Can I balance ECAs with IB?

The short answer?

Yes.

Testimonials

In all honesty, the past two years have been the most challenging in terms of balancing my extracurricular activities and academic requirements; there have been times when I would work late into the night and then wake up a few hours before the first period so that I could accomplish a task and meet the deadline. Due to changes brought about by the ODL setup, I admittedly find it difficult to sustainably check tasks off my to-do list while still having time for myself, especially during hell weeks (or months) wherein we would have asynchronous tasks and assessments almost every day. As time has gone by, however, I have been able to slowly adjust to the new modality and devise methods to alleviate some of the stress that comes with balancing schoolwork and ECAs. If I were to give advice to anyone struggling with it as well, it would probably be to know yourself, so that you know which tips work for you, and which don’t. For example, I’m not a big fan of uncertainty and even the question of whether I can turn in all my assignments by the end of the week weighs on me, so I usually write down short to-do lists for the day to ensure that I remain focused. If I know that there is a difficult task ahead of me that I probably don’t want to do and will be forced by the deadline to half-heartedly finish, such as an IA draft, I try to divide it into smaller sections and then distribute them throughout the week to avoid procrastination and low-quality work. If there are smaller and easier tasks, like sending an email to the ICAlettes moderator, I also usually accomplish them first so I don’t need to constantly remind myself to do it and instead tackle bigger endeavors, whether that’s working on a proposal or studying for a unit test. Lastly and most importantly, give yourself a break once in a while and take a breather if you need to. It’s hard enough to be an IB student as it is, but whenever you feel that things are getting too heavy, remember to be kind to yourself. At the end of the day, we signed up for these ECAs because we are passionate about them. Turning them into a chore will only defeat their purpose, and burning yourself out will only hinder your performance, making it even harder for you to get through the year. Set aside time for yourself to talk to friends and family, watch funny videos, listen to music, or whatever it is you enjoy, so that you can come back energized and more prepared to take on your academics and ECAs. Good luck! :) (Jana Ang, Cohort 1)

I was the Asst. Head of Battle of the Best last year so there were a lot of meetings and prod that I had to do during fair season. Still though it wasn’t too bad since there weren’t as many requirements and worries with it being the first year. Right now though, I’m the COMELEC Chairperson, which just means I have to keep fighting ICA to pass my proposals in time for election season. The biggest problem I probably had this year was that elections was smack dab in the middle of all the EE ToK and IA Submissions. Biggest burnout ever. Honestly though the biggest advice I can tell you is just moderate yourself. I crammed a lot more this year since it felt like I had so much time. WRONG. I ended up writing my EE in four days, and my ToK in two. My IAs were all mostly written in a day each. Luckily, they were drafts and I could still improve on them (but in my defense there weren’t that many corrections hehe). Take it from me, it’s so much better not to cram. You can be part of that minority who watches everyone suffer. (Nia Yeung, Cohort 1)