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Choosing the right IB courses


meganlee

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Hi everyone, I just finished freshmen year and I am currently debating on which IB subjects to take. I know I still have one more year, but I enjoy planning things really early! Here is my proposed schedule for junior year:

 

Junior Year

Philosophy HL 1

English HL 1

Biology HL 1

Math Studies SL

Latin SL

Economics SL

 

Currently, I am contemplating whether I should take Biology HL or SL. If I do take Biology SL, I would then take History HL instead of Economics SL. If you are in any of those classes, is Biology or History a harder HL course? Which course would you recommend I take as a HL?

 

Also, math is my weakest subject, therefore I am taking Math Studies SL because I heard that this class was one of the easier courses. According to my school, I have to take AP statistics after Math Studies SL. I was wondering if it was possible to take AP Calculus AB instead of Statistics?

 

Thank you everyone for your help:)

 

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It depends on what you're going into for uni as well as your own interests. I'm in history and bio at HL and I have to say that history is harder than bio, but it's just because you have to know so much within time constraints when writing essays. I find the IA for history significantly easier than the IA for bio because you don't have to worry about getting solid data and so, it's a lot more open (I'm also more of a liberal arts person than sciences person lol). If you don't like history, STEER CLEAR of history HL and go for bio HL, but if you like history, go for it because it's really enjoyable if you love history (even though it's a lot of work and it makes me want to cry sometimes, history is one of my fave IB subjects). 

 

For your next question... I'm not totally sure... You can ask the IB coordinator at your school possibly... 

Edited by ShootingStar16
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Well your choice of course depends on what you like, what you need and what you want. If you enjoy biology, find it fascinating or know that you may need it in the future (since you like planning ahead of time), then take biology HL - you learn some pretty cool topics if you find it interesting. However, if you enjoy history, which is just as awesome as biology, then go for that! It's not like you'll be missing out on biology completely but your understanding won't be as deep as it would be in HL. You also get more practice with labs in HL. Do the same for Econ, see if you like what the course has to offer and choose between the three based on what you like, need and want. That's what I suggest :)

 

As for your math question, I'm sorry I don't have an answer to that either :(

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Hi
(Second question first, it's very rare that a Canadian school offers both AP and IB, so, very sorry we can't help with that Statistics/Calc AB decision)

I think even for SL Math Studies student, Economics SL is manageable. Every Latin student in my school is predicted quite high (and none of them spoke Latin before).I have not yet recommended to anybody to take History over Economics but it may just be the culture at my school (though the school offer both courses).

From the others' performances at my school, there had been years when nobody gets a 7 in HL History, but we always have at least 15-20% of students getting 7s every year in econ. We do have bio at our school but only SL so you can't really compare.

My biased conclusions: econ is easier than bio, and bio is easier than history. For someone who excels at memorization then bio is definitely the easiest among the three but doubt memorization helps a lot in econ or history because a lot of the papers involve writing essays.

Out of the three, most recommending to take Econ at HL,

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