How to use the summer between IB1 and IB2?

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While it is important to get something done during the summer, none of us want to spend the whole holiday just studying. You should have a clear plan for what you are going to achieve during the summer. Here are some of my suggestions for what you should do during the summer but they are of course very subjective and won't work for everyone. 

Sleep. 

You won't have time for this next year.

Relax. 

You won't have time for this next year.

CAS

Do enough CAS, so you don't have to panic about it during IB2. A lot of fun things like swimming or baking count as CAS so you can't spend the summer doing fun things and getting CAS. 

EE

It would probably make sense to spend a day or few working on your EE if you still have a lot to do. What I would recommend even more: writing as much of it as possible before the holiday starts so you can enjoy your summer more. 


IAs, HL essays, TOK assessment

This depends on many things. I personally had only one IA I had to work on during the holiday because we did most of them in the beginning of IB2 or already finished in IB1. However, if you are in the middle of multiple, you might want to work on a few. I think it is better to choose maybe two you are actually going to do instead of doing a little bit of everything. But make sure you are being realistic with your workload. If there is still long time till the deadline you might want to prioritize just relaxing. IB2 is going to be really tough though so look at the deadlines you have and make smart choices so you won't drown under stress later on. 

Studying

I personally did no revision during the summer because I wouldn't have remembered any of it in the finals anymore. But if you are falling behind in one of your classes, it might be a good idea to spend time on going through content you did not understand. But if you are happy with all of your classes, I don't see the point in studying over the holidays. 

Most importantly... 

...make a schedule for yourself and save time for resting. Prioritize things that have deadline soon after the break ends. Only you know how much you have work to do but stay realistic with your expectations because you are just going to feel bad about yourself if you don't do everything you planned and spend the whole summer worrying about what you should have done. Because of this, assign yourself study times and stick to them so you can enjoy the rest of the time without feeling like you should be writing your EE all the time. 

I hope you found these tips useful. Feel free to comment your own experiences

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