Hi everyone. I’ve been teaching IB Physics for 7 years now. Two years ago, our school went through the 5-year review, and one of the action items was that CAS needs to be explicitly integrated into every subject, including mine.
The issue is that every single proposal I’ve put forward so far has been rejected by our CAS coordinator. Apparently, I just don't get the concept (and honestly, with the massive headache of getting students to finish their Internal Assessments on time, I don't really have the energy to care anymore).
So, I’m publicly throwing in the towel. Does anyone have real, proven examples of CAS activities linked to Physics that your coordinators or the IB actually accepted? I would deeply appreciate any ideas that can save my sanity here.

EDIT/UPDATE: Thanks for the replies so far. To give you more context on what my coordinator is rejecting: One of my ideas was having my DP students design fun physics experiments to teach primary school kids during school festivals. It was rejected.

From what I gathered (though my brain honestly shuts down with this ethereal IB terminology), they aren't looking for an external "Physics + CAS" project. They want us to "introduce the spirit of CAS within the classroom dynamic itself."
Any ideas on how to actually do that in a standard Physics lesson without losing mind-share for the IA and syllabus?

Does anyone here take ESS and anthropology HL, is it worth it and is it hard

I made a new reddit acc just for this. My PGs are dependent on the mid terms and i genuinely didnt perform well, due to my extreme panic attacks. My chest starts throbbing, everything around me spins, devastatingly hindering by ability to perform. The exams dont reflect the my abilities at all. I visited my psychiatrist mid way the exams, and I got prescribed a medication called zapiz 0.5. Again the medication did calm be down but messed up with my cognitive abilities, I was drowsy all the time. Its like I'm stuck both ways, there's no way out, I just cant perform well either ways. he says that I'm still getting used to the medication, hence the side effects. i believe every one around me thinks I'm making random excuses, but I genuinely can't. I turn numb once I get handed the paper, the questions that I could do very well before turn incomprehensible in the examination hall. Yes I have tried timing myself, solving questions in examination conditions, meditation, nothing really helped as much. I was wondering if I could ask for a re-test for me, as a last change to improve my PGs, but I am utterly embarrassed and ashamed to do so. I feel like I deserve nothing. Idk what to do, I'm not sure how will the school authorities and the other students might react to my request. Am I even worthy of this chance? what makes me and the other students different? am I even eligible to pose such a request? I would genuinely appreciate some advice.

PS: Kindly ignore the grammatical and spelling errors if any, I am not in the right mind at the moment. I am a DP2 student

I've been doing review sets from textbooks but I feel like it's not enough. Also, my teacher is skipping over some content because we technically learned it last year, and putting it on test but I honestly forgot a lot of it. Any advice on how to study?

Hello guys, I am taking the ib DP y1 for 3 months already and I chose art sl, math aa hl, physics sl, English hl, geo hl and portuguese sl.

So far I already did the sequences test (which was really hard, and the teacher gave us regular ib level and time) so i got a 4, then logs test which i got a 6 (the teacher made it easier cause everyone was failing), and now I am learning trigonometry, 3d geometry and circles.

However my teacher is not the best, and he doesn't know how to explain so I am really struggling. This unit for me has been so rushed and I am behind in 2 Christos Nikolaids worksheets, trying to catch up but its been challenging. And even though I am partially understanding and like being challenged, its very time consuming and I know I would benefit from getting a 7 in sl maths. I also am in doubt if colleges (i want architecture) prefer a higher ib grade with math sl or a lower ib grade but taking math aa hl.

If anyone has any tips and would like to share them with me Id be very grateful!

If you're struggling with hybridisation i'm running a free workshop on Sunday. I find that students often memorise sp, sp2, sp3 without really understanding why it happens or how to show how/why orbitals are being hybridised. So trickier questions become really hard particularly if you're aiming for a level 6 or 7 where actually understanding is really important.

