\n| Pre-assessment (exams & final IA edits)<\/td>\n | Timed practice, exam technique, polishing IAs<\/td>\n | 25 : 75<\/td>\n | 2.5 hours content, 7.5 hours practice<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table><\/div>\n Notice how content never drops to zero. Even in the exam phase you will sometimes need short, targeted content refreshers\u2014quick conceptual checks that prevent error drift during practice.<\/p>\n Modify by subject type<\/h3>\nDifferent subjects require different emphases. Here are practical starting splits you can adapt:<\/p>\n \n- Sciences (Biology, Chemistry, Physics):<\/strong> Early: 65\/35. Mid: 50\/50. Pre-exam: 30\/70. Labs and IAs require concentrated content blocks followed by practice interpreting data.<\/li>\n
- Mathematics:<\/strong> Early: 60\/40. Mid: 45\/55. Pre-exam: 20\/80. Math rewards frequent short practice sessions with immediate feedback.<\/li>\n
- Humanities (History, Economics):<\/strong> Early: 60\/40 (content-heavy). Mid: 45\/55. Pre-exam: 30\/70. Essay planning and timed essays are key practice modes.<\/li>\n
- Languages (A and B):<\/strong> Early: 55\/45. Mid: 50\/50. Pre-exam: 35\/65. Oral practice and past-paper responses should be routine.<\/li>\n
- Arts and Performance:<\/strong> Approach is project-based\u2014content blocks for research and technique, practice blocks for creation and rehearsal. Adjust split around performance deadlines.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Designing a weekly routine that actually works<\/h2>\nThink in blocks. A realistic week for an IB student balances school hours, extracurriculars, and deliberate study. That\u2019s why the table below uses a typical weekly hour budget for one subject (around 10 hours), which you can scale up or down depending on workload and the number of subjects.<\/p>\n \n\n| Week Phase<\/th>\n | Content (hrs)<\/th>\n | Practice (hrs)<\/th>\n | Focus<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| Early-week (Mon\u2013Wed)<\/td>\n | 4<\/td>\n | 1<\/td>\n | New material, concept mapping<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| Mid-week (Thu)<\/td>\n | 1<\/td>\n | 2<\/td>\n | Active practice: problem sets, short essays<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| Weekend (Sat\u2013Sun)<\/td>\n | 1<\/td>\n | 3<\/td>\n | Past papers, timed work, IA drafting at depth<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table><\/div>\n This structure helps you maintain steady content intake early in the week and reserve concentrated practice for when you are rested and can simulate exam conditions.<\/p>\n How to structure a single study session<\/h3>\nHere\u2019s a 90-minute session template that blends content and practice effectively:<\/p>\n \n- 0\u201310 min: Quick retrieval (quiz yourself on previous session content).<\/li>\n
- 10\u201335 min: Focused content study (read, annotate, concept-maps).<\/li>\n
- 35\u201345 min: Short break\u2014move, hydrate.<\/li>\n
- 45\u201375 min: Practice block (timed question, past-paper extract, or problem-solving).<\/li>\n
- 75\u201390 min: Reflection and feedback\u2014mark your work against criteria and note errors.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Always end with reflection. The simplest reflective questions are: What did I get wrong? Why? What will I practise next time to fix it?<\/p>\n  <\/p>\n
Evidence-based techniques to combine with your split<\/h2>\nMix these evidence-backed techniques into both content hours and practice hours:<\/p>\n \n- Spaced repetition:<\/strong> Revisit content after increasing intervals so facts and formulas stick.<\/li>\n
- Interleaving:<\/strong> Alternate topics or question-types in one practice block to build flexible retrieval.<\/li>\n
- Retrieval practice:<\/strong> Use closed-book recall frequently\u2014try to reconstruct definitions and key arguments without notes.<\/li>\n
- Deliberate practice:<\/strong> Choose slightly out-of-comfort tasks, get feedback, and repeat with adjustments.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Using past papers and markschemes wisely<\/h3>\nPast papers are the core of practice, but not all practice is created equal. The difference is feedback:<\/p>\n \n- Do timed passages to train pacing.<\/li>\n
- Mark against the markscheme and write a one-paragraph note on why each mark was awarded or lost.<\/li>\n
- Track recurring mistakes\u2014if you miss the same idea across three papers, that\u2019s content to relearn, not just more practice.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Subject-specific micro-strategies<\/h2>\nSciences<\/h3>\nSpend content hours on core concepts and lab theory; use practice hours for data-analysis questions and past-paper calculations. For IAs, separate your week into research\/reporting blocks (content) and data-analysis or write-up practice blocks.<\/p>\n Mathematics<\/h3>\nShort, frequent practice beats long passive study. Use daily 30\u201345 minute problem sets for procedural fluency; weekly longer sessions should be timed and focused on unanswered or weak topics.<\/p>\n Humanities<\/h3>\nUse content hours to build timelines, key theories, and command terms. Practice by writing structured paragraph responses, then scale to timed essays and full-paper simulations.<\/p>\n Language subjects<\/h3>\nBlend content (vocabulary, grammar, cultural context) with practice (oral rehearsals, timed comprehension tasks). Record your oral practice and self-evaluate against mark descriptors.<\/p>\n Tracking progress: simple metrics that matter<\/h2>\nGood measurement helps you decide whether to shift the split. Track a few reliable metrics weekly:<\/p>\n \n\n| Metric<\/th>\n | How to measure<\/th>\n | What to watch for<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| Practice accuracy<\/td>\n | % correct on timed questions<\/td>\n | Rising trend indicates effective split<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| Time per question<\/td>\n | Average minutes per question on past papers<\/td>\n | Reduction suggests better fluency<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n | \n| Depth of feedback<\/td>\n | Number of substantive errors identified and corrected<\/td>\n | Improvement in corrections signals learning<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table><\/div>\n If accuracy plateaus, either revisit content for conceptual clarity or change the practice format (for example, move from untimed questions to timed ones).<\/p>\n | | |
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