Ib - Blog Posts

Look! A photo of my desk in the middle of the night from last year when I was trying to finish my design documentation:

Day 11/20, 1st October, 2023 – Sunday

Today wasn't as productive as it should have been, since I've been super tired recently (primarily due to me having begun going to physical tuitions again in the evening instead of taking them online), but I finished projectile motion!! I have a pretty clear understanding of how it works, but I need to be wary of how they may frame questions for my test, so I still need to practice them some more.

Day 10/20, 30th September, 2023 – Saturday

Hello! So today wasn't the best, but I did do work, so it counts for something, right? I think it does. Either way. I did projectile motion, since that's what will be coming on my physics test on Tuesday. On a non-academic note, my family and I have come to a meditation retreat/resort for the weekend. So far it's really nice!! It's a huge property and they have this really big and nice garden that we walked through. And I love riding on the golf carts, those are so fun.

Day 9/20, 29th September, 2023 – Friday

Hello!!! Alright, so today wasn't as bad as yesterday was. Mostly since I had class again. The classes may not follow the same syllabus as exactly what we do in school, but it helps me streamline my day, so that's good. Either way, I had chemistry and botany. Botany was first, and we continued our chapter of morphology in flowering plants. I nearly slept because I was so bored (plus I was tired since we'd been out the whole day – first for PTM and then this other place for some other work). In chemistry, however, I was wide awake. We started our new chapter, Equillibrium. It's gonna be tough, but hopefully I do well in it.

Day 8/20, 28th September, 2023 – Thursday

Yeah. Today wasn't a good day. I did practically nothing except reading a couple chapters from A Thousand Splendid Suns, which I need to finish by Tuesday for my English test. Sorry, me.

Day 7/20, 27th September, 2023 – Wednesday

Hello again! (Sorry I'm late in posting, but please bear with me). Yes, so I don't usually have class on Wednesday's, but since Thursday is a religious holiday for us, they compensated the class on Wednesday. I had zoology again, and this time we did the appendicular skeleton after finishing off the last part of the axial one. It was nice :D Alongside that, I had physics class, and we started our new chapter, which is Work, Energy, and Power. After quite a while, I began understanding stuff in physics again. 😭 Either way, my exams are upon my head once more – they begin on next Tuesday, and we're kicking off this set of exams with English and Physics, which will be fun!!! (Not). Alright, see you tomorrow (I promise to click pictures soon, I swear I'm trying my best).

Day 6/20, 26th September, 2023 – Tuesday

Alright! So again, I had class (it's three hours long and I live a bit far off, so I have to leave immediately after reaching home), and so I couldn't do much once I was home (it becomes super tiring, especially since I was attending the class online for a bit and my rythm was broken). However! I did learn quite a bit in class – we were supposed to have Botany and Chemistry, but our Botany teacher was sick, so we had Zoology and Chemistry instead. Our teacher finished off muscle contractions and then we moved on to doing the skeletal system! Which, in my opinion, was super cool and interesting because we started with the axial skeleton (which comprises of the skull, ribcage, and spinal cord). We finished the parts of the cranium (it has a total of 8 bones if anyone was wondering btw). And in Chemistry we sort of wrapped up our thermodynamics chapter, which was nice too. However, I'd missed a class last week due to my UT1's, so I wasn't able to understand everything that was going on. Either way, another day that wasn't a total waste, which is a good thing in my books.

Day 5/20, 25th September, 2023 – Monday

So. I can't exactly remember what I did on Monday (I should really start strictly following everything I said I would smh), but I did go to my tuition/coaching class. We had zoology and physics. Now, in zoology, we were doing muscle contractions and how they work. I need to go over my notes again, because though I understand it, I need to make sure I understand the whole process. And I would've have physics class, but I'd missed a test on Saturday, so I had to write that instead (two of my classmates were writing it alone in a separate room without an invigilator, so you can imagine what happened). Either way, at least it wasn't a total waste of a day again.

Day 4/20, 24th September, 2023 – Sunday

...I have nothing to say for myself.

