Guest Blogs
Knowitall.ch often invites local experts in their field to contribute to their own blogs on our site. This means not only you will benefit from the useful recommendations that we make on our News pages, but you can also profit from some of the great advice and tips that these experts have to make on their favorite subjects. Whilst each of these bloggers has been recommended to us at some point during the evolution of Know-it-all passport and knowitall.ch, obviously we are not able to test out all the suggestions they make on their blogs, nor do we necessarily agree with all their opinions. So if you do find one of their tips useful (or not!), do let us know!
To make these blogs more accessible to you, we have now decided to group them altogether in one section, entitled Guest Blogs, accessible from our main menu bar. We will also post the most recent blogs on the home page of our site in the right hand column.
We are still building up this area of the site, and are looking for bloggers in a number of sections, including Your Home, Travel, and Leisure, so if you feel you have a useful contribution to make in either of these areas, and have the time to submit blog entries approximately every month, then please get in touch!
By Claire Doole, www.doolecommunications.com
The short answer is not much. In most cases, it goes in one ear and out the other!
Studies show that people forget half of what you say almost immediately; by the next day, it drops to a quarter and a week later, just a tenth.
That is pretty dispiriting given how long people spend preparing presentations.
However, help is at hand from the research of the German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus, who at the beginning of the last century pioneered “The Forgetting Curve”.
Ebbinghaus not only showed that the human brain is extremely poor at retaining the spoken word, but he also gave us clear instructions on how to overcome this memory challenge.
In my workshops and coaching sessions, I play a memory game based on Ebbinghaus’s research. Wherever people are from, however educated or linguistically skilled they are, they all tend to remember and forget the same things. Remarkably, we all have the same brain, and it works in the same way, whoever we are!
By Claire Doole, www.doolecommunications.com
The football league season has just got underway but I want to take you back to the World Cup final in July.
Why on earth was Tom Cruise, an American Hollywood star, giving a speech at the closing ceremony in New York?
That was the question on my mind and on many other football fans – apart from the obvious if you are English which is when is it (the Cup) coming home!
He has no connection with the sport. Why was he delivering a very American-style inspirational message to a predominantly international football audience?
And that was the problem – the ethos or credibility was not there.
In fact, he was telling the audience, something they already know better than him – that football crosses borders and cultures, unites people and as he says at the end – “This is greatness”.
By Sandra Steiger, Academic Support Manager, TutorsPlus
Results day is undeniably one of the most emotionally charged days of a teen’s life. Months, even years of hard work come down to a single moment on Monday, July 6, 12:00 PM GMT. Whether you're confident about receiving good news or bracing for a surprise, knowing what to do at each stage makes the experience so much easier to navigate. To help students and families prepare, TutorsPlus is hosting a free webinar on 1 July 2026 led by university admissions specialist Dr Daniele Labriola, covering exactly what to do when results arrive, as well as a live Q&A. Here’s a recap of the basics in the meantime.
Accessing Your Results
Log in using your case-sensitive Personal Code and PIN provided by your IB Coordinator. Ensure you locate them a few days in advance. The portal gets extremely busy the moment results drop, so if pages are slow to load, wait a few minutes rather than repeatedly refreshing. Bear in mind that three failed login attempts will lock your account for 30 minutes.
Once inside, your results statement will show subject grades (1–7), TOK and Extended Essay bonus points, your total score out of 45, CAS completion status, and your Diploma award status.
University Offers and UCAS Clearing
The IB sends results electronically to universities and UCAS automatically. You don't need to do this yourself. If you've met your conditions, your place is confirmed through UCAS Hub, with a notification typically following within 24–48 hours.
A narrow miss doesn't automatically close the door. Admissions teams often consider the broader picture including your HL grades, predicted grades, personal statement, and references. In this scenario, contact the admissions office directly and promptly; a calm, proactive conversation can go a long way.
Photo from Yulia Gapeenko on vecteezy.com
By Philippa Dobree-Carey, The Mamaholic
Teenagers are basically hormonal landmines with in-built AirPods.
One minute they’re charming and fun to hang out with, the next they’re stomping upstairs because you dared to ask if they’ve done their homework.
First comes the backtalk, then the mood swings, the sleeping‑until‑noon as if it’s a medical condition, and finally the humongous appetite that lets them inhale a family‑sized lasagne and still ask for a snack ten minutes later.
And then there’s the focus problem - or rather, the complete absence of one.
This isn’t your imagination. Their brain is genuinely under construction. The prefrontal cortex - the bit responsible for decision‑making, impulse control, and not saying something catastrophically stupid - won’t be fully formed until their mid‑twenties. Which explains why they can remember every detail of a TikTok reel, but somehow forget you asked them to take the bins out three times.
Add hormones, friendship fallouts, exam pressure, and the constant background hum of “everyone else is doing better than me,” and you’ve got a young person insisting they’re “fine” with all the conviction of someone who hasn’t slept properly in weeks.
So yes, they have issues focusing.
And no, it’s not because you haven’t reminded them enough.
Latest news
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8