22 replies to this topic

[emantse]

Hey all, new to this site, course planning forms are due tomorrow, so I'm a bit stressed, which HL course should I take (our school only offers HL) History HL or Geo HL? Opinions and comments, or anything else is welcome =) Thanks!

[Vol de Mort]

Take the one you like more.

[emantse]

Thing is, I haven't really gotten a taste of Geo, honestly I don't think it will affect much in terms of admission because I'm thinking to go towards sciences. History was pretty interesting at times though.

[milk]

i would personally go geography but i looove geography so... i'm biased wish my school had it!

[Desy Glau]

History would be more useful than Geo.

[spereira14]

Check out the Geography syllabus in the downloads section, that really helped me out. However, take in consideration how much the Geography syllabus can vary, as there are a lot of options, and it could be very people based or very environmentally based. You should probably ask the teacher tomorrow and make her/him tell you a bit more about the subject. It seems to my that you like History better, and if it doesn't matter admission wise then choose it. Both are considered good subjects.

Good luck with your decisions, I know I struggled with mine (I still do), and I chose Geography over History, but that's because of other reasons, I love them both.

[emantse]

Thanks guys for your input and to desy, how come, care to elaborate please? = ) on an unrelated note... is there a huge discrepancy between Chem SL + HL?

[Vol de Mort]

emantse, on Feb 07, 2012 - 04:39, said:

Thanks guys for your input and to desy, how come, care to elaborate please? = ) on an unrelated note... is there a huge discrepancy between Chem SL + HL?

Yes, considerbly so.

[spereira14]

emantse, on Feb 07, 2012 - 04:39, said:

Thanks guys for your input and to desy, how come, care to elaborate please? = ) on an unrelated note... is there a huge discrepancy between Chem SL + HL?

Which one is more useful is very subjective, it all depends on your interests and your desired career.

[citizenoftheuniverse]

History is a more common subject, so you could get more help with it on forums and such. However, since geography is a more uncommon subject it could maybe help you stand out from the crowd come application time. If you are better with sciences than humanities, geography is said to be more scientific. Also, geography talks about many things that are just generally good to know, like about the environment and about how resources are distributed and so on.

[emantse]

Thanks guys, just to let you know, I went with Geo, thanks all for your input, i did want to explore it so i went with it.. glad i found this site though =) fellow ib-ers

[flinquinnster]

Hope you enjoy geography! I do geography and history, and I like both (I'm into group 3 subjects in general). History does require quite a lot more reading, and is a more traditional subject, but geography is very contemporary and relevant, and I like what the syllabus covers. Get ready to immerse yourself in lots of current affairs, contemporary issues etc. I guess it's different to history, where you have to immerse yourself in issues that were several decades ago, but they are surprisingly similar. And I think it is also true that geography tends to be more science-like in its nature.

[spereira14]

flinquinnster, on Feb 10, 2012 - 06:26, said:

Hope you enjoy geography! I do geography and history, and I like both (I'm into group 3 subjects in general). History does require quite a lot more reading, and is a more traditional subject, but geography is very contemporary and relevant, and I like what the syllabus covers. Get ready to immerse yourself in lots of current affairs, contemporary issues etc. I guess it's different to history, where you have to immerse yourself in issues that were several decades ago, but they are surprisingly similar. And I think it is also true that geography tends to be more science-like in its nature.

Hey there, I haven't started Geography yet, so I wouldn't know, so I was wondering if Geography really covers current affairs and such things, as that's what interests me the most. Also, would it help to study Geopolitics in the future? Thanks

[tank85]

spereira14, on Feb 10, 2012 - 23:30, said:

flinquinnster, on Feb 10, 2012 - 06:26, said:

Hope you enjoy geography! I do geography and history, and I like both (I'm into group 3 subjects in general). History does require quite a lot more reading, and is a more traditional subject, but geography is very contemporary and relevant, and I like what the syllabus covers. Get ready to immerse yourself in lots of current affairs, contemporary issues etc. I guess it's different to history, where you have to immerse yourself in issues that were several decades ago, but they are surprisingly similar. And I think it is also true that geography tends to be more science-like in its nature.

Hey there, I haven't started Geography yet, so I wouldn't know, so I was wondering if Geography really covers current affairs and such things, as that's what interests me the most. Also, would it help to study Geopolitics in the future? Thanks

Well, yes you cover a wide variety of current issues. I am in IB2 and when I first decided to choose geography I thought it would be a physical geography style course. However, I found out most of the core (SL) and the extension (HL) deals with human geography. The options are the ones where the physical geography is studied.

IMO it is an interesting course, one from which I have learned a lot about global issues. The syllabus also covers development economics which I think is quite interesting.

Although yes I feel it is an easy course when you get periodical exams where you have to learn 5-8 case studies but for mocks and IBs it is going to be hard to learn so many case studies. You have to have the determination to read periodically your case studies in order to ace the IB. Also I found the IA to be easy but time consuming. Scoring high in the IA is not hard but it requires time, something that I know not all IB students have (blame procrastination).

For Geopolitics I am not entirely sure what it consists of. However, I think geography will help to give you some background knowledge as in the course you study different situations that cause tension between nations.

Overall I would definitely recommend taking it, it is such a fun course.

[spereira14]

flinquinnster, on Feb 10, 2012 - 06:26, said:

Well, yes you cover a wide variety of current issues. I am in IB2 and when I first decided to choose geography I thought it would be a physical geography style course. However, I found out most of the core (SL) and the extension (HL) deals with human geography. The options are the ones where the physical geography is studied.

IMO it is an interesting course, one from which I have learned a lot about global issues. The syllabus also covers development economics which I think is quite interesting.

