Insight Loops
Insight loops are an powerful way to score points in your IB assessments.
They work especially well in situations like IOs and exam essay questions where you're trying to quickly develop relevant insights (showing course knowledge) and develop as many points as you can.
How insight loops work
In short, the idea is that you take a piece of evidence and then link it to a key word (or a concept, model, literary device, framework, diagram, or idea) from the course. You can think of this as just labelling the evidence, showing us what we call this in this IB subject.
Then, you develop the idea further, making it clear how this labelling that you just did helps us answer the question in some way.
What do we mean by evidence?
In your English IO, the evidence could be words in your excerpt, "It is the east, and Juliet is the sun", which you label: This is a metaphor, but is also a use of dramatic irony. And then, you can further clarify this. Juliet is lighting up the window, the way the sun brightens up the sky. But Romeo is also blinded by his love, which the audience knows, but Romeo of course doesn't and clarify what this conveys about your Global Issue.
In a Global Politics Paper 2 question, it could be an example you mention i.e Saudi Arabia's increasing investments in sports leagues which you then label as development projects. And then you link this point to the question, so it's absolutely clear why this was worth mentioning. These investments diversify their economy, making them less dependent on oil exports to other countries.
The reason I call these "insight loops" is that we want to see you "close the loop," complete the thought. We need all 3 elements in order to see that you are using course insights to make sense of the material, in a way that's relevant to the question.
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Tim helps students with IB Business Management, IB Global Politics, IB Economics, IB History, IB English (i.e. English IOs and Paper 1 preparation) as well as your College Admissions essays.
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