Day 3/20, 23rd September, 2023 – Saturday

Didn't do anything again. This is NOT going well. I need to start holding myself accountable god-

Day 2/20, 22nd September, 2023 – Friday

Yeah... so I was supposed to have a test today- but it got cancelled, and alongside that, I had this thing in my community for a week-long-festival we were celebrating, so I ended up not doing anything 😬

Day 1/20, 21st September, 2023 – Thursday

So! We're not off to the best start, since I didn't study today. However! I did finally go back to my tuition class. And!!!! I finally understood stuff in physics! Well, most of it anyway. And in both my school class and tuition!!!! (I get the distinct feeling there's way too many exclamation points in this post, but oh well). Tomorrow will be better, I promise. Also, hey, I'm sticking to my rule of posting before bed :D

Another Productivity Challenge

Alright! I'm back at it, since my UT2 schedule has been released (not me trying to make it sound as if it's something exciting, like an album). Now, these begin on the 3rd of October, so I'm starting this challenge about 2 weeks prior so that I remain focused on my studies, ensuring I do better this time around.

This one's gonna last 20 days this time around!!! 21st September to 10th October (the day my second round of UT's end).

Also, since the last time's challenge was a bit all over the place, I'm making a couple self-imposed rules for myself:

Must post before sleeping

Remember to click pictures (just cuz)

Finish allotted amount of work for any given day (to reduce procrastination)

Since it's getting late and I have to sleep slightly earlier tonight, I won't add more to this, but I will post my UT schedule tomorrow, alongside my tentative study plan.

Yeah... I started at about 12:30 and now it's 3:17. Gonna be so tired tomorrow- but it'll be worth it! I think my presentation is turning out well.

Procrastinating my presentation/reading the book to the last minute: Check

Essentially, for our English coursework, we were supposed to make PPT's on the chapters we were assigned. My presentation was supposed to be on Friday, but by a sheer stroke of luck, it got shifted to Tuesday (Monday was a holiday for us) and now here I am, 12:30 in the morning on Tuesday, finishing off my presentation before I actually have to present first thing tomorrow in school.

Yep.

Procrastinating my presentation/reading the book to the last minute: Check

Essentially, for our English coursework, we were supposed to make PPT's on the chapters we were assigned. My presentation was supposed to be on Friday, but by a sheer stroke of luck, it got shifted to Tuesday (Monday was a holiday for us) and now here I am, 12:30 in the morning on Tuesday, finishing off my presentation before I actually have to present first thing tomorrow in school.

Yep.

Day 14/14, 13th September, 2023 – Wednesday

I apologise for the severe lack of pictures, but I promise I'll start posting some this weekend. Either way, 13th had been my last UT, biology! To be honest, I didn't do well in any of them, but I'm reconciling myself with the fact that this was primarily because I didn't know exactly what to expect and it was new for me. At least I now know what the papers may look like and how exactly I am expected to answer them. I also learnt some more about how I study/how I need to study for my tests, which is going to be very helpful in the future. This mini productivity challenge is over! For now. I'll probably start a new one soon (with pictures this time, I promise haha).

Day 13/14, 12th September, 2023 – Tuesday

I had my physics test on Tuesday. It went better than chemistry, but it didn't go all too well either. Thank god I'd panicked last minute and learnt operations for uncertainties so that I didn't fail completely (I hope). I also studied some for my biology test the next day.

Day 12/14, 11th September, 2023 – Monday

I had both, my maths and chemistry tests on Monday. As I mentioned in my previous post (since I'm mass-posting once again), I didn't do all that well. However, since I had my physics test the next day, though I felt very tired and a tad sick, I tried my level best to practice.

Day 11/14, 10th September, 2023 – Sunday

Studied for my chemistry and maths exam on Monday. I'm posting late again, so I can tell you that neither of them went well. It seems that my classmates and I have grossly underestimated exactly how tough and rigorous the IBDP really is. We have a rough idea of when our next sets of tests will be though, so I'm going to begin preparing for those now; I need to do better. I'm also beginning to realise that writing things down really helps me retain them, as well as having someone quiz me on the notes I've made. So we're making progress in other ways, even if my grades aren't brilliant just yet.

