Are you looking for the best IB resources to help you pass your IB exams? Do you want IB resource textbooks that you can use for personal studies? We have an answer for you. The International Baccalaureate Diploma Program requires all the attention and hard work you can give. As an IB student, you would typically need to create time for personal studies. Studying alone is not the easiest task, but you can pull it through with the right resources. However, finding the right resources can involve much stress, especially with many incredible resources available today.
This article offers a detailed review of some of the best IB resources available today. Read on to find out more.
The Best IB Website Resources
Khan Academy by Sal Khan
Founded by a popular IB teacher, Khan Academy easily passes as one of the most encompassing IB resources. Although it was initially started as an online IB mathematics resource, Khan Academy has grown to incorporate other subjects like chemistry and biology. This resource is one of the early pioneers of online teaching for IB students. Therefore, it’s not surprising that the resource is now one of the primary resources recommended for IB students. The resource adopted the use of YouTube to teach chemistry in the early 2000s. It now has a growing YouTube channel with multiple teachers teaching different subjects.
Many of the videos in the resource focus on teaching the basic concepts and answering practice questions. Although there are a few complaints about the difficulty in navigation due to the sheer volume of topics and subjects, users still prefer it because it’s one of the few resources supporting self-study. Once you grasp how to navigate the functionality, you’ll have an excellent resource to accompany your subjects. Apart from offering top-quality tutorials, this resource also has fun games that students can play to help them remember what they’ve learned.
What Makes it Unique:
- Khan Academy is an all-encompassing resource that features different IB subjects.
- The availability of high-quality, in-depth explanations with realistic examples helps to prepare students adequately.
- The availability of fun games helps students understand concepts and not just memorize them.
Why Choose this IB Website Resource:
- Khan Academy is a free resource containing a huge range of teaching videos to bring students to speed with modern exam answering techniques.
- This resource offers a detailed explanation of concepts.
- It offers enough information to help students concentrate on studying outside the classroom.
IBO.org
Students have voted IBO.org as one of the best IB resources available for students to get study materials from. Over time, the website has extended from offering a foundation of a single subject to a whole range of subjects, including Physics, Maths, Biology, and Chemistry.
The core of this resource is a range of theory videos that cover usual classroom concepts. Students also have access to other study materials like practice questions and summary notes.
What Makes It Unique:
- Unlike many other resource websites, ibo.org contains an excellent range of free videos to help walk students through study time.
- The teachings in this resource are top-quality, hence, often recommended.
Why Choose this IB Website Resource:
- This resource features a lot of amazing content to help students further understand concepts.
- A very encompassing resource that combines different materials to aid self-study.
The Best IB YouTube Channels
Mr. Weng’s IB Chemistry by Andrew Weng
Mr. Weng’s chemistry resources encompass an extensive YouTube channel filled with several tutorial videos and his website. Often voted as one of the best online resources for IB students, Mr. Weng’s IB Chemistry offers students just what they need to learn at home and prepare for the IB chemistry exams. This resource is packed full of theory videos, links to practice questions, and video solutions to IB specimen papers. Mr. Weng does well to make his explanations simple enough for anybody that enjoys self-study. Many teachers recommend this material to their IB students for the simplicity that Mr. Weng brings to the teaching process.
Mr. Weng adopts a very qualitative teaching style that goes straight to the point without boring students with unnecessary details. The only complaint about this resource is the tutor’s potential to get slow at times, although many people still see it as a way of ensuring proper understanding. Weng has proven himself to be an excellent teacher of the subject, with many people recommending him.
What Makes it Unique:
- The resources are unique, making them one of the must-have as far as IB chemistry is concerned.
- A good combination of theory videos, practice problems, and video solutions helps students prepare well for tests and exams.
- Uses a direct and simplified method to teach an otherwise difficult course.
Why Choose this IB YouTube Resource:
- Mr. Weng’s IB Chemistry is not just encompassing, but straight to the point and great for personal studies.
- It is IB aligned, with numerous practice questions included to get followers acquainted with test structures.
