Struggling with writing CAS reflections?

We can't deny the fact that writing CAS reflections are one of the pesky tasks and often students struggle with where and how to start writing their CAS reflections. Yet, it is quite important to know how to nicely present your thoughts and writings through CAS reflections. 

This article will be all about writing a good CAS reflection for your IBDP.

Plan your writing

Normally we recommend most of our students to pre-plan their reflections before finally jotting them down on a piece of paper. For instance, just like you plan to complete a class assignment. A pre-planned work is more useful in presentation and has a higher chance of scoring.

Here are some approaches on how to pre-plan your reflections before final writing:

• What is the purpose of the activity?
• Why did you pick this particular activity?
• What practices have you made for this activity? (e.g duration, the material used, and skills required for the activity)
• What challenges do you encounter?
• How did you confront these challenges?
• What have you gained from these challenges?

A good reflection is between the word counts of 150-200 as long as it has a definition, the quality of the writing concerns more than quantity.

Post-writing planning 

After writing your reflections, you should be prepared for some of the questions you might get asked straight after starting school; therefore you should be ready for it.

Below are some of the sample questions that you may get asked!

• Have you reached your goals?
• What difficulties did you face and how did you meet these problems? You can even share examples of your experiences.
• Have you met the IB learner outcomes?
• What impact did this experience/activity have on you?
• Do you feel any transformations in yourself after that?
• What went well during all this experience?
• What were your expectations?
• What were your feelings during this whole experience?
• What could you have done better?
• What would you like to switch if you are given a chance?

It is better to ask yourself questions like this and self-reflect on yourself to better present your answers in front of your tutor.

Also, there is no adequate way to summarize your writing than to reflect on yourself through questions.

Note: CAS is one of the major parts of your IB assessment although it is not formally evaluated you still have to pass through your CAS reflections in order to get your IB diploma.