IB Bio, Chem or Psych?

[Rachel L]

What are the differences between Bio, Chem and Psychology?

I was asked to choose 2 of them as soon as possible for the IB next year.

1) Will Psychology be enjoyable? It's something I have never done before and sounds quite interesting. I'm aiming for good universities though. Do universities see it as a weak subject? Or am I better off taking Bio with Chem to open up more doors for e.g. a Bachelor of Arts and Science?

2) What are the two easiest subjects out of the three? I'm more of a social science student, and I have to study quite hard in order to get excellent grades for the sciences. My current subject selections are:

Maths SL

Bio / Psych?

Chem / Psych?

Spanish ab initio SL

Eng HL

Econs HL

Thanks in advance for your help!

[tex_lex1125]

All three subjects are demanding. However, at the end of the day it comes down to what you want to study in the future and what university you want to go to. Biology is all knowledge based. You will need to have a great memory to take bio but I can't say the same for chemistry or psych. Take a look at a couple of universities and find some courses you wouldn't mind studying. Psychology is really interesting and everyone that takes it at my school, loves it. Take into consideration what you have done well at the previous years. Also look at the syllabi to find out what exactly the courses consist of, if that interests you, go for it.

Good luck!

[IBidiot]

How are you at understanding concepts? Chem. is concept based as well as a little bit of knowledge memorization (not much). I have friends who take Bio. and while they say that it is easier as compared to the Chem. kids, they have to memorize a lot. My school doesn't offer Psychology, but from what I have heard from the AP kids and lower diplomas, it is a fun class, and it seems interesting.

All in all, it really depends on what you want to do in your future. Also, if you have to have at least 3 HL subjects, shouldn't you have already chosen one of them and set it to HL? Your school may work differently, but I was just curious to know.

P.s. I have to say though, Chem. is a lot of fun!

Edited October 13, 2013 by IBidiot

[Rachel L]

Thank you for your replies They really helped.

I've decided that I would give Psychology SL a shot as it seems like an interesting change from the normal science subjects and all.

Also, I find that I tend to do better in subjects I have to memorize a lot such as History. But it seems a little different though for the sciences, seeing that I got an A* for Chemistry in my IGCSE mocks but a B for Bio

Despite that, I actually find Bio more interesting so I have chosen to do it at HL instead of Chem.

I don't think I am interested in going into a career with the sciences, but I shouldn't phase it out completely just in case Hope I'll survive.

[Guest B.E.P.]

Out of curiosity, why would you take Psych at SL and Bio at HL? You said so yourself, you are not interested in going into a science career. Although I understand that you don't want to phase it out completely, I think you should think it over again. You really don't want to be studying a subject at higher level that you don't need.

Everyone in my school loved Psychology; they were all HLs except one of my friends.

The HL Bio people had a rough time in comparison to the SL Bio people because of the sheer amount of work. There's a HUGE gap between HL and SL sciences that doesn't exist as much between HL and SL social sciences.

I'm just putting this out there so you can be sure that what you're deciding is what you want to do, so you're motivated to work hard towards it.