HL Economics or HL Chemistry

[killingtime]

I'm about to start by IB course in a month yet I'm keep doubting my options!! I am really at loss for what HLs to take. Being more of a humanities student, math doesn't come easy to me and sciences are… ehhhhh. These currently exemplify my emotional distress

My choices are:

HL Lit (confirmed, so excited!!)

HL History (pretty sure)

HL Economics or Chemistry

SL Mandarin (compulsory)

SL Economics or Chemistry

SL Math

For my IGCSEs, I took Co-ordinated sciences, Eng Lit, Eng Lang, Geography, Economics, E Maths, Chinese.

I'm not taking Geography for because even though it's fairly easy, I find it really troublesome memorizing all the case studies. BUT there isn't much physical geog in the IB syllabus, and I was wondering if the syllabus was interesting???

Will HL History really hard for someone who hasn't taken history at O levels standards? I know that it requires a lot of essay writing. That is perfectly fine with me esp since the syllabus looks really interesting.

HL Economics

Pros:

Econs theories come pretty easy to me

I have fun learning the subj

I've learnt it before

The past papers don't look too forbidding

Cons:

It needs math?? (which I'm not great at)

Taking two humanities as HLs limits university course options

HL Chemistry

Pros:

Chemistry > all other sciences (in terms of how much I like it)

Opens up a lot of university courses

Cons:

I'm not the best at sciences.. in general (way better in eons)

It's hard af!! (apparently)

Hard to get a 7

I really just need someone to push me the right way so I can finally make a choice! I tend to do much better in subjects I find interesting. Preferably, I would like to go to into Law, Political Science, Sociology side of university degrees.

Thank you!

[r1111]

HL Economics for sure. I don't take HL Chem but I would guess it's difficult especially if you are not so much into chem. The math in HL Economcis (Paper 3) is really basic and easy. The hardest part is Paper 2 where you have to read and answer questions based on a text. IA's and Paper 1 aren't too bad. I would say it's much easier to get 7 in Economics than Chem. Plus Economics is really interesting. And considering the degrees you are interested in, definitely take Economics. And if you have already learnt it before you have an advantage tough it's not that difficult to learn.

[cricketcrazynerd]

HL chemistry is a lot more interesting than HL economics and if you understand the concepts well, it isn't too overly difficult to get a 7 (in comparison to SL chemistry). In fact I think that you perform the SL course well if you have knowledge of the HL facts. I'm one of those weird people who finds economics harder than Chemistry...

Even SL chemistry has a lot of maths (quantitative chemistry is essentially just maths) so you can't escape from the beauty of mathematics regardless of what HL you take.

[r1111]

I'm one of those weird people who finds economics harder than Chemistry...

Yes, that is indeed very weird. Neither would be too difficult to get a 7 in I am guessing. Which part of Economics is hard for you?

Edited December 7, 2013 by r1111

[killingtime]

HL chemistry is a lot more interesting than HL economics and if you understand the concepts well, it isn't too overly difficult to get a 7 (in comparison to SL chemistry). In fact I think that you perform the SL course well if you have knowledge of the HL facts. I'm one of those weird people who finds economics harder than Chemistry...

Even SL chemistry has a lot of maths (quantitative chemistry is essentially just maths) so you can't escape from the beauty of mathematics regardless of what HL you take.

Thing is… I'm bad at maths!! It's like a foreign language to me sometimes, most of the time. I do find Chemistry really fun but I don't want to score badly. Which are the harder topics?

[Guest ryuk1]

I'm taking Chemistry HL and Econ SL(but we do the HL stuff with HL students) As a math/science-oriented person, I find Chemistry way easier and Chemistry is related to the areas I want but I'd suggest HL Economics for you because the only big difference is paper 3(which requires math..sorry). You want to study humanities at college and maybe you should consider ESS as your science instead of Chemistry. We are in separate classes with the SL Chem students but we're both doing the core now (moles) and it's %90 math. My Chemistry teacher told me that both SL and HL chemistry are mostly mathematics so just like cricketcrazynerd said , you can't avoid maths in both choices. Econ requires less math through so I'd suggest HL Econ + ESS.

[cricketcrazynerd]

I'm one of those weird people who finds economics harder than Chemistry...

Yes, that is indeed very weird. Neither would be too difficult to get a 7 in I am guessing. Which part of Economics is hard for you?

