How to take advantage of the Mocks to ace your IBDP

Unfortunately, it's that time of year again, when target grades and IB mock examinations start to become much more important. We'll go over our best advice for being in the appropriate frame of mind to ace those examinations today.

Work backwards

Of course, understanding which mocks you have when is the first step; ideally, your teachers have informed you of this. Add them right now to your calendar or planner. The next step is to include revision time slots.

You can put your ability to prioritize into action. Work backwards from the most recent exam to the present day. For the subjects you are doing better in, schedule fewer sessions, and vice versa. Mocks are crucial, but they're not everything, so you can afford to rewrite in this way. The amount of sessions will also depend on the exam's subject matter; if unsure, contact your classmates or teacher for a list of the pertinent subjects.

After this planning is completed, all that remains is to follow your strategy as closely as possible. If you occasionally need to reschedule or skip a session, don't be hard on yourself. It's crucial to avoid being overly rigorous in your preparation, particularly for mocks. After all, you're already very busy, don't you think?

Pace yourself

It's important to pace yourself and take enough breaks, like with other things in life. The Pomodoro technique might appeal to you: In order to study as long as possible while still being successful, it is a good idea to treat oneself to some of the all-too-rare dopamine in between cycles.

Keep it dynamic

Don't limit yourself to one subject during your study sessions if you have several on the same day. If you plan to spend 4 hours reviewing math this week, spread it out into 3 or 4 different study sessions to keep it interesting. This prevents you from being bored or complacent, which would prevent you from effectively assimilation the information.

Manage yourself

Sadly, there is no one-size-fits-all method for determining how much editing you should undertake, so it's crucial to pay attention to your intuition. In the weeks leading up to examinations, prioritize getting enough sleep, and stay away from the dreaded all-nighter. If you do, it's possible that your performance on the exam the following day, as well as the quantity of information you can recall, will be significantly affected.

Do not forget: It is just a MOCK Test!

These are merely mocks, at the end of the day. Do your best and exert as much effort as you can, but don't worry if you can't spend as much time revising as your classmates. There is always time to get better thereafter.

Consider the IB mock exams as a chance to practice taking tests without as much pressure. It helps to think of them as a sort of "dress rehearsal" for the actual thing, analogous to final exams. But always remember that they are actually simply a practice to see where you are at the moment.

Therefore, put yourself first, try not to be too hard on yourself if things don't go exactly as you planned, and keep in mind that there is still plenty of time for things to turn around.