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Hey there!
My name is Nguyen Hoang Minh, and I am a 16-year-old IB student from Vietnam, a country famous for its cuisine, landmarks, and beautiful scenery. I was born in 2007 in Hanoi and grew up in a family of four, with my dad having a job at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This meant that our family often travelled overseas, usually for 3-year periods. This meant that I spent quite a significant portion of my life growing up in other countries. I lived in Jakarta, Indonesia, from 2008 to 2010, then in Perth, Australia, from 2016 to 2018, and now back in Jakarta since 2022. Moving from place to place like this has surprisingly turned out to be a central part of my life. It gave me glimpses into other worlds, countries, and possibilities for my future. It allowed me to experience different cultures, meet different people, and have a more open and fulfilling life in some aspects.
Expectations
It was in 2021 that I joined Gandhi Memorial Intercontinental School – Jakarta (I’ll call it GMIS because, bloody hell, that’s a horrendously long name). Previously, I spent a large part of my junior high life in Vietnam at a reputable school in the capital. I studied, got top-tier marks, and studied some more. I participated in several competitions, did well, and almost got in the Vietnamese national delegation for IMSO (International Mathematics and Science Olympiad).
I started the IBDP programme after a brief stint with IB MYP and IGCSE during the COVID-19 pandemic at GMIS. As such, I didn’t have an accurate representation of what learning offline at the school would actually be like. So with all the prestige and “clout” the diploma has, my nerves were high, expectations for education quality skyrocketing, and I anxiously waited to start my road on IBDP at GMIS.
What I didn’t expect was the sheer amount of just unimaginable and unexpected things that were to happen in GMIS.
The Reality of My Experiences
As I just mentioned, I expected IB to be some high-level, crazily demanding curriculum where students have to work their asses out to get high marks, and the teachers would consequently be demanding as well. But GMIS was very… average. The lessons were easy. It wasn’t even barely challenging; I could yawn and do the work with my eyes closed for most subjects. The workload ramped up gradually, and it did become rather difficult in the future, but way more bearable than I thought. Truthfully, all you need is self-discipline and putting in time and effort. Not all of it, obviously, but enough. It’s not as crazy as you might think.
One funny thing about GMIS is… it’s truthfully astounding that it’s up to international standards at all. My teachers are either really terrible and annoying or really amazing. There’s no in-between. My English professor is quite good. He teaches well, provides constructive criticism, and is generally relatively enjoyable to listen to. On the other side of the spectrum, we have my Computer Science teacher. I used to joke with my friends that he probably couldn’t teach half a proper lesson to save his life. The dude is the most incompetent teacher I have ever met in my entire life, and I am not exaggerating one bit. He doesn’t understand the subject’s core concepts, botches simple primary-school-level maths, steals resources online, and has 0 original work for the subject. Simply put, if you’re taught by someone like him, consider yourself a part of the world’s unluckiest people.
Going to school in IB might be stressful sometimes, or even disheartening, and it might leave you tired and soulless in extreme cases. But I find that something new or interesting is always happening. The IB life isn’t all studying but a relatively well-rounded experience. You meet new people, do different activities, explore new subjects, and more. It’s a rather dynamic experience, all things considered.
The system also vastly differs from what I experienced in Vietnam or Australia. The Australian curriculum focuses on subjects and having a healthy mix of indoor learning and outdoor activities. Excursions were frequent; once, we even went camping in some jungle in the Australian outback (I would not recommend it for casual visitors). Vietnam is all about studying. Study, study, study and study until your mental health depletes and your sanity evaporates into thin air. I vividly remember going home and eating dinner at 10p.m. after a whole day of learning, starting at 7a.m. Doing that multiple times a week as a 13-year-old, well, it wasn’t ideal. The environment is harsh and demanding for those striving to be at the top.
IB, on the contrary, is neither of these things. They do focus a lot on studies, and you won’t have many opportunities for excursions if not for CAS. But it’s not so exhausting that you cannot do without getting a relatively good score. It’s just about setting yourself a healthy learning habit and following it, something I myself struggle with a lot. Despite the system’s misgivings and notoriety for being challenging, it’s rather ingenious and relatively balanced for a senior high school curriculum. As you grow older, everything becomes more arduous, right? Naturally, the most worthwhile things are usually the hardest.
So what to gather from all this?
First and foremost, be confident enrolling in IB. If you know you have a good chance to do well in it, go for it! It’s pretty straightforward, really, with only a few differences from AP or other established international curriculums. Mostly, it comes down to you. You have to take control of your own education and succeed in IB.
Now, I don’t have many words of advice that are any different from what alums, current students and others have to offer. Still, I have an incredible resource that many people overlook: the r/IBO Discord server. This is not your average server. It contains many subject resources for almost every possible IB subject you could take. Better yet, the content is made by students or past alums, so it’s suitable and straightforward to follow. It could be the content boost you needed.
International Baccalaureate (r/IBO) Discord
The Prodat Blog is also home to blogs of students currently taking IB. We provide insights and tips for improving your marks, work style and habits, and success in IB. It is a fantastic resource, and we’re adding more content daily. Be sure to subscribe and check us out!
Best of luck!
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