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Ruro's Full Day o' IB Tests Chronicle - Day the Second
Morning started out awesome. Made it to the church on time, and apparently so did everyone else, so we got to start the test early. It was History Paper 3, which is two hours and thirty minutes long, and is made up of IB throwing 25 random questions at you about all the European history you're supposed to have learned (basically starting from the French Revolution on). You have to answer three of them. You're in danger of actually running out of time, but if you know what you're doing, you can finish early.
A note: IB has some rather odd policies about tests. You cannot leave during the first hour of the test, and you can't leave during the last fifteen minutes. As such, there is an interval, a short window depending on how long the test is, that you can leave if you finish early. If the test is up to an hour and fifteen minutes long, you can't leave; if the test is two hours or longer, you have about a 45-minute window to escape. Depending on the test, you may not want to do this; it's always good to look over your answers (especially in biology, math, physics, etc). But if it's written, and you're confident about your answers, go ahead and get out early if you can.
In my case, I knew it was a good idea to get out early 'cause I was pretty confident about my answers (I was right; there was a Napoleon question on it, and I answered the Russian Revolution and WWI causes questions for a grand total of my three questions). So I got out about 25 minutes before the end of the test, still before the 15-minute cutoff time. My friend Stephie finished at around the same time, so we went out in her car to grab a bite to eat together at the mall, and then came back to the school.
Still had an hour left until noon, but I needed to get a graphing calculator for Paper 2 of Bio, so I dropped by the math class. Turns out our IB coordinator, in a flash of actual competence, had picked them all up for our sakes earlier and taken them to the church, so we needn't worry. Then I dropped by my Yearbook class and got to pick up my yearbook, at which point I realized that my last name was misspelled on the Top Ten page (which I consider poetic justice, to remind me to be humble about having made such a good page and have it have such a glaring mistake on it.) And then I walked with my friends Ian and Jerusha through a shortcut in the soccer fields back to the church in time for Bio.
Paper 1 is multiple choice. It is harder than Paper 2. Paper 2 is short answer that turns into essay questions near the end. I didn't know that was possible. I was all ready to sacrifice a good Paper 2 grade in favor of a good Paper 3 grade the next day (tomorrow morning, the last of my IB tests this week because I DON'T HAVE TO DO MATH YIPPEE!), but it turns out that I didn't really have to; I did really well on Paper 2.
Paper 1 was first, and it was an hour long; I finished about 25 minutes early and went back to check all my answers, and made sure I at least got the first 20 out of 40 questions right (which is still a 4 out of the impossible 7 points available on each IB test). As soon as we finished, we ran outside to the waiting room and talked about which ones we had gotten wrong (there was some stuff on that test none of us had ever even seen), then crammed for ten minutes for Paper 2. Paper 2 was two hours and fifteen minutes long, and it's short answer at first, then the last five questions are made up of three subquestions, all loosely related, and you only have to answer two of them.
The first part of that was easy; you aren't intended to know what's going on. I have to hand this to IB; they're professionals. They know what they're looking for. They want you to reason things out, to provide possible explanations with reasons for what data is being shown in a given graph. It's not like ACT's laughable science section, which is all graph interpretation; this is actual science. You have to account for why the biomass near the roots of this maize is less than the biomass near another root of maize, and stuff like that. You have to use your head. Reason it out. That sort of thing.
The second half is just as fun. The three subquestions that make up an essay question vary in points, so you have to be strategic about it. If you can answer a, which is worth three points, and c, which is worth five points, but you can't answer b, which is eight points, the question might not be worth it to answer. But if there's another essay question where you can answer a, which is worth six points, and b, which is worth five points, but you can't answer c, which is worth four points, then that may be better for you to answer. Of course, you're supposed to answer a question where you know it all.
An example of this was when they asked me about oogenesis, and I couldn't remember many of the specific details (specifically, the polar bodies, follicles, estrogen + progesterone + oxytocin, etc). I could answer the other two questions (one was about Down Syndrome causes, and the other about ethical issues surrounding in vitro fertilization) fairly well, but the oogenesis would have killed me with its eight points that I would have missed out on, so I didn't go for it.
What I was REALLY hoping for was a question on immunology - my specialty, along with genetics - and thankfully, that was there, in the eighth question available. I was able to talk about everything, and I'm sure I got almost all the points. For my second one, I chose DNA replication, winning three easy points by explaining the differences between DNA and RNA, and then talking about DNA replication. (It gave me a real kick to finally get to talk about Okazaki fragments.) And of course the best bio joke ever: "If I could be any enzyme, I would be Helicase, 'cause then I could unzip your genes." Don't laugh. It helped me remember the process. =P
Tomorrow, we have Paper 3 of HL bio. (For the record, SL bio is testing with us, across on the other side of the room.) It's one hour and fifteen minutes long, but it's a lot narrower in scope; these first two involved everything we had learned in the past two years and longer, but this is made of our options. My class chose evolution and ecology as our options, so the test tomorrow will consist entirely of that. I'm quite good with evolution, but I'm a bit shaky with my ecology, so I need to review that. And then at least I am done, since I don't have math to take tomorrow, which is completely awesome. I still have one final test, and that would be English Paper 2, next Monday.
I also just got back from the two-hour-long study session after school. We've been reviewing our Africa novels (Heart of Darkness, Things Fall Apart, So Long a Letter, and When Rain Clouds Gather) for the past week for hours after school, after our IB tests, and we have a final study session this Saturday at 10:00 AM. I went to last Saturday's, and I'm going to this one. I think I'll do well with English. I am also kind of sort of ditching my college class, because I have a ton of work due that I haven't been able to do because of the IB test frenzy and I needed to study. Oh well.
I am also eating grapes now. My ordeal is almost over. I just have two tests left and I think I will do well on them as long as I review a bit for them.
Hooray!
