Title: IB History: An Introspection
By: Panawee (Biew Biew) Sakulwannadee Section: Student Life
IB History: An Introspection
IB History is often considered one of the International Bachelorette’s most difficult courses, with an average 4.69 score out of 7. But is it really as difficult as everyone claims? I decided to interview 4 different IB History HL students, all in different stages of their history journey.
Interviewees:
Suchita (Sushi) Thepkanjana, a Y1 student currently studying at Sevenoaks School.
Kraipob (Pob) Waengsothorn and Paam Bidaya, Y2 students currently studying at Ruamrudee International School.
Avan Fata, a former IB History student at NIST, currently studying history at LSE.
Questions:
Firstly, why did you decide to join IB History?
Sushi: I always liked history, and in the beginning of high school, I took regular History and AP History with Mr. Jeff, and I really liked it; I discovered that there’s so much more to it than what they usually teach…and it really became one of my favorite subjects, and I knew by then that I was going to take IB History.
Pob: I joined IB History because 2 of my good friends were joining, and I was looking forward to learning more about contemporary history with Mr. Jeff, who was one of my favorite teachers.
Paam: I took (AP) history the year before, and I really enjoyed the course, and I also enjoyed learning with Mr. Jeff…and I was planning to do the IB Diploma, so one of my choices for my HLs was IB History.
Author’s note: Mr. Jeff Gepner is an IB and AP history teacher at Ruamrudee intl. School.
Avan: Well, firstly, I knew that History was my passion, it was a subject I was really interested in, and I had plans to continue pursuing it in tertiary education and beyond. So it was a very easy choice for me to take IB History…I knew that it would be a course that would not only help me explore my passion, but also help me in the future as well.
Why do you think IB History is considered one of the IB’s most difficult courses (average of 4)?
Paam: When I signed up for IB History, I did not know that it was one of the hardest courses, so looking back, I don’t think it was any more challenging than any other course…I would say it’s as equally demanding as Biology or Chemistry.
Avan: IB History is hard for 2 reasons: First, there is a misunderstanding as to what IB History actually is. Many people go into IB History thinking it’s a very easy course where you just have to memorize names, dates, events, and so on, but that’s very far from the truth. You’re going to be challenged to write persuasive essays in a very short amount of time, to make presentations about historical events, to explore history with a critical lens. The second reason is that it’s a lot of work: You will go through many many units of history, even at the SL level, and you have to keep on top of things, making sure you’re doing all the readings, the formative quizzes, the review for the exams. It’s a very initiative based subject. You have to be the person who starts studying, or else, come exam time, you’ll be scrambling to relearn what you forgot to study.
Sushi: I actually didn’t realize that it was one of the hardest courses. Back when I took AP world history, I assumed it was the same difficulty, as that course was also one of the hardest. I think it’s just because everything is so multicausal; there’s no right or wrong answer, it’s really all about your argument, how you analyze and synthesize sources, which I think many people are going to find difficult about it.
(To Pob, Paam, and Sushi) Because you’ve taken AP World History before, how would you compare the courses in terms of difficulty?
Pob: An analogy I could make is that AP history is quick and fast, while IB history is low and slow. Even though (IB History) covers a shorter period of history, it’s very much more in depth. AP history, because it covers so much without going into it as much, it could be a lot more forgiving and approachable to students not as into history. So it’s a bit easier in a way.
Sushi: I think that AP world history has a bigger variety of things. It doesn’t dive very deep because when you’re learning about this wide selection of things, then you don’t really have enough time to go deep into it. For IB history, I think there’s a lot of detail and it goes very deep. For example, right now I’m studying about Italian reunification and there’s a lot that we need to do.
Author’s note: RIS is one of the few int. schools in Bangkok that offer both AP and IB courses.
How much do you prioritize IB history among your other AP and IB classes?
Paam: I have 3 HL courses, and I would prioritize them based on how much homework I have, which IB History rarely has. Therefore, I don’t spend as much time on history than, say, biology or chemistry or math. Looking back, I really should spend more time reviewing…
Avan: I’m very lucky in that my understanding of history was at a more advanced stage than my peers, so I didn’t have to study as hard or really worry about it as much. That said, I’d say that it was still pretty important, whenever I had any history work, I would do that work first as it was the easiest for me and I could work on it at another time. But if I had classwork that was more difficult, like chemistry or math, then I would do that work first.
Sushi: I know there’s going to be a lot of work. But I should probably take it one at a time, do my history work as soon as it’s out. As for TOK and EE, because it’s a long assignment, I can just create a timetable to manage that.
What advice would you give to students who are either struggling with or are planning to take this course?
Pob: I would say they would need to come in during their free blocks, so that they can discuss with their teacher any leaks that they have in their understanding of the concepts.
Paam: It’s very important that you still have an understanding of the previous concepts, because they all tie in together…you can’t just learn one concept and forget about the rest, especially when there are assessments that cover years worth of content.
Avan: Don’t feel ashamed if you get bad grades at first. Just take the initiative, stay on top of it, take as much from it as you can, and have fun learning history.
Finally, how would you describe IB History to someone who’s never had it before in three words?
Pob: Tedious, Enjoyable, Unenjoyable.
(When told he was contradicting himself)
Pob: Well that’s the point!
Paam: In-depth, Subjective, and Unforgiving.
Avan: Challenging, Fun, Surprising.
Sushi: Detailed, Complexity, and Hard-work.
— Writer Panawee Sakulwannadee (Biew Biew) can be reached at psakulwannadee@gmail.com. Follow her on instagram (biew_2808).
