AISG Seniors Have Made It To Their Final Week of IB Exams!

AISG’s Class of 2023 seniors are on their very last week of their official IB Exams, which the past two school years have been leading up to. IB Exams consist of the accumulation of units and topics this year’s seniors have been taught starting from their first day of junior year in which they began taking IB classes, and for most of them, their IB Diploma Program journey.

Due to the finality of exams, there has been an air of excitement and anxiety amongst the seniors, as this the last step of completing the IB and being done with high school but an important and intimidating opportunity to demonstrate the skills and knowledge the students have been working hard to learn.

The last week begins with French, Spanish, and Economics, and wraps up with Biology and Psychology. This is the most demanding exam week for many of the 2023 cohort’s students, and some students are lucky enough to have already finished each of their exams while others are taking their last couple early this week.

“Since I don’t have conditional university offers, the exams have been going better than expected,” said Lihn T., a senior at AISG who finishes her exams at the end of this last week. “Even still, it’s a pain to study every day and I’m more than excited to get them finished.”

Each exam takes place in the SP campus’s A-Building on the fourth floor, while students with special accommodations such as extra time have been taking their exams in Mr. Padden’s office. The IB enforces strict protocols during exams, with rules such as students only being allowed to bring clear water bottles with them into the exam room, and Standard Level students not being allowed to leave the exam room until the time set for the Higher-Level Students of the same subject has ended.

The main difference between these exams and the tests of the same format that have been administered to IB students by their teachers throughout their two years in the program is that the prompts have been selected by the IB, whereas previous tests have had questions written by teachers, which can sometimes be specifically catered to the works or individual topics students have been studying. The element of surprise and anticipation has never been more prevalent in a final exam than these ones, as students will receive questions and potential prompts across the range of topics that they have been exposed to for two years.

With many of the exams being nearly two hours, back-to-back papers, and consecutive essays that last over two hours and over three for those with extra time, there is no doubt that the past couple weeks have been brutal and tiring for the seniors. Although it has not been easy, they have remained resilient and continue to tackle each one day by day.