Isabelle Stierlin | Celebrating Our 2024 IB Results

Isabelle: I’m Isabelle, and I’m 17 years old.

I come from Bulgaria and Switzerland, and I moved over to King's InterHigh from a physical school in Bulgaria.

My hobbies strongly lie in the artistic sphere, and whilst I adore singing and dancing, I am more professionally developed in acting, which is my true passion.

However, another great passion of mine is in academic subjects, such as sciences and literature. I am known to be quite the environmentalist!

Isabelle: I joined King’s InterHigh as I saw that it offered the perfect subjects and type of education I needed, and I also came to know how flexible yet professional it is academically. Consequently, I wanted to try out online school and "shoot my shot," which thankfully turned out to be the best decision I have taken in my life.

As the school I was previously in did not offer the standards of professionalism and education that my parents and I expected, we saw King's InterHigh as the best alternative, which immediately shifted into an opportunity.

Isabelle: I have had so much fun at school, which is not something I used to say that often before King's InterHigh, to be completely honest.

I couldn’t believe how much I learned in the little time I was there, but also with what ease and positivity it was brought to me. I was immediately so stunned by how great, friendly yet professional the teachers were, and I felt accommodated to the fullest throughout my time at King's InterHigh.

Whilst I had ups and downs, I was never left alone to deal with difficulties, and was thankfully always given the best, most understanding path to succeed and demonstrate my best potential for exams.

Isabelle: My favourite subject is ESS (Environmental Systems and Societies) and it always has been. To me this is the greatest subject invented, as I can’t call it a "subject," but rather a world of perspectives on environmental, social, political, business, and historical aspects.

To add to its greatness, I had the most wonderful teacher who was always making me more curious about the world and all little things that make it up. Hence, I managed to learn so much with this subject that I was proud of myself for taking it.

Isabelle: I sat English Language and Literature, French B and Business at Higher Level, and Bulgarian Literature, ESS, and Maths AA at Standard Level. Whilst they were difficult and required a lot of work, I felt like I had made the right choices as a lot of the subjects complimented each other in a way that helped shape my mind for the exams.

Isabelle: Preparing online for the exams made me surprisingly more organised and responsible. Teachers were giving us a great deal of revision material, but only with essential things (which to me is most helpful). That enhanced my revision, and they were also encouraging us to make revision tables months prior to the exams.

They always ensured that we were well prepared and confident om ourselves to sit the exams, which I appreciate most, as the mind is the greatest drive towards success or failure. Consequently, the teachers made me a whole lot more confident about my abilities and strengths for the exams whilst I was working on improving my weaknesses.

Isabelle: To be completely honest, every single teacher in King's InterHigh has helped me so much in one way or another. Whilst Mrs. Kirby helped me so much in making my Extended Essay perfect, Mrs. Hurst was helping me refine my French and work on the areas I needed most improvement in, like grammar. Mr. Cockayne helped me get through Maths AA as I had to learn it for two terms, and Mr. Hackett helped me to think of business through anecdotes, with ideologies that I was then applying on the practice papers he was giving us. Mrs. Chadderton was helping me structure my exam writing structure for ESS. Mrs. Piron and I were advancing on the material for the Bulgarian exam, whilst Mr. Tipton and Ms. Markham taught me how to properly and academically write essays.

Every teacher helped me become my best version so much, which I hopefully managed to fully demonstrate into the exams.

Isabelle: I have adopted my own revision technique when I sit any exam and it is very simple: I take a clean piece of paper and write summaries of a topic, book, chapter, subject, timeline of events, formulas, or anything that is absolutely necessary for the exam. Then, I begin going through this info (which, by the making of this sheet, is already fully established in my head). Consequently, I start making connections between the information, and by re-reading the notes and making sense of them, I naturally revise or learn them.

Another great tip is that I ask myself, if I were asked a question on this or that topic on the exam, what is the information that I wouldn’t know how to answer or lack… and that is exactly the information that I tackle, learn, or revise more thoroughly. Hence, even if I know the piece of information, I gain confidence that I know it fully, and usually that helps me do better on exams.

Isabelle: My advice is to have complete self control in the sense that they shouldn’t let anybody tell them exactly how to go about revising, but should sense how they themselves understand information, so they can use this as a tool to then revise.

Another great tip is to be completely relaxed. At the end of the day, being worried or not wouldn’t make such a difference, if you think about it. So, why not worry less and focus, rather than let the worry eat your confidence and knowledge? All I can say is, if you have made it this far, you have already reached the peak; now it’s just time to use that muscle for the climb down.

Isabelle: As we all know, the future is completely unknown, but my current future plan is to go to London and study acting.

Additionally, I will be looking for any opportunities that might take me by the hand and introduce me more into the world of theatre and film. I hope that my passion for art and acting will lead me a great way, and as I don’t know what life might throw at me, I cannot fully answer this question. But, I hope that whatever it is that I encounter, it is something that I can learn from more and something that will teach me more about the world.