Year 11

Life of New DP Students During Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has become a phenomenon that has caused many changes in the lifestyle of all of us. All forms of activities that could previously be carried out face-to-face must be overhauled to suit the implementation of the quarantine regulations. Of course, this has been a struggle for everyone in the world. It may seem egoistic for us to talk about the impact of the pandemic to us when we have the privilege to be healthy and have full access to education. However, none of us is really aware of each other’s story. Both entering the DP environment and enduring the pandemic are something new for us. The unexpected twists of being newbies in DP have led to a whole mix of emotions, and here’s why:

Pressure of Uncertainty

It is a great achievement for us to be able to enter Year 11 – or perhaps achieving the label of a “DP Student”. When we were in MYP, being called a DP Student felt like it was some kind of special honour; although we all know it’s more than that. As it is a special honour, we believe that other people highly expect good performance and perseverance – which is true. Besides the heads up (or more of a warning), the teachers have provided us with extra guidance. The documents, presentations, and homework are clearly communicated to us. Though there are a lot of links to keep, the teachers have made it so much easier and accessible for us students.

Yet, in this pandemic, the implications and consequences of HBL are more significant than we anticipated. As we all know, in this situation, interaction has become quite limited. We haven’t built the connection with teachers, to the point that we know what they are looking for. Of course, the DP itself requires a lot of independent study. Yet being isolated during this HBL process has made learning more of a solo approach. For me, the influence of the “DP Student” mindset has sometimes led me to stress about how “the teacher is going to have a high expectation” and wonder “how high is this expectation and can I meet it?” It’s not because I’m a perfectionist, but more about the escalating anxiety generated by not knowing if my efforts are meeting their expectations.

Distractions Beyond The Screen

Are you bored in a class? Your phone is right there. Is the lesson getting too hard? Just open a new tab. Procrastination is getting way too inviting at home. And for those who are easily distracted, nothing gets done. It is just so easy to find ourselves going through TikTok for hours on end when it feels like 30 minutes. It feels like our lessons aren’t as important, we could always watch the meeting recording later. Our assignments feel repetitive and uninteresting, with the same Padlets and worksheets.

We know how important school is, but we can't focus and have zero motivation to do anything. It seems like these tasks aren’t as significant as before, and is something that can be postponed until later.

Huge Gap of Workload

The pandemic has clearly shined a spotlight on “Independent Study”. To reduce our screen time, the school has provided the Office Hours system, in which we have a certain amount of time from class time to log out from our laptops. However, we do have to finish our homework (or what is now called work) to replace those missing hours.

For DP, the school has properly arranged the list of assessments and assignments for us to do. The rituals are no different than doing it offline. We would have projects after experiments, after essays, after research, after tests. But it’s far more than what we had in MYP. As we are new to this, adjusting the rituals of DP with this pandemic’s independent study has been a struggle. We have found new colours on our Managebac dashboard that we didn’t even know existed! Our Google Calendars have been filled with tasks and reminders with very little gap in between.

Robbed of “High School Memories”

Many grades have some kind of significant event, like the National Exam in year 9 and Personal Project in year 10. These events can help to focus students' efforts and, as they reach the point of conclusion, invariably result in feelings of accomplishment and satisfaction. Year 11 does not have a culminating event, which means that our focus and efforts are aligned with simply functioning every day - and then the next - and then the next.

An average adult might say that some of the best moments in their life came from their memories of high school. We can’t help but feel robbed of these experiences, these memories, as we progress through year 11, isolated in our bedrooms and staring at our screens.

After school adventures don't exist anymore, we're in the same place, same people, same (home)work. We can't even talk to each other through Google Meets, something as simple as sharing a funny comment has to be kept to ourselves. We spend our lunch and breaks with that new Netflix show to keep us company. These moments were supposed to be little pills of happiness, but days seem so dull now.

The school has made such enormous efforts in keeping the connections between us healthy. Things like Pak Boy’s Sharing Sessions and teachers that make classes fun has been beneficial, but it just doesn’t feel quite right. As someone that depends on school for daily socialisation, this situation truly sucks.

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These points may sound cynical. It may appear that we think that this situation has destroyed our lives. But to tell the truth, it has driven us to a much better growth. These points are the challenges we didn’t anticipate to happen, and they have taught us, critical thinkers, to find solutions or different ways of living. We’re using this time to think carefully about the path we want to take. Many of us have changed our route in this pandemic; changing subjects, changing major, or changing dream universities. With this time, we are using it to truly find ourselves. There is beauty to be found in this pandemic.