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help deciding to take hl or sl for english language literature


meenaa

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Hi fellow students,

I need help deciding whether to take hl or sl in my English. How hard is hl. I am not very good in English essay writing. It is between this and Chemistry which i am getting 4 score. Please help i am stressing on this.

My current subjects

Maths sl

Economics Hl

Chemistry

Visual Art Hl

Spanish AB

English language and literature

thanks

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Personally, I think English HL is very difficult (and I am a native speaker). Some people are just naturally good/practice a lot and become good... at writing essays and analysing texts by themselves, but if you aren't very good at that/essay writing, it'll probably be even more of a struggle.

However, the workload itself from English HL to SL isn't that much different - both still do IOPs, IOCs, Written Assignments and Paper 1s and 2s, although the criteria is slightly harder for HL. In chemistry, you'd get quite a lot of increased content/topics to learn.. so are you prepared to learn more content?

I think other things you should consider/let us know if you want more advice, is.. what's your score for English SL right now? You said you were getting a 4 in Chemistry. Also, which subject do you enjoy more? Which subject would you be more prepared to work hard in and study for?

I think it would also be worth noting.. how much work are you doing in chemistry right now? I find that if you study hard in chemistry and learn what the syllabus tells you to learn, doing well in chemistry is not hard. Are you doing lots of practice questions and past papers?

Finally, I would highly recommend you talk to your teachers about this. How would your English/Chem teacher feel about you doing HL?

So there's a ton of factors you need to consider, and you can't make an informed decision until you think carefully about, and weigh up the importance of each factor. :)

Edited by bluedino
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Hi fellow students,

I need help deciding whether to take hl or sl in my English. How hard is hl. I am not very good in English essay writing. It is between this and Chemistry which i am getting 4 score. Please help i am stressing on this.

My current subjects

Maths sl

Economics Hl

Chemistry

Visual Art Hl

Spanish AB

English language and literature

thanks

that is one killer combination! if you're good at commentaries and analysing works nicely then you could give it a shot.. whatever you do, just have a habit of reading and improve your vocabulary..

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Talk with your teachers/IB coordinator and see what they say. They are in the best position to advise you, as they know the curriculum inside out and have a good idea what students typically find difficult/easy for each. They will give you a good snapshot of what the course involves if you are not familiar with it already.

Be totally honest with them about your abilities and fears/wishes. You need not take a decision alone.

In my school students were able to attend the courses they were uncertain about, then, after a period of several weeks, decide which they would continue in. Schools tend to be flexible in these matters.

Edited by Blackcurrant
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tbh, english HL is not much different from SL. The marking criteria for the exams is basically the same, you just have like a few less texts to read in SL and the exams are 30 mins shorter. But HL chemistry is incredibly different from SL. I have a friend who took HL and was really struggling with the extra bits that HL students have to do so she dropped to SL and found it so much more bearable. My advice to you would be to consider how good you think you are with understanding chemistry and whether you have enough time to study it because it will eat up a lot of your time! A lot more of your time that HL English would! If it were me, I'd take HL english and SL chem.

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