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IB Economics or Geography HL?


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Hi! I need some help with some final decision making :S

I haven't done either of these two subjects at iGCSE level so I don't know what they'll be like. I personally think I would like Geography because I like how it's a mixture of natural sciences and how it has a political and economic side to it too. However Economics does seem pretty useful and learning how the world operates economically seems quite interesting as well.

I was wondering if you guys could tell me more about the IA's and work you have to complete, how much memorising you have to do for each subject etc and how you found the course.

Thanks so much!

Edited by sapphireblue
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I don't know how's Economics, but Geography is quite tedious... You will have to do most of the work by yourself.

Although it's pretty interesting, and when you find those damn study cases you will ace through the course!

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Well I took Economics SL and I found it alright. There is some stuff you'll have to memorize but most of it is based on understanding. A bit of common sense also helps XD Economics was actually my least time-consuming course this year (then again I took SL). The IAs aren't that hard to do, you pick a news article with an event happening and analyze it with what you know about economics. You will have to do 4 of these commentaries. Just note that the syllabus for economics is changing for 2013 exams and the new syllabus is supposed to be more mathematical.

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Economics is much more interesting and it helps you become aware of the world around you. :). The IA for economics isnt too hard, you have to write a commentary of 650-750 words. ( 3 commentaries).. While for Geography you have to do a 2300 words essay

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  • 2 weeks later...

^ Yeah it was, thanks so much! It's so annoying because I want to learn both.. so I'm now considering if I should swap psychology with one of them so I'd be able to take both.. but I'm scared that it'll be quite hard since I'll be taking up two new subjects at HL. And I also really like psych! I really hate making decisions :(

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Hi! I need some help with some final decision making :S

I haven't done either of these two subjects at iGCSE level so I don't know what they'll be like. I personally think I would like Geography because I like how it's a mixture of natural sciences and how it has a political and economic side to it too. However Economics does seem pretty useful and learning how the world operates economically seems quite interesting as well.

I was wondering if you guys could tell me more about the IA's and work you have to complete, how much memorising you have to do for each subject etc and how you found the course.

Thanks so much!

Hi sapphireblue,

Geography will require you to learn a number of case studies for each aspect of the course e.g. a specific river and how it was managed or a city and its demographic charactersitics. I think most people find geography fun during the course but find it hard to cope with memorising and applying all the case studies during the exams. If taken at higher level, this will mean at least an extra three to four case studies.

Economics will require you to learn theories or concepts. However, as the new syllabus will take effect with the 2013 exams I do not believe anyone can really give you an accurate description of what it will be like. From what I have heard, the new syllabus is mathematically orientated which focuses on econometrics and equation based economics. I assume most of they syllabus will be unchanged but I think the theory aspect has been reduced and more applied economics introduced.

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I am currently taking Geography HL and I really like it.. we do a bit of economics too, but just not that much..

It's really up to you, but I hear Economics is harder than Geography HL if you're not that great at maths..

Good luck with that choice :)

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Hi! I need some help with some final decision making :S

I haven't done either of these two subjects at iGCSE level so I don't know what they'll be like. I personally think I would like Geography because I like how it's a mixture of natural sciences and how it has a political and economic side to it too. However Economics does seem pretty useful and learning how the world operates economically seems quite interesting as well.

I was wondering if you guys could tell me more about the IA's and work you have to complete, how much memorising you have to do for each subject etc and how you found the course.

Thanks so much!

TAKE ECONOMICS!

Economics involves a lot less memorization. It's also much more useful if you want to know about politics, for example, in your country.

I took Geography because our school doesn't offer Economics, but I have to take it in university next year for my BBA and I glanced at online exams when I was bored (don't judge).

The Geography IA is hell. Each school has various levels of teacher guidance, but this is how it turned out for our school. The entire class does field work. For example, this year, our school investigated soil pH and obtained various data from the soil in a field next to our school. Then they did up a report in APA format guided by our teacher. They were bored as hell because...it's soil. Other popular IAs involve erosions of sand stone on beaches and other topics you'd like to touch on for no longer than 30 seconds.

The Economics IA involves applying economic theory to real life events. You take a news article and use economic theory to explain how things are working. It's actually kinda fun if you're at all interested in the world around you. You do these 'commentaries' and go through various formatting and organizing to make a beautiful portfolio. For example, you could take an article about how the minimum wage increases in Nova Scotia appear to be correlating with jumps in the unemployment rate and then apply things from class to that article.

I love both of them dearly because I love social sciences, but at the end of the day, I'm a lot more interested in figuring out how the job market is working than knowing the science behind soil, etc.

Also, you have to dabble in some economic theory to do well in History or Geography. I had to learn a lot of the theory behind the Philips Curve to do well on my IA about Margaret Thatcher. Basically, you do not have to learn about Callaghan to do well in a debate about the Philips Curve. You do have to learn a lot about the Philips Curve to do well in a debate about the Callaghan government's economic policies.

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Well maybe you have already taken your desicion but well, some reaffirmation doesn't make anything bad to anybody in here.

ECONOMICS Vs. Geography = Economics off course

You'll find this subject more correlated with politics, if you are talking about economics and science if you're talking about geography. It mostly depends on what you like the most, if you say you like natural things, well... geography is likely to be the subject you'll enjoy the most but now, if you say you're interested in how the world runs economically... TAKE ECON.

I know you like more natural things but then, once again... there's biology; much more interesting than learning about soil, erosion and rivers. I don't take any of this courses but I'm pretty sure economics is better, plus... you won't have to do everything, or most of the things, by your own as you would do in Geography and the IA is pretty easy too. I've read many books about economics because I'm pretty interested in the topic, and let me tell you I love it; even though you need some mathematical knowledge but most of the things are just common sense and things applied to the real life. Once again, I must restate, take economics, is BETTER :D

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Hahaha thank you! I am now considering changing my science to biology and then maybe changing from Geography to Economics. However I know it's a stupid reason but many of my friends are doing Geography HL which is probably what's preventing me from making my final decision :/ I shouldn't base my subject choices based on the teachers/people right?!

Edited by sapphireblue
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