I feel bad for taking Math studies instead of SL or even HL

[pennywise256]

My school is very small, in my class we are 16 people, which is pretty decent, but the IB2 class has only 5 people, and preIB only 2!!! It's really sad, so that's maybe why there's only one Math course offered, and it's Math Studies. And even tough my teacher is incredibly good, she has to teach us Studies. I am really considering to study Maths in the University, or even nanotech. But with my poor formation in Maths I'm starting to reconsider that option. Luckily, I'm going to Finland as an exchange student for one gap year, and it's very likely that I will be placed in an IB school, but even if I weren't, Finnish education is recognised as the best in the world, so I guess I would have both: more time to cram on HL topics, and access to further Mathematical material. So, when I got back, I would have a further 1 year to continue studying, so I could apply for HL on my own (if that's possible). I feel really frustrated because I know I can give more, and that's something simply not to disregard! Do you think this is a good idea? What's the major focus of HL? As for now, we have gone from precalculs to calculus itself, and we are starting to learn how to derive, it's really easy stuff.

[Summer Glau]

It's sad that your school only offers studies, not even math SL...

If you have the money, hire a tutor to teach you math SL or HL (you should take HL if you want to study math/nanotech!). If you have a good tutor, you'll learn much better than staring at a textbook trying to figure out for yourself what on earth is going on. Even if you can't get a tutor, ask your teacher for help. But be warned that math HL is no walk in the park! It is much harder than math studies and even if you're average at math, you should take math SL. The bottom line is that you must be genuinely strong in math to do well in math HL.

So basically, get out of math studies. You're not going to get into any math course at university with only math studies. Try HL, but if it's too hard, drop to SL.