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4 HL subjects?


flyingturducken

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Hi guys, I'm planning to take 4 HL subjects next year and I'm being compromised with my choices. I plan on either taking a science-based course in college as I plan on becoming a research scientist, but I'm also considering law, although I'm borderline with that idea. 

 

What I drafted for my subjects are:

 

HL Chemistry
HL Physics 
HL English Language and Literature
HL Mathematics
SL Psychology
French ab initio

 

Now I know it looks like suicide but I'm confident that I'll pass the course with flying colours, pardon my arrogance. I'm currently finishing the IGCSE course, and I'm taking the same subjects in IB, sans psychology and french (although I have self taught myself the basics of the language). With maths I'm in between As and Bs in the additional mathematics course (which is roughly the same as SL maths), mainly due to the fact that our school crammed it into one year. In english literature, chemistry, and physics I have the top marks in our year level. Furthermore, I'm currently taking a course in physical chemistry online from the University of Manchester, and so far I'm passing it.

 

My parents reckon that I should take economics and revert to the recommended 3 HL choice, but I feel like it wouldn't challenge me as much, and the interesting topics like quantum physics and biochemistry aren't included in the SL course. I'm already studying economics this year and am getting A*s, yet the subject is too much of a bore for me compared to psychology, which my parents think is useless despite being the only subject I'm actually excited for. 

 

Terribly sorry for the long post. I need your opinions 'cause my parents are pinning me against the wall for this. Thanks. 

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Hi guys, I'm planning to take 4 HL subjects next year and I'm being compromised with my choices. I plan on either taking a science-based course in college as I plan on becoming a research scientist, but I'm also considering law, although I'm borderline with that idea. 

 

What I drafted for my subjects are:

 

HL Chemistry

HL Physics 

HL English Language and Literature

HL Mathematics

SL Psychology

French ab initio

 

Now I know it looks like suicide but I'm confident that I'll pass the course with flying colours, pardon my arrogance. I'm currently finishing the IGCSE course, and I'm taking the same subjects in IB, sans psychology and french (although I have self taught myself the basics of the language). With maths I'm in between As and Bs in the additional mathematics course (which is roughly the same as SL maths), mainly due to the fact that our school crammed it into one year. In english literature, chemistry, and physics I have the top marks in our year level. Furthermore, I'm currently taking a course in physical chemistry online from the University of Manchester, and so far I'm passing it.

 

My parents reckon that I should take economics and revert to the recommended 3 HL choice, but I feel like it wouldn't challenge me as much, and the interesting topics like quantum physics and biochemistry aren't included in the SL course. I'm already studying economics this year and am getting A*s, yet the subject is too much of a bore for me compared to psychology, which my parents think is useless despite being the only subject I'm actually excited for. 

 

Terribly sorry for the long post. I need your opinions 'cause my parents are pinning me against the wall for this. Thanks. 

 

First of all, I want you to be aware that your subject combination is super hard (especially because of the trio math-chem-physics at HL). So getting high marks in IGCSE (or similar programs) certainly does not guarantee passing IB with flying colours. This does not, however, mean that I discourage you from taking 4 HLs. In fact, I am really glad that you are confident and willing to challenge yourself. But I just want you to be aware of the difficulty of your chosen courses, so that you won't feel disappointed when having to drop one of them. In other words, I'd recommend you to take 4 HLs; and once you're in the course, you can drop one of them if you feel that it's getting too hard; but if you feel that it's manageable, then keep all of them and be proud ;)

 

Secondly, it would seem really odd to take law with this subject combination. Although there's no general specific subject requirement for law as far as I know, but since you're taking very few essay-based subjects, it would be a huge disadvantage for you to study law in university. So I think you should make up your mind already now and stop considering law. Now, since law is taken away, both economics & psychology seem very 'useless' for your future career as a scientist. So it doesn't matter which subject that you take; and hence you should take whatever you like the best (which, in this case, is psychology). Follow your heart because it's your decision after all, but remember to persuade your parents as they will probably be a huge support for you during the tough IB years.

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Well I guess the best thing for you to do is tell your parents to watch you for thee first semester and see how your grades are with that subject combo. If you can keep up your top grades I don't see any reason why your parents should ask you to drop one HL unless they see you struggling a bit too much (not sleeping for days etc.) . If however your grades do come down then it is in your best interest to drop one of the HL's. Other than that your subject combo is pretty good considering what you want to pursue.

Good luck!

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You will need to make MANY sacrifices to carry out those classes. The HL english isn't that hard, but the combination of Chemistry HL, Physics and Math HL is near insanity. If you think you can handle it then go for it, but I would advise you not to, your main goal should be to get the best grades in the subjects you are best at. 

