year is also a good opportunity for you to start participating in extracurricular activities such as clubs and sports. Freshman year was meant to help you get used to your new high school life, but sophomore is the time to get involved. Colleges are more concerned about whether you’re involved in your community and the number of community service hours you accumulate. Relying just on GPA isn’t going to cut it. Some might have difficulties balancing extracurricular activities and homework, but that’s all part of your ability to manage time. It also wouldn’t hurt to start considering which colleges you’re interested in. Sophomore year isn’t meant to scare you, but it also isn’t meant for you to take lightly. Nevertheless, you should still make the most out of your sophomore year since you only get one chance. Good luck!

Mandy Chuor

 

Hello, I’m someone that doesn’t really care about your opinion, but is very interested in giving my own opinion. Anything else about my identity other than that doesn’t matter. (If you somehow find out who I am through the teacher, then… don’t judge a book by its cover.)

My teacher told me to take this seriously, and as you can probably tell from the first two sentences, I’m not taking this seriously. I started losing my sense of reason and responsibility somewhere around Spring Break of my tenth grade year. I’m also currently thinking that rules don’t matter much as long as you’re in IB. Especially rules concerning the sleeping and eating patterns of humans. It is a fact that I don’t get eight hours of sleep on a normal school day, and my body is definitely breaking down because of that. I also have a bad tendency to fall asleep in class because of my irregular sleeping schedule. Not paying attention in class is killing my grades, for sure. I also don’t check my grades till the very last days of the grading period. It’s not that I’m confident my grades stay above a B, it’s just that I’m afraid to know that I failed. I don’t know when that thought cropped up, though. But either way, it’s a bad thought and I can’t get rid of it. It’s been very annoying. Anyways, check your grades often, not that you don’t do that already, probably.

As for how hard the year is going to be for you, I’d say it’s going to be easier than ninth grade year. You get used to the amount of work that is expected, and the amount…of outside entertainment that’s possible. I play games and read light novels and manga in my free time, by the way. Sometimes that eats into my homework time if I become too “entranced”. But the year should feel easier compared to your first year in Pre-IB. The thing is to watch out for the big projects that are coming your way. There is a long time between the date the assignment is given and the date the assignment is due, so don’t procrastinate. I think procrastination is the thing that brings most grades down, since everything is done at the last minute. (I am currently learning that the hard way.) Also, don’t go sulking if you get something lower than an A. It’s more than likely going to happen, especially if you take Chemistry. I heard from my friends that Chemistry tests are a nightmare to pass. I decided to take Physics instead, and it’s fun. It’s mostly math and formulas and whatnot. Also, watch out for the Trig quizzes in Pre-Calc. The values that correspond to each radian is easy enough to memorize, but putting that knowledge to use is something else entirely. You’ll know what I’m talking about once you get to that part of the year. You have been warned.

There is not much else I want to say. The main objective for me right now is to get as much sleep as possible while keeping my grades up. I think it should be about the same for you…at least for you who don’t participate in clubs or sports. I wonder how hard it is for the people who have a bunch of extracurricular activities. I don’t participate in any myself mostly because I live about an hour from school. As of right now, sports aren’t worth sacrificing my remaining daylight hours. Sorry to all those that I have offended by saying that. That reminds me, community and cultural service hours are due this year. You probably already know, but I’ll still say it here: twenty hours are needed, at least five have to be cultural hours, and everything else can be community service. Use that blue sheet of paper that you found in your portfolio you got at the informational meeting when you got accepted into IB for your hours, if you haven’t already figured that out.

Seeing as this has gone on to a second page, I’ll stop typing here. Have fun figuring the rest of your tenth grade year out on your own.

Yue Su

[Editor’s note: Student name provided by the teacher.]

 

Dear incoming students,

You’ve got a tough road ahead of you but I have some tips that you can follow to make the rest of your time at IB a little less dreadful.

This year (aside from the common subjects) I took Pre-Calculus, AP Psychology, AP Statistics, and French. For Pre-Calculus my advice to you would be to ask questions, A LOT of them; Mrs. Frisbie will gladly answer any questions you have about homework, tests, quizzes, and your IA topic. My advice to you if you are taking AP Psychology is to take deep breaths as you sit through an endless hour and 40 minutes with Romaine. You will spend much time doing bookwork and reviewing answers; soon enough you WILL get tired of it. In terms of passing the AP Exam, do not worry 一 Psychology will not have any concepts that will be especially difficult to understand. For Stats, Naki does a great job in preparing his students for the AP Exam in May as I did not need extra studying outside of class. For French, there’s not much to say except practice on your own because you will not learn much in class.

