Being an IB student is demanding, especially while having to maintain extracurriculars. Aissatou Senghore, better known as Aida, is an 11th grade student here at ICSA whose teachers and peers consider to be an academic weapon.
Aida maintains good grades and is recognized for her hard work. Over the years, she has made the honor roll, student of the year in music and health, as well as leadership awards.
In order to juggle extracurriculars and maintain her good grades, it is important to have a good support system. Having your family and friends encourage and push you to work hard in academics is the key to success. However, every student has their own struggles; for Aida, it’s burnout. Aida explains how she has seen burnout affect those around her:
“When people do something wrong or if they don’t get a good grade on one assignment, they start putting down everything that they’re doing, like, I didn’t do good in this, I’m just gonna stop.”
For students who want to improve in school, Aida advises to ask as many questions as possible. Even if you have to keep asking over and over, it is important to understand something before you leave the classroom, instead of brushing it off as something you will study at home. Keep being curious and inquiring about your interests.
Balancing life
It is equally as important to have a balanced lifestyle. Outside of school it is essential to have different hobbies. Aida participates in SOS Village, EmpowerHer, MUN, is part of a rock band, and is editor-in-chief for ICSA Insight. She also has many good friends who motivate her to improve as an academic weapon. All of these activities outside of classes are important for well-being and balance.
However, it is hard to do so many things and maintain good grades. It is important to stay organized. Aida is able to do so using a few different time-management strategies. Using Google Calendar is one strategy. You can use it to set reminders or have a timetable for each week, month, or year, depending on what you’re comfortable with. This can be really helpful in ensuring you don’t forget things.
Time management is one of the greatest things in terms of academics. That’s the main thing that’s really gonna help you.Breaking up your schedule into manageable bites can help IB students feel less overwhelmed.
In addition, Aida, like many other students at ICSA, has tutors in subjects she struggles in; However, she also tutors others. She believes that you can also learn through teaching others. Aida is self-motivated and she decides to take the extra time outside of school to make sure she is learning what she needs to through helping others.
Motivation
All students need something to motivate them to work. Aida’s main motivation to work hard in school is the people around her. Her older siblings in. Ivy Leagues, provide an example of her future, and many people around her are reaching high, this pushes her to follow suit and aim higher in academics.
“I want to be, you know, someone that my younger siblings can look up to,”
If students don’t find a good school life balance, negative effects arise. Being an academic weapon can come with different kinds of pressure. Chasing after good grades can lead to ignoring signs from your body, and developing bad habits. This means losing sleep, becoming more susceptible to illnesses, & dealing with headaches, and heavy eyes (Her Campus). Psychological pressures come from unrealistically high goals that students set for themselves. When students only view perfection as success, failure becomes something extremely debilitating and shattering.
This means one mistake leads to questioning all your abilities and overall intelligence as a person. To ensure you don’t put too much pressure on yourself, it is important to stay organized, and set specific and feasible goals. Having the mindset that failure is something you learn from, and a necessary step to success, will mean you improve more quickly,and bounce back from mistakes.
Overall, being an IB student at ICSA isn’t the easiest, but it is important to take advantage of resources like: tutors, websites, AI, and more. In order to enhance our learning experiences as students and become “academic weapons.”
For more advice on how to keep life balanced in high school, Check out this article, Self-care in the Eyes of High Schoolers.
