Ecos HL or History HL (and help!)

[tim9800]

Hello everyone - unsociable, insignificant year 10 IB student here, with minimal knowledge about the IB

 

My subjects:

 

English HL

Latin SL (Yes its a dead language go ahead and laugh)

History HL

Physics SL

Maths HL

Chemistry HL

and Christian Studies, which is compulsory at my school

 

I have four HLs because our school wants the new batch of kids here to start off with more, then most likely drop in second year IB

 

Anyways, I've already submitted my subject selections to the school, and now I'm beginning to regret choosing History HL, upon consultation of ancient Ibsurivival and boredofstudies articles and friends. From the articles I've read, Economics in general is an easier subject than History, to a slight extent. The thing is, I did Ecos in year 9 and realised it was quite boring, and I've been doing compulsory history for 4 years now. Neither subject is quite appealing to me, despite getting very decent grades in both (A- or better)

 

In addition, Ecos seems to have a greater relevance to job opportunities, so is it worth it?

 

Also, if I'm not breaking any forum rules by posting two things in one, how difficult is CAS considering I do a sport and play an instrument? (i.e. how much time should I spend piano practising, playing sport, and doing service a week?) I've also heard something about CAS projects which need you to combine two elements in CAS - what's that?

 

Thanks in advance to any repliers.

 

 

[Arrowhead]

To answer your second concern about CAS, playing a sport and the piano should be enough. The CAS project is something that students do that combines more than one CAS component throughout the two years of the IB. I wouldn't worry about this at all, your IB Coordinator will explain this (and a multitude of other things) to you in exhaustive detail when the time comes, and then over and over again.

 

As for worrying about History versus Economics, I don't know the policy that your school operates, but most schools that I know of do allow students to switch IB subjects for the first month or three of the Diploma. I would suggest speaking to your Coordinator about your dilemma and asking him/her if it would be possible for you to sit in on a few Economics classes, maybe even speak to your Economics teacher after/before school, to just get a flavour of what the course is about. There's only so much that can be gleaned from other people's experiences and opinions after all.

 

On that note, as someone who did both Economics and History HL in the IB and got 7s in both, I can tell you that Economics is definitely a much lighter course than History simply in terms of the amount of content to cover. However, there's a lot more room in History essays to blah your way through things, where Economics can be limited in that sense, i.e., if you don't know what the question is pointed towards and how to deconstruct it and which graphs are associated with it, you're kind of screwed. There are positives and negatives to both modules.

 

I think what you ought to spend more time researching when deciding between the two, is reviewing the quality of History HL and Economics HL teaching at your school. What do the Year 12 students and alumni have to say about the History and Economics teachers? Also, research what the average scores in History HL and Economics HL in your school are - your IB Coordinator can help with this - how many students got 7s and 6s in History and Economics HL in the past two exam cycles? Compare statistics for both. It should give you an idea of which course has a better track record and more success at your school.

 

Hope that helps!

Edited August 9, 2015 by Arrowhead

[tim9800]

I think my school results from last year offer a reasonable insight into the teaching at my school:

http://www.trinity.nsw.edu.au/navbar/publications/docs/academic_bulletins/ib/IB_Results_Preliminary_Report_7Jan_2015.pdf

 

Since my year 11 isn't starting for another two months, I'll probably visit the IB co-ordinator and have a chat with him sometime this week

 

Thanks for the feedback!

 

EDIT: If I haven't exceeded my questions quota - HL Chem or HL Maths? To be honest, I don't know much about either course, besides from them both being 'pretty hard' (Unreliable friends, 2015). Again, thanks in advance 

Edited August 10, 2015 by tim9800

[Arrowhead]

I think my school results from last year offer a reasonable insight into the teaching at my school:

http://www.trinity.nsw.edu.au/navbar/publications/docs/academic_bulletins/ib/IB_Results_Preliminary_Report_7Jan_2015.pdf

 

Since my year 11 isn't starting for another two months, I'll probably visit the IB co-ordinator and have a chat with him sometime this week

 

Thanks for the feedback!

 

EDIT: If I haven't exceeded my questions quota - HL Chem or HL Maths? To be honest, I don't know much about either course, besides from them both being 'pretty hard' (Unreliable friends, 2015). Again, thanks in advance 

 

You've never exhausted your quota of questions on here, as long as you ask relevant ones.

 

I'm not qualified to opine on whether Chemistry HL would be better than Maths HL for you or anyone else. Both of them are appropriately challenging modules. I guess the real question is: What do you want to study at university? If you want to go down the Science/Maths route, perhaps taking both Chemistry and Maths HL might be a good idea. If you want to go down a more Humanities/Arts route, I would say that whichever you take at Higher wouldn't matter at all.

 

So, what are your plans?

Edited August 10, 2015 by Arrowhead

[oakendurin]

I don't take HL maths, but I do take HL chem. I personally haven't found HL chem to be hard at all so far. In my school only two people take HL maths so I don't know much about the subject. But the little that I've heard has made me deeply happy to not be taking HL maths because it all sounds so complicated to me. So from this I would think that HL chem is easier than HL maths. But of course, I love chemistry and only like maths so that might also affect my opinion. The difficulty of a subject really depends on which subject you prefer more and which feels like less of a chore to study. 

[tim9800]

So, what are your plans?

I'm planning to do something with Engineering, (civil or structural), 'Something to do with physics/chemistry' (yea it's quite vague) and/or a business degree. The main reason why I asked about changing was because my parents say that engineering might not have enough job openings, and it may be better to choose a subject that can support a dual degree of Science and Business in uni (they're not discouraging me from doing engineering, it's just that they feel more assured if I do a dual degree)

I don't take HL maths, but I do take HL chem. I personally haven't found HL chem to be hard at all so far. In my school only two people take HL maths so I don't know much about the subject. But the little that I've heard has made me deeply happy to not be taking HL maths because it all sounds so complicated to me. So from this I would think that HL chem is easier than HL maths.

According to my teachers and friends at my school, I've gleaned that most subjects, regardless of whether SL or HL is chosen, don't split into SL and HL respectively until second year IB. Is it the same at your school? That's why I'm probably dropping HL Chem/HL Maths in year 12, and hence why I asked - Thanks for the opinion nevertheless!

EDIT: If I drop HL Chem, that probably means I'm doing some sort of physics related uni course

Edited August 11, 2015 by tim9800

[oakendurin]

In my school HL and SL are always taught together except for the topics that are only for HL. Then the SL students get to miss class for as long as the topic is being taught. And that's how it goes for the entire two years with us. I thought this was the way it was done everywhere else, too, but I guess not? The only exception for this is HL and SL maths, though. Those are never taught together.

[tim9800]

Thanks for all the input everyone!

 

Ultimately, I decided to switch to HL Ecos, but I'm leaving the HL Chemistry/Math open for a later time or another thread

 

Many thanks!