Making choices for school.

[Squidman]

Okay.

 

[chrono_war01]

But seriously, folks...

 

[Squidman]

 

[chrono_war01]

is that you or is that me?

 

[Squidman]

I think it's both.

 

[chrono_war01]

But who's thrwoing it?

*smashs tomato with forehead*

 

[Squidman]

Non-squid huggers.

 

[chrono_war01]

oh, I knew that.

Now where is that Steve O?

 

[chrono_war01]

Okay, now for some serious time (and threat revival)

I'm making choices for IB and I need help on deciding which subject I should be taking. I think I'm going to have to take some Science orientated subject and maybe even Geography. But exactly what I'm not sure. Could someone help? I've tried asking around by it seems that all of them lead to dead ends.

 

[monty]

Okay, now for some serious time (and threat revival)

I'm making choices for IB and I need help on deciding which subject I should be taking. I think I'm going to have to take some Science orientated subject and maybe even Geography. But exactly what I'm not sure. Could someone help? I've tried asking around by it seems that all of them lead to dead ends.

What's IB?

 

[chrono_war01]

International education

In short, like A levels (or whatever test one must take to go to University), but harder and somewhat more "up to par" with what most Unis want to know about the student.
Has a small emphasis on Community, Action and Service.

We've heard that it's hell - that's all we know, we're the first year to take this test.

 

[DHyslop]

We've heard that it's hell - that's all we know, we're the first year to take this test.

Remember that its all a game. Especially standardized tests. Here the tests are the SAT and the ACT to get into college and the GRE and other more specific tests to get into grad school. I know a lot of people here in the US who hate standardized tests and get really upset and complain that the tests aren't a good criterion for them to be judged. These people go in with a negative attitude and do poorly because of it. They don't get it.

The trick is to realize they don't expect you to already know everything that's on the test: they're not testing how much knowledge you have right now; they're testing how much you can learn for the test. To do well on the test you need to develop and execute a study strategy, which is coincidentally the same skill needed to succeed at a university or a fast-paced career.

If you view it as a challenge or a game then at some point it will stop being a chore and may even be enjoyable. Before taking the GREs, a roomate and I had about 450 flashcards of vocabulary words. There's no better feeling than when you realize you're over the "hump" and making progress towards the goal. Then when the test is done you'll be looking for other ways to challenge yourself.

Good luck,

Dan

 

[monty]

All I could find about the test part on the web site was the schedule, so I only know the names of the test subjects. The ones that came to mind as good for a budding marine biologist were biology, chemistry, ecology (or environment or whatever it was called) and maybe "geography" insofar as it would cover geology, palaentology, oceanography, and planetary science (which, with a name like "geography," may be not at all; I don't think marine biologists need to know the capital of Estonia).

Some trade-offs that come to mind, many involving how long you have to prepare for the test you choose:

1) how well do you know each subject, so how well will you do without studying much?
2) how enthusiastic are you about each subject, since it's a lot easier to learn things you care about, and it might be more useful
3) which subjects would most impress the schools you want to apply to?

I don't really have much of an idea about your academic interests outside modern cephalopod biology in particular, which is a bit, er, more specialized than you can probably expect to encounter. I find that lot of these standardized tests emphasize very "mainstream" parts of the field, like the computer science AP and GRE exams I took had a few general things that everyone should know, but also a lot of historical trivia, outdated techniques, techniques-that-became-outdated, and other claptrap. In very broad, fast-moving fields like biology, this tends to be even worse, particularly since a lot of people study biology to get into medical school, which adds a very anthropocentric bias.

For some areas of higher learning, getting as much familiarity with mathematical reasoning and techniques helps a lot more often than one might expect, and opens doors to a lot of acadamia. Studying neurobiology or biochemistry, for example, have a good deal of calculus sometimes, and a lot of fields need sound knowledge of probability and statistics.

I really wish these standardized tests had a subject of "critical thinking and applying the scientific method," since that's really the foundation someone at the high school level needs to learn to put into practice in any specific field. I hope you're learning a lot of that from these conversations on TONMO, like the discussions of how to interpret fossil cephalopods, or Kat's questions about the spermatophores.

So, I have no idea how to answer your question, but I have a few maybe-useful ideas about how you should go about finding your answer.

I'm sure that whatever you choose will turn out well, in any case. In my experience, tests and the like are usually less important in the long run than actually caring about learning things, which you seem to have covered.

 

[chrono_war01]

University wise, I'm still not sure, but I think I'm going to either Canada or Australia. But I'm currentlying looking into NZ..to drop by and say hi to Steve!

Current looking into Bio, Chemistry and Geography, probably taking Chinese. Which leaves another three options that I can take. (Have to take 6 in total, 3 lower and 3 higher.)

Currently also thinking about taking SAT tests in case I find a good Uni in America.

 

[chrono_war01]

So, it alls boils down to three overseas choices, Uni of British Columbia (Canada), AUT (NZ). I was wondering if maybe Kat or Steve O can point me in which field I should be looking at or what's the minimum grades I need, since the AUT site doesn't seem to explain much.

For UBC, I'm looking into the Science field, which needs a minimum of a 3 in IB (Standard or Higher), and Chemistry and Physics. Which is basically it. Science field has things like Biochemistry, Biology, Geography, Oceangraphy and Earth & Ocean Seicnes -- is this the faculty I should be looking in?