After the 2022 IB Chemistry Finals: I Planned to Rest, But…

The IB Chemistry finals are finally over.

I had been under so much mental stress that I traveled to several places for a short break.

Now that I'm back, I'm writing this post.

First, the students who contacted me immediately after the finals seem to have done well.

This student sent this message as soon as the exam ended, haha.

It looks as though they held up well.

Actually, this student wasn't good at Chemistry at the beginning.

It was the subject they disliked most and found hardest.

But they worked hard and began getting 7s on every test.

Unfortunately, the school gave them a final predicted Chemistry grade of 6.

That was because of the 6s they had received before studying with me.

Still, I'm very relieved they said the final went well.

This student usually says an exam went badly even when it went reasonably well, so if they say it went better than expected,

I think they really must have done well.

Here is the general reaction to this exam.

Many students said IB Chemistry Paper 1 was difficult

and Paper 2 was easy. This student had always wanted to become a nurse

and had already received several offers for nursing programs in the US, so they took the finals

without the same pressure to secure an offer. They already had several acceptances with scholarships.

They used to habitually message, 'I messed it up,' after exams, but this time they seem to have done fairly well.

At least they didn't say they had ruined it, haha.

In some ways, this is one of the brightest students I've taught.

They attended another academy for several months, then came to me later and began getting 7s consistently.

If they had studied with me from the beginning, I think they could have finished school with all 7s without much difficulty. But they had initially received some 5s and 6s.

In the end, this student even won the school's Chemistry award, did well in the IB finals, and graduated.

Schools give Chemistry awards to strong students in the subject, and my students have received them at several schools.

Perhaps it's not an enormous achievement, but I'm proud of it, haha.

These students sometimes make the most extraordinary progress, because they originally had 4s and 5s.

Then they become students who consistently earn 7s. And it looks as though this final went well too.

I taught them until the day before the exam. In the last few days before IB Chemistry, we had lessons every day and went over the material again and again.

This student was anxious until the end, but seems to have gained confidence and taken the exam well. I'm relieved.

She used to be quite playful, but at the end she seems to have approached her studies seriously, haha.

There were quite a few other messages too. In some cases, I probably asked first, haha.

The consistent reaction was that Paper 1 was difficult and Paper 2 was easy.

I always emphasized in lessons that an exam could be difficult, and that the aim was to get the questions you know right,

not to answer every question you don't know as well.

I hoped that a difficult Paper 1 wouldn't affect their performance in Paper 2.

Finally, another course is complete. Students feel so much tension and stress, and I share

those feelings closely, so it took a serious mental toll on me too.

I'm really glad IB Chemistry finished without too many complaints or disappointments, haha.

I visited Da Lat, Nha Trang, and La Gi for a little rest, but received so many consultation requests while traveling.

And I thought: here we go again.

Please message if you need a consultation.

However, I haven't been able to answer as thoroughly as I should. Students have recently left after finishing exams, but spaces are filling again at a frightening pace.

With so many inquiries, even handling consultations is difficult, and some of my replies have been less attentive than they should be. I'm very sorry.