I'm on a 7 for both Not hard but I find the marking of essays (which are essentially what the final exams are) very subjective. You have to express the facts in a certain manner and even if you know the stuff well, you may still lose marks. In chemistry, there's one answer...it's objective and I like it. Anyways I'm a total chemistry nerd

HL chemistry is a lot more interesting than HL economics and if you understand the concepts well, it isn't too overly difficult to get a 7 (in comparison to SL chemistry). In fact I think that you perform the SL course well if you have knowledge of the HL facts. I'm one of those weird people who finds economics harder than Chemistry...

Even SL chemistry has a lot of maths (quantitative chemistry is essentially just maths) so you can't escape from the beauty of mathematics regardless of what HL you take.

Thing is… I'm bad at maths!! It's like a foreign language to me sometimes, most of the time. I do find Chemistry really fun but I don't want to score badly. Which are the harder topics?

I found bonding slightly difficult, just because you have to memorise the possible shapes of molecules. Kinetics (the HL part) was also a challenge at times because the concepts were complex. The mathematics isn't difficult, it's applying it which is tough. For example, in quantitative chemistry, you just have to do simple division to find the moles but what you do with your answer afterwards is the tough part. Most people do SL maths and chemistry and even they agreed on this...

maths is simple...application of maths to the question is hard

But that said, if you do enough practise, you'll be fine...to be honest, chemistry is my highest and most definite 7 - so you can decide not to take my advice seriously, I'm too much in love with it to declare it as a subject where bad marks can be scored

Cheers,

Simran

[killingtime]

I'm taking Chemistry HL and Econ SL(but we do the HL stuff with HL students) As a math/science-oriented person, I find Chemistry way easier and Chemistry is related to the areas I want but I'd suggest HL Economics for you because the only big difference is paper 3(which requires math..sorry). You want to study humanities at college and maybe you should consider ESS as your science instead of Chemistry. We are in separate classes with the SL Chem students but we're both doing the core now (moles) and it's %90 math. My Chemistry teacher told me that both SL and HL chemistry are mostly mathematics so just like cricketcrazynerd said , you can't avoid maths in both choices. Econ requires less math through so I'd suggest HL Econ + ESS.

Isn't ESS thought of as like a joke subject because it's so easy?? I'm scared of taking it if universities won't accept it. Same goes for Math Studies…. So I guess I'd rather study a bit harder than risk that.

Thank you Simran! I shall definitely think about it.

[Guest ryuk1]

I'm taking Chemistry HL and Econ SL(but we do the HL stuff with HL students) As a math/science-oriented person, I find Chemistry way easier and Chemistry is related to the areas I want but I'd suggest HL Economics for you because the only big difference is paper 3(which requires math..sorry). You want to study humanities at college and maybe you should consider ESS as your science instead of Chemistry. We are in separate classes with the SL Chem students but we're both doing the core now (moles) and it's %90 math. My Chemistry teacher told me that both SL and HL chemistry are mostly mathematics so just like cricketcrazynerd said , you can't avoid maths in both choices. Econ requires less math through so I'd suggest HL Econ + ESS.

Isn't ESS thought of as like a joke subject because it's so easy?? I'm scared of taking it if universities won't accept it. Same goes for Math Studies…. So I guess I'd rather study a bit harder than risk that.

Thank you Simran! I shall definitely think about it.

I think it depends on where you want to apply and I don't know how good are you in Maths but if you're average/not that bad in math, Math and Chemistry SL is a good combination. My friend had a 25 out of 100 in his first HL math exam then he transferred to SL Maths and says that it's quite easy. The only people that I know who are challenged in SL Maths are people who were always quite bad at maths. My friends who found Chemistry hard last year told me that they find SL Chem easy.

It's true that ESS and Math studies are considered weak but I think that Math studies is considered weaker than ESS, that's why my school doesn't offer it. I think that you should decide if you'd prefer the "weak" subjects or studying harder but Econ HL/a SL science is a better choice for you. (Econ looks good in applications, there isn't much difference between SL and HL compared to Chem SL and HL and the paper 3 equations are simpler than moles)

[AnnabananannaKam]

I think taking economics would be better.. For chem it is pretty hard to grasp the concepts.

In addition, if you're not that great with maths... I wouldn't even suggest you doing chem...

There is a lot of maths... Moles calc, enthalpy change etc etc.

Im doing SL chem and finding that acceptable, although im not that great at maths. (achieving a 5 in maths standard atm hopefully can get it up to a 6)