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My Top 10 advice on how to start the 2nd semester and make it even better
than the first one
By Virginia Arranz-Garcia
1. Organize everything school-related. If we are being honest,
maintaining your working space outside school tidy throughout the school
year is near impossible. Take the first free moment you have between
semesters and get all that sorted out – Class notes and handouts, past
tests, every course-related document you may have and organize them
by subject somewhere where you won’t forget. This will ensure you don’t
lose anything and it’s also nice to have an organized space to work in
whenever possible.
2. Rewrite / Write additional class notes. If there were specific units you
had trouble with, take your time between semesters to write additional
notes on them, or even just go through your messy class notes and re-
write them. This could help you refresh your memory even if you didn’t
have time to go through your class notes in a while.
3. Look through upcoming units. I know it might seem like overdoing it
but even just looking through your books’ chapters and making a little list
of different concepts to make sure you retain something can help you
have an idea of what to expect.
4. Look through past tests. Even just reading the tests you did the first
semester can help so much to remember what you had issues with. Also
don’t throw them away; they really are useful when revising for exams,
many teachers re-use questions or at least the format, and since they
tend to use IB-style questions it’s just generally a good idea to hold onto
them.
5. Ask your classmates for their notes or past test questions. It can be
very helpful to see how others take notes since you might identify
something you could be doing better. Also if there was a past test
question you got wrong, asking a classmate to explain how they did it is
a great way to go through concepts again and it is much less intimidating
to be upfront when you don’t understand something.
6. Research IB guides. When it comes to IAs or the Extended Essay,
researching how to write these papers beforehand can help avoid
confusion or becoming overwhelmed when your teacher explains it in
class.
7. Deadlines. Time between semesters should be used to rest and do
school related tasks which ensure you don’t completely disconnect but
don’t stress you out either, such as what I already mentioned. But you
should also look through upcoming deadlines and start to work on them;
it will save you so much stress.
8. Don’t be afraid to ask your teachers questions. It may be intimidating
but if you don’t understand something or feel like you need extra
practice, just asking your teachers for extra handouts to do on your own
time can be much more useful and time-efficient than looking for sketchy
past exams on the internet.
9. Buy extra books. If you can, buy extra textbooks for the courses you are
struggling more with, do it. There are also some in the library you can
borrow. Looking at different formats of questions may help you
understand the topics better.
10. Sleep. You probably didn’t get half the sleep you needed even if you are
relatively good at time management. Make sure to sleep well during
holidays so you don’t feel exhausted.
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