Your whole IB experience, two years of back-breaking work and study, culminates in the next 20 days. Scared? You shouldn’t be. Be excited! While it’s obviously a huge amount of stress, it’s also a celebration of the blood, sweat and tears you’ve put in.
Not to mention, all of you guys did it over the course of a global pandemic! Plans changed on the fly. One day you were socializing at school, having lunch with your friends; the next, you were told to stay home. Online school didn’t make things easier: group projects were hard, if not impossible, and CAS (oh CAS) became almost impossible.
How do you even do action through a screen?!
You can only do this so much before it gets boring….
But you made it!
Not many people get to say they did their high school diploma at a time like this. This is an IB experience like no other, so no matter what grade you get in the end, you should be proud of all your achievements.
Support for the Final Climb
It’s late in the process, but it’s not quite over. In 20 days, you still have enough time to stretch your grades to be the best that they can be.
Call us for help – we’re all realistic people and will work with you to get the most feasible, yet brilliant score. No more meaningless explanations (which we hope we’ve never given anyway). It’s purely exam practice, techniques and filling in final knowledge gaps from now till your final exams.
With exam leave, there’s no excuse because we’ve got slots from morning till evening just waiting for you.
Contact your regular tutors, or our general number +852 5598 1833 for help today.
And make sure to come back and say hi once exams are over to celebrate!
In Person School is Hard!
The more pressing thought for everyone though likely isn’t whether you’re able to come see Donald in person (though it must be difficult being away for so long), it’s the difficult of going back to in person school after months of online class.
There are always pros and cons to every situation. If you’re someone who’s finding it difficult to get back to school in person, here are some of our tips:
Be social, chat and work with friends
One student told me that they had difficulty hiding their WhatsApp Web tab from their teacher because they were used to texting friends during online class
It’s ok. We understand 😉.
But you don’t have to do that anymore, instead you can socialise with your friends…in person…you can…talk to people face to face!
Of course, because of various safety regulations, there are limits to that. There aren’t as many long breaks, and many after school activities aren’t running as usual. But that doesn’t mean you can’t talk to one another, especially during the few breaks you do have!
Also take the opportunity to work with your friends on group projects. Doing this online is harder than in person. You can now safely meet with each other (or at least sit next to each other). Being able to communicate in person for work is an important life skill, make up for lost time and start building that skill now!
Friends!
Writes notes with pen and paper
We’re not just being old and backwards saying this! Being on your computer can distract you and make it feel like you’re still in online school. Might as well be in online school!
Pen and paper (or at least your iPad – that’s good enough) might seem more tiring, but it has several benefits. For a start, having to move your hand across the page keeps you more awake.
We don’t blame you if you feel tired having to go to school in person. Don’t feel bad but find a solution instead.
Secondly, many of your tests and exams are handwritten and long. This is especially the case for language and humanities subjects. How in the world are you going to manage writing a 3-5 handwritten essay for your IB English exam, if you’ve never written an essay by hand before then?
Typing is easier for online class; handwriting is the way to go while you’re back at school. But don’t worry if you really hate doing it at school, Cyril will force you to handwrite your MG homework anyway.
Enjoy the outdoors (and the journey)
One thing that must annoy everyone is having to go to school. After so many months of, let’s be honest, rolling out of bed, logging onto Zoom, and keeping your camera off, having to go wake up earlier and take the school bus is hard! Not to mention, for the more femininely inclined of you, having to do your makeup, jewellery and just look good in general before you leave the house. Gosh!
But again, think of the positives. Your time going to school allows you to wake up before arriving, get some alone time to think, listen to music (or if you really need to…to finish your homework before class. Go on, we’re not judging).
MG’S GRAND REOPENING
Going back to school in person also spills over to us – from mid- May, we will start face to face classes again. However, to try and reduce foot traffic, and keep everyone safe, we will be limiting classes to weekdays from 9am to 8pm and with advance booking only. This applies to all existing and new students, so please let your regular tutors know in advance if you want to come for an in-person class!
Used to online classes? That’s fine too! We will be continuing Zoom classes the default choice.
Stay flexible, stay safe.
It’s worth saying at this point that aside from exams, many pieces of year one IB coursework is coming up as well. Some of these, such as the English IO, is much better taught in person. Your orals will be done with your teacher face to face, so come for tutoring face to face.
Aside from the orals, TOK exhibition is also coming up. And while that’s not something that has to be done in person, it’s still more fun discussing in person!
Call us for help at …..
MG SPOTLIGHT
Doing great in your exams is only the first step towards your future. Once you get to university, you’ll find so many more exciting things to do, meet new friends and begin your true path towards a fulfilling life and career.
One ex-student who’s really taking her life into her own hands is Sandra Leung
Nowadays, aside from doing post-grad studies in Zoology, Sandra spends her time doing wildlife photography, recording radio shows on the environment for RTHK (‘Ecology’ and ‘Bitesize Biology’), exploring foreign forests and reading. Sandra’s also spent lots of time working as a research assistant at National Parks around the world.
On top of all that, she’s also part time tutor at MG (call for her expertise!)
MG’s most exciting graduate
Seeing Sandra now as a successful scientist and tutor, it might be hard to imagine her having ever stressed about academics. And while she did ultimately get a 45, the path wasn’t easy.
My IB years were immensely stressful, but I genuinely enjoyed studying thanks to my inspiring teachers. I wish to do the same for my students: to guide them so that they perform well, but also to kindle their love for knowledge discovery. Of course, by facilitating students in achieving their IB goals, like what MG once did for me, they can get their dream university degrees to pursue their dreams
And although Sandra’s already had some exciting experience, her journey’s not over yet (nor is it for you even after you finish IB!)
Her dreams are still to do more for the environment around us, and really make a difference by inspiring a new generation of Zoologists not only through teaching and academic, but through art as well!
All living things are wondrous – herpetofauna, fungi, plants, marine organisms… But spiders are my favourite! Besides wildlife photography, hiking and camping allow me to breathe in the breeze and hear the mountains murmur. My palate for books and online research is quite diverse, eg. environmental news, philosophy, Lord of the Rings, cultural studies etc. I also love planting herbs and organic veggies at home!
MG’s best photographer too!
But ultimately, Sandra is the same as she was when she sat with Don doing math questions. She has her passions about the environment, worked hard and followed her dreams.
You might be stressed about exams now, but hold on it’ll be worth it!
While it’s too early to ascertain my future career, I wish to help safeguard the well-being of people and the planet. This goal leads to non-exclusive paths to academia or photojournalism. Be it connecting with other scholars, communicating ecology to the public or celebrating local biodiversity, I aspire to bridge communities with knowledge and storytelling.
A non-exhaustive bucket list of my goals:
To celebrate unheard wildlife and the effort to conserve them through photography
To communicate environmental issues in light of their social and economic significance.
With my proficiency in Cantonese, English and Mandarin, I wish to bridge Hong Kong with the international conservation community and help promote nature photojournalism in East Asia
And who knows, maybe after you graduate, you’ll come back to work with us too!
In fact … if you know any ex-students (or just other friends) who might be interested in working with people as cool as Sandra in a flexible and exciting environment, get them to call us!
We’re always looking for more ground-breaking people to join our tutoring team and inspire the new generation.
