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DuffsterCole

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Hi!

I've been having a huge amount of trouble picking between HL Bio and HL Chem. I like Bio slightly more than Chem, but i find Chem easier than Bio, because I'm rubbish at memorising facts. I chose Bio, but I've been rethinking it several times.

I'm not planning to do anything related to science in uni, instead I'm veering more towards law, geography or PPE

As of the time of this posting, I've chosen:

HL - Econ (Might change this to Psych), Geo, Bio
SL - English Lang Lit (but this might change to Lit Performance), Mandarin B, Maths

and in GCSE im doing

Co-ordinated Science

Economics
Foreign Language Mandarin

Extended Maths
Geography

Drama

English Lit & English Lang

I've heard that its easier to get a 7 in HL Bio than HL Chem

Thanks for the help! :)

Edited by DuffsterCole
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Hi!

I've been having a huge amount of trouble picking between HL Bio and HL Chem. I like Bio slightly more than Chem, but i find Chem easier than Bio, because I'm rubbish at memorising facts. I chose Bio, but I've been rethinking it several times.

I'm not planning to do anything related to science in uni, instead I'm veering more towards law, geography or PPE

As of the time of this posting, I've chosen:

HL - Econ (Might change this to Psych), Geo, Bio

SL - English Lang Lit (but this might change to Lit Performance), Mandarin B, Maths

and in GCSE im doing

Co-ordinated Science

Economics

Foreign Language Mandarin

Extended Maths

Geography

Drama

English Lit & English Lang

I've heard that its easier to get a 7 in HL Bio than HL Chem

Thanks for the help! :)

I'd suggest you to choose HL Chem instead considering the amount of memorization + workload coming with HL Bio. The syllabus of HL Bio is the double of SL while Chem HL doesn't require much effort compared to Bio HL. (Personal experience ,dropping Bio to SL next year) Also, are you sure that getting a 7 is easier in Bio than chem? As far as I know , the ratio of getting 7's at HL Sciences is %35 for Physics, %22 for Chem and %11 for bio.

Also, why do you want to challenge yourself with a HL Science if you want to study humanities at the first place(The topics aren't hard, but the lab reports/workload is rigorous)? Have you ever considered SL Bio + something else at HL or you want your applications to seem strong?

Edited by ryuk1
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It may be that more people get 7's in HL chemistry than HL biology, but HL chemistry is much much more difficult than HL biology. The reason I'd say more people get 7's in chemistry than biology is because it's science. You have to take a science in the IB, but if you're not strong in science, you're more likely to take biology than chemistry because it's easier and has less math. Whereas the people taking chemistry like it or are better at it so they work harder and get higher scores. Since more people take biology than chemistry, you're going to have less 7's in biology. Both have high workloads that I'd say are comparable to one another. If you are about the same at either subject, pick your subject based on the following:

1. Are you better with concepts and applying them to answering questions, and can you do basic math? Take HL chemistry.

2. Are you better with memorization? Take HL biology.

Since you said you don't like memorization, I'd go with HL chemistry for you.

Also I never found the lab reports for either subject to be that rigorous. They're very simple compared to anything at the university level :P

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If the course that you are going to undertake, in the university, has nothing to do with this choice then you might as well as choose biology. Based of what you have written, it feels as though that you have already made a choice: biology. hehe

Biology is way easier than chemistry and easier to get a good grade in. As you have written, you find biology much more interesting so you should choose something that you like/really admire!

The main difference between these two subjects is that in Biology, you have to memorize many terms whereas in Chemistry you learn the formulas to solve problems.

Do what you wish to explore further in your 2 years of IB.

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It may be that more people get 7's in HL chemistry than HL biology, but HL chemistry is much much more difficult than HL biology. The reason I'd say more people get 7's in chemistry than biology is because it's science. You have to take a science in the IB, but if you're not strong in science, you're more likely to take biology than chemistry because it's easier and has less math. Whereas the people taking chemistry like it or are better at it so they work harder and get higher scores. Since more people take biology than chemistry, you're going to have less 7's in biology. Both have high workloads that I'd say are comparable to one another. If you are about the same at either subject, pick your subject based on the following:

1. Are you better with concepts and applying them to answering questions, and can you do basic math? Take HL chemistry.

2. Are you better with memorization? Take HL biology.

Since you said you don't like memorization, I'd go with HL chemistry for you.

