Diploma Programme (DP) students Nikhil Lakhwani and Angelique Sutanto from Beacon Academy in Jakarta, Indonesia reflect on the cancellation of the May 2020 exams and how the programme has given them invaluable experience.
By Nikhil Lakhwani and Angelique Sutanto
On March 27 2020, we were notified that the May 2020 exams had been cancelled. A plethora of thoughts raced through our minds as we pondered, what would happen to our final results? Would it affect our university admissions? Did this mean that we were officially finished with the Diploma Programme (DP)?
We were in utter disbelief. We struggled to fathom the fact that we would no longer be carrying out the biggest and, arguably, most important event throughout our 12 years of schooling. However, we soon realized that the health and safety of all IB students should come first.
“It was a time of our lives that we would never trade for the world.”
DP students may feel shocked and disappointed that we didn’t get the chance to sit the exam. But we should be proud of all the hard work that we have achieved together throughout the last two challenging years.
Looking back on the positives
The fruits of our labor will not go unrewarded. The DP provides a holistic approach to education, focusing on multiple facets of an individual including areas of creativity, activity, service (CAS). With an increasingly globalized and changing world, it is important to be exposed to an international curriculum that develops a variety of skills such as:
Aside from independent learning, there are further opportunities for discussion and communication, allowing us to gain new perspectives. Despite the academic prowess and rigor that the DP demands, it was a time of our lives that we would never trade for the world. We would recommend this programme to incoming DP students.
Our experience was a journey filled with many trials and tribulations. However, it was also a journey of self-growth, and we have learned so much to become not only better learners, but also better people.
Our advice
One of the most important pieces of advice we can offer is to never give up. As simple as that may sound, the DP is a rigorous programme that requires a lot of effort and self-discipline to succeed.
Secondly, managing your time wisely is principal to survive the heaps of assignments that the DP expects. Try to create a schedule or a list of things to do on particular days to help keep a handle on things.
It’s equally important to put in effort into completing all your internal assessments (IA)—in our case, they have become a key component in determining our final grades. Next, always take your summative and formative assignments seriously because they are also the groundwork of what determines your predicted grades. Don’t forget that predicted grades are what you will use to apply to universities or colleges.
“It is these memories that we have created that we will treasure forever.”
Lifelong learning
The DP has brought out qualities of independence, open-mindedness, and resilience buried within us that we can bring not only to university, but for our future careers ahead.
The exams are just a fragment of the bigger picture. In the end, it is the DP that has allowed us to secure places in world-renowned universities and reach our true potential. From our time in the DP and in high school, our experiences have molded us into the people that we are today. We truly have blossomed as individuals. It is these memories that we have created together, as a family, that we will treasure forever.
We wish all Diploma Programme (DP) and Career-related Programme (CP) students the best of luck with the release of their results.
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