Stephanie Castle
Stephanie Castle’s YouTube channel easily ranks as one of the best Biology tutoring YouTube channels for IB students. Here, IB students get free access to several Biology video tutorials that will help them study. The video tutorials are arranged by standards, with each standard featuring many written explanations. Perhaps, the biggest sell for this YouTube channel is how it narrows the tutorials down to exactly what you need to know. Stephanie Castle is a popular IB physics teacher who’s shown her ability through the series of tailored tutorial videos that she uploads on her channel. It’s not surprising that teachers recommend it to IB students as a resource for self-study.
What Makes It Unique:
- It’s a free-to-use resource with unique features for easier practice.
- It features several customization features to make studies easier and better.
Why Choose this IB YouTube Resource:
- Explanations are detailed with attention-grabbing teaching tactics.
- Stephanie’s teaching style makes self-study easier and more efficient.
The Best IB Study Guides
Bioninja
Often described as a whimsical educational site that provides review materials for the IB Biology exams, Bioninja has become popular over time. It’s a wonderful free website with its materials covering the SL and HL Bio courses. This is a website with excellent structuring where students can simply click on topics to read. This kind of structuring makes it easier for students to find the areas or topics that they are most interested in. Perhaps it’s the content of this resource that stands it out. Most students are impressed by the highly detailed explanations available for each theory. In addition to the detailed explanations, the resource also contains attached videos and nice diagrams to help students further understand each theory.
It’s an excellent accompanying resource to your IB biology textbook. Ideal material for personal study to help you understand IB biology areas that you may be lagging in.
What Makes it Unique:
- Bioninja contains several review materials presented with concise text descriptions to ensure an adequate understanding of each concept.
- The addition of detailed illustrations and diagrams to each topic makes it easier to understand.
- The material’s depth is appropriately aimed at high school students, although college students can still benefit from its contents.
Why Choose this IB Study Guide:
- The examples featured in this resource would familiarize readers with the standard of test questions.
- It offers detailed explanations of the different concepts related to this subject.
Looking for more IB study guides? Be sure to check more IB study materials here.
The Best IB Textbooks
Biology for Life by Ms. Von Bargen
As the name of this material signifies, it’s a resource that teaches concepts and practicalities of IB biology. Biology for Life is a book written by an IB teacher that has been teaching the subject for several years. Ms. Von Bargen brings her expertise in the subject to this book to help her students efficiently study at home when they need to. One stand out feature of the book is the availability of several IB resources, all completely aligned to the IB curriculum.
Apart from IB fundamentals, you also want to know the practical aspects of this subject. And this is precisely what this IB aligned textbook brings to you. The wide range of resources featured in the book includes course outlines, lesson plans, summary notes, detailed examples, and more. It’s an excellent resource for students that like to learn without going into the depths of unnecessary details.
What Makes it Unique:
- Biology for Life uses a well-structured approach to explain complicated concepts and topics.
- The availability of examples and practicals help to make learning easier and more detailed.
- It uses attention-grabbing strategies to explain difficult concepts for easier understanding.
Why Choose this IB Textbook:
- With Biology for Life, you can be guaranteed of detailed explanation of every concept and theory.
- It also serves as an excellent self-study material for students that find group study impossible.
- It is attention-grabbing and easy to understand.
Want more IB textbooks? Be sure to check our recommended IB books here.
The Best IB Question Banks
Revision Village
With a growing community of IB students and teachers, Revision Village is today adjudged one of the most popular IB resources available. It’s a beautiful website that’s now used by over 70% of IB students worldwide to study in preparation for the IB exams. Students often describe Revision Village as an easy-to-use website featuring a complete library of specific mathematics resources to help students in their quest to learn different IB mathematics topics. Besides providing a detailed explanation of concepts, this website also provides enough resources that students can use to practice and revise for their exams. Some of the website’s most used features include practice exams, learning videos, HL/SL/Studies, topic exams, IB mock exams, and step-by-step video solutions to past IB papers.
