Advice: The Doctor is In

This blog is co-authored by several former students I reached out to recently. Thank you to Riley Redd, Numa Rehmani, Sterling Saunders, Prakrit Shukla, and Charlie Welles for taking the time out of your busy college schedules to help write this.

When I was a kid, I loved watching the Peanuts movies. In my eyes, Charles Schultz was a genius. My favorite part of any movie featuring Charlie Brown was not Snoopy and Woodstock battling it out or Linus and Charlie Brown waiting for the Great Pumpkin. Nor was it Charlie Brown missing the football for the umpteenth time or Sally seducing Linus with her valentines. Surprisingly, I was not impressed by the teacher who you couldn't understand either. Rather, it was when Lucy set up her advice stand, charging Charlie Brown 5 cents for her not-so-valuable, very unsolicited advice.

As a kid, I dreamed of setting up my own “advice stand.” My sister and brother begged our parents to let them sell lemonade one summer, but all I wanted to do was dish out advice. Unfortunately, people bought the lemonade, but not the advice from the seven year-old.  

I’ve been on the receiving end of all sorts of advice: anything from “What could I have done differently in a lesson?” to “Does this dress make me look taller?” (I need all of the help I can get when it comes to height!) I also have dispensed a fair amount of advice in my time: anything from telling my own kids to say thank you to most recently helping seniors figure out where they should go to college. The latter I probably could have opened an “advice stand” for, but in all honesty, it’s been fun to watch the seniors I teach figure out for themselves where they will go. I’ve witnessed several “aha” moments when some of you realized where you will call “home” for the next four years. I even guessed several schools correctly. It’s extremely gratifying to have known you as freshmen and watch you figure out as young adults the path of your future.

So, I write this blog to give all of you who are taking IB exams in the next few weeks some advice. Some of you as juniors are taking exams for the first time. Some of you as seniors are taking up to six exams within the festival of IB testing. I know this advice is unsolicited, but I am feeling the need to open my “advice stand” and tell you that this is only a test. They’re all only tests, and while they are a culmination of everything that you’ve been doing for the past year--or in some classes two years--don’t let them define you. Recently, I learned this very lesson. As some of you know, for the past three years I have been working on my National Board certification. The National Board for Certified Teachers has revamped it’s requirements and only released them one at a time, which is why it is taking me three years to hopefully achieve. This past year, I received a score on one component that was lower than I wanted it to be. While it was still a passing score, it is not one I was proud of earning. I remember thinking that this score doesn’t reflect the kind of teacher I am. This score doesn’t demonstrate the hours I put into my craft or the relationships I have built with the students in my classroom. This score is not one that Kelly Pace would earn. I was doing exactly what I’m telling you not to do. I was letting that score define who I was, and in turn, I was feeling like an unworthy teacher. Since receiving the results of that score, I have come to some conclusions. A test cannot represent who I am as a person or a teacher. It is one measurement, but it doesn’t measure the student who could not write a thesis statement that was not a three-prong statement at the beginning of the year and now can. It does not measure the student who was rather close-minded at the start of TOK and now is open to the thoughts of others. It does not measure the fact that I am connected with my students--they share their poetry and memes and even Taco Bell (much to my chagrin) with me. So, when you sit down to take your IB tests next week, work hard. Study. Listen to what your teachers are telling you over the next few days. Read the books if you haven't done so yet. Memorize the quotes and finish the annotations. But also remember that it’s just a test. They are all just tests.

While I stand behind the advice I have just given you, I felt the need to seek some additional advice to write my blog this month. So, I sought the advice of the graduates from the Class of 2016. Below are some of their thoughts when it comes to IB exams:

• Don't stress too much about IB exams. Stressing yourself out makes everything worse, and then you end up panicking more than studying.
• Don't wait until the last minute to pick up those notes!
• Everything works out in the end! Think back to one of your all nighters and how you probably thought the world was ending because you were stressed about an assignment, but you're still here today :) --Numa Rehmani

• Study with friends!!! Talking it out will help and being with other people will keep you sane (ish).
• Actually go to sleep!! Sleep deprivation will just make you feel worse & you might start to feel sick.
• Take breaks so you don't go crazy. --Riley Redd

• START EARLY!!! Please spread out your studying, for both your own sanity and your grade.  You will learn the information better if you review it in smaller chunks over a longer period of time.  
•   Sleep is also super important.  I know some like to stay up all night to try and cram a bunch of information, but I promise sleep does help you to do better on tests.  
•   Make study guides! These are especially helpful for history and biology/chemistry where there are lots of pieces of information.  By making the study guide you are working with the material, so it actually helps to force you to start studying earlier. For English, I recommend re-reading your essays that you wrote for your writing responses.  They are a good way to review both the plots of the novels and literary techniques. Also, you do have to memorize some quotes, but don’t stress too much about that.  As long as you get the gist of the quote you’re good.
•   Make sure to take time for yourself during the exam periods.  It’s important to have mental breaks and to do things you enjoy even though you’re taking tests.  --Sterling Saunders

  

• "I firmly believe that any man's finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle - victorious." -Vince Lombardi
• For the past two years, you have been preparing for these IB tests, and as much as it seems absurd, three weeks of testing will count for the past two years of work. Don't let your laziness or fear of the tests let all that work go to waste! My advice is to find a group of friends to provide encouragement and (more importantly) comic relief: they will make the tests palatable. --Charlie Welles

• There's really nothing me or anyone can say to make this time feel less stressful or make you care a little bit less (or more) about your performance on these upcoming tests. At this point in your lives, you've heard most of the motivation talk and inspirational mantras that have probably ever existed. The only thing anyone can really say is that your scores and performance on these exams do not add to or take away from anything that each of you is able to do. Even if you get a 1 on AP Calc BC (guilty) or a 7 in IB HOA, that does not mean that you are going to fail or excel in life.

• Bill Gates said that he failed many exams while his roommate aced all of his. Now Gates is the co-founder of one of the largest software companies in the world, while his roommate is an engineer for that same company. It is so easy nowadays to make yourself feel terrible by comparing yourselves to everyone around you or finding people who seem to be "smarter" and feeling inadequate in front of them (I know that's ironic to say right after the Bill Gates example lol). Comparing yourself to everyone around you, will only lead yourself in a downward spiral of sadness and hopelessness, because you will never be as good as someone else at something. Instead, compare yourself to you. I hate more than anything to be cliche, but really the only things that will matter are what you have learned, knowing how to use what you have learned practically, and having the will to keep learning. In the end, things like high school exam scores will hold almost no weight in your own eyes 2-3 years down the road.
• You know your stuff, and as long as you are happy with your own performance, that's all that matters. And if you still want to compare yourself to me or anyone else, we all got 7s on every exam. Good luck.-- Prakrit Shukla

One day, perhaps, you will see me in my driveway, running my “advice stand.” The cost will be free, the advice endless. Everyone will walk away smiling. My hope is you find something in this blog that resonates with you and that you walk away from your exams knowing you worked hard, tried your best, and most importantly, may you walk away smiling. May you always be smiling! Good luck!