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Aquilina

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Hi :-)

I am a very passionate amateur chemist and I want to know if I could do all 4 options of chemistry and learn some further org chem. It's pretty like further math, where you study 4 options of math and some further geometry and algebra. I am the only HL student in my grade along with 2 SL students and I think my teacher could spend lots of time on us. So I am wondering if this is possible. 

Thanks :)

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Further Org Chem is an old syllabus option topic that's pretty much current syllabus organic chem lol aside from stuff like elimination, advanced polymerization, and some other stuff

There's no "further chemistry" kind of subject as there is for maths. probably since there's nothing really much more complex in doing that or the other options. feel free to study all 4 options but you could probably be spending the time on your other subjects instead. And like the above poster said, you're only going to be marked on one option. If you feel like you really want to study more chemistry, at least study the ones that's going to be relevant for the field of chemistry you intend on studying at uni e.g. study medicinal if u wanna go for pharmaceuticals or energy/materials if you want to go into applied chemistry.

Also honestly, unless you're in an anticipated HL Chemistry course, you'll be unlikely to have the time to cover all 4 options in class. And put yourself in your peers' shoes – are you sure they'd want to study so much more content that's not going to be relevant for their exams? Since they're only SL, I doubt they'll have as much motivation as you do. Moreover, your teacher would also probably be more concerned with completing the required course syllabus, as well as ensure that your IAs are up to scratch. Whatever kind of further studying you want to do you'd most likely have to do outside of class. 

Edited by IB`ez
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11 hours ago, Aquilina said:

Hi :-)

I am a very passionate amateur chemist and I want to know if I could do all 4 options of chemistry and learn some further org chem. It's pretty like further math, where you study 4 options of math and some further geometry and algebra. I am the only HL student in my grade along with 2 SL students and I think my teacher could spend lots of time on us. So I am wondering if this is possible. 

Thanks :)

Each option is assigned 15 hours at SL with an additional 10 hours for HL, giving a total of 25 hours teaching time. So what you are proposing is an extra 75 hours of teaching time to cover all 4 options. I can't speak for your teacher but I don't think that it would be possible for your teacher to teach you all 4 options when there is no requirement to do so. Of course you are free to study all 4 options and some further organic chemistry yourself but that depends on how much free time you have. 

I have videos that cover almost all of the option topics here:

http://www.msjchem.com/

 

 

Edited by Msj Chem
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Just one more advice actually:

If you're really interested in taking your Chemistry studies to the next level – you've probably also already thought of this – why not do a Chemistry EE? 

You can start doing your research now even if you're still in DP1, which will lighten your workload next year. Assuming your supervisor would be your Chemistry teacher of three students only, that would likely mean more time for you to discuss with him/her about your EE outside of class. If I'm not mistaken, science EEs, at least for Chemistry and Physics to my understanding, are expected to be research on content outside of the syllabus. And since that's what you're looking for, why not speak with your teacher early on about a possible EE topic and then devote your time and interest in Chemistry towards that piece of work? 

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What IB'ez suggested is a really good idea - I'm currently doing my EE in Chemistry, and so far it's been pretty rewarding (although it is difficult).  In terms of the time it takes to learn an option, it really depends on how fast you learn it yourself.  If you're good enough, then you probably won't need to spend anywhere near the amount of time recommended by the IB.  I suggest you don't limit yourself to the textbook or IB course if you want more rigorous coverage.  

I'm no chemistry expert, but I have gone through a few resources on organic chemistry that were quite interesting:

  • Organic Chemistry: An Intermediate Text, by Robert V. Hoffman (goes through organic chemistry reactions in more detail)
  • The Logic of Chemical Synthesis, by E.J. Corey and Xue-Min Cheng (provides a lot of examples of various synthetic pathways; somewhat outdated, but might still be worth a look)
  • http://www.masterorganicchemistry.com/blog/?_ga=1.124768074.132446873.1467341921 (provides lucid explanations of most concepts and reactions in organic chemistry)
  • http://www.organic-chemistry.org/ (just a site for org chem stuff - has lots of synthesis pathways and information overall)
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For the EE, I am probably doing something about victorian ages or French revolution because I like European culture a lot. However, I have blog dedicated to science writing and creative thinking about chemistry: aquilinachemistry.blogspot.com. I usually upload 1 article each month, and the article would be about 1000~1500 words long. 

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