25 replies to this topic

[Dr. Polaris]

I am in the Pre-IB year this year, and doing IB this coming September. My HLs are Chemistry, Biology and either Psy. or English A1.

My english is'nt too bad, I think I can get a 5 or so in English A1 HL. However, I also considered the possibility of psychology HL, and moving English A1 to Sl so I can have a higher chance in getting a 6 or a 7. However, putting psy. in HL when I haven't touched it before may be risky, and I may risk getting a 4 or 5 or maybe even not passing.

Does anyone know if psychology HL is risky for someone who hasn't done it before, and whether English A1 HL will be better or not?

Thank you

[Sandwich]

If Pre-IB means you haven't even started the first year of the Diploma yet, it's not at all risky. I don't know of anybody who had ever studied Psychology before taking it for IB, it's not a "normal" course for younger people -- a bit like Philosophy. If you find it interesting and would enjoy it, it sounds like a good plan to me, especially if you're a bit (well, relatively) shaky on your english.

[iotabebraindead]

I LOOOOOOOOOOVE IB Psych! And English! lol. To me, HL Psych isn't any different from AP Psychology, except the questions on papers require a lot of writing from memory. In your case, Bio and Chem HL don't really require you to do any analytical writing as do Psych and A1 English HL. So if you're a REALLY strong writer AND reader, go for A1 English. If you REALLY want to do indepth study on the brain, obviously take Psych. I'm in both HL English and HL Psych, plus HL History of the Americas so obviously I have to do a lot of writing.

In my case, even though English was always my BEST subject, English A1 was MUCH more challenging than Psych--it still is! You do SO SO much analytical writing for English although not really for Psych cuz it just depends on how much you study the info. Don't worry, I never knew anything about Psych until my first year and it's a breeze. I recommend doing English HL, that way it doesnt seem crammed into one year if you do SL, because Psych SL is, like I said, oh so easy (lots of my friends got 7's!). So if you do HL Eng A1, you'll have 2 years to really get used to everything (oh, by the way, you have to be a really good speaker, too--oral component is part of the IB Eng A1 grade). I also highly recommend talking to students who have taken those classes and see how much they like the teacher and all that, because you don't want to study something you're not really sure about and have a useless teacher for 2 years.

I hope this helps! Good luck

[Dr. Polaris]

I'm more of a writer than a reader. What i mean by this is that I can easily write commentaries and all that, however, it takes me nearly forever to understand a poem or an extract or even the book (for example The Outsider). I need the teacher to give me hints and all that, THEN i can do well

Pre-IB is more like a year of normal study, but what's different is that our syllabus prepares us for IB this coming sept. I'm also a fairly strong speaker, so oral components shouldn't be a problem for me.

Only thing I'm really afraid of is that I dive into the Psy. HL course, and then find myself panicking and doing poorly. If you say Psy. Sl is easy, then maybe I'll do it for the 7, that way it'll bring up my Chinese and Math grade maybe.

Not sure though

[flsweetheart422]

I think you should go for HL Psychology. I only took SL Psych anticipated in IB1, but my friends who took HL Psych loved it.

According to the May 2009 Statistical Bulletin,
Only 16 percent of the M09ers failed the HL Psych test. (26% got a 4, 38% got a 5, 15% got a 5, and 4% got a 7. The average score was 4.61)

For the SL Psych test: 25% Failed, 31% got a 4, 26% got a 5, 13% got a 5, and 5% got a 7. The average score was 4.33.

[AlonsoDT]

I don't take neither Psych. nor English A1, but I take Spanish A1 HL and all the Language A1 subjects have the same scope of study, so, if I had been in your situation I would've definitely taken Psych. HL. I'm not so good at literary analyisis (I'm in a similar situation as Dr. Polaris, I need someone to point me out what they're talkin about in the text). Besides, I've always thought that psychology is sooo awesome (even though it has nothing to do with what I want to study): sometimes I take a look at the syllabus and I feel jealous, heh  

[bLub]

considering that the difference btw psych SL and HL is tiny, do Psych and it's fun and really interesting

[Dr. Polaris]

update:

The uniss I researched preferred 666s in my 3 HL subjects. For chem and bio, I don't think that's too hard to do. However, my last HL, like I said before, is either English A1 or Psych HL.


With English A1 at HL, I'm not sure if even a 6 is within reach, as my teacher told me that getting a 6 in A1 HL of any language is pretty hard. However, looking at the replies above and asking other friends who've done it before, THEY say it's fun, and you guys have said the differences between SL and HL isn't too big, and furthermore, it's easy while being interesting.