Day 10/14, 9th September, 2023 – Saturday

Alright, I'm posting late again, so this is a bit vague, since I only vaguely remember what I did. Essentially, I practiced Logarithms for my Maths test on Monday. That was about it (unfortunately, today wasn't a very good day either).

Day 9/14, 8th September, 2023 – Friday

Today wasn't as productive as I wanted it to be. I had a test in my tuition class, so I studied my botany chapter for that because that was the only subject I really had the time/motivation to do. I don't really know how it went, but my physics class before the test had gone well! I finally understood some of the motion problems the teacher was teaching, and I think I got one of those kinds right on the test (which is improvement, baby steps, ok?). Either way, even though it wasn't the most productive day, I still think it went well.

Day 8/14, 7th September, 2023 – Thursday

I finished my chemistry lab report and submitted it!!!!!!!!!!!! I mean, an hour after the 11:59PM deadline, which is something I need to work on, but still!!!!!!! I did it!!!! I also began the chapter thermodynamics in my chemistry tuition class, so that was fun too :D

Day 7/14, 6th September, 2023 – Wednesday

Alright! Like I said before, I tried doing that thing where people try to block out their time and then finish as much work as they can within that amount of time, which I guess is called time-blocking??? Or something of the sort?? Either way, that's what I tried to do today. I set reminders reminding me to switch tasks at a particular time and tried to accomplish as much as I could, as seen from my previous post, I'd added 7 tasks in total. Long story short, I had to prioritise and remove 5 of those 7 tasks. And hence, I discovered that time-blocking doesn't really work for me because once I begin a task, I commit to it for as long as I can bear it. Either way, it wasn't a completely unproductive day. I finished my biology notes!! Which was important, because I have my Bio UT on the 13th, which is next Wednesday.

Day 6/14, 5th September, 2023 – Tuesday

I cannot, for the life of me, remember what I did on Tuesday. I should probably start posting these on the same day, shouldn't I?

Trying to do the time-blocking thing today!!! Let's see how it goes.

Short Update:

So, my group members were the ones who'd wanted to change the animation of our bio coursework video, so they finished it and submitted it.

Secondly, my physics coursework lab report is now due on the 11th, since we had a holiday for teacher's day.

Day 5/14, 4th September, 2023 – Monday

Ok, so apparently I'm super bad with remembering to click pictures, but. yeah. Either way, today wasn't all that productive again because I had to go back to school. However, I figured out the first set of calculations I needed to do for my Chem Lab Report, so I was very very proud of myself for that! (Shout out to my friend who helped me with them <3).

Day 4/14, 3rd September, 2023 – Sunday

Ok, so I don't have a picture for today either, but I worked again!!! I worked on my Chem Lab Report a little bit, since the due date looms closer. Along with this, I did some physics, motion in a plane, from a book of mine. Got emotional over getting a problem wrong, but alas, that's the learning process (for me, at least).

Day 3/14, 2nd September, 2023 – Saturday

I did it!!!!! I worked!!!!!!!!! And I felt realllllyyyyyy good about it, lemme tell you that :D Essentially, the day started off slow again – especially since it was a Saturday, but it picked up towards the evening and I did at least three hours of maths practice!!! I studied logarithms from my textbook, since it's a topic I haven't understood for the past two years, all the way up until we did it this year in class (thank god we have physical classes, gosh). I studied them for at least 3 hours, so I'm quite proud of myself! (Sorry I don't have any pictures this time around, though).

Day 2/14, 1st September, 2023 – Friday

Today wasn't that great a day either, I worked a little on my Chemistry Lab Report and emailed my classmates the values my friends and I had gotten in the lab prior, but otherwise it was pretty slow and uninspired. I'm trying to nudge myself out of my bad habits by posting for this challenge (can you tell haha), so hopefully that begins happening soon.