Which Chemistry Options do you take?

[URA BOAT]

btw props for doing extra...i mean the organic when you don't even have to....and something else that is cool is that their are infinite number of compounds..with the isomers and stuff

[Emmi]

Thanks Yeah I felt it would be good to have a back-up, just in case the questions in the two options we do are too hard

[ninety]

My school's Chemistry department teaches options B and D. BUT, I'm self-studying option A instead of B.

I don't mind Drugs and Medicine, but I'm really scared of Human Biochemistry. I never really liked memorising stuff in Biology. I had a look at the other options and found that Modern Analytical Chemistry is actually quite simple and straightforward. Plus, I take Physics and certain parts of the option overlap with the Physics syllabus (E=hf, EM spectrum, etc).

If you're taking Physics alongside Chemistry and you're struggling with an option or you don't really enjoy it, you should definitely consider studying option A!

[dessskris]

Modern Analytical Chemistry is actually quite simple and straightforward. Plus, I take Physics and certain parts of the option overlap with the Physics syllabus (E=hf, EM spectrum, etc).

If you're taking Physics alongside Chemistry and you're struggling with an option or you don't really enjoy it, you should definitely consider studying option A!

ahaha you're right all Physics HL students in my school are all (and the only) Chemistry SL students we all already covered option A in Chem like a few months ago, and just now we covered the Nuclear Atom and stuff chapter in Physics, our teacher was like "oh you know this already? ok skip... oh you know this one? ok skip... this also?? ok skip..." lol we skipped so many points because we've covered them in Chem SL I love how these two subjects overlap!

[ninety]

Modern Analytical Chemistry is actually quite simple and straightforward. Plus, I take Physics and certain parts of the option overlap with the Physics syllabus (E=hf, EM spectrum, etc).

If you're taking Physics alongside Chemistry and you're struggling with an option or you don't really enjoy it, you should definitely consider studying option A!

ahaha you're right all Physics HL students in my school are all (and the only) Chemistry SL students we all already covered option A in Chem like a few months ago, and just now we covered the Nuclear Atom and stuff chapter in Physics, our teacher was like "oh you know this already? ok skip... oh you know this one? ok skip... this also?? ok skip..." lol we skipped so many points because we've covered them in Chem SL I love how these two subjects overlap!

Haha, I know a few people who do both Chemistry and Physics at HL. For them, certain parts of the syllabi just kinda fuse together in their brains

One of them tried to explain what the two subjects were like at IB to a pre-IB kid, and he basically ended up calling Chem and Physics 'the same thing' and 'one big subject altogether' (or something along those lines). At that time both my Chem and Physics teachers happened to be nearby and they were really amused by his explanation!

[Damien R.]

Human biochemistry along with medicines and drugs - we did it because everyone but myself in the class wants to go off and do medicine or vetinary sciences. However, even though I was initially a little upset we didn't do the industrial choice, I must admit that is pretty useful and interesting. Not too long a topic and it's very understandable (plus the maths within is pretty straight forward). x

[Avan:)]

food chemistry, because apparently it matches with the subject we did before: food tech

[xerou]

My teacher is having us study for our options be ourselves, and of the two, I'm currently studying for Medicines and Drugs since I heard it was similar to health, according to HL students.

[BaY SiK]

I'm in SL chem and we already did the environmental option. The teacher says she's saving the best for last: medicine and drugs

[Sofi315]

I'm in SL chem and we already did the environmental option. The teacher says she's saving the best for last: medicine and drugs

I'm in SL chem too, and we did the same option options, environmental chemistry and medicine and drugs... what a strange coincidence.

But what is even weirder is that our teacher said exaclty the same thing about medicine and drugs...O.o

[Bernardo Silva]

I don't know about other schools but in our school the options, in HL at least, are those that the teacher specialized in. I'm doing further organic chem and medicines and drugs. that'll actually be useful if i end up going to med school because in bio we're doing further human physiology.

[Artoth]

I don't know about other schools but in our school the options, in HL at least, are those that the teacher specialized in. I'm doing further organic chem and medicines and drugs. that'll actually be useful if i end up going to med school because in bio we're doing further human physiology.

In my opinion further organic chemistry was not usefull at all. And as it is one of the harder options I wouldn't recommend it. Although, if you like learning by heart some ***** reactions, go on ; )

[Jaydon]

I feel kind of short-changed taking options A and B (probably the hardest two) because our school gives us no choice

[Vincent Casey F]

I feel kind of short-changed taking options A and B (probably the hardest two) because our school gives us no choice

Wait.. what? Your school chooses FOR you?

In my school they do a poll, then they teach the highest voted option. You have to study the second one yourself.

Everyone in my class chose Drugs And Meds simply because it's the easiest. Honestly it's all common sense: what happens if you drink too much? what effects does coffee have on your body? For my mocks I studied it for 2 hours from my course companion and got perfect score. For my second option I chose Environmental cause it seems the easiest after Drugs And Meds. But I can definitely see why so many people choose Biochem, though! Cause Chem HL people are usually double science people with Bio HL, so the material would simply repeat in their option (in my opinion this makes the whole option thing a little biased).

What do you think about Environmental? Is it easy in your opinion?

[eelnedross]

Hey, I was wondering, which are the 2 easiest options?

I plan on doing Option A and Option E, because i'm taking Physics SL and Geography HL.

Is this a good idea? I really don't like memorizing stuff like you do in Biology, i prefer to do more math-related stuff, such as calculations or exercises.

[AustralianIB]

I took Environmental Chemistry and Modern Analytical Chemistry when I did my Diploma in 2010. Environmental has virtually no calculations and is a fairly straightforward to memorise (most of it is on pollution and global warming, which most people should be familiar with from Year 8 Science).

Modern Analytical is also very straight forward. Although the suggested "hours" in the syllabus is the same, the actually content can be covered very quickly. I can cover this option with students within about 4 hours. The reason is because it has little content and a lot of applications. Most of this option is applying your knowledge from SL Organic Chemistry.

[yomanyomo]

Heyy, I'm a sophomore going into the IBDP. I'm taking Chemistry SL next year, but I'd like to know if its difficult even at SL.

I'm OKAY at Chemistry, 5/7 in Pre-IB.

Should I take it? Or should I take Bio? I got 4/7 in Bio but thats because I slacked off and didn't study well.

[the Teddy Piano]

Our school only offers Medicines and drugs and Environmental Chemistry for HL Students . But if I really am able to choose two of them, I'd rather change the EC into Biochemistry .

[Kitsumi]

Our chemistry teacher taught us Enviro chem and medicine and drugs. And literally the night before paper 3, I started reading Human Biochemistry because I didn't review any enviro chem at all. I never read the human biochem section before, but it's almost identical to biology, just with added chemical equations and illnesses.

[Chosu]

My teacher basically forced us to take environmental chem. There was a vote in my class and there were more hands up for medicine and drugs. I'm hating it already. I'm not interested in the environment, I'm interested in all things human... I'm really bitter about the fact that we didn't get the drugs option. The teacher said that environmental chem would be an IB thing to know. Like we need to know about environment and stuff because we are IB students. I can honestly say that I have no interest in it.