I just kinda need to rant this all out, and also I kinda hope it might help y'all if te ever apply for the IB :D this might turn out crazy long though...
Part One: In The Morning
I swear, I've never been as nervous and/or panicky as I was this morning. Not even the giorno of my confirmation, the giorno of my summer job interview and the giorno I left for Brazil put together. I mean, in a way, it's just one test (well, technically two); but on the other hand, that one test will basically determine my future for the successivo three years and possibly even further. So, yes, I was più than slightly nervous.
Although waking up was nothing compared to the way I felt when I got to school and met up with the other IB applicants in my class, and we all just started babbling on superiore, in alto of each other in this insane display of common panic. Panic that was in no way alleviated when we went to sign up and saw some of the 'outsiders', people applying from outside SYK, my school. They were insane, seriously. About half of them had the "I IZ ASIAN, NOT FUCKING B-SIAN" look, and I swear some of them were even wearing suits. Some of the Asians even had their parents with them. And then of course there were the other Finnish kids, and most of them looked like their GPA was 9.95 (on a scale of four to ten, remember) with only their bad PE grade bringing it down. te know the type. So there we were, me and five guys in my class, staring at them and thinking If that's what we're up against, we might as well go home now. And then we got the schedule thing, and saw that if we got as far as the interviews, we'd be interrogated da various lovely people including the principal (he's a nice enough guy, though) and the Economics teacher who hates our entire class after eighth-grade optional Econ. Yeah. That was the point when one guy's mum called him like, "Do te have everything with you? Your calculator, your ID?" te know, just being a mum. But it was kind of like the straw that broke the camel's back, because we all kind of cracked up at that point. te could see the outsiders looking at us like, If those are SYK-kids, this school's reputation is way over-exaggerated... Yeah, did I mention? SYK is supposedly the best school in Finland. Not that you'd know da looking at, say, my classmates. But anyway. After we finally calmed down, we went to the exam room, which is this big and scary room on the third floor that seats like 150 kids and is, due to limited space, actually my homeroom. And then began the real panic. te know, the concentrated, maths test panic.
Part Two: The Maths Test + The English Test
Yeah, the part I'd been most panicked over. And not without reason. When we finally managed to start it, after an explanation that had to be 20 minuti o longer, I was like O_o. Because that was possibly the most insanely difficult test I've ever taken, and that includes the Bio test I got a 7- on once. It had really crazy questions, like If (x+y-4)*3=10, what is (2x-6y)/8?. Well, not exactly that difficult, but still insanely hard. There were 20 domande in total -- three points for each right answer, minus one for each wrong one and zero for each domanda skipped -- and it was considered an accomplishment if te answered over half. I got 16, but I don't know if they were all right... I mean, most probably were, but some I really really don't know about. But apparently what they say about adrenaline upping your performance is true, 'cause I got this sudden rush of clarity when I was really panicked about this one domanda that I really didn't understand at all. But then I realised I was thinking it way too complicatedly, and then it turned out to be really easy.
After about an hour, they collected the maths papers and handed out the English ones right away, no bathroom break o anything. The essay was fairly simple, though: it wasn't technically even an essay, but rather an email to a friend based on a short text about the 'Slow Movement'. (Gems, if you're Leggere this, I wrote to te -- te kinda popped into my head 'cause I was talking to te right before I went in) I almost ran out of spazio on that one... they were really strict about not Scrivere più than there was spazio for, and I barely managed to squish Love, Emmy on the last line. But then I had like 25 minuti to spare, because it honestly doesn't take too long to write two pages of bullshit about calming down and not rushing through life and whatnot. So after staring into spazio for a minuto o two, I grabbed a piece of spare paper and started listing HP characters off the superiore, in alto of my head to pass the time. I got to 262 before the test ended, an accomplishment I'm actually quite proud of.
Part Three: Lunch and Results
So then we had lunch, and everyone was in a kind of weird mood, 'cause we all just kept going through the maths test in our heads, asking the others about the risposte and generally enjoying the after-panic that comes with any serious tests. That tided us over actually eating, and then came the time to start really worrying about whether o not we actually passed the maths test we were so eagerly talking about just moments ago.
They'd asked us to come back to the big scary exam room at 12:50, so there we all were, 80 o 90 people crammed into this tiny spazio behind these glass fuoco door type things -- I swear the temperature went up five degrees (Celsius; assuming it went from, say, 19 to 24, it would be a change of almost ten degrees Farenheit) when te walked through the doors. Then they kept us waiting for around five minuti più before letting us back into the big scary exam room. The made us all sit down, and then they read the names really slowly, one da one, and it was legit the most horrible fifteen minuti of my life, ever. I swear. But I can't even describe the feeling I got when they called my name. It was like... well, suffice it to say it was awesome. Because there was like 80 o 90 applicants, and only 50 o so passed the maths test, so it was kind of a big deal. At least for me.