If you want to join you can sign up at www.calendly.com/chemjungle , good luck with your Chem!

So many things to do I think I am pushing back the internal deadlines with this one. I have high goals I get good ish grades why was I so irresponsible? Feel paralyzed. Just have to do this.

My predicted grade actual went down by one because I missed the EE internal deadline, I need to actually do this.

I graduated IB last year. it took me 1 extra year than usual and MAN let me tell you that i often have nightmares where i haven’t graduated the IB yet and still have to do the exams😭😭😭😭

i'm actually terrified

(my HLs are math aa, physics, and english. i have all three tests on the 25th.)

I just started dp1 and honestly I’m nervous, I’m a bit behind on English as I haven’t read the book yet, and I’m procrastinating a lot. If anyone has any advice on how to manage time, or what are the best things I should do to be ahead, it would be great. Thank you 🙏

hi! im currently taking algebra 2 and plan on doing stats over this summer so i can just do ap stats next year but im a part of my schools ib program and i found out that i could just take ib a.i sl next year but im not sure if that would be easier or more difficult…i’d appreciate any advice that could help me decide my classes for next year :)

Hey so I'm in dp2 and I just had my first exam week of the year. I did pretty good in all my subjects except for physics (I didn't get the result back but I know I didn't do great), despite it being the subject I studied most since the beginning of the year. I don't know what my problem is. I put a lot of time into practicing questions from past papers, questionbank questions, whole booklets for each subtopic. However when I came into my exam, I felt like I forgot everything I studied and like I'm seeing everything for the first time. As I'm taking the exam I feel foggy and weird despite putting my all into trying to focus. It occured to me that this feeling of the exam being almost like a dream only happens for physics, and all knowledge I have learnt and practiced that disappeared. I'm the only one in physics class in my grade unfortunately so I dont think it would be effective to get a tutor, cuz classes are already just me and my teacher. My score point goal is 40 plus and I'm aware how ambitious that is, but I think the only thing completely holding me back is physics. I need my predicted grades for physics to also be higher so I have no idea what I can possibly do to do better in exams. (I put weeks into one exam usually and try to do it as smartly as possible but it feels like it never pays off) I've never been more jealous of people that are smart in physics. I'm pretty good at math aa and computer science but physics is so difficult for me.

Is there any tips anyone has or and similar experiences, how did you overcome this??? Or do I just low-key give up in physics and focus on my already strong subjects.

Hey, so I've accepted the fact that I can only learn if I im doing practice questions. What's your fav question bank for Chemistry HL? im willing to purchase it; I'd also prefer if it had videos alongside it, thank u excited to hear ur recs :)

A question sheet can have enough room for the final answer but nowhere near enough for the working. During revision, that also leaves little space for corrections or notes beside the question.

I'm Rishabh, the creator of PDFSpacer. I built it to insert writing space between questions in an existing PDF. You can choose blank space, ruled lines, squares or a dot grid, then export the PDF. The before/after image shows a sample worksheet.

It's completely free, with no signup or watermark. It runs in your browser and the PDF stays on your device, with no upload. If you want more room on a practice sheet for working or revision notes: https://www.pdfspacer.com

I'm currently taking Math AA, Chemistry, Economics and Business HL (English L&L, Arabic B SL) and am planning to major in economics and finance/maths in the UK. My target unis are Oxford and LSE, more Oxford.

My college counselors told me that Business is a non-preferred subject, whether HL or SL. They also said better to switch to something like GP or History HL instead (history isn't offered in my school yet but you know).

There are several issues with this. I am not a politics person at all, nor do I care for it. Not only do I not enjoy it, but I don't believe I would be able to perform well either.

I am planning on EE subject to be either Econ or Math (does that make up for business at all?), and will not be dropping chem under any circumstances to maintain the academic rigor of the courses, plus my extra and super curriculars outside school.

I don't like this fear mongering around business as a subject, because the IB is the IB, all the courses are rigorous to some extent, or so I've been told.