This makes me want to do psych HL reallly bad (ew, bad word choice). However, I'm still nervous, as I don't know if psych HL will be fun or not for ME. It may be interesting for 99% of the population, but I may be the 1% who finds it BORING. I chose geog. this year, thinking that it'll be fun. Boy was I wrong >.>


So, what should I do?


Thanks

[hanniexx]

Doing something at HL, you need to at least enjoy some of it, as there is a lot to do. So you have to keep that in the forefront of your mind. What you could do is have a look at the psych HL syllabus, and see if there is anything that grabs your attention?
Getting a 6 wouldn't be hard at HL, if you're good at memorising. But I stand by what I say when I say that you need to enjoy your HL subjects.

[CudiWeezy]

I don't know about what the other posters are recommending you, but I take English A1 and psych HL. I do point out that in my case Psychology really kills, but that might be in my schools case. I do however would like to emphasize that you are going to have to do a lot of memorizing learning completely new terms and that your SAQ and LAQ structures will be evidently very contrasting to what you've learned in the past. If you decide on taking Psychology HL, i wish you the best of luck and that it all goes as well as your ambition.


note: english a1 hl IS EXTREMELY eassssyyy its almost a holiday, just some literary  terms and some philosophizing to break down foreshadowing and symbolism,and voila!

[Dr. Polaris]

So for you, cudi, why is HL hard?

[callhouse]

I am doing IB Psychology HL this May and so far I can only recommend you to not only take psych for a subject but also as one of your highers because there is not so many additional stuff to learn like in higher sciences and most of the things you learn are at least interesting...I like it a lot already and we have not done the best part (for me at least) - sport psychology to which i am looking forward...so yes do Psychology HL you won´t regret

Edited by callhouse, Sep 07, 2010 - 20:39.

[iotabebraindead]

What you have to do for English A1 HL:
- World Literature Paper 1
- World Literature Paper 2
- 15 minute Oral Presentation
- 15 minute Oral Commentary (recorded and sent off to IB)
- Paper 1: unseen commentary
- Paper 2: whatever your school does (mine does Drama)

What you have to do for Psychology HL:
- Internal Assessment, a 1500 word paper of your experiment
- Papers 1, 2, 3

Psychology HL is easier, in my opinion.

[ebsss :)]

yeah i was wondering this too, SL or HL, the main reason i'm doubting going HL is i got a really shocking psych teacher...
but thanks for the info guys!!

[Ipos Manger]

Go with Psych HL, Language A1 HL is horrible... I'm forced to take it!

[Babydolleyes]

Dr. Polaris, on Feb 09, 2010 - 13:06, said:

I am in the Pre-IB year this year, and doing IB this coming September. My HLs are Chemistry, Biology and either Psy. or English A1.

My english is'nt too bad, I think I can get a 5 or so in English A1 HL. However, I also considered the possibility of psychology HL, and moving English A1 to Sl so I can have a higher chance in getting a 6 or a 7. However, putting psy. in HL when I haven't touched it before may be risky, and I may risk getting a 4 or 5 or maybe even not passing.

Does anyone know if psychology HL is risky for someone who hasn't done it before, and whether English A1 HL will be better or not?

Thank you

I just finished my pre-IB year and i'm going to be taking Biology, Psy, English, Economics HL. I hope it will be fine! In fact i'm sure it will be

[Vol de Mort]

Um.. Pysch HL will get a higher mark than English A1 HL.

[Mija]

I'm doing Psychology HL and it's one of the most nice and easy subject I have. You have to like it though, otherwise it is going to be a nightmare as the syllabus isn't really clear for Psychology.

[i love ib lol jk]

I'm a psych student and first of all it's an amazing subject that will surprise you by how much of it is relevant to everyday life. When you enjoy something, it becomes so much easier and psychology is definitely not a dry subject, take into account how much you like a subject when you commit to HL because you WILL be spending much more time on your HLs than SLs. In psychology apart from options and a paper 3 there's really not much difference between the two and it's a fantastic option to take at HL. My teacher is an IB examiner and in the past 5 years has an average grade for students in his class of 6.01, way above the IB average. He tells us that psych is consistently one of the most failed subjects in the world, however it's also easy to get very high marks since there are certain things you can write that an examiner must give you marks for no matter how poorly you put it. He has drilled the formula for writing a good paper into us and when you grasp those, it becomes a relatively easy HL. Definitely go HL if you're doing psych and at only a 68% 7, there's no reason to think twice I reckon.