IB topper and Northwestern University alumnus starts CRACK IB - live online tutoring with IB Examiners from around the world
Aug 12, 2022
New Delhi (India), August 12 (ANI/PNN): One of the best ways to get into a top global university is to do the IBDP (International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme), which is one of the most challenging pre-university programs in the world. This is a rigorous two-year programme with many different assessments throughout a student's journey.
One of the critical challenges of the IBDP is that it is very different from the national curriculum because it has a very strict mark scheme that wants the students to derive solutions, design experiments, and choose relevant examples to support their arguments, as well as challenge existing theories with well-thought-out counterarguments. These things don't come naturally to students, especially those joining IBDP from a traditional Indian curriculum background. Such exacting standards require extra training, which the school most often cannot provide because most of the time spent in classes is used to cover the syllabus and clarify concepts.
Students tend to underestimate the level of difficulty of the IBDP. In particular, they underestimate the length and depth of the syllabus. They are unaware of the numerous internal assessments, lab experiments, portfolio compilations, essays, and oral exams required for submission to the IB, alongside college applications, SAT preparation and CAS hours.
Most IBDP students complain that their school could not finish the syllabus on time, leaving them very little time to revise and practice exam-style questions.
Moreover, the final exams are not graded locally in school but by select IBDP Examiners worldwide. For this reason, it is imperative for a student to practice exam-style questions from the very beginning and understand the style of writing answers as per the IBDP mark scheme. Although a student may know everything, most students are still unable to get top scores because they are not adept at thinking, writing, and organising their answers the way the IBDP wants them to.
The reality is that most IBDP school teachers were never IBDP students themselves, and so whilst they may be good at teaching concepts, they may not know the best way to get a near-perfect score on the exams and the best way to navigate through the two-year journey and provide the right type of training for each assessment type.
That's why CRACK IB is uniquely placed to efficiently solve the problems of IBDP students because it was founded by an IBDP school topper and is made up of a handpicked team of award-winning tutors, former IBDP curriculum writers, and IB Examiners from around the world, the very same people who may be correcting the final exams of IBDP students.
CRACK IB offers live interactive online classes with IB examiners and award-winning tutors worldwide.
CRACK IB provides different courses at strategic times of the IBDP programme so that students can not only ace their IBDP assessments during the academic year but also peak at the right time before their final exams. Regular courses offered are short-term courses based on a bundle of topics with dedicated live doubt-solving sessions. Also offered are vacation courses such as Mid-IB revision, 2nd-year IBDP preview, and Pre-IBDP Foundations for 10th graders. At relevant times, courses for Internal Assessments (IAs), Extended Essays (EEs), and separate courses to crack TOK are also offered. The final exam build-up comprises crash courses, pre-exam prep, and paper solving sessions leading up to the final IBDP exams.
"When I started the IBDP in 2006, we didn't have the online resources we have today. Often, we didn't even have textbooks for certain subjects. Additionally, I certainly wasn't the brightest guy in the class. But suppose I was able to crack it with my limited resources. In that case, I truly believe that with the right system of organised training, motivated students can easily excel in the IBDP", said Zeeshan Firasta, CRACK IB founder and former Kodaikanal International School IBDP valedictorian and Northwestern University alumnus.
After topping his school's IBDP programme, completing 3 degrees from Northwestern University, passing his CFA Level I in his first attempt, and completing an MSc Finance degree from Warwick Business School, Zeeshan has had plenty of formal education and believes his exam-cracking experiences alongside with the teaching prowess of his team of CRACK IB tutors can help IBDP students thrive in a crucial time of their lives.
Zeeshan elaborates on some of the techniques used at CRACK IB, stating, "We want to give students all the elements they need to ace the IBDP efficiently. In particular, we identify different types of IBDP questions from each topic and provide students with step-by-step solutions for each type. We also teach them how to organise their answers by understanding IB question command terms, and train them to use the right keywords and diagrams, choose relevant examples and counterarguments to maximise their score on each IB assessment. In short, we train our students to get into the mind of the IBDP mark scheme."
With a base in Europe and India, CRACK IB intends to expand rapidly, ultimately hoping to provide its services globally. CRACK IB courses are offered at competitive rates, starting as low as Rs 7,999. Course listings are continually updated and can be found at
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