Also I never found the lab reports for either subject to be that rigorous. They're very simple compared to anything at the university level :P

The problem with the IB is (at least for me) the workload of a single subject is sustainable but when all of them come together, then it goes lethal. You only took chemistry and this person is going to take only one science too, then the lab repors&workload should be OK. (Chemistry lab reports are easier than Bio)

I agree that HL Chem is a better choice for a person who doesn't like memorization but are you sure that non-science oriented people take HL Biology? Most of the humanities & language people I know take ESS and the few others take SL Bio. There are a few people in my HL Bio class who are not that good in sciences and (I don't know why they took Bio HL), they struggle with the data processing , graphs etc. (which is the easiest part according to me) There is Math, not much as Chemistry, but there is Math everywhere.

The math required in Chemistry isn't rocket science through. We have only one person in my Chem class who takes Math SL and doesn't struggle in our class

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It may be that more people get 7's in HL chemistry than HL biology, but HL chemistry is much much more difficult than HL biology. The reason I'd say more people get 7's in chemistry than biology is because it's science. You have to take a science in the IB, but if you're not strong in science, you're more likely to take biology than chemistry because it's easier and has less math. Whereas the people taking chemistry like it or are better at it so they work harder and get higher scores. Since more people take biology than chemistry, you're going to have less 7's in biology. Both have high workloads that I'd say are comparable to one another. If you are about the same at either subject, pick your subject based on the following:

1. Are you better with concepts and applying them to answering questions, and can you do basic math? Take HL chemistry.

2. Are you better with memorization? Take HL biology.

Since you said you don't like memorization, I'd go with HL chemistry for you.

Also I never found the lab reports for either subject to be that rigorous. They're very simple compared to anything at the university level :P

The problem with the IB is (at least for me) the workload of a single subject is sustainable but when all of them come together, then it goes lethal. You only took chemistry and this person is going to take only one science too, then the lab repors&workload should be OK. (Chemistry lab reports are easier than Bio)

I agree that HL Chem is a better choice for a person who doesn't like memorization but are you sure that non-science oriented people take HL Biology? Most of the humanities & language people I know take ESS and the few others take SL Bio. There are a few people in my HL Bio class who are not that good in sciences and (I don't know why they took Bio HL), they struggle with the data processing , graphs etc. (which is the easiest part according to me) There is Math, not much as Chemistry, but there is Math everywhere.

The math required in Chemistry isn't rocket science through. We have only one person in my Chem class who takes Math SL and doesn't struggle in our class

I also did AP biology, AP Calculus AB, and AP studio art at the same time I was doing HL chem and all my other HLs, had a job and volunteered 4 hours a week. This semester in university I took Organic Chem 1, Calculus Based Physics 1 Mechanics, Multivariable Calculus, Fundamentals of Engineering 1, and Advanced Spanish Grammar ending with a B+ average. No workloads are lethal if you know how to manage your time. University's only harder and you've got more going on. And that's just normal undergraduate programs. If you want to do something like medicine, it's even worse.

Also some schools don't offer a wide variety of subjects. ESS isn't a very common subject taught in schools, whereas biology, chemistry, and physics are. For example, my school only offered HL chemistry, SL chemistry, or HL biology. Say someone wasn't very good at science and had to choose between biology, chemistry, or physics. I'd say nine times out of ten they're going to rule out physics and six times out of ten they're going to rule out chemistry. Real biology requires more than memorization, but biology in IB is pretty much memorization, which is not hard to do compared to learning concepts like in chemistry and physics that you have to apply to solve problems, whereas in biology the questions are more like "outline the process of photosynthesis." That seems much more easier to do than finding the equilibrium concentrations of a solution or calculating the final velocity of a box traveling across a surface with friction.

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I would recommend sticking with Bio. Currently I'm in HL Bio and I haven't really had to do a lot of memorization. I took SL chem last year (it was combined with AP Chem, so sophomores could take it), and I found that there was much more memorization to do.

However, the primary reason I think you should stick with Bio is because you mentioned that you like it more. It's much easier to study the things you like and find interesting than things that you like a little bit less but find easy. When difficulties in HL Chem inevitably arise, it'll suck to have to work through it if you don't like it that much.

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  • 2 weeks later...

