Well I’d like to start this blog with a bunch of wonderful news related to IB – final exams! For one thing, they’re over, and it’s officially Winter Break. For another, I kicked butt. This year, my grades didn’t do as well as I’m used to. Junior year is the first “real” year of IB, when every one of our classes is IB-level. Some of us have been in the program since Pre-Pre-IB in middle school and we’ve all been doing amazingly, so none of us were very worried about our junior year. We should have been. I don’t know anyone in the junior class who has been satisfied with their grades for the entirety of this semester.
My final exams took place on Monday and Tuesday, both half days – giving us over an hour each for 3 exams on Monday and 3 on Tuesday. Monday I took Language Arts and Math (I should have taken Bio that day too, but we took it on Friday). Language Arts is my best class, so I hadn’t studied much and wasn’t really worried. I did well enough to keep my A. Math, however, is my worst subject. It’s been a struggle for me since middle school to accept a B in that class – it’s the best I can do, no matter how hard I try, which is difficult since I’m used to straight A’s. The week before finals, I had just pulled my grade up from a high C to a low B, and I needed a 75% on the test to keep my B. I studied and worked really hard and when I turned in the 20-question test 5 minutes before the bell, I was confident that I had hit that 75% mark.
I waited around after class for Math Teacher to grade my test. When she got to mine, I was crushed. I had missed one too many questions, gotten a 70% on the test and was condemned to a C for the semester. I don’t get C’s, and I was really upset with myself for missing one too many questions. Boyfriend was great, though, and came home with me and stayed all afternoon, cheering me up and studying for the next day’s finals. When I thought about the math test, I realized that one of the questions I had seen her mark wrong was the one I didn’t know how to do, so I plugged the multiple choice answers into the problem on my calculator – I couldn’t have gotten it wrong. I planned to talk to Math Teacher about it the next morning.
Now here’s the good news. That evening I got a call from one of my friends, telling me to check my grades online. Apparently another friend convinced Biology Teacher to curve the final. (There was a bit of a problem with her final; almost everyone failed. It brought my grade down from an A to a B, and I was upset.) That put my grade back to an A! Then I saw my math grade – my final had changed from a 70 to a 75, and my grade to a B. Turns out I had been right about that answer.
As for the next day’s finals; Psych, History, and Spanish, I studied a little bit and did well on the tests. My grades are now all A’s and a B in math. Yes! Also, a congrats to Boyfriend for acing his French finals, a thank-you to my friend who phoned me Monday night and to the one who convinced Bio Teacher to curve the final, and another congrats to all the IB juniors who did well on their finals. We’re ¼ done with IB!
My final exams took place on Monday and Tuesday, both half days – giving us over an hour each for 3 exams on Monday and 3 on Tuesday. Monday I took Language Arts and Math (I should have taken Bio that day too, but we took it on Friday). Language Arts is my best class, so I hadn’t studied much and wasn’t really worried. I did well enough to keep my A. Math, however, is my worst subject. It’s been a struggle for me since middle school to accept a B in that class – it’s the best I can do, no matter how hard I try, which is difficult since I’m used to straight A’s. The week before finals, I had just pulled my grade up from a high C to a low B, and I needed a 75% on the test to keep my B. I studied and worked really hard and when I turned in the 20-question test 5 minutes before the bell, I was confident that I had hit that 75% mark.
I waited around after class for Math Teacher to grade my test. When she got to mine, I was crushed. I had missed one too many questions, gotten a 70% on the test and was condemned to a C for the semester. I don’t get C’s, and I was really upset with myself for missing one too many questions. Boyfriend was great, though, and came home with me and stayed all afternoon, cheering me up and studying for the next day’s finals. When I thought about the math test, I realized that one of the questions I had seen her mark wrong was the one I didn’t know how to do, so I plugged the multiple choice answers into the problem on my calculator – I couldn’t have gotten it wrong. I planned to talk to Math Teacher about it the next morning.
Now here’s the good news. That evening I got a call from one of my friends, telling me to check my grades online. Apparently another friend convinced Biology Teacher to curve the final. (There was a bit of a problem with her final; almost everyone failed. It brought my grade down from an A to a B, and I was upset.) That put my grade back to an A! Then I saw my math grade – my final had changed from a 70 to a 75, and my grade to a B. Turns out I had been right about that answer.
As for the next day’s finals; Psych, History, and Spanish, I studied a little bit and did well on the tests. My grades are now all A’s and a B in math. Yes! Also, a congrats to Boyfriend for acing his French finals, a thank-you to my friend who phoned me Monday night and to the one who convinced Bio Teacher to curve the final, and another congrats to all the IB juniors who did well on their finals. We’re ¼ done with IB!
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