For those not taking any of the courses above, I still have some tips for you. The first being time management as well as planning out your homework. My agenda became my right-hand man in managing my time and keeping me sane. I wrote down the homework I would do each day, tests/quizzes I needed to study for, the due dates of large assignments, and the dates of tests/quizzes. Also, having special symbols and colors for different tasks made it easy to figure out what exactly I needed to do each day. Using this method can help you manage your time because you know how much you need to finish and how long you have before the due date. When you know the due date you can manage your time by dividing work over a week or so, rather than waiting for the night before to realize an essay or project is due the next day.

Now, lastly, you need to realize that your life extends beyond the next due date. During times of high stress I would remind myself that the feeling would last only a week (if even) longer and eventually, somehow, I would complete the assignment; there was nothing really to be stressing about. When the due date passed and I turned in the assignment, I felt that a massive weight had been pulled off my chest. What I’m trying to say is stress may hit you like a truck before a large project or essay is due but just remember the relief you will feel after the fact. In doing so, I have been able to minimize the amount of mental breakdowns I encountered throughout the year.

A former student, Nicholas Christoffersen, felt that it was necessary for me to inform you all to “leave while you can” so that you don’t have to experience the abominable stress to come; do not listen to him…YOU CAN DO IT! The good thing is that the small community of IB kids will allow you to form close relationships with students from all grades that are all willing to help.

Wish for you all enough motivation to get through the next 4 years!

Victoria Vailoces

 

Dear Sophomore,

Congratulations on making it to the 10th grade of IB. You have got through 9th grade and I believe that you can also get through 10th grade. So you may have been told that 10th grade is really easy. That is true to some point because you are just used to the IB life, but the classes are not any easier than they were in freshman year. It may seem easier because you have more classes that require you to be self-taught. All I can say is do not come into the 10th grade thinking that everything will get a lot easier, because even though some things will, you will still have difficult times.

One thing that is very different from last year is that you do not have Biology or APES, so you will not have as much busy work. I took the required classes and two AP classes for my electives, so here are some tips for them.

English: Work on your essays ahead of time and have Mr. Guice look over them before they are due because he will give you quality feedback and tell you exactly what to change or do in order to get a higher grade. Also read the books for his class and do not rely on Sparknotes because you will be quizzed on the book; Sparknotes definitely helps you, but you will not get you the desired grade. The last thing for his class is to know the literary terms very well and be familiar with them because he gives out pop quizzes when you least expect them.

AP World History: This is one of the classes in which you will have to teach yourself. You are expected to take notes and pay attention in class. If you pay attention in class and keep up with your notes, you will not be stressed out on tests.

AP Statistics: For stats, all I can say is do your homework and pay attention in class because it all helps you pass the AP test. Also, I feel like Naki prepares you very well for the AP test by taking a few practice tests and by really explaining the material well.

AP Psychology: Psych is also one of those classes in which you will have to teach yourself and keep up with the readings. As long as you keep up with the modules in the book, you should be prepared for her tests and the AP test. The best thing to do for the AP test is know the vocabulary because that is the basis for everything in psychology.

French: If you are taking French, good luck! We took exactly two tests this year and one of them was all review from last year. So technically, we only took one test the entire year. My advice to you is to practice at home in your own time and actually force yourself to do some French everyday at home.

Chemistry: I actually learned a lot in this class and I love the way Mrs. Loweke teaches. You take notes from her Powerpoints and copy them down because that is exactly what will be on her tests. She also tells you everything that will be on her tests the class period before, so study exactly what she tells you and if you have questions, do not be afraid to ask them.

Precalculus: For precalc, just pay attention in class, do your homework, and take advantage of the grade recovery. Also, do the extra credit during the test and try not to use your late passes so that you can turn them in for extra credit at the end of every quarter. As long as you do the homework, you will be fine on the tests, but as an extra bonus do the review problems she posts on Edmodo because the test problems are usually really similar to the review problems.

Okay, so one thing I can say for sure is try not to procrastinate. I procrastinate on everything and I feel like I still did fine, but it just put more pressure on me. If anything, at least start the assignment when it is given so you get an idea of what the assignment is, so if you have any questions then you can ask the teacher before it is due. You made it through the 9th grade, so believe in yourself because I know that you can make it through the 10th grade as well. Sophomore year goes by really fast and I feel like it is a lot better than the 9th grade because you have gotten used to the environment and you have friends that you can rely on. Just try your best and don’t stress a lot. Good luck!