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i just wanna point out its your ib and its your life. it doesn't matter if your parents want you to do economics because if you're interested in psychology you should take that. I think probably swap one of your hl sciences or maths to psychology hl because its a heck load of work to do physics/chem/maths all hl

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Hi guys, I'm planning to take 4 HL subjects next year and I'm being compromised with my choices. I plan on either taking a science-based course in college as I plan on becoming a research scientist, but I'm also considering law, although I'm borderline with that idea. 

 

What I drafted for my subjects are:

 

HL Chemistry

HL Physics 

HL English Language and Literature

HL Mathematics

SL Psychology

French ab initio

 

Now I know it looks like suicide but I'm confident that I'll pass the course with flying colours, pardon my arrogance. I'm currently finishing the IGCSE course, and I'm taking the same subjects in IB, sans psychology and french (although I have self taught myself the basics of the language). With maths I'm in between As and Bs in the additional mathematics course (which is roughly the same as SL maths), mainly due to the fact that our school crammed it into one year. In english literature, chemistry, and physics I have the top marks in our year level. Furthermore, I'm currently taking a course in physical chemistry online from the University of Manchester, and so far I'm passing it.

 

My parents reckon that I should take economics and revert to the recommended 3 HL choice, but I feel like it wouldn't challenge me as much, and the interesting topics like quantum physics and biochemistry aren't included in the SL course. I'm already studying economics this year and am getting A*s, yet the subject is too much of a bore for me compared to psychology, which my parents think is useless despite being the only subject I'm actually excited for. 

 

Terribly sorry for the long post. I need your opinions 'cause my parents are pinning me against the wall for this. Thanks. 

 

First of all, I want you to be aware that your subject combination is super hard (especially because of the trio math-chem-physics at HL). So getting high marks in IGCSE (or similar programs) certainly does not guarantee passing IB with flying colours. This does not, however, mean that I discourage you from taking 4 HLs. In fact, I am really glad that you are confident and willing to challenge yourself. But I just want you to be aware of the difficulty of your chosen courses, so that you won't feel disappointed when having to drop one of them. In other words, I'd recommend you to take 4 HLs; and once you're in the course, you can drop one of them if you feel that it's getting too hard; but if you feel that it's manageable, then keep all of them and be proud ;)

 

Secondly, it would seem really odd to take law with this subject combination. Although there's no general specific subject requirement for law as far as I know, but since you're taking very few essay-based subjects, it would be a huge disadvantage for you to study law in university. So I think you should make up your mind already now and stop considering law. Now, since law is taken away, both economics & psychology seem very 'useless' for your future career as a scientist. So it doesn't matter which subject that you take; and hence you should take whatever you like the best (which, in this case, is psychology). Follow your heart because it's your decision after all, but remember to persuade your parents as they will probably be a huge support for you during the tough IB years.

 

Thanks for the help  :)  I've been thinking about Chemistry and Physics lately, and I reckon I should drop Chemistry to SL, as there is good chance that I'll land into aerospace engineering. Is there some advantage that Psychology has over Economics that will help me in engineering/research? My parents are pretty determined to get me into Economics in the hopes that I'll run the family business someday, which is literally just a tiny corner store that barely makes $100 a day in profit. I think it's too much of a risk sacrificing Psychology for that but they won't take no for an answer.

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Thanks for the help  :)  I've been thinking about Chemistry and Physics lately, and I reckon I should drop Chemistry to SL, as there is good chance that I'll land into aerospace engineering. Is there some advantage that Psychology has over Economics that will help me in engineering/research? My parents are pretty determined to get me into Economics in the hopes that I'll run the family business someday, which is literally just a tiny corner store that barely makes $100 a day in profit. I think it's too much of a risk sacrificing Psychology for that but they won't take no for an answer.

 

Neither psychology nor economics will help you in engineering. You just have to learn one of the two subjects to fulfill the IB's requirements of becoming an all-round student; that's all really. And I don't think economics will help you to run your family business either, mostly because of 2 reasons. First, as far as I know, economics course usually focuses on the evaluating the economy as a whole (i.e. evaluating the markets, applying different models and predicting the economic behaviour, etc); so if you want to study a course to get better at running a company, you would rather want to take business management instead of an economic course. Secondly, running a family business requires more experience rather than theory. I mean, a few months of actually working in the business is probably worth more than taking a 2-year economic-related course. In other words, I don't think it's worth it for you to study economics just to run a small family business. So take what you like (which is psychology) :)

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