Physics, Art or Psychology SL?! I need to pick one!

[Verses30]

Hey guys! So far I'm planning on taking:

HL - Math, Lang&lit and Economics

SL - Chemistry, Spanish and.. I'm not sure

I love art but I don't wish to pursue it further on in life. Is art SL an easy scoring subject or is the work load too much?

I feel like physics and psychology will open up my options for possibly studying astrophysics or psychology in college.

Is Physics SL a difficult course?

Any help would be appreciated! And yes, I am very confused

[Award Winning Boss]

HL maths will open your options to study astrophysics more than SL physics because the maths component in SL physics isn't that high whereas that changes in university. It's not that difficult though. SL chemistry will do the same for psychology to be honest because you'll see more universities emphasise a science background since psychology isn't taught in some schools. 

 

I've been told SL art has a high work load so it's usually not recommended simply because of that. 

 

To conclude, if you have a favourite subject out of the three, take whichever one appeals to you the most. You don't need to think that strategically about SL subjects. 

[Zahra Salehí]

Physics SL is a perfectly manageable subject, compared to Physics HL, since it's syllabus is much shorter. For those like me who took physics simply because they had to chose a science randomly and is of no use to them in Uni, it was quite good. 

 

Regarding Art SL, I was Art HL myself, however the workload is still quite high compared to other SL subjects in my opinion, and if it's not going to be of any use to you in the future i suggest you to not bother yourself with it. 

My school didn't offer Psychology so I really don't have any experience with the subject whatsoever. 

 

I do agree with Award Winning Boss, you don't need to think so strategically about SL subjects either. 

[Negotiation]

Note of possible bias: I am a very math/science oriented person.

 

My experience with IB is that psychology is very much memorization based. I was excited about it when I picked it, thinking that I would learn intricate details of human thought, which was accomplished to some extent, but much of my time was wasted (in my opinon) memorizing studies to use as evidence.

 

In contrast, the equivalent information in physics is given to you in the exams, the physics data booklet, so limited memorization is required. This enables the course to focus more on application of the knowledge in the syllabus, rather than memorization. The course still had some flat-out memorization though, but not nearly as much as psychology required. I don't know how this is in the new syllabus.

 

This difference was also illustrated in my revision for the exams; when revising for physics, I went through past paper after past paper, doing as many problems as possible, to nail the application of the knowledge. With psychology, on the other hand, I mainly focused on reading over and re-doing notes on various studies.

 

However, if there is a high chance you'll study psychology, you should of course pick it. Can I ask why you are picking economics and chemistry? Is this due to interest in a career in that direction too? You could consider scrapping one of those in favor of studying both psychology and physics.

 

I'm happy to answer any specific questions if you have any.