While students taking standard level courses accumulate stress from homework and projects, students taking IB courses have oral presentations to also worry about. Specifically for the English department, IOP’s and IOC’s have taken up a significant amount of time away from students.

IOP’s which are for the 11th grade IB students, are individual oral presentations given during class time that must meet a minimum of ten minutes. Presentations are given on a certain topic that the student has chosen and the teacher has approved. Besides teacher approval on a topic, they are not allowed to give much help and can only answer very vague questions. Being 300 points, students are determined to prepare for a good grade since it can have a crucial effect on grades.

Julia Hanneman, 11th grade IB English teacher can’t stress enough how important preparation is when it comes to IOP’s. “The students have to be motivated, you have to want it,” said Hanneman.

Students often times get very intimidated by the IOP’s since it is a ten minute presentation that you present in front of the whole class. In some occasions, students have stopped the timer to restart which is not allowed.

Junior, Paul Singh prepares for the IOP’s by re-reading the book he has chosen his topic from and gathers all his information together to have enough information to present. Also, Junior, Colleen Salpini stays after with English teacher, Mrs. Holmes for feedback on her earlier presentations to improve on upcoming presentations.

IOC’s are taken by 12th grade IB students which are individual oral conferences. There are a couple differences between the IOC’s and IOP’s such as not having to present in front of a whole classroom but instead only to your English teacher. Also, you don’t have weeks to specifically prepare for your presentation meaning the student and a teacher are in a room and the student is asked to select a literature piece to analyze and annotate within twenty minutes along with a thesis and outline. Fifteen minutes are given to present the evidence.

Samantha Spinney, 12th grade IB English teacher believes that students do still get nervous about presenting but it’s much easier since much previous practice has been taken. “Students IOC scores match up with how well they’re doing [in class] so it’s a good assessment since it’s pretty accurate.” said Spinney.

Senior Allison Warth goes into depth with her preparation skills by explaining she went researching several Shakespeare poems to get a good idea of background information. Being a senior and having much practice, she explains that although the poems were stressful to study, the exam was fairly easy.

IOP’s and IOC’s are no joke to IB English students since many do work hard to pull of a decent grade.