the lanterna blog
Below you will find in-depth reports, thought pieces on modern education, as well as hundreds of tips on how to excel at the IB.
The Lie of ‘Working Better Under Pressure’
Have you ever heard someone claim that they work better under pressure? Maybe you have even told this to a teacher or friend yourself. Sadly, while lots of people have heard this myth and may even believe it themselves…it’s a lie. It’s great news if you can work well under pressure, and indeed one of…
Worst things first – how doing the hardest task first can boost your productivity
When I was in High School I was always tempted to start with the easy work and ended up putting off the difficult stuff. So I might start the weekend with doing the reading the English teacher had set. I might work on a project I found interesting for my Philosophy IA and then do…
Why most of your studying is pointless and how to make it useful
You might have thought that doing well means doing loads of extra work – this is a mistake lots of students make! Actually just spending tons more time studying is not the most useful way for you to do well, and the reason can be explained by looking at the work of a 19th century…
5 Steps That Will Make Your IB Essay Great!
I’ve seen hundreds of successful IB students in the past and read lots of successful essays – and written a few of my own! What I’m going to do here is share with you a few tips that the most successful students always seem to use when writing their essays. Students who get 7s don’t…
3 Steps to IB Success
Conquering the IB and getting the exam grades you need The IB is hard. It’s difficult and it’s scary. But you can beat it. In 3 steps I’m going to show you how to get the grades you need to create the future you want. You’re going to accept the truth. Then, you’re going to…
3 Steps to the most productive day ever!
Sleep is King! Do you struggle to focus during long days at school? Do you find yourself bored in biologyor kipping in Chemistry? The IB, GCSE, A-levels and GCSE are hard, it takes a lot of energy to do well. One of the big keys to success is getting plenty of sleep. FACT BOX: In a study…
The SCORE Method for Making Awesome IB Notes
You want IB points fast – that means you need to take good notes. Here’s how.  Why should I care about notes? There’s tons to remember in the IB Understanding DOES NOT EQUAL remembering. If you remembered everything you ever learned then you’d be a super-genius and could probably get on TV. Normal people need…
Theory of Knowledge IB Guide | Part 8
Pt. 8 – The Areas of Knowledge: The Arts, Ethics, Religious Knowledge, Indigenous Knowledge This is the final blog post in this ToK series. If you’ve followed the series so far then well done! We’ve been through so much in the last few posts. If you haven’t been following along, go check out the previous…
Theory of Knowledge IB Guide | Part 7
Pt. 7 – The Areas of Knowledge: Mathematics, the Natural Sciences, The Human Sciences and History What are the Areas of Knowledge The Areas of Knowledge are a bit different, these are about what we know. There are 8 Areas of Knowledge, these are: Mathematics, the Natural Sciences, the Human Sciences, History, The Arts, Ethics,…
Theory of Knowledge IB Guide | Part 6
Pt. 6 – The Areas of Knowledge: Knowledge Frameworks What are the Areas of Knowledge? The Ways of Knowing, which we explored in the previous blog posts, is about how we know things. The Areas of Knowledge are a bit different; these are about what we know and how we produce knowledge. You might remember…
