#4: Life as an IB student (Part 1)

Preface: This was supposed to be a one huge post, but I don't have the will power to write it all at once, so I will probably divide it into two parts or more

9 Mar 2026

Hello everyone,  

A new pfp because I started watching Beastars and Legoshi is literally me /hj  

Anyway, I am an IB student.  

What is IB? It is very difficult to describe, to me it's just a two-year-long program which theoretically is "worth more" than a standard Polish High School "Matura" (exams taken at the end of High School in order to get to uni). It is supposed to be also a place to train your critical thinking, time management or independent research, essentially teaching you how to learn instead of what to learn. Sounds great, right? 

Well, for the most part... it should be, at least?  I was - still am for two months - a student of the IB Diploma Program, to be precise. This means that after completing the program and writing all my exams I will be legible to receive a diploma which should theoretically get me to better unis or look cooler on a resume. 

However, IB is a literal ton of work. It is not a program for everyone, in hindsight it probably was not for me. Mentally, I don't know if I have ever been this tired in my life during those two years. Not only do you have to pass ALL of your subjects (with at least 2 exams from each subject), you have to write a "mini-essay" on 4 of your subjects, you also need to complete an EXTENDED essay, and you also need to do TOK and CAS. 

I know this might sound like a lot, I promise I'll try to explain it.  

In the year before I got to start my diploma program (Polish High Schools last 4 years, IBDP lasts 2 - my first two years were "normal", so to say), I was tasked with choosing my subjects. In IBDP, schools can choose to offer subjects which are split into six groups, and we all needed to choose six subjects.  

GROUP 1: Studies in Language in Literature: Polish A HL 

This subject (from what I understand, at least) focuses on literature studies in your native language, for me Polish. It is very interesting from my point of view, as in a standard Polish curriculum we have a set of book standardised by the Ministry of Education and it is something that has not changed for decades - my grandparents born in the 50s read pretty much the same books as I read in the 1st and 2nd grade of High School. However, in the context of IB, those books differed greatly. Not only are there gone the classics of Polish national heroes like Mickiewicz, Słowacki or Sienkiewicz, instead there are books from over the world, ranging from simple Polish literature to plays by Yukio Mishima (on whom I actually wrote an essay about) 

The way we analyze the books is also rather interesting. We not only focus on characters or plot, but also on the stylistic devices the author used. That I say is rather self-explanatory, but it requires a lot of memorization on your part, cuz you need to know all of them.  

Talking about essays, the examination in the first group is rather straightforward. Paper 1 (the first part of the "official" written examinations) is based on texts you receive at the day of the exam and cannot prepare for it (aside from learning all of the stylistic figures authors use in books or poems). Paper 2 is based on the books you did in class with your teacher, where you compare them against a topic. Book 1 shows it that way, Book 2 shows it that way, you get the point. There is also an oral examination similar to Paper 2, aside from not actually comparing the books - you just showcase a so-called "global issue" in two of the books you chose. There is also a so-called "HL Essay" for all the HL (Higher Level) students, where you just simply write an essay about a book you did in your class.  

While the idea of the subject itself is very nice and overall I must say I quite enjoyed it, I had a lot of trouble with the writing examinations. They are very weird at first and it is difficult to "switch" to the IB system, but overall it is not that bad I suppose. Mostly the books are amazing. I wish I could recommend some, but I'm afraid most of the best ones don't have English translations. I do enjoy it tho. 

GROUP 2: Language Acquisition: English B HL

That is rather simple to explain - we learn English. While it is mostly focused on writing texts (the Paper 1 focuses on text types, from which you choose one), there are also some interesting moments aside from that. 

As an HL group, we had two set books. 

"Animal Farm" I knew from way back, and as it says in my bio, I love George Orwell, so I love the book

"The Catcher in the Rye" was a very interesting experience, and I still have very warm feelings towards the book. While most of the people from my class have been very critical of it, I personally like the book, it was a very good coming-of-age novel.

Moreover, the topics discussed in class were also very varied. We discussed climate change, nanorobots, DNA modification on humans, GM foods, really anything.

When it comes to examination, there really again is nothing more to it in comparison to a standard English exam session. Reading, listening, writing, oral exam. Not much to it.

English is rather okay, nothing more to say about that, typical "learning English as a second language" experience, just more pro.

GROUP 3: Individuals and societies: History HL

History is an interesting case. There are a few topics which can be covered, but each school there is only 3 chosen for SL and 2 more for HL. In my case, the topics mostly center around the post-WW1 era, as this is the most relevant one in our (Polish) history. 

This would be interesting, if it wasn't for our teacher... long story short, they are rather incompetent and should not be chosen as an IB teacher, as that job is rather more demanding than a "normal" history teacher. Their constant use of ChatGPT to ask about literally anything related to our work is rather showing.

The topics covered are also rather wide, as it is not only European history, as we also touch some Japanese and Chinese, again after the WW1 period, and even European history is explained in big detail.

The examinations are focused on essay writing mostly, and idk what more can I say about that. In total, my history finals require me to write 5 essays. Yeesh

That's all for now, I will write a bit more about my experience in next posts. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. If you are a fellow IB student and need some general advice or are planning to go to IB, feel free to DM

For now, see you in the next one