How are my subject choices? (Last one I promise)

[Franz Liszt]

Hi there, after spending quite some time on lurking on the forums, listening to advice and reading through various syllabi I have finally decided to take:

HL: Biology, Eng. Lit, Econs and History

SL: Math and Mandarin

At the moment I do understand that the workload might be ridiculously high, but the only reason why I choose such a scheme is because I really love all the subjects I have chosen and they seem to compliment my strengths(reading a lot of texts) rather than weakness(1,2,3,5,7,9...). Anyways, if all fails I can always drop down HL Bio to SL Bio.

All in all, what do you guys think about this plan? Any suggestions and comments?

Thank you very much in advance!

Edited March 11, 2013 by Franz Liszt

[drackele]

First of all, if you like these subjects, go ahead why not

is there some concerns that you have over these subjects

the 4 HL plan is what i am doing

its not that much workload

If you like your HL subjects then your fine

[Kimmerrayy]

Hello there,

It seems like you've got quite a nice set of subject choice. I personally enjoy taking Economics HL as my subject, although I'm unsure about the other subject choices.

In my own opinion, taking 4 HL subjects is quite a tough challenge. (Looking at your subject choice, I'd kill myself from the intensive writing session during exam! )

I, myself decided not to undertake this challenge as I have realized the tremendous amount of work and effort that comes along with it, even though I may be very passionate about a certain subject.

Seems like you have spent quite some time researching before you settled with your current subject choices, which is great! But by all means, if you feel that you can take on this challenge and feel very passionate about it, then GO for it! Looking at your plan, it seems fine to me that if things aren't going the way you had planned, then by dropping Biology HL to Biology SL may help ease your burden.

Hahah, I apologize if I wasn't much of a help. It's just how I feel about it, although I'm sure someone who has had experiences with taking 4 HL subject may be more of a help than me

Edited March 11, 2013 by Kimmerrayy

[MariusIBDP]

Well, I'm not going to blah that its-going-to-be-too-hard-make-less-challenging-choices or its-personal-if-you-like-the-subjects-take-them. What I am going to say, is that taking 4 HL's won't pay off. It'll be more difficult than taking 3, while universities will generally require marks from a couple of subjects and an overall mark. Hence, your overall mark will be lower, while chances that you'll get an offer won't improve by much. Soooo, DROP ONE OF YOUR HL'S. If your passionate about a subject that you won't ever need, great - study it on your free time, but it's not worth it taking as an HL subject if you don't need it.

Also, it really shouldn't be about what your passionate about, but what you're required from universities and what will mostly improve your chances of getting offers. So, do some research - what most of the universities require for your uni course (if you haven't picked one, do so - at least a more particular direction). Then choose the subjects that are a must (for me an Economics/Business direction requires Maths SL and English SL/HL). After you're done, choose the subjects that are most likely to bring you high marks. I, myself, was interested in History, while I never really liked Russian, but when I had to choose my subjects I chose Russian ab initio/ Why? Because I understood that I'm almost guaranteed 6 or 7 after six years of passive studying it with not much hard work, while History would require tremendous amounts of hard work and a mark of 6 was still highly questionable. That might not seem fair or enjoyable, but your aim is high marks and good university offers.

To conclude:

Choose subjects that will boost your chances of getting into great university - being passionate is not a necessity for studying it, high possibility of succeeding in it is. Good luck

[thirdculturekid]

Like you, I'm doing 4 HLS, two of which are English Lit and Bio. Yeah, the workload is tough, but it's manageable if you're organized and are a hard worker.

However, like the person above mentioned, there's no real NEED to do 4 higher levels - you're just making IB unnecessarily harder than it already is!

I'm currently planning on dropping down to SL Bio, simply because there's such a huge difference in the two, and if you're not planning on doing anything scienc-y, then there's no real point in putting all that extra effort into that class. By doing 3 HLs, you're also giving yourself more time to focus on your 3 HLs and get the best marks.

[Guest Positron]

Also, it really shouldn't be about what your passionate about, but what you're required from universities and what will mostly improve your chances of getting offers.

That's about the stupidest advice I've ever heard. Choosing your subjects based on what you're passionate about is the very thing you should do. The reason is simple; the chances are that if you're passionate about something, that would probably be a great career choice for you. If you're passionate about many subjects, the chances are that you haven't made up your mind yet, and thus you don't know what you want to do later on in life. If that's the case, it would be extremely stupid to try to boost your grades at the expense of limiting your options for your future. For example, say I wanted to be an economist, and I followed your advice. I'd drop history, which I was passionate about, because I thought it'd boost my grades. What would happen if I changed my mind halfway through IB, and I wanted to study history instead economics. That'd be great, wouldn't it? Plus, people tend to do well in subjects they like.

Edited March 11, 2013 by Positron

[Arrowhead]

Don't worry about it at all. Doing 4 HLs (especially with the ones you've chosen) is no trouble at all. I did 3 out of the 4 HLs that you're doing (English; History and Economics) and there wasn't a single point in my IB career when I felt the least bit overwhelmed. It's all very manageable provided you know how to manage your time that is.

[Franz Liszt]

Alright, thank you all for your opinions guys!