Kshama Patel

 

Dear future sophomores,

As you have probably heard from almost any previous IB student, sophomore year is by far the easiest. When I say this I do not mean that the material was easier, but the amount of work seemed to be much lighter. I had AP Psych, AP World, and AP Human Geo all on my B days along with precalc as my 5th period so I rarely had more than an hour of homework those nights. The thought of less work made many people, including myself, feel like we didn’t have to start our homework till later, so many of my friends would not start until 11:00 at night which caused a lot of problems. My biggest piece of advice is DO NOT PROCRASTINATE. We have all heard this advice since the first IB meeting our eighth grade year, but this year needs to be the time you actually learn to apply it. By May all of the AP exams and class finals will begin along with the unreasonable amount of work Guice will throw at you, so studying early is necessary to get more than two hours of sleep each night. While checking Instagram and Snapchat or watching something on Netflix may seem really productive at the time, by midnight I can guarantee that reading Things Fall Apart right when you got home will have appeared more important.

Another piece of advice is to TRY NEW THINGS. Join clubs and sports that you may have liked to join last year but couldn’t find the time. Find leadership positions in clubs you were already apart of because it will look great when applying to college and a leadership position is necessary for NHS. Also find new places to volunteer now that you will have less homework. At the time it may seem justified to watch an extra 2 hours of Netflix since you have less homework this year, but try to fill that time with volunteering or extracurriculars. I would also advise trying new study habits. While trying new things in chemistry has led me to get a B this year, I now know the most effective way of studying for myself so that I can get a high A in AP chemistry next year. I have also found much more effective ways to study for Spanish like using homemade flashcards for vocab and grammar and focusing a lot on culture through paragraph explanations. By trying new things your sophomore year you are able to find the more productive way for you to study and manage a life outside of school before the rigor of junior and senior year.

My final piece of advice is to learn what each teacher’s strengths and weaknesses are early along with their expectations so you can perform well in their class.

• Loweke taught chemistry and is a really good teacher who gives a reasonable amount of work that is fairly easy to manage. Her tests are worth a lot of points, so if you do poorly on one test your grade will reflect that. Make sure you try your best to attend her class because she teaches one or two lessons each day and without her instruction you will be completely lost.
• Byrd teaches AP Human Geography and is one of the most laid back teachers you will ever have. AP Human Geo is basically a mixture of APES and World, so as long as you have both of those classes you won’t ever need to study. Everything in her class is worth 100 points so my biggest advice is to do all your homework so you can get an easy A. Also make sure to get on her good side at the beginning of the year because it will make the rest of her class so much easier. Once you have gained her trust she will let you do things independently like work on other homework as long as you complete her assignments on time.
• Portillo, the Spanish teacher, is very sweet and can be really funny. Anyone already taking Spanish knows a lot about how she manages the classroom already. One of my biggest pieces of advice is to STUDY REGULARLY AND REVIEW PAST INFORMATION. Mrs. Portillo doesn’t always remember what she tells people will be on the quiz so sometimes you will find that you are tested on irregular verbs in preterite while learning about future. If you are like many people and do the bare minimum that is required it will negatively impact your grade, so make sure you review information frequently. Another piece of advice is to MEMORIZE ALL OF THE CULTURE SECTIONS. Freshman year has a lot of multiple choice questions for culture, but during sophomore year the culture will be short answers. The questions become incredibly specific, so without memorizing those sections you will not receive full marks on the questions.
• Wright is the AP World History teacher and if you have signed up to take his class next year my biggest advice would be to bring additional work to do during his class. He tends to get off topic a lot which allows you to do homework for other classes while listening to whatever is being discussed. I am telling you this not to be lazy in his class but because you will have to study a lot for world history after school so you want to be effective in class. When he is teaching though I would suggest paying attention because he knows a lot about history, so you can learn a lot from his class.
• Frisbie, the Pre-Calculus teacher, is a walking encyclopedia and nobody knows how she remembers so many random facts but somehow she does. If you pay attention in class and complete all of the homework then an A should be easily obtainable. Do not be afraid to ask questions on homework if you don’t know something because I can guarantee someone else has the same question.
• Romaine is the AP psychology teacher and she is really nice. If next year is anything like my year then there will be a lot of studying at home, but she has told our class that she plans on changing a lot for next year.
• Guice is the English teacher, but don’t let his laid back personality fool you because he gives a lot of homework. I recommend participating a lot in class discussions because they will both help you to retain the information and will make you appear more intelligent if presented correctly. My biggest recommendation is to READ ALL OF THE BOOKS CLEARLY. While a book may seem like it will only be relevant once so skimming is adequate, there are actually many assignments associated with each one and the different novels and short stories relate to others. My final piece of advice is to STUDY LIT TERMS REGULARLY. Literary terms quizzes appear throughout the year and typically at the worst times possible so review the words once a week so that you can receive easy As on those assignments.

Good Luck,

Anna Grundig