Five Months Into the DP—This Is How We Feel

A follow-up on last year’s OYISTER article on how we feel about the DP. 

Last year just before the winter break, we asked the then-grade 10 students to tell us how they felt about going into the Diploma Programme (DP). This year, we have once again asked these students, now in grade 11, to tell us what it’s actually like to be the first ones at our school to go into the DP.

There seems to be a range of opinions on what students think about the DP so far, although the results are not looking good for our sleep schedules.

Students independently working in the DP Korean self-study course. (Captured by Miyabi Sugimoto)

I interviewed two students from grade 11, asking them whether the DP is what they expected it to be, and what some major differences are between the Middle Years Programme (MYP) and DP.

“I guess because if you go to IB schools, they tell you two to three years in advance that the DP is tough and that we’re gonna have to choose our courses, so I was prepared about that, although that didn’t really take away from the stress,” said Student 1 in response to the first question. “You specifically get to choose your subjects based on your interests and university aims, and you can also choose between HL and SL. But there’s a lot of assessments which are stressful,” they also said, commenting on the differences between the DP and MYP.

Student 2, however, had a different take on the DP: “No. It's rather very alike [with MYP], which is different from what I expected,” they said, regarding their expectations for the DP. “I imagined that the DP would be intense from the start. Actually, though, I feel that it's not much more stressful than the first months of year 5 in MYP. I'm actually having more fun in DP than MYP because I actually get to study the subjects that I chose.”

“You don't have to take PhysED, Visual Arts, or any of the subjects that you don't like. I especially didn't like chemistry and physics so it's good that I got to take biology. I actually also find [Creativity, Activity, Service (CAS)] fun. The good thing about CAS is that unlike Service and Action or Personal Project in MYP where you have to do something related to service, CAS is really just a collection of activities that you want to do.”

We also surveyed the grade 11 class to get a good look at how the class generally feels about the DP on a scale of 1 to 7 (sound familiar?), and how much sleep they’ve been getting. Here are the results: 

The DP is different from what I expected.

So far, I am keeping up with all of my work and I’m on track.

I have enough time to socialize outside of school.

This is how much sleep I get on a daily average:

Personally, I agree that the DP wasn’t as overwhelming as some of the teachers claimed for it to be, especially at the beginning of the year. However, there are several deadlines that are starting to catch up to us, and it is also true that more of us are having a difficult time keeping up with CAS and our reflections.

Of course, with the upcoming DP exams in January, I am starting to feel the pressure, but I think that getting through the DP is more based on how well a student is able to balance school life and social life, or how well they are able to manage their time.

I also know, for example, that some of my classmates have found new ways for them to manage their time in a way that works for them, like going to a public library or coming to school really early to catch up on work.

Honestly, considering that the class of 2023 is the first ever to graduate OYIS with an IB diploma, I think we’re well on our way to finessing the DP.