The creators of this website made it extremely easy to use, with high-quality teachers and videos to guide students. Many teachers are recommending this IB resource to students that want to improve through personal studies.
What Makes it Unique:
- It’s very hard to fault Revising Village, especially with the incorporation of both old and new curriculum courses to make studies more streamlined.
- It’s one of the most used online resources, with over 70% of IB students worldwide subscribing to it.
- Features tons of practice questions to help students familiarize themselves with test scenarios before the actual date of exams.
Why Choose this IB Resource:
- It is loaded with online resources that will help to make self-study easier.
- It features several top-quality teachers to guide students through complicated topics.
- An excellent resource for getting you ready for exams.
How to Choose the Best IB Resources for You
The IB program is pretty complicated, with so many hurdles to pass before graduating. Experts advise that you don’t just depend on classroom tutoring to pass the IB exams with flying colors. Thankfully, there are several online and offline resources for IB students worldwide. Access to most of these resources is free, so you can study on your own to get yourself acquainted with practical examples and examination questions before your exam dates.
However, many students complain about finding it hard to pick the best IB resources from the sea of options available online. Whether you are choosing from the IB Reddit website or getting suggestions from an expert, you want to have the following questions in mind.
Do You Want A Resource for Self-study?
Most people buying IB resources do it to aid self-study. However, that’s not the only reason to get IB resources. Some resources also exist for classroom usage. Therefore, before settling for a resource, ask yourself whether you are studying at home alone or you need a resource that you can use for group study. Most of the resources reviewed in this article are great for self-study, so you can grab any of them, assured that it’d help you get better in the specific subject you are buying it for. However, if you are not buying for self-study, you can look at independent online reviews or ask your teacher for recommendations that would suit your reading pattern.
Are You Getting Ready for an Examination?
As an IB student, you’ll have to take periodical examinations before finishing the program. Most of these exams are based on the IB syllabus, so their questions are typically related to what you’ll learn in class. However, you don’t want to rely on what you’ll learn in class for your all-important exams. Getting additional resources would help to widen your scope of understanding as far as the subject is concerned. It’s also important to note that many of these websites contain IB resources past papers to help you familiarize yourself with how exams typically look. While there’s no guarantee that you’ll encounter similar questions in the exam hall, you would be familiar with how IB exams are set. These IB topical past papers also help you test how ready you are for the exams after each study session.
Are You Looking for A General Overview or a More Comprehensive IB Resource?
Different IB resources exist for different purposes. Finding the best resource for IB often depends on what your goal is. While some of these resources are generic with materials touching on different aspects of your studies, others are more streamlined to target one part. Therefore, before getting your resource, it’s essential to be clear about your objectives. Suppose you want a resource that you can use to develop a specific aspect of your study, then go for it. Otherwise, you can get a resource that touches different aspects to help you study from a broader perspective.
Wrapping Things Up: The Best IB Resources
There you have it, the best IB resources for you. The International Baccalaureate Diploma Program is a significant program for high school students looking to expand their chances of college scholarships and employment opportunities. The rigorous nature of the program often scares people away from it. However, having the right resources helps to ease things up. Apart from the regular classwork, students would want to study alone and in groups for better results. However, the limitation is usually finding the best IB resources. There are so many options out there, but only a few of them can be trusted to provide value. Picking one or more of the options reviewed in this article guarantees you the best possible outcome.
You don’t have to pick our options if you don’t want to. If you prefer making your choice by yourself, that’s okay too. Check out our guide for tips and questions that will help you make the right choice. In a hurry? Pick our favorite option, Mr. Weng’s IB Chemistry, by Andrew Weng, an encompassing resource that combines a YouTube channel and a simple website to teach IB subjects. Our runners up, Khan Academy by Sal Khan, connects students with private tutors for free.
Looking for more high school study tips? We’ve got a ton more free comprehensive guides here.
You may also find the following IB related articles interesting:
> Is IB Worth It? Your Answers Here
> What is the International Baccalaureate (IB) Program?
