23 replies to this topic

[stylusdef]

One of the older students at my school who's in the IB (I'm in pre-IB) told me that you have to read double as much material in the Psychology course as in the History course. I guess this is not true. Anyways, I know that history involves a heck of lot of reading, but is psychology actually even worse?

[rue saint-denis]

stylusdef, on Apr 23 2008, 11:29 AM, said:

One of the older students at my school who's in the IB (I'm in pre-IB) told me that you have to read double as much material in the Psychology course as in the History course. I guess this is not true. Anyways, I know that history involves a heck of lot of reading, but is psychology actually even worse?

Psychology does require lots of research and dedication, but it's easy and interesting! If you're into psychology it won't be a problem. I say go for it.

[schouston1991]

No way! I do both psychology AND History and let me tell you, history is way! way way way way worse. (yes you can deffinaly tell that im a history student)

Psychology does require a lot of reading particularly about specific studies related to different thoeris and different perspectives.

but deffinatly not as much as history

psychology is a great sybject, heaps of fun and gives you loads of insight into your own and others live. haha can actually be a tad frecky sometimes.

you;ll be right with the content. its not too overbearing.

-soph xx

[Stereoisomer]

Hello there!


Don't listen to the rumours! My best friend is doing (against her better judgement if you ask me) HL history! I've seen her trying to memorise practically a whole book (which is about the thickness of an encyclopedia) on some dude called Lenin?!?!

Psych is way more interesting/useful! Though I must admit you do need to memorise some..

Good Luck!

[Zefar]

Psychology is much more interesting than history, history is boring and alot of reading

[abcdrcill]

Thre is a lot of memorization, and the instructor of the course at our school makes students write a LOT!. The psych textbook is pretty thin in comparison to the history books. . I think you MIGHT have to read more in the psych course. Ideally in a history class, you read a chapter and spend another two to three weeks discussing the chapter. In psychology, the reading is more frequent.

[saya]

I guess it all depends on the teacher...my teacher makes us read A LOT.The very first week we had to read the first chapter (some 30 pages). But if you like the subject, then you don't mind reading 30, 50 or 100 pages because they are actually interesting.
Answering your question, in my case, yeah, it is very much true.

[Firefly]

Psychology is fun... when having my teacher. For each lesson he hands out one or two experiments for which we then discuss about. We discuss a lot, which is more than great! My only subject in which I do not get any homework. For the tests it is enough to memorise the experiments (which is easy after all the intense discussing) and some reading in the book to see if there is something that is not already included in the experiments.

I feel bad for those who are taking History HL. They suffer. Many books, many essays. But I've heard that they, as we, have a great teacher.

Good luck

Edit: Just saw that this is an old thread... oh well. May help someone else. ^^

Edited by Firefly, Oct 10, 2008 - 20:46.

[Aldarion]

I have both Psychology and History as HL subjects and in my opinion psychology has more reading. You have to read quite a lot in psychology, because there are all the different perspectives and at least our teacher gives us huge piles of extra material. But that may be only our teacher. In history, on the other hand, we read much as well, but in lessons our history teacher lectures more and we have lots of discussions (I'm not saying that we don't have discussions in psychology as well). In my case we have two books for each of these subjects, but on history I have only few extra handouts. On psychology I have one full file and soon I have start another.

But in the end, I think you shouldn't choose your subjects according to the amount of reading. Just think which subject you prefer more and go with that. Or like in my case, choose both!

[whispoffrost]

stylusdef, on Apr 24 2008, 01:29 AM, said:

One of the older students at my school who's in the IB (I'm in pre-IB) told me that you have to read double as much material in the Psychology course as in the History course. I guess this is not true. Anyways, I know that history involves a heck of lot of reading, but is psychology actually even worse?

I am sure that it differs from school to school but at mine the history students have A LOT more reading than us psych students, and our subject is much more interesting!!

[bomb]

if my school offered it i'd definately go for psych. for one thing, it is more intersesting, and teaches you much more of what you need to know in life. history, i'd recommend if you plan to do law of some sort

[Alouette]

I think this really depends on the school...

I take Asian history (S level) as an elective (it's a pilot IB class at my school) AND psychology (S), and there's way more reading in psych class than in history. We have three freakin' textbooks to cover, and that's just for the second year of IB (last year we had two different ones). There's a lot of memorising in both classes... but for me, psych's more interesting because it's more applicable to real life (sometimes, haha).

So I guess the final answer is: it depends, partially on your teacher. My psych teacher gives out reading assignments for every class, and they're always a chapter or two long. :\

[cmcgui09]

stylusdef, on Apr 23 2008, 04:29 PM, said:

One of the older students at my school who's in the IB (I'm in pre-IB) told me that you have to read double as much material in the Psychology course as in the History course. I guess this is not true. Anyways, I know that history involves a heck of lot of reading, but is psychology actually even worse?

IB requires an awful lot of reading, but it's all about how much you choose to do. As well as how much your school gives you and makes you do. I don't do history but I know psychology does require a lot of reading. It all depends on how indepth you want to go.

[KiwiFruit]

At our school the psychology average for the end of year exam was 43%, people are frustrated by the sheer number of case studies and examples that are needed, all and everybody's theories you have learned about could be asked. Psychology sounds harder to me.

[avrila]

My school didn't offer History and Psychology subject. But reading this thread made me wonder how fun if I could learn Psychology.
And of course it will be much more interesting than History.

[Aether]

Hmmm actually I think that at least in my case it does apply. I do read more in psychology. However it is not because history is not lots of reading, its because if I dont read in history I can still understand the class, and with psychology you just can't.

[Graeme]

For those of you that are VIPs, make sure you check my notes.

It seems like a lot of information to learn, but it just requires some careful planning. I was able to learn studies that I was able to use in every single question as they related to everything. The key thing is to learn how to manipulate studies to fit different questions.

[Eternalx]

Well i don't do history, but let me tell you psychology isn't that hard. Just learn the main studies and write some essays. Just a hint: REMEMBER YOUR STUFF! all you need to do is remember he important facts and then in the exam you can just write based on what you know. Also the analysis is easy, just put some credible explanations down and back it up with a study.

Good Luck.

[confusedito]

There isn't that much reading. I don't know how applicable this is to anyone else, but I just pay attention in class. Then, when it comes time for the test, I just review a few studies. I don't know if it is a required reading or not, but our teacher gave us a book by a guy named Hock on like 40 influential studies. It's very nice because it goes over strengths and weaknesses on each study giving methodology, criticisms, updates, etc. Very nice book.

[Emkay]

I take both History HL and Psychology HL. History HL is mandatory in my school, and I could only choose from Visual Arts or Psychology HL for my 6th subject.

Psychology is definitely a lot more reading! I can't even say I enjoy it, its not too bad but my teacher is crazy. It's only her first year teaching Psychology HL and she does not know what she's doing. She just keeps printing things out and handing out material. The case studies add on more too read.

History HL right now is pretty interesting. We've done reading but not to an overwhelming point. Maybe there'll be more reading when we start reading novels but ehhh. I'm most definitely a history person, so maybe it's just me. I know I would have enjoyed psychology more with a different teacher.

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