being realistic about your score is so difficult because to other people I was
like I want to get a seven but I don't think that'll actually happen and then
in my mind I'm like I'm getting a seven, where is it.
welcome back to Ivy Lilia. If you're, new make sure to subscribe. Today we're
talking about IB English. I know it's the middle of the summer, you're probably not
thinking about IB scores. Feel free to always leave me a comment
about questions you have later once we get into the school year, or DM me on
instagram. My instagram is @IvyLilia all one word. I'm always happy to help. So
here's how I got a seven in IB English a literature and here's how you can do it
too. Number one: edit everything until you become a really confident writer I was
not the best writer going into high school, but I really worked really hard
at just writing and rewriting and editing and grammar and syntax until I
was really confident. So make sure you're really confident about your writing
abilities because that is the cornerstone on which all other IB
English success will be built. Because really what they're looking for is your
critical thinking and your ability to analyze, but if you can't clearly
articulate your ideas then the grader is not going to be able to grade your
amazing ideas. Number two: figure out a way to take notes on novels that works for
you. The paper two asks you to compare and contrast pieces of literature, so for me
it was really easy to create a giant matrix with every symbol, every motif
that came up across the different novels and then how each novel kind of played
on that idea or utilized that for its own purposes. Tt was really useful
preparing for the exam to have all of my notes in one place because I didn't have
to open another book again. It's really important also when you're preparing for
your IOP and your IOC or your written assignment to take
on the novel because if you take notes on it as you're reading once you come up
with a claim you don't have to go back through and think like what would work,
you already have all these notes that have led you towards your claim, so
you've already built up your argument already. So figure out a note-taking
strategy for novels that works for you, so you don't have to ever read a novel a
second time. As you're reading novels and as you're taking notes start tracking
certain things that you know he'll be able to talk about for the paper two. For
me it was talking about symbolism I really focused on the use of plant
symbols throughout the novels. Because I was paying so much attention to one
thing, I actually could connect that one thing to so many other things, so it
really helped having that detailed understanding because I had such a
detailed understanding of other things that I didn't even know I was paying
attention to. So it really helped during paper too to be able to talk about
novels in such extensive detail. Number three: nail your IOC and IOP this goes
for any IB subject make sure you can get the top number of points possible from
your internally assess assignments. The IOP is easier in that you have a lot
more time to prepare you can really ensure that you'll do well. The IOC is
more up to fate, in that you could pull any short story or any poem and it could
be the one that you hate. I pulled one that I wasn't super happy about but
because I had prepared for all of the poems I felt confident even if it wasn't
what I wanted. Make sure you put in the effort on your IOP and IOC because
you're just paying it forward to do better on your exams and you'll feel
more confident going into your exams. Additionally, to do well on your IOP and
IOC I recommend getting better at public speaking a lot of my friends that
weren't great at public speaking, but maybe were great at writing flopped in
the IOP and IOC and didn't have great points because of that. I did speech
throughout high school I was a two-time TEDx speaker, so I was really confident
about the public speaking aspect of those assessments. Number four: perfect
your written assignment you can really control how you do, so make sure you put
a lot of effort into it and make it as perfect as possible. You get one read
through from your teacher so use it don't turn in a bad draft and then they
tell you it's not great because you already knew that give your best draft
so your teacher can give you real feedback and not just what you already
know you need to fix. Number five: be really confident about using and knowing
literary and rhetorical devices. Having the correct terminology will make you
better at analyzing literature because you know what to look for, you know what
to identify, and you have an idea of how that device is going to function. Along
with that, have some go to devices that you're really confident about using. I
knew I could always turn to those devices I was always looking for the
things I felt most confident about analyzing. Number six: focus on author's
choice I cannot stress this enough the IB wants to see that you understand
technique, what the author did to make the reader feel a certain way. Focusing
on author's choice is really important for paper two because it's easy to get
sucked into just talking about the novel similarities and differences but not the
technique and you need to focus on how the author crafts the work so if you
keep that in mind even going into your junior year
analyzing poetry, doing your work in translation think about author's choice.
If you feel a certain way in a novel, key into that and think what has the author
done to make me feel this way and that's a really sound basis for a commentary or
for an essay. Number seven: this seems like the most basic tip in the world, but
trust me it is a tip. Read everything all the way through I cannot tell you how
many other students didn't read the novels all the way through, and then got
shrekd. Number eight: this is my personal favorite advice don't be afraid to do
some wacky analysis. What I mean by that is don't be afraid to do something that
you think is not really the mainstream analysis. When you're trying to support a
really wacky claim, you're doing a better job at utilizing evidence because you're
trying to prove what you see if you change your claim to
something more mainstream, it might be too simplistic you might not flesh out
all the analysis and evidence needed because you don't think it's necessary.
Number nine: confidence. Be so confident in your analysis. If you think "oh I don't
think this is right" it's not gonna be good, if you think "I can prove anything
to my reader" then you are going to have a rock-solid essay.
So analyze to your heart's content, but make sure you're not focusing on what
you think is right or wrong because really truly nothing is the right answer.
This is the skill that I feel like I've grown the most because of IB. Going
into IB I didn't feel confident my abilities and now my ability to analyze
literature is probably one of my strongest skills. If you liked this video, then
you'll probably like some of my other ones, so go ahead and check them out and
I'll see you later