chinko Posted January 26, 2014 Report Share Posted January 26, 2014 (edited) At the start of IB, I was determined to study either physics/astrophysics or some other course relating to physics. However, right now, 5 months into my course, I have had a HUGE change of heart and I'm really leaning towards studying Political&International relations, Economics, Law, or something of that sort. My point is, I am taking two of the hardest IB subjects (HL maths&physics) and I have absolutely no use for them. My current subjects areEnglish LangLit HLMaths HLEconomics HLPhysics HLAB Initio FrenchTheatre SL.The subjects I want to continue with for sure are english, french and economics and the subjects I want to change are maths and physics (theatre is another matter).Maths is a subject that really requires a lot of your time and it's not something that you can easily understand with just the minimum amount of studying. Although I had a tutor for maths, and spent a lot of time studying for it, my marks are varying between 3's and 4's, and even though I've been told I could improve if I continued it, I frankly don't see the point in wasting my time with arguably the most time consuming subject if I'm not going to use it. Now here is where the problem starts. If I drop maths HL, I'm going to be stuck with physics HL, and although I really enjoy it, I'm not really getting good grades, and good grades is what I need. So I was thinking that I should switch to Bio HL (it's possible to switch even though it's this late), however, i really really really hate biology, but apparently it's way easier than Physics but it requires a lot of memorising (something I hate doing but at least my hard efforts would guarantee a 6 or 7). I wont even take Chem HL into consideration because even though it's really interesting it's also very time consuming.About theatre: our class consisted of 3 students, and then it dropped to 2. Now, the remaining student told me that there's a 70% chance of him leaving, and so if he does, I will for sure ask to change to psychology (because it would be so difficult with 1 person in the class) which is the subject I switched to theatre from initially -___-My question is, what should I do? How different are Bio SL& HL? What about psychology? Is it a lot of hard work? Edited January 26, 2014 by chinko Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
NS97 Posted January 26, 2014 Report Share Posted January 26, 2014 (edited) Im actually facing the same almost exact problem as you are right now but with different subject changes, complete with the change of heart on major (Ive also been leaning more to political science than my original plan of medicine and Im probably most definitely gonna switch subjects after midterm exams are finished next sunday)Better to change now than be forced to drop out of IB or find yourself in deep trouble next year. There is still time to catch up but it'll be alot of blood sweat and tears...There isn't much difference between Bio HL and SL (I take bio HL) The only thing is that Bio HL have different options for paper 3 and they take extra few chapters like proteins, cell respiration and human physiology in details. Its not as hard as physics from what I hear it just needs a lot A LOT of memorizing so dont leave studying everything one day before the exam because you wouldnt be able to remember everything (-cough-note to self-cough-)Chemistry HL is insanely extremely time consuming (like im scare senseless of my chemistry final). The difference between chemistry HL and SL is incredibly huge, If you find it interesting and you'll work hard on it motivated by it being interesting then do it BUT DO NOT SLACK ON IT or you will suffer majorly. If you dont need a subject (if youre 100% sure) and you're struggling then drop it like its hot but make yourself choose between something you hate but can manage or something you like but cant manage (if you're willing to sacrifice a 7 in physics because you like it and you think it'll be worth it then keep physics)I cant help you on psychology cause I dont have psychology or theater at my school (sorry ) Good luck! Edited January 26, 2014 by NS97 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sameera95 Posted January 26, 2014 Report Share Posted January 26, 2014 Drop maths, your grades are suffering. However the question I have is do you need HL maths for an Economics degree? Don't take biology, specifically HL, you'll have A LOT to catch up on, unless you really want to. Does your school offer ESS (SL science only), DT or Computer Science? These are Group 4 options that people take if they don't want to do Physics, Biology and Chemistry. To be honest, I think Psychology would be a better option for you, considering what you want to do at uni, but in the end the decision is up to you because you'll have to catch up on all the work. Is your school willing to offer theatre SL for one student only? Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
emmapatregnani Posted February 2, 2014 Report Share Posted February 2, 2014 If you want to go to UK universities to study anything related to eco definitely keep Math HL. I myself changed at the beginning of january from music SL to Bio HL because the music teacher was awful and Biology is much more useful for my future plans. It was pretty hard to change at that stage but my grades in the other subjects were good so I was confident. Physics is extremely demanding but only switch to bio if you are certain you can put effort into a subject you don't particularly enjoy. If you're aiming at UK universities your goal is to have the maximum amount of points and certainly to keep math HL which is the only course they might require you to have for the subjects you want to do. About theatre, stay there. Changing to psychology will only lower your total score, plus psychology is not a required subject for any university course even psychology itself. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chinko Posted February 18, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 18, 2014 I ended up dropping to Maths SL which I'm kind of disappointed about because I did enjoy HL but the pace at which we cover topics is way too fast and so I wasn't able to absorb the information properly. It's a huge relief because atm we're covering topics we covered at HL 2 months ago so I can take it easy for a while whilst I'm catching up to Bio HL. Bio is going well since I switched just when they're about to cover the HL material so it's not as intensive but I do have a lot to catch up to. It's definitely easier than Physics but there is a LOT to memorise. I am still in theatre and I will complete it even if I'm the only student since my teacher said that it is possible by myself. Thank you for your advises since they did help me make a final decision 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sameera95 Posted February 18, 2014 Report Share Posted February 18, 2014 I ended up dropping to Maths SL which I'm kind of disappointed about because I did enjoy HL but the pace at which we cover topics is way too fast and so I wasn't able to absorb the information properly. It's a huge relief because atm we're covering topics we covered at HL 2 months ago so I can take it easy for a while whilst I'm catching up to Bio HL. Bio is going well since I switched just when they're about to cover the HL material so it's not as intensive but I do have a lot to catch up to. It's definitely easier than Physics but there is a LOT to memorise. I am still in theatre and I will complete it even if I'm the only student since my teacher said that it is possible by myself. Thank you for your advises since they did help me make a final decision I'm glad it worked out for you Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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