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"Soft" subjects to avoid, according to universities


Vvi

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yup competely agree with above post, I don't want to start a debate but it is fact that some courses are not accepted everywhere:

few examples: ITGS, Math Studies, ESS, DT, Business and Management, Visual Arts, Music, Theatre/ Dance,...

Just two examples:

Germany does not accept ITGS, Math Studies, ESS, you have to take either a science at HL or math at HL, and so on

Switzerland does not accept Music, Visual Arts, Psychology (no idea why not) or any Group 4 subject that are not History, Economics or Geography

moral of the story: INFORM yourself before chosing subjects, what you take may involuntarily hinder your future studies!

Edited by Eastcoast93
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  • 1 month later...

What about Maths Studies? I'm always told that it is viewed the same way as SL but I'm really worried that it won't be as well regarded as other maths courses. Obviously, the reason that i'm taking studies is because I don't intend to take any Maths related courses but does this impact how the Unis/colleges look at your grades?

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  • 3 weeks later...

What about Maths Studies? I'm always told that it is viewed the same way as SL but I'm really worried that it won't be as well regarded as other maths courses. Obviously, the reason that i'm taking studies is because I don't intend to take any Maths related courses but does this impact how the Unis/colleges look at your grades?

Some universities require SL maths if you're an international student for a few courses. That's because you haven't taken GCSE maths. Do I'd recommend checking with some of the universities you're interested in. Though I'd assume that it's usually ok because there's a greater emphasis on your HL subjects.

i'm thinking of studying medicine and for my group 3 i'm planning on taking psychology, does anyone know if oxbridge considers psych as a soft subject?

Hmmm. Trinity college have it down as a subject of 'limited suitability' but IB psychology is different from A Level psychology. I think you'll be fine with psychology.

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  • 4 weeks later...

If I'm taking Visual Arts HL, will I be rejected from Politics and International Relations at Cambridge? my school pretty much has no choice in our subjects: economics isn't offered, and they told me not to take a language B in french/spanish because the kids were taking the languages since 7th grade and I joined in 11th.... instead I'm taking Arabic A2 Self taught. what can I do? can I make them let me take the language B? or do I just study the curriculum and syllabus on my own?

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Hey guys! I'm going to apply to study computer science at Cambridge and I would like to know if Language B is considered a soft subject. Right now I have 4 HLs but our school is highly agaist it so I will have to drop one of them to SL. I currently have a choice between psychology and finnish B. Finnish B is a VERY easy 7, but I'm afraid Cambridge might be aware of that and say that I've been lazy here and shoo me off, whereas getting a 7 in HL psychology is quite a challenge, but on the other hand Cambridge will probably not consider it a soft subject.

So guys, is language B a soft subject or not? I will have to make the decision this week, so I would really appreciate any help :D.

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Hey guys! I'm going to apply to study computer science at Cambridge and I would like to know if Language B is considered a soft subject. Right now I have 4 HLs but our school is highly agaist it so I will have to drop one of them to SL. I currently have a choice between psychology and finnish B. Finnish B is a VERY easy 7, but I'm afraid Cambridge might be aware of that and say that I've been lazy here and shoo me off, whereas getting a 7 in HL psychology is quite a challenge, but on the other hand Cambridge will probably not consider it a soft subject.

So guys, is language B a soft subject or not? I will have to make the decision this week, so I would really appreciate any help :D.

Sorry I could not answer whether Language B is considered as a soft subject in Cambridge or not.

But, I think if you are taking computer science they don't really judge you with Fiinnish B.

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Hey guys! I'm going to apply to study computer science at Cambridge and I would like to know if Language B is considered a soft subject. Right now I have 4 HLs but our school is highly agaist it so I will have to drop one of them to SL. I currently have a choice between psychology and finnish B. Finnish B is a VERY easy 7, but I'm afraid Cambridge might be aware of that and say that I've been lazy here and shoo me off, whereas getting a 7 in HL psychology is quite a challenge, but on the other hand Cambridge will probably not consider it a soft subject.

So guys, is language B a soft subject or not? I will have to make the decision this week, so I would really appreciate any help :D.

It depends on the requirements - If Cambridge requires psychology HL/language B HL (which is highly unlikely for computer science) then its necessary to have one of those, if they require other HL subjects then you need to take those subjects and not psycholog/finnish. On the other hand, in the highly unlikely scenario where they don't require any specific subjects, as far as I know Cambridge is looking for the highest scores, and if you feel you can achieve that more easily with language B HL then you should definitely go for that. As far as I know, no school considers language B a soft subject, however if the school requires certain subjects other than languages for a particular programme, then of course it is highly unlikely that you will be considered without those subjects. Sorry if you feel that I'm stating the obvious!

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You're talking about a bit further than just the "softness" of a course. This time, you're looking for the benefits of courses and their relative "softness". This should make your choice simpler if you think like this. Of course I don't know your priorities, so it's up to you.

On the other hand, supposedly there exists a course called: IB Political Theory.

What is it exactly and would you consider it "soft"?

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You're talking about a bit further than just the "softness" of a course. This time, you're looking for the benefits of courses and their relative "softness". This should make your choice simpler if you think like this. Of course I don't know your priorities, so it's up to you.

On the other hand, supposedly there exists a course called: IB Political Theory.

What is it exactly and would you consider it "soft"?

I can't comment on its "softness" or whatever, but to me it seems like it's a school-based syllabus subject that only a handful of schools around the world do.

