IB Subject choices?

[George Ampatzis]

Hey,

So I sorta have to pick my subjects for the IB, and have concluded in the following: 

 

HL

• Math 
• Physics
• Economics

SL

• English A Lang&Lit
• Modern Greek (Compulsory)
• Environmental Systems and Societies

 

A) What should I expect from each of them?

B) I'm thinking of substituting Environmental Systems and Societies with Business Management. As to what regards science - humanitarian subjects orientation, I'd say I'm balanced, but maybe leaning towards science subjects a bit. That's why I picked E.S.S in the first place. I only want either E.S.S or B.M to bug me as less as possible, I want to be able to focus on the rest. Maybe Economics HL and B.M might work together somehow?

 

Thank you!

[IEAFBC812]

Hey,

First of all, I can't tell you what to do about E.S.S. and B.M., because I don't take them.

Regarding the difficulty of your subject combination .... you have to consider that Maths HL and Physics HL are the hardest subjects offered in the IBD Program and that most People avoid even doing one of them. But all that also depends on how comfortable you are with These subjects. I didn't take Maths HL for example, because (even though I did well in Maths in the time before IB) I don't think I'm up to the challenge.

As for Economics HL, I heard from a friend of mine that it is a lot of memorization.

Hope that this helps you

[yii yann]

Hey,

So I sorta have to pick my subjects for the IB, and have concluded in the following: 

 

HL

• Math 
• Physics
• Economics

SL

• English A Lang&Lit
• Modern Greek (Compulsory)
• Environmental Systems and Societies

 

A) What should I expect from each of them?

B) I'm thinking of substituting Environmental Systems and Societies with Business Management. As to what regards science - humanitarian subjects orientation, I'd say I'm balanced, but maybe leaning towards science subjects a bit. That's why I picked E.S.S in the first place. I only want either E.S.S or B.M to bug me as less as possible, I want to be able to focus on the rest. Maybe Economics HL and B.M might work together somehow?

 

Thank you!

 

The HL Math-Physics-Economics combo is quite tricky. Mainly because of Math and Physics. There's quite a lot of work to be done there. However, it has the benefit of being one of the hardest perceived combinations you can do for HL subjects (hence US Unis will love this), and it also works for many uni courses in the UK. Keep in mind that if you want to do medicine, universities tend to want to see Chem HL. 

 

You'll spend A LOT of time on math and physics. They're not supremely difficult, but generally very time consuming. This is due to the amount of time you'll spend after school going through your book trying understand what's going on, and practising. On the bright side though, HL Econs is quite intuitive once you get the first few chapters, which are a little bit tricky to get your head around. The best way I can describe this is that HL Econs has a slightly steep learning curve. It's just a bunch of extensions on the same basic concepts after that. If you go through your book, and think about it in the context of daily life, you'll do more than well in it. 

 

No idea about your SL subjects because I never took any of them, however I've been told that ESS is an awesome filler subject. Not boring, but not difficult to score well either. I know BM has a huge IA, but I'm not sure if there's a syllabus change. You should check this out. 

 

Really though, at SL, both those subjects are fine. I'd say ESS has the upper hand, because it's just kinda awkward to have Economics and BM on one diploma. 

[Guest Yak Yeti Burg]

My vote for HL is math and Physics, the work load is ridiculous but you'll be so advanced for college (university). Math HL years 1 and 2 goes all through calculus 2 and Physics HL goes all the way to Digital Technology (and quantum physics, one of my favorites^^). I have no idea how HL economics is, we don't have it and I've never heard of someone who's taken it but from IB memes (not a very good source but at least they're honest) it's very hard and very boring. Environmental Systems (SL only I believe) is one of the easier ones, you'll be doing mostly biology and chemistry as well. It's not that hard. English SL for one, is unheard of around my school (duh, I live in an English speaking country) but I know HL English is a walk in the park so you should have no trouble with SL English (on second thought, perhaps not). You'll just doing to orals, essays every week or so (pretty lengthy), research essays, yadda yadda yadda. That's about it for English other than reading but you just write essays for that too. I swear all you do is write essays in that class... If you're doing physics and E.S.S., consider SL chem. Other than all of that, you look pretty good. You're also very lucky that you're able to take all of these, I can't even take an IB Math because of my "great" school, and we only have SL Physics. I'm taking for HL: Film Media, Portfolio. SL: Physics. On top of some BS policies and my school being the way it is, I'm only able to do 3 IB classes. I'll probably just pick up another for fun senior year (I'm only doing IB for fun) but this isn't about me. I get too carried away writing...sorry. I also noticed that you weren't asking about HL Math nor HL Physics in weather or not you should take it, so ignore that. I just wish I could take Math HL, Physics HL, English HL, Chemistry SL, Portfolio HL, and Film SL. Lucky you.