Let’s get the elephant in the room out there – results are out July 6th – that’snext Wednesday.
A lot of feelings must be swirling – you could be glad, excited, worried, scared or more.
Remember though, despite everything, you’ve done your absolute best and whatever comes, comes.
Nonetheless, we know that these grades are really important and can make or break your future plans. If you haven’t met what you had hoped, there are some things you can do:
Remarking: This is probably your first port of call. If your grades are very close to the next boundary, then it may be worth going for a remark. To remark, contact your school’s IB coordinator as all remarks have to go through the school.Be careful though, marks can be higher or lower than your original; so don’t jump on remarking like it’s a magic pill!
Clearance: The process of clearing is where you apply for a place that Universities still have open after all places have been confirmed. These places will often be given at lower boundaries to get as many students studying as possible.It may feel like you’re getting leftovers, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Students might apply then change their mind about a course, or a University might not have had enough applicants to start with but the application cut off had passed. We’ve had students actually get into Universities better than their original choices through clearing!
Clearing might get a bad name, but it’s actually a great way of making a good thing out of a bad situation – you just need an open mind.
Retaking: If all else fails, you can always retake the exam. You don’t have to retake every subject, only the ones you feel could be improved. The earliest you can retake an exam is November, alongside the Time Zone 2 cohort (naturally, reversed if you’re part of the November cohort to start with). You’ll also have to reapply to University, which often means you end up having a gap year.While this gives you another chance to show what you’re made of, it’s also the most time consuming and stressful option.
No matter what route you choose, know that we’re proud of what you’ve achieved and will strive to help in whatever way we can. Let us know if you have any questions, queries or just general worries.
And in any case, we’d love to see you whether you need help or not. It’s always a pleasure!
Summer is for …. getting your EE done
But you can do it from anywhere!
Not only relaxation and holidays (though you should definitely take time off), it’s also for preparing for your next year. Whether you’re entering IGCSE and IB, or going into your second year, the changes are much bigger than you can imagine.
Summer is a great time to get back on track, to revise what you know, to make notes for the coming year, so that when school comes back in September, you don’t have to stress.
Important tasks to make sure you update over summer include:
EE: If your school has already cleared your EE topic (and many should have), then summer is the time to get your research done and your draft started!
CAS: If you’re thinking of putting off those service hours till school starts, don’t! In fact, if you can, do your project over summer – that way you’ll have one less thing to worry about when school comes.
Quote banks & Study notes: Goes without saying that 2 months off school is the perfect time to organize your notes, and make more if needed. Especially for English Paper 2, now is the time to sit down and make a quote bank for your books.
As always, get in touch with us by calling or WhatsApping +852 5598 0767 or sending an email to hi@mgstudyhub.com so we can give you a hand!
MG SPOTLIGHT
This month’s spotlight is one of our newest but coolest, coolest looking, and smartest, members of the team: Marko Micic
Marko received his degree in Applied Mathematics from Yale University (wow!) with a focus on Statistics. He also has more than 6 years professional research and development experience in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence.
He’s used programs I can’t even pronounce (TensorFlow and PyTorch) to build AI systems for finance; he’s made chat bots in Mandarin and Cantonese, and automated quality control for online medical consultations.
A classic academic, just because Marko now teaches, doesn’t mean he’s given up on his research. He continues to be actively involved in deep learning and coding, looking into how differential geometry and analytical hyperbolic geometry can help robots one day take over us.
But why would someone so smart and so qualified be teaching you how to do AI SL papers?
Well, Marko’s personal philosophy believes that any civilization which wishes to avoid collapse must concern itself with the education of its younger generations. Therefore, he’s also incredibly passionate about education, particularly in mathematics and programming (to no one’s surprise), and given the ever-declining state of software quality worldwide, he thinks that programming education in particular is in dire need of improvement.
He’s even given a talk at TEDxTSIS titled “Do reinvent the wheel” where he expresses his idea that when it comes to learning and understanding, it’s important to rebuild and reinvent things that are already solved problems in order to truly understand them.
In his spare time, Marko enjoys playing video games (he’s also interested in exploring games as a medium of education), playing guitar, football, tennis, squash, and most recently, rock-climbing and indoor climbing (redpointing at 6c!).
He’s also an avid fan of rallying, and hopes to one day try out being a driver or codriver in an actual rally.
If you want to have some extreme math sessions with Ted-talk-talking, smart as artificial intelligence Marko, then contact us at +852 5598 0767 or sending an email to hi@mgstudyhub.com
