What is the difference between Math SL and HL?

[TheStudent]

I obviously know that HL is harder, but what makes it harder? How would the questions differ?

[licia]

Maybe this forum will help you: 

 

In the Swedish school system math SL corresponds to something we call math 5, while math HL isn't even in our high school system according to what I've been told (it would be like math 7 or 8, which is apparently a too high level for high school students to take in Sweden unless you go to a special school). The students that are studying for becoming doctors and all other "good" professions, are only required to take math 5 in Sweden, so there's not actually a point in taking math HL in my country – unless you want to become an engineer in math. Math studies on the other hand is only math 3b. I don't think what I just wrote helps you much, but the link I attached might?

[IB Math Helper]

There are more topics and each of those are explored in far more depth than in SL. For example, in Math SL for the calculus topic is fairly basic while the core calculus topics would probably cover the first two semesters of a calculus 101 and 102 in university. You're expected to be quicker with calculations, read questions and understand them immediately (especially the tricky ones). HL has 3 papers and the third paper is an optional paper where you cover ONE MORE TOPIC in addition to the core 6 topics in HL. You really have to be good at math. When I took HL, almost everyone was suffering. A class of 60 HL students soon swindled down to 15 as these students got their asses handed to them test after test. HL is not the feint of heart. If you've skipped a few grades in math and a quick learner and pretty good at math contests then HL might be for you. But then, maybe not.

In short, take Math HL if you're getting 7s in your lower grade classes, finishing tests early and don't really have to try at all. If not, don't bother because you'll end up switching to SL anyway because you didn't heed this warning.

[samim]

The difficulty and weight comes with the content but also the difficulty and trickiness of the questions. It needs a lot of practice to catch those tricks in the Math HL questions. I dont do SL but from what I see from my friends, their questions are generally straight forward, not too much thinking but more of just applying some method to solve a question. Whereas HL questions are just so cruel and tend to have these tricks with every one of them. You cant just apply a formula without actually understanding it because HL questions tend to look deeper into your abstract problem solving skills with the tools you take. If you look at the HL Function topic questions compared to SL, you will see that SL questions are a joke compared to HL. However, smart and constant practice does work for both!

[TheStudent]

31 minutes ago, samim said:

The difficulty and weight comes with the content but also the difficulty and trickiness of the questions. It needs a lot of practice to catch those tricks in the Math HL questions. I dont do SL but from what I see from my friends, their questions are generally straight forward, not too much thinking but more of just applying some method to solve a question. Whereas HL questions are just so cruel and tend to have these tricks with every one of them. You cant just apply a formula without actually understanding it because HL questions tend to look deeper into your abstract problem solving skills with the tools you take. If you look at the HL Function topic questions compared to SL, you will see that SL questions are a joke compared to HL. However, smart and constant practice does work for both!

Could I see an example of an SL math question vs an HL math question?

[kw0573]

SL and HL papers have different length. Here I took two questions from medium difficulty from SL and HL on curve sketching. For comparison, I provide 2 questions for which you can't use calculator.
2014 SL Specimen Paper 1 (which is updated every time a new syllabus is published around every 6-7 years), question 8. You sketch a quadratic function, given say 7 marks of hints before you are asked to sketch. 

The following is 2014 HL Specimen Paper 1, question 9, out of usually 13-14 questions. Compare to SL, this function is much more unfamiliar and less hints marks (3) are asked before you have to sketch the function. Both SL and HL papers average to spend a minute a mark. So this more complicated question gets less time than the simpler, familiar question in SL. And, and why is there a pi thrown around?