Subject Choices

[lucy25]

hello, I am currently in year 11 and am needing to make desicions on what to take for IB.

At the moment I am thinking of taking:

Spanish HL

Economics HL

Maths SL

English SL

I still need to pick one more HL and SL level subject!So I have some questions...

1. If i took Phycology HL, would my HLs be seen as not that good? as they are not percieved as academic subjects?

2. Is it worth taking HL Chemistry if I do not want to pursue Chemistry in the future? Is SL a lot easier?

3. Is Biology SL and HL much different? And are they hard work?

4. If I were to take French as well as Spanish, would I struggle with 2 languages as I am not fluent in either, and do not have any language background? I am predicted both A*S for GCSE though?

5. Is English HL much different/more work, than SL English? I really do not like English but my teacher said I could take HL

6. I am currently grade 8 flute, and therefore would I find it easy to get a high level in IB music?

Thankkksss:)

[~Lc~]

why are econ and psychology not perceived as academic subjects?

yes Chem sl is a lot easier, so is the different between Bio HL and SL, and don't do a HL science if you're not going to need it for Uni.

I don't know about music, HL English is considerably more amount of work, as you have to do 2 more texts overall, and have no clue questions for paper 1.

Think about what you want to do at Uni before you make these decisions

[Sandwich]

It's easier for me to answer the questions rather than work out what is and isn't repeated from the reply above, so here we are xP

1. If i took Phycology HL, would my HLs be seen as not that good? as they are not percieved as academic subjects?

Economics HL = academic, Spanish (I assume B) HL = academic only if you want to apply for languages because it's a bit of a doss and Psychology HL = not so academic.

2. Is it worth taking HL Chemistry if I do not want to pursue Chemistry in the future? Is SL a lot easier?

Nope it's not and yes SL is a lot easier. HL Chemistry is actually really hard so unless you need it, I wouldn't do it.

3. Is Biology SL and HL much different? And are they hard work?

Quite a bit different, although not as extreme as Chemistry. Biology HL just means learning MORE content than SL does, not necessarily harder concepts. Biology is a lot of memorising so it'll take up a lot of revision time.

4. If I were to take French as well as Spanish, would I struggle with 2 languages as I am not fluent in either, and do not have any language background? I am predicted both A*S for GCSE though?

Nope, I know plenty of people who did 2 languages. If you take B, that's basically like doing an AS Level. It's quite a soft subject combination is all. That and doing it for GCSE = a language background!

5. Is English HL much different/more work, than SL English? I really do not like English but my teacher said I could take HL

I personally don't think it's much more work. You do more texts, but equally you have more lessons so you'd expect to do more texts. You get more time in the exams for HL and if you were decent at GCSE, IB English is basically just a repeat of GCSE but a bit more independent in terms of analysing stuff.

6. I am currently grade 8 flute, and therefore would I find it easy to get a high level in IB music?

I'm under the impression that quite a bit of IB Music is theory. You can download the syllabus for free and flick through it from the Files section of this site.