IB Remarking

Exams: done.
IB: completed.
Month before results: over.

So what did I get? I did Geography, Biology and Chemistry, at higher levels, and Maths Studies, English and German at standard.

7, 6, 5 in Highers (respectively) and 7, 6, 5 in my standard subjects, respectively. With a B for my EE, and a
C for my ToK grade. For anyone who doesn't know how the IB system works, a B and a C combines to give you a 'bonus' point grade, or Core grade as the IB like to call it. there is a beautiful table telling you all the combinations and what you get from each of them, but put it simply, i got only 1 of a possible 3 bonus points with my combination. This, for all those budding mathematicians, gave me 37 points - a fine grade at IB.

Initially, I was over the moon about these results. I thought I had screwed up my Biology exam, as I missed out a question worth 19 marks. After that exam, I thoughtIi was going to cry. I sat on the bus doing the calculations and seeing what I'd need to get in order to reach a 5 (then I was hoping for a 6 in chemistry). So I was well and truly blessed by my results!

But there was a catch.

UCL and KCL, two very reputable universities, were on my list as firm and insurance options. KCL would let me in, as they only wanted a 6,6,5 with 36 points total, but UCL were a little tricky. UCL wanted a total points score of 38, with no less than a 5 in my highers, which should total 18. This gave me two options: 6,6,6, or 7,6,5. 

I had 37. And I wasn't going to let my one point get in the way of trying to get to UCL.

I scanned over my results breakdown, and realised that I was 1 points of the next grade boundary with regards to my Extended essay, and 2 with my ToK. An increase in any of them would mean that I get another bonus point, and get 38, and ultimately: UCL.

So, I got both remarked. This classed as a Category 1 remark. Category 2 is for something else and 3 I believe is a whole class remark. A silly idea now I look back, but also a good idea too. Why was it silly? Because the EE took about 3 weeks to be remarked, the ToK took 3 days.

My ToK went from a c to a b, giving me the extra point that I needed. But this is where the problem arose. I now didn't know when I was going to get my EE result back, and with a Category 1 request, your mark CAN go down. So, I was one mark from the next boundary up, and 7 from the one below. To most sane people, this is a no brainer - the chances of the result having decreased is very small. But regardless I was worried!

But, everything turned out fine in the end. My advice? Get whatever you can remarked. You only want to do your IB once, and make it a good one!

As for me: I'm off to UCL! I eventually got my EE remarked up, giving me 39 points, equivalent to about 4 A*'s at A-level!

So you'll hear much more from this blog about UCL in the near future.

:)

Dualism in Washington DC

This was originally an essay I had to write, but I believe it is the most researched essay I have produced, and matches the genre of the blog (a view of the world)! So, here goes:

(Post publishing note: Dualism is where there are major differences in observable aspects of localities in close proximity)
(Post-post publishing note: do not copy and paste this work or use this work without permission, this work is copyright to daranth (the owner of this blog) and may only be used as and in reference (when one does not have written permission to copy parts of this blog without referencing). Pictures are all edited and, if used, must be referenced to this post - base images either have recognition on them, or under them as captions)

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Dualism in Washington D.C.

There are 2 main assumptions that come with dualism in the Washington metropolitan area[1]: the first being that people believe that the inner-city has the largest percentage of people in poverty (according to urban landuse models, such as the Burgess or Hoyt models); although the percentage of the total population that is poor is 4 times higher than in the surrounding suburbs, the suburbs collectively had 61% of the area’s people in poverty, and of those, 53.8% of the people in poverty lived outside the beltway; thus the poverty is mostly concentrated in the suburbs, although there is a higher concentration of people in poverty in the D.C. area. The second assumption is that poverty is getting worse in the area; however the number of people in poverty has actually fallen by 10,000 between the years of 1980 and 1990.

One view of the world

As my Blog's title suggests, I will attempt to produce a view of the world - even if it is my view.

I like to label myself as a Geographer: mostly because I love the completeness and how easy it is to understand the subject and to relate to it - and because I want to do the subject at Uni!

But enough of that!

Aeroplanes are beautiful. They're functional. They do their job

But they rarely look like this!

The IB: the things they didn't tell you

Having just finished the IB (well, almost - Ich wird meine Deutschprüfung am Mittwoch haben), I have decided to speak about the things in the IB that most people will not advertise to you.

The International Baccalaureate (IB) is a global version of A-levels, or SATs, etc, and... actually, that's a lie already. I'll start again!

The International Baccalaureate (IB) is a global education system that ranges from PYP (Primary Years Programme which teaches students from 3-12 years old), MYP (Middle Years Programme which teaches students from 11-16 years old) and finally DP (Diploma Programme. 16-19). I only had the opportunity to undertake the DP version of the IB which took up my 2 years of 6th form (High School). The DP is the global version of A-levels, or equivalent High School educational programmes.  Now we're back to what I was wanting to say.

Taking IB was the best decision of my life. 

Period.