This tip is sure to cause a stir amongst some IB teachers as the command terms are like IB Gospel. In my early years of teaching I thought so, too. I had these plastered around the wall and thought they were the most important thing to know about the IB Psychology exams. However, over the years I’ve realised that they’re …
#6 Best Study Tip for IB Psych: Write Plans, Not Essays
A popular but silly strategy for IB Psych exams is to pre-write essay answers for every.single.question and then try to memorise them. Worse yet, downloading or buying existing essays and trying to memorise them. This is much, much harder than planning your own revision strategy. A much better strategy, imho, is to write plans for each topic. Don’t worry about …
#7 Best Study Tip for IB Psych: 5 Minute Practice Exams
Practice makes permanent. The only problem is that the IB Psych exams are 3-5 hours long, so they’re very difficult to practise. There are also over 50 different topics to study, but only a few will be asked on the exam. So while it might be great doing a couple of practice exams, including your school’s mocks, it’s not good …
#8 Best Study Tip for IB Psych: Set Goals
You’ve heard it all before but trust me setting goals for the IB Psych exams leads to higher marks. This is because it helps you prioritise your revision helping you to focus on the right things. Every IB Psychology student is capable of achieving at least a 5, so all you need to do is decide if you’re aiming for …
Digital vs. Print Reading: Which one’s better?
Are you trying to study with your laptop and smartphone? You might even argue that you need your phone to study because that’s how you read your textbook. You might even be reading this digitally if your school has shifted to digital texts in favour of old-fashioned textbooks. In this post, we’ll see what the research says about reading digitally …
IB Psychology Exam Banks + Past Papers
The links below will take you to a list of the most probably exam questions you’ll be asked about each topic in IB Psychology. They also include questions from past papers. PAPER ONE SL/HL Paper 1: Biological approach (Link) Paper 1: Cognitive approach (Link) Paper 1: Sociocultural approach (Link) PAPER ONE HL Extensions Paper 1: HL Ext Bio Animal Studies …
#9 Best Study Tip for IB Psych: Work Backwards
When you’ve started studying seriously, it’s tempting to tell yourself, “I’ll just read the textbook then figure out what I need to know for the exams.” While this is the easiest way to think about studying, it’s not very effective. You’ll end up working way harder than you need to. Let’s look at a more systematic approach. In the previous …
#10 Best Study Tip for IB Psych: Get Started
Action precedes motivation. I learn this every time I need to work on something boring. Act first and the motivation to do it will come later. It sounds counterintuitive but trust me, it’s true. Studying for your IB Psychology exams probably doesn’t make you excited. You’ll start cleaning your room, making study playlists, writing a letter to your Grandma, or …
Note taking: Is typing or handwriting better?
IB students are the iGen, so you probably can’t imagine working without a laptop. This begs the question – is it better to take notes by hand on paper or typing on a laptop? Let’s review the research. Let’s first look at Mueller and Oppenheimer’s now famous study “the pen is mightier than the keypad:” In this quasi-experiment, 67 students …
Flashcards: Are online or hard copy better?
Flashcards are the best method for studying lots of content. But which is better – using digital (like Quizlet) or hard copy (like our IB Psych flashcards)? In this post we’ll review the research and see. Numerous studies have found benefits to using apps like Quizlet to improve memory, particularly for second language learners studying vocab. These studies do pre and post-tests …