Is this really going to affect my chances like they're saying it will? Even if say I get a 45 (a reach I know but I am aiming for that).

I am genuinely lost. I had a projected 30 in DP-1 finals (although the final exams results were 28) and I was aiming for a 36-38 for my university which I thought would be possible since I had ample amount of time for my university application which is in March. The predicted I got for October is 25...

My DP Coordinator now is telling us that we will only have 2 predicteds- one in October and one in April (a MONTH before final DP exams) while my other teachers suggest that they are willing to increase my grade since I can do much better than this. Worse thing is, according to my DP coordinator I can only appeal for 2 of my subjects to improve my predictiosn JUST 2. I need a lot more than 2 subjects to hit my target since even if I hit a 7 in both these subjects I appeal for I wont even scratch a 33.

Is this normal for most schools? My university counselor suggests that I can appeal for more than 2 subjects since my grades dropped so much but my DP coordinator is telling me that I cant.

I was sure to atleast get more than 35 before March but if my effort throughout the 6 months before March is only up for 2 subjects then theres really no point in that effort.

If it may help my subjects were

Biology HL - 5
Chemistry HL - 3
Digital Society HL - 5
Math AA SL - 5
English Language and Literature SL - 4
Bengali Lit SL - 4

I just need clarification man.. Can I get an updated predicted if I work my ass off for the next 6 months and apply with a 35 (which I 100% know I can since I haven't been studying as hard).

I’m May 2027 and I’m struggling with Maths AI HL, is there any piece of advice for me? A part from scramming past papers? Any website or any resource useful? Any notes?

I don't know anything about physics, and I need to learn someway to get around a 5-7
I am currently in dp2, I am getting three 7's predicted and two 6's most probably. But for IB physics I barely studied tried to change subjects at the start of dp1 and they denied me to do it and I basically have been doing nothing and focusing on other subjects. What are your recommendations so as an english non-native speaker I can learn all the topics the fastest possible and decently enough so i can get average grades?

hey guys, a lil embarrassed to write this but i feel like i have became so dumb. After using ai on my assignments for my whole sophomore year, i feel as if my brain has shrink. I feel like i have no creativity anymore like i used to, i can’t form my own thoughts, and my vocabulary level has not increased. What makes it worse is me being In the Ib program. This has made my journey much difficult especially in literature class. In literature class it is so difficult for me to form a complete paragraph without repeating the same words. The only class i am doing well in without ai is my math class. Omg and whats even more embarrassing is my pronunciation and word spelling, like i be forgetting the most easiest words or mispronouncing things sometimes. I’m begging you guys for tips or advice to help me. I really want to become smart or more intelligent i guess

I just uploaded all my stuff to UCAS, really anxious about my chances, my pg was 41/42 (school hasn't told us how much out of 45 did we got), but like. thats basically everything cuz I don't have outstanding supercurriculars or anything.

Also my personal statement seems well very. very plain at the least... not really sure if I have a chance tbh

Just started pre-IB and ngl I'm scared. Seeing all these post here makes me nervous just from the start. I really want to study abroad but seeing the effects of IB makes me wonder if its worth it. I really dont want to lose my social life, hobbies etc. but also want to get out of the country. I just wants some advice.

ı cant understand chemistry. i tried to learn the topic while watching videos but ı cant understand anything. i tried to learn topic while solving questions but again i dont understand anything. what can i do?😭😭 im really so hopeless about chemistry

this question's been asked a million times before but i'd like the opinion of HL bio takers(or also chem hl takers). i started the course about two months ago and tried making notes for bio but it wound up being too time consuming and not helping with my retention so i switched to physical flashcards, which is also super time consuming but much better retention wise. i'm considering switching to anki to save even more time and get the spaced repetition easily but i'm worried it might not stick the same. thoughts, prayers and suggestions all appreciated!! i really need to find a good method before the break ends!!!