It may be that more people get 7's in HL chemistry than HL biology, but HL chemistry is much much more difficult than HL biology. The reason I'd say more people get 7's in chemistry than biology is because it's science. You have to take a science in the IB, but if you're not strong in science, you're more likely to take biology than chemistry because it's easier and has less math. Whereas the people taking chemistry like it or are better at it so they work harder and get higher scores. Since more people take biology than chemistry, you're going to have less 7's in biology. Both have high workloads that I'd say are comparable to one another. If you are about the same at either subject, pick your subject based on the following:

1. Are you better with concepts and applying them to answering questions, and can you do basic math? Take HL chemistry.

2. Are you better with memorization? Take HL biology.

Since you said you don't like memorization, I'd go with HL chemistry for you.

Also I never found the lab reports for either subject to be that rigorous. They're very simple compared to anything at the university level :P

The problem with the IB is (at least for me) the workload of a single subject is sustainable but when all of them come together, then it goes lethal. You only took chemistry and this person is going to take only one science too, then the lab repors&workload should be OK. (Chemistry lab reports are easier than Bio)

I agree that HL Chem is a better choice for a person who doesn't like memorization but are you sure that non-science oriented people take HL Biology? Most of the humanities & language people I know take ESS and the few others take SL Bio. There are a few people in my HL Bio class who are not that good in sciences and (I don't know why they took Bio HL), they struggle with the data processing , graphs etc. (which is the easiest part according to me) There is Math, not much as Chemistry, but there is Math everywhere.

The math required in Chemistry isn't rocket science through. We have only one person in my Chem class who takes Math SL and doesn't struggle in our class

I also did AP biology, AP Calculus AB, and AP studio art at the same time I was doing HL chem and all my other HLs, had a job and volunteered 4 hours a week. This semester in university I took Organic Chem 1, Calculus Based Physics 1 Mechanics, Multivariable Calculus, Fundamentals of Engineering 1, and Advanced Spanish Grammar ending with a B+ average. No workloads are lethal if you know how to manage your time. University's only harder and you've got more going on. And that's just normal undergraduate programs. If you want to do something like medicine, it's even worse.

Also some schools don't offer a wide variety of subjects. ESS isn't a very common subject taught in schools, whereas biology, chemistry, and physics are. For example, my school only offered HL chemistry, SL chemistry, or HL biology. Say someone wasn't very good at science and had to choose between biology, chemistry, or physics. I'd say nine times out of ten they're going to rule out physics and six times out of ten they're going to rule out chemistry. Real biology requires more than memorization, but biology in IB is pretty much memorization, which is not hard to do compared to learning concepts like in chemistry and physics that you have to apply to solve problems, whereas in biology the questions are more like "outline the process of photosynthesis." That seems much more easier to do than finding the equilibrium concentrations of a solution or calculating the final velocity of a box traveling across a surface with friction.

I'm also going to say that most of the time, non-math kids take Bio. In our school, if you want to be valedictorian, then you are required to take an HL science, which is why, although we have non-math people, they still take a higher level science. I can say that from what I have seen and studied myself, high school level biology does seem to require more memorization. I'm not saying that that means there is less work, it's just a different science with knowledge elsewhere than say Chem. Chem seems to be more applied knowledge (like figuring out problems), but the math isn't so difficult that you would need to take HL Math. All of the HL Chem kids in my class take Maths SL, since HL isn't offered. That being said, we do have a few kids who are OK at math taking Bio, and then all of the rest are taking Math Studies.

OP, if you like Bio, I would say take it. If you really like it, then you'll work for that 7. However, if you know that Bio, won't turn out well for you, take Chem (which is awesome by the way).

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From personal experience [took the first year of HL Chem last year because it was the same as honours chem and I've got HL bio this year], I would advise you to look at your skill set. I am absolutely rubbish at visualizing things, so I found the structure bit of chem very difficult, and I'm no great shakes at math either. The math is doable, definitely, but you need to be able to visualize what's going on behind the math bits to understand what you need to do, in my experience at least. Bio definitely has loads of memorizing to do, yes, but you do have to do a fair bit of memorizing in chem except that it's some mathsy bits you have to memorize. If that makes sense.

That's just what I made of it. It's up to you and how you work best as a student.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I would recommend sticking with Bio. Currently I'm in HL Bio and I haven't really had to do a lot of memorization. I took SL chem last year (it was combined with AP Chem, so sophomores could take it), and I found that there was much more memorization to do.

However, the primary reason I think you should stick with Bio is because you mentioned that you like it more. It's much easier to study the things you like and find interesting than things that you like a little bit less but find easy. When difficulties in HL Chem inevitably arise, it'll suck to have to work through it if you don't like it that much.

How...HL Bio literally f***ed me and Chemistry is the probably my only easy lesson.

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