IB Orientation: Textbooks and Timetables

I know, I promised to write this yesterday. Sorry! 

Been a bit busy. :/

Orientation just ended yesterday. The 2-days thing was quite interesting but maybe that's because I'm itching to get things started. Things have been so stale and stationary too long that I need to get moving again (yes even if it means back to panda eyes and sleepless nights) to feel even remotely alive. Or maybe it's only me who had been a super lazy bum for seven months. That's what seven months of not doing much can do to you: almost pleading for a busy life again.

(I assure you, I'll regret having said this later, just give me 2 weeks)

Back to the orientation. Last week was just us about thirteen Bursary students, moving around in groups of eights usually. We had grown quite close because we were always together searching for lunch and dinner, as well as going places and hanging out at the college. On the first day of orientation, I had quite a shock. The number of us more than doubled. I counted and there are 33 of IB juniors. Omg. I expected about max 25. Suddenly there are too many names to remember, too many numbers to exchange, too many hands to shake and too many faces to look at. It was overwhelming even though back in high school we had around 40 students in a class.

Maybe it's just the beginning and I won't feel so overwhelmed later when I've had the chance to remember who's who properly. If you think that's quite a lot (which in IB terms, it already is since there are only 20 something IB seniors), consider A-Levels. There are 60 IB students and 600 A-Level students at TCSH. So..yeah. That's ovewhelming. 100 something students in SAM. If you meet a student there, chances are less than 10% he would be an IB guy and more than 75% he would be an A-Levels guy. >.<

We had the normal introductions of what IB is all about, the textbook lists, the EE, the CAS, (you'll see me yapping about all these and know more than you probably should about IB [and how hard it's gonna be] in the coming two years) and the timetables. Speaking of timetables and textbooks, this brings me back to my highlights of this post. You won't believe them.

Expensive textbooks: Because textbooks are not covered under the MOE bursary this year, all of us scrambled to buy second-hand books from the graduated seniors. Especially us under the Bursary. Because most of us only enrolled into the IB because of the bursary. Translation: We're not walking ATM machines. Private students probably don't need to think twice about buying new books (hey, they can afford RM100k for IB tuition fees alone right), but we seriously do. And the problem starts here.

You see, IB syllabuses get revised every few years. I don't know if this is to avoid grade inflation or something, but what affects us is that textbooks are revised and changed every few years. So that means there are certain subjects that we can't get from the graduates even if we do successfully find some. (The affected subs for this year are TOK and Maths (options). And maths is like the most expensive textbook ever. A HL one costs RM286.50. Not joking)

Besides that, they change some of the English literature texts, French books and publishers of certain textbooks every year, leading to graduates not having lots of the books that we need. And therefore, we have to buy them. I'm also taking Psychology, which is a new subject offered just this year. So again, I have to buy a new book because no graduates, not even current seniors have the books.

Did I mentioned everything that I need to buy new already? I'm trying to also find old books for other subjects because I heard that the old ones are as good as new and they are at half price (think RM100 instead of 200). I love new books but the cost just isn't worth it. :/

There are less graduates than juniors (numbers increasing yearly) so yeah, there's even competition for books.

Ridiculous prices. Don't even know why they are so shit expensive when they're as thick as SPM reference books which cost a fraction of the price (and I thought they were expensive!). One theory is that they're imported and very rare (you see A-Levels books everywhere, but not IB ones).

Anyway who ask me to take IB. I have to pay the price, no pun intended. At the end of the day my mom is like “oh well, don't worry about it, just get whatever second-hand books you can find and buy the rest of them new.” I so love her. ;) She has been telling me to look for old ones first, but when things are out of our control (like the syllabus change), she is prepared to cash out on the necessary books, no argument/pleading required or a flat refusal to get them new at all.

If I buy everything new, my books will total up to like over RM1200. Plus graphic calculator RM450. You do the math. Some of my friends had even more expensive textbooks, totalling up to over RM1800 (all new). I already have one of the cheapest subject combos actually.

Trying to save some money, but unfortunately not much. :/ Only maybe RM300 maybe?

Sighs. I promise I'll repay parents back by scoring flying colours. You know what, maybe all the money they're spending on me will actually propel me to study harder.

Ok enough said about that. About the excruciating timetables. 

This is all my fault now. No blaming. Actually the IB coordinator should blame me. LOL. 

In actual fact, we are not supposed to take Economics and Psychology together. I don't know why, maybe they are seen as subjects almost parallel to each other (like Biology and Physics), and also restricting will make the timetables easier to plan for the coordinator actually.

You have no idea how difficult it is to plan timetables for IB. Everyone is free to choose combinations, which means that if you want to take something totally and extremely random (like me), you can. No problem. But planning timetables for everyone is so hard because we all have different combos and this period might fit for this person but not the others, but that period clashes with another subject, and so on. 

Why is my timetable excruciating? Because taking both psychology and economics causes me to have SIX IN A ROW of classes on Wednesday. That's six hours straight without a break. ://///

This is how it goes > Mathematics, Psychology, Economics, Biology, Biology, French.

Those who took one of Psych/Econs have a break in the one that they didn't take. Since I take both, I have no break.

My classes run from 930am straight to 325pm. Lunch? Probably have to eat in class, although I don't think I will. Maybe I'll bring some energy drink or something.

*cries* haha. Oh well. This is called sacrifice. :/

If I want to study both, I can't have a break on Wed. 

Some of my friends have it worse probably. 3 days of 5 straight classes? That's bad. She made a switch at the last minute though. Those who didn't probably have more balanced timetables, because I'm sure the coordinator did look through everyone's personal timetables. 

Mine can't be helped. There is already no way. Because of me (alone I think!) they cannot hold econs and psych classes at the same time, thus making the planning harder. And since they already allow me to take both Psych and Econs (I don't know what to do if they don't allow! I'm taking both at HL you know!! That's how important both of them are.), I really truly can't ask for more. :)

And if you let me switch right now, I won't. I'm sticking to my choices because they are really that important to me. I love the psychology syllabus so far, and economics is like a really strong subject that would I would benefit a lot from, esp if I'm gonna study law later. So yeah. No changing. Not even for lunch. 

The only thing I can pray is that when the deadline for the intake closes (which is at the end of July), they'll look at the timetables again and see if they can combine some more subjects and make life easier for everyone. (esp me!) ;)

Okay that's all for now!

Love,