Juniors’ Kick-Off to College: Transitioning into DP Year 2

As many seniors wrap up their final IB exams, juniors are slowly starting to prepare themselves for their final year in high school. These preparations include, but are not limited to, university researching, drafting their personal statements, and a ton of IB work. This article will provide insight into how juniors are doing with their transitioning into senior year.

According to Sabrina C., current junior, they have already started their university researching process. They were also told by the counselors to start brainstorming ideas for college essays and personal statements, so they can avoid last-minute essay drafting next year. They are also starting to ask teachers for letters of recommendation, which is a crucial feature of one’s application portfolio.

Students have also started working on their Internal Assessments (IA) in their classes. Students taking the Biology, Economics, Chemistry, and Computer Science courses have already begun their IA process as it includes lots of background research and for some of them, conducting experiments, which take up a large portion of time. Students in the English A Language and Literature Higher Level (HL) course have started their HL Essays, which is an external assessment graded by the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO).

Though it may seem onerous for students to be assigned so many tasks towards the end of the year, especially with final exams coming up in June, it is generally advised for students to start their tasks in DP Year 1 instead of their second year.

Last year, because of the pandemic, most classes had to start their IA process later in the first semester of senior year. This led to late submissions due to clashes with other tasks such as university application deadlines and interviews.

According to Gaelle P., she, alongside many of her friends, will be working on their Extended Essays (EE) over the summer. She wishes to “get it out of the way” and “not worry about it next fall.”

Similar to Gaelle P., Jami R. plans to wrap up the first draft of her EE over the summer so she can put more focus and emphasis on her academics in her senior year.

However, unlike many students who are preparing themselves for their senior year, there are also a few laid-back juniors. Jacky L. claims he is not a “preparing type of person” and feels rather confident in getting tasks completed in time.

While this definitely is a stressful time period for many juniors, as a graduating student of the Class of 2021, I have faith that they will be able to overcome their obstacles in reaching success. Wishing the best of luck to the juniors!