Although yes I feel it is an easy course when you get periodical exams where you have to learn 5-8 case studies but for mocks and IBs it is going to be hard to learn so many case studies. You have to have the determination to read periodically your case studies in order to ace the IB. Also I found the IA to be easy but time consuming. Scoring high in the IA is not hard but it requires time, something that I know not all IB students have (blame procrastination).

For Geopolitics I am not entirely sure what it consists of. However, I think geography will help to give you some background knowledge as in the course you study different situations that cause tension between nations.

Overall I would definitely recommend taking it, it is such a fun course.

That's fantastic, thank you for anwering my questions. What I don't understand are the case studies? What are they and what do you have to learn? Is it also based more on local geography or international? Thanks again

[tank85]

Case studies are basically real life situations. For example my teacher chose to do as an option "Freshwater issues and conflicts" so as case studies we learned about water conflict of the River Nile and Jordan. Case studies are what quotations are to english papers, they are examples that support/give evidence of the essay questions you have to answer. You have to learn figures and important facts for each situation (yeah its hard but not impossible).

The syllabus encourages to use a combination of local and international case studies. For example I have case studies of the countries, my country, UK, Canada,USA, African countries, and from the Middle East. But generally local case studies are easier to learn for examinations as you are read the news, you experience it, and you discuss it with friends/family.

[flinquinnster]

spereira14, on Feb 10, 2012 - 23:30, said:

flinquinnster, on Feb 10, 2012 - 06:26, said:

Hope you enjoy geography! I do geography and history, and I like both (I'm into group 3 subjects in general). History does require quite a lot more reading, and is a more traditional subject, but geography is very contemporary and relevant, and I like what the syllabus covers. Get ready to immerse yourself in lots of current affairs, contemporary issues etc. I guess it's different to history, where you have to immerse yourself in issues that were several decades ago, but they are surprisingly similar. And I think it is also true that geography tends to be more science-like in its nature.

Hey there, I haven't started Geography yet, so I wouldn't know, so I was wondering if Geography really covers current affairs and such things, as that's what interests me the most. Also, would it help to study Geopolitics in the future? Thanks

Yeah, as said above, geography's a pretty well-rounded course in the IB because it's focus is on HUMAN interactions with the environment, not just necessarily the environment itself. And the case studies aspect of it keeps it quite contemporary and relevant - and hopefully relevant to geopolitics as well. The geography course does explore how our actions impact on what's around us, in quite a lot of detail. I think that HL is (not sure) not that much more difficult conceptually, but the bulk of content may be harder to retain than in SL. My impression is that the essays for exams are also more free-form, unlike in history, so there's more room to express yourself and use content, rather than being worried about "am I quoting enough historiography/literary techniques etc." which is definitely useful.

So yes, I think that it's quite relevant to geopolitics as it covers a lot of the social/human impacts of the environment and how we live in it, but as with any IB course, it's only the starting ground to further study in any area.

[eloobyloo]

Just to give you a bit of a warning, IB History HL is hard, but very very interesting, you won't get bored.
Some of my friends do Geo HL and they are finding that hard as well, but also very boring.
At the end of the day, it's up to you!

[tank85]

eloobyloo, on Feb 14, 2012 - 11:26, said:

Just to give you a bit of a warning, IB History HL is hard, but very very interesting, you won't get bored.
Some of my friends do Geo HL and they are finding that hard as well, but also very boring.
At the end of the day, it's up to you!

flinquinnster, on Feb 14, 2012 - 06:54, said:

spereira14, on Feb 10, 2012 - 23:30, said:

flinquinnster, on Feb 10, 2012 - 06:26, said:

Hope you enjoy geography! I do geography and history, and I like both (I'm into group 3 subjects in general). History does require quite a lot more reading, and is a more traditional subject, but geography is very contemporary and relevant, and I like what the syllabus covers. Get ready to immerse yourself in lots of current affairs, contemporary issues etc. I guess it's different to history, where you have to immerse yourself in issues that were several decades ago, but they are surprisingly similar. And I think it is also true that geography tends to be more science-like in its nature.

Hey there, I haven't started Geography yet, so I wouldn't know, so I was wondering if Geography really covers current affairs and such things, as that's what interests me the most. Also, would it help to study Geopolitics in the future? Thanks

Yeah, as said above, geography's a pretty well-rounded course in the IB because it's focus is on HUMAN interactions with the environment, not just necessarily the environment itself. And the case studies aspect of it keeps it quite contemporary and relevant - and hopefully relevant to geopolitics as well. The geography course does explore how our actions impact on what's around us, in quite a lot of detail. I think that HL is (not sure) not that much more difficult conceptually, but the bulk of content may be harder to retain than in SL. My impression is that the essays for exams are also more free-form, unlike in history, so there's more room to express yourself and use content, rather than being worried about "am I quoting enough historiography/literary techniques etc." which is definitely useful.

So yes, I think that it's quite relevant to geopolitics as it covers a lot of the social/human impacts of the environment and how we live in it, but as with any IB course, it's only the starting ground to further study in any area.

Yep, Geography I must say has to be considerably easier that history. However in order to achieve a high mark in the essays (Mark band E or above) you need to include various case studies and detail examples (a.k.a actual figures). On the down side you only get 20 to 30 minutes to write the essay (the time you get depend on how much you spend on the short question) and believe me it is not easy to write a decent case study with structure and organized ideas when you have to choose between planning or allowing yourself enough time to complete the essay.

Also case studies have to be contemporary so as flinquinnster said it might help in geopolitics.

[spereira14]

I think that both Hisotry and Geography might be able to help with the study of Geopolitics. One helps you understand the why of certain things and the other gives you knowledge on more current/future issues. Are there any examples of Geography essays?