Quick poll RE IB subject selection

[George]

Hi guys!

 

I will be starting the Pre-IB next year and though I have read as much as I can about the subjects available to me, I just wanted to see if I could get some more opinions on what will give me the best chance of doing well. Some background - I lean pretty strongly towards the English side of things, however I'm also quite good at maths so I'm hoping that will carry me through the rest of the subjects. Anyway, if any of you could offer some insight into my choices then I'd really appreciate it - and hopefully others will also find the poll useful

 

 

At the moment I am leaning towards the following:

 

English Literature HL

Maths HL

French SL

Economics SL

Physics SL

Chemistry HL

[King112]

Well, to be honest, it depends on what you plan on doing, because if, for example, you want to study economics, SL won't help. So thats the first thing to consider. So moving on, if I were you, I wouldn't stress about IB too much. You're starting Pre-IB next year, and have plenty of time to pick your IB subjects. 

But, if you ask me from a purely workload point of view, it seems reasonably manageable, but then again, it depends on your aptitude. I kind of suck at languages, other than English, so French wouldn't be a good choice for me. And same with the sciences, but if that's where your aptitude lies, go for it by all means.

So to conclude, firstly think of what you want to study. Next, don't worry to much.

Hope this helps. Feel free to ask any more questions you have.

Cheers,

King112

[Snowieball]

To be honest, your subject selection is quite tough. Unless the subject you want to study in university needs it, I suggest you choose a combination with less demanding subjects.

 

Physics is one of the hardest science subjects. It is difficult to prepare and you have to understand the concepts very well. Chemistry isn't easier, lots of maths involved and the concepts are not very straightforward. Biology is slightly easier because it is about memorization but it depends on the subject you want to study. 

 

Maths HL is very tough, very intense. If you are very confident about maths, you can take it. But why not chose Maths SL? If you are good at maths, you are very likely to get a high mark in it without a lot of revising! 

 

I am taking English Lit HL too and to be honest, this is a difficult subject. You have to read a lot of books, you have to analyze a lot of texts critically and the work load is demanding. Even if you are good at it, I think you should choose a easier combination because this is one of the hardest I have ever seen. Hope this helps 

[George]

Guys,

I'm going to reply to my own topic just in case it helps any of you in future!

So I ended up doing:

English Literature HL

Maths SL

French SL (ab initio)

Economics HL

Physics SL

Chemistry HL

So actually not all that different to what I initially thought. However, the main difference ended up being that Economics is only offered at Higher Level at my school (weird I know) and I could NEVER have coped with HL math, despite my apparent confidence at the time. I don't regret my subject choices or my science choices specifically, as I find that maths, physics and chemistry particularly have great cross-subject content links that really help me understand the disciplines cohesively, despite the fact that I am not very interested in maths or science. At the moment, I'm sitting on 4 6s and a 7 (The 7s are in Lit HL and French).

Hopefully this helps someone!