In my English class, we have been talking a lot about research. And let me tell you, this takes me back. In my high school, I participated in a program called International Baccalaureate. This program consisted of taking six IB classes (3 higher level and 3 lower level) that all lasted for 2 years. Within each of these classes, I would have internal assessments, presentations and papers all cumulating to the tests at the end of my senior year.
This program was hard. Just look up “IB memes” on google and pages and pages will come up.
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The worst part about IB was the extended essay. Let me set the scene.
The extended essay is a research paper that an IB diploma candidate must complete in order to get her diploma. A grueling 4,000 word paper in a subject of the candidate’s choosing. While all of the advisors encouraged my class to start this essay at the end of my junior year (it’s due in March in the end of my senior year), let’s be honest, no one did.
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So, its second semester senior year, I had already turned in all of my applications, heard back from a few schools, and I have to write a 4,000 word paper on the Cold War.
I knew the first part of this process was research. However, I thought this part was going to be the easiest part. Look up a few online scholarly articles, find a few books in the library then… done!
Boy, was I wrong. Research for this paper took days. I would find a book about the Cold War, and then a subtopic that I wanted to research, then I would search for another book about that subtopic, which would lead me to yet another subtopic. The process kept going. While I was learning a lot about the Cold War, my research was not focused around my actual essay (analyzing Detente and its role in the end of the Cold War).
Once I stopped going down so many rabbit holes, I began to focus on my essay topic, which proved much more valuable and time-efficient. The moral of this story is:
- Don’t take IB
- Start your extended essay earlier
- When doing research, have a clear and focused idea of your actual topic is, and research with your topic/thesis always in mind.