Part Four: Interviews
The purpose of the groups we were put into was basically just so we wouldn't get Lost and shit, 'cause SYK is a really huge school. We were also interviewed as a group, but it was only your individual risposte that count, so it didn't really matter who your group was. Except that we spent the ora (yes, hour) waiting for the interview in the groups. te got to know your group kinda well, at least I did. They were all really nice people. I hope they get in.
So, after that torturous hour, we went in for the English interview, featuring Darby, a teacher who's never taught me but has an overly good picture of me since I passed on a message from her to my English teacher yesterday; and Agniezska, the old Econ teacher who really doesn't like me. It went okay, though, even though the domande were kinda crazy. I mean, some of them were to be expected, like What do te think of the IB way of having classes and not separate groups for each subject? and What do te think of the fact that in IB, class attendance is mandatory, whereas in Finnish high schools no one really cares if te skip occasionally?. Then again, some of them were really weird, like What current event have te been following in the news lately? So I just spouted some bullshit about how I followed the elections because I never really used to care about politics and then it all went downhill and whatnot. That's a talent I never knew I had, da the way: spouting complete bullshit with a perfectly serious expression. It's vair useful.
They ended the interview with a domanda I used to never be able to answer: Who do te admire? But now I just automatically say JKR. She's, like, my idol. I swear.
After the English interviews was another ora of waiting, as if the first one hadn't been enough to make us almost physically ill, and then we were escorted into the principal's office for round two, interrogation in Finnish feat. the principal and the IB coordinator. Not very important people at all. The domande were all really basic, though -- Why the IB program at SYK? What are your hobbies? What do te consider your personal strengths? (And no, Alex, I didn't tell him that I'm hilarious.) I think I might have earned some brownie points for telling the principal that I wanted to get into the SYK IB because I've been at SYK since the third grade and I feel like I have a kind of bond with the school.
Like I said, spouting bullshit with a perfectly straight face is a useful talent.
And then came the real kicker: What do te think of language education in normal Finnish schools? And I was off. Seriously, I can't even count how many times I've ranted about this particular subject to my Friends IRL. So I had a whole bunch to say, and not very much time to say it in, which resulted in me speaking so fast I had trouble understanding myself at times. Apparently the principal got it, though, 'cause he kind of laughed when I was done. It was a good laugh, though, I think... And the IB coordinator was like, "Mr. Language School Principal agrees," 'cause in case I hadn't mentioned that before either, SYK is specialised in languages, which means we learn più of them than other schools.
And that's the entire sordid tale... now I just have to wait until JUNE FUCKING SIXTEENTH until I find out whether I got in o not, because the stupid Finnish Board of Education has decided that no high school is allowed to announce any results before then. Bah.
Part One: In The Morning
I swear, I've never been as nervous and/or panicky as I was this morning. Not even the giorno of my confirmation, the giorno of my summer job interview and the giorno I left for Brazil put together. I mean, in a way, it's just one test (well, technically two); but on the other hand, that one test will basically determine my future for the successivo three years and possibly even further. So, yes, I was più than slightly nervous.
Although waking up was nothing compared to the way I felt when I got to school and met up with the other IB applicants in my class, and we all just started babbling on superiore, in alto of each other in this insane display of common panic. Panic that was in no way alleviated when we went to sign up and saw some of the 'outsiders', people applying from outside SYK, my school. They were insane, seriously. About half of them had the "I IZ ASIAN, NOT FUCKING B-SIAN" look, and I swear some of them were even wearing suits. Some of the Asians even had their parents with them. And then of course there were the other Finnish kids, and most of them looked like their GPA was 9.95 (on a scale of four to ten, remember) with only their bad PE grade bringing it down. te know the type. So there we were, me and five guys in my class, staring at them and thinking If that's what we're up against, we might as well go home now. And then we got the schedule thing, and saw that if we got as far as the interviews, we'd be interrogated da various lovely people including the principal (he's a nice enough guy, though) and the Economics teacher who hates our entire class after eighth-grade optional Econ. Yeah. That was the point when one guy's mum called him like, "Do te have everything with you? Your calculator, your ID?" te know, just being a mum. But it was kind of like the straw that broke the camel's back, because we all kind of cracked up at that point. te could see the outsiders looking at us like, If those are SYK-kids, this school's reputation is way over-exaggerated... Yeah, did I mention? SYK is supposedly the best school in Finland. Not that you'd know da looking at, say, my classmates. But anyway. After we finally calmed down, we went to the exam room, which is this big and scary room on the third floor that seats like 150 kids and is, due to limited space, actually my homeroom. And then began the real panic. te know, the concentrated, maths test panic.
Part Two: The Maths Test + The English Test
Yeah, the part I'd been most panicked over. And not without reason. When we finally managed to start it, after an explanation that had to be 20 minuti o longer, I was like O_o. Because that was possibly the most insanely difficult test I've ever taken, and that includes the Bio test I got a 7- on once. It had really crazy questions, like If (x+y-4)*3=10, what is (2x-6y)/8?. Well, not exactly that difficult, but still insanely hard. There were 20 domande in total -- three points for each right answer, minus one for each wrong one and zero for each domanda skipped -- and it was considered an accomplishment if te answered over half. I got 16, but I don't know if they were all right... I mean, most probably were, but some I really really don't know about. But apparently what they say about adrenaline upping your performance is true, 'cause I got this sudden rush of clarity when I was really panicked about this one domanda that I really didn't understand at all. But then I realised I was thinking it way too complicatedly, and then it turned out to be really easy.