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Hey guys! I'm going to apply to study computer science at Cambridge and I would like to know if Language B is considered a soft subject. Right now I have 4 HLs but our school is highly agaist it so I will have to drop one of them to SL. I currently have a choice between psychology and finnish B. Finnish B is a VERY easy 7, but I'm afraid Cambridge might be aware of that and say that I've been lazy here and shoo me off, whereas getting a 7 in HL psychology is quite a challenge, but on the other hand Cambridge will probably not consider it a soft subject.

So guys, is language B a soft subject or not? I will have to make the decision this week, so I would really appreciate any help :D.

It depends on the requirements - If Cambridge requires psychology HL/language B HL (which is highly unlikely for computer science) then its necessary to have one of those, if they require other HL subjects then you need to take those subjects and not psycholog/finnish. On the other hand, in the highly unlikely scenario where they don't require any specific subjects, as far as I know Cambridge is looking for the highest scores, and if you feel you can achieve that more easily with language B HL then you should definitely go for that. As far as I know, no school considers language B a soft subject, however if the school requires certain subjects other than languages for a particular programme, then of course it is highly unlikely that you will be considered without those subjects. Sorry if you feel that I'm stating the obvious!

Thanks a lot for the help! Cambridge only requires HL math for CompSci. And about the "stating the obvious" -thing, well it is still reassuring if its not just me who thinks its obvious :D.

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  • 1 year later...

So which one is "softer" you guys think?

I was taking B&M HL in the first year of IB but I kind of hated it. Also I want to apply for Oxford which almost gives me no chance of getting a 5 in any of my subjects.

So I was thinking of changing it into ITGS SL because I was told it was an "easy" 7.

I really don't know what to do right now.

Please help me out, deadline for changing the course is very soon. :sadbye:

Btw my courses are

Literature HL

Maths HL

Econ HL

B&M SL

Eng SL

Chem SL

right now.

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So which one is "softer" you guys think?

I was taking B&M HL in the first year of IB but I kind of hated it. Also I want to apply for Oxford which almost gives me no chance of getting a 5 in any of my subjects.

So I was thinking of changing it into ITGS SL because I was told it was an "easy" 7.

I really don't know what to do right now.

Please help me out, deadline for changing the course is very soon. :sadbye:

Btw my courses are

Literature HL

Maths HL

Econ HL

B&M SL

Eng SL

Chem SL

right now.

Both B&M and ITGS are considered soft subjects(!). ITGS is actually not that easy to get a 7 in. I think the course is very easy but the structure of it is poor and so people often don't seem to know what they're meant to be doing. A lot of technique seems to be involved in answering the questions, and despite not being that hard, fewer people get 7s than you might think.

B&M is also an 'easy' 7. At least it was at my school! So it's probably best looking at where your skills lie. Go and talk to the ITGS teacher and see if it's for you, because I expect it may have to be a little of an individual decision.

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Thank you very much! :)

The thing is a lot of student dropped B&M because the grading policy is very strict. My fear is that it is same for the real IB exams. Teachers advise me to stick to it but our incredibly talkative class didn't really learn much last year because of our teacher's and their talking performance. However another teacher is teaching us this year with the same class. So that really makes it something other than an individual decision for me. I'm under changing and uncontrollable conditions. :crying:

Other than that would a change like that look bad in my application to the UK unis?

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Hey guys!

I'm not doing any of those subjects but was wondering whether it would be better to do Physics HL rather than chem HL (along with maths and econ HL) as I want to get into engineering (not sure exactly which one but it wont be chemical engineering).

It does sound a bit wierd to take chem HL instead of physics HL if I'm going to study physics not chem at uni..but i am just wondering whether it makes much of a difference if I apply to UK or US universities

thanks!

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I take Theatre Arts and regret it like crazy!! It is a course that people assume is just idiotic and easy. The work IS easy, but the course counters that by giving you a crazy amount of work you need to do, and hours that you have to have for acting. I wish i took up chemistry SL instead like I wanted, because science has always been my thing and would require similar time.

In my school the idiots are the bio students!! I guess its just because ALOT of the people that take the class just take it because of the science requirement, not because they actually want to learn :P

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Hey guys!

I'm not doing any of those subjects but was wondering whether it would be better to do Physics HL rather than chem HL (along with maths and econ HL) as I want to get into engineering (not sure exactly which one but it wont be chemical engineering).

It does sound a bit wierd to take chem HL instead of physics HL if I'm going to study physics not chem at uni..but i am just wondering whether it makes much of a difference if I apply to UK or US universities

thanks!

Oxford and Cambridge actually requires Physics and Maths at HL, so I would definitely choose Physics instead of Chemistry. I don't know what unis you want to go to, though, so you should check their websites.

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  • 2 months later...

This is a very interesting topic. None of those subjects other than B&M are offered at my school and I heard B&M students complain about the difficulty of the course. However, that being said IB Economics HL is pretty easy. (I think everyone gets at least a 6 in this course).

On the other hand there are some subjects which are really hard but seem like an easy 7 to some people even tough I am sure they are extremely difficult (and I am talking about subjects like HL Maths). HL Physics is also pretty hard for me but it's easy for some. So maybe easy/difficult is only relative.

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This is a very interesting topic. None of those subjects other than B&M are offered at my school and I heard B&M students complain about the difficulty of the course. However, that being said IB Economics HL is pretty easy. (I think everyone gets at least a 6 in this course).

On the other hand there are some subjects which are really hard but seem like an easy 7 to some people even tough I am sure they are extremely difficult (and I am talking about subjects like HL Maths). HL Physics is also pretty hard for me but it's easy for some. So maybe easy/difficult is only relative.

I think that "subjective" courses are harder to get a 7 (arts, b&m etc.) because there is no "exact" or "direct" answer.

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