After about an hour, they collected the maths papers and handed out the English ones right away, no bathroom break o anything. The essay was fairly simple, though: it wasn't technically even an essay, but rather an email to a friend based on a short text about the 'Slow Movement'. (Gems, if you're Leggere this, I wrote to te -- te kinda popped into my head 'cause I was talking to te right before I went in) I almost ran out of spazio on that one... they were really strict about not Scrivere più than there was spazio for, and I barely managed to squish Love, Emmy on the last line. But then I had like 25 minuti to spare, because it honestly doesn't take too long to write two pages of bullshit about calming down and not rushing through life and whatnot. So after staring into spazio for a minuto o two, I grabbed a piece of spare paper and started listing HP characters off the superiore, in alto of my head to pass the time. I got to 262 before the test ended, an accomplishment I'm actually quite proud of.
Part Three: Lunch and Results
So then we had lunch, and everyone was in a kind of weird mood, 'cause we all just kept going through the maths test in our heads, asking the others about the risposte and generally enjoying the after-panic that comes with any serious tests. That tided us over actually eating, and then came the time to start really worrying about whether o not we actually passed the maths test we were so eagerly talking about just moments ago.
They'd asked us to come back to the big scary exam room at 12:50, so there we all were, 80 o 90 people crammed into this tiny spazio behind these glass fuoco door type things -- I swear the temperature went up five degrees (Celsius; assuming it went from, say, 19 to 24, it would be a change of almost ten degrees Farenheit) when te walked through the doors. Then they kept us waiting for around five minuti più before letting us back into the big scary exam room. The made us all sit down, and then they read the names really slowly, one da one, and it was legit the most horrible fifteen minuti of my life, ever. I swear. But I can't even describe the feeling I got when they called my name. It was like... well, suffice it to say it was awesome. Because there was like 80 o 90 applicants, and only 50 o so passed the maths test, so it was kind of a big deal. At least for me.
Part Four: Interviews
The purpose of the groups we were put into was basically just so we wouldn't get Lost and shit, 'cause SYK is a really huge school. We were also interviewed as a group, but it was only your individual risposte that count, so it didn't really matter who your group was. Except that we spent the ora (yes, hour) waiting for the interview in the groups. te got to know your group kinda well, at least I did. They were all really nice people. I hope they get in.
So, after that torturous hour, we went in for the English interview, featuring Darby, a teacher who's never taught me but has an overly good picture of me since I passed on a message from her to my English teacher yesterday; and Agniezska, the old Econ teacher who really doesn't like me. It went okay, though, even though the domande were kinda crazy. I mean, some of them were to be expected, like What do te think of the IB way of having classes and not separate groups for each subject? and What do te think of the fact that in IB, class attendance is mandatory, whereas in Finnish high schools no one really cares if te skip occasionally?. Then again, some of them were really weird, like What current event have te been following in the news lately? So I just spouted some bullshit about how I followed the elections because I never really used to care about politics and then it all went downhill and whatnot. That's a talent I never knew I had, da the way: spouting complete bullshit with a perfectly serious expression. It's vair useful.
They ended the interview with a domanda I used to never be able to answer: Who do te admire? But now I just automatically say JKR. She's, like, my idol. I swear.
After the English interviews was another ora of waiting, as if the first one hadn't been enough to make us almost physically ill, and then we were escorted into the principal's office for round two, interrogation in Finnish feat. the principal and the IB coordinator. Not very important people at all. The domande were all really basic, though -- Why the IB program at SYK? What are your hobbies? What do te consider your personal strengths? (And no, Alex, I didn't tell him that I'm hilarious.) I think I might have earned some brownie points for telling the principal that I wanted to get into the SYK IB because I've been at SYK since the third grade and I feel like I have a kind of bond with the school.
Like I said, spouting bullshit with a perfectly straight face is a useful talent.
And then came the real kicker: What do te think of language education in normal Finnish schools? And I was off. Seriously, I can't even count how many times I've ranted about this particular subject to my Friends IRL. So I had a whole bunch to say, and not very much time to say it in, which resulted in me speaking so fast I had trouble understanding myself at times. Apparently the principal got it, though, 'cause he kind of laughed when I was done. It was a good laugh, though, I think... And the IB coordinator was like, "Mr. Language School Principal agrees," 'cause in case I hadn't mentioned that before either, SYK is specialised in languages, which means we learn più of them than other schools.
And that's the entire sordid tale... now I just have to wait until JUNE FUCKING SIXTEENTH until I find out whether I got in o not, because the stupid Finnish Board of Education has decided that no high school is allowed to announce any results before then. Bah.
