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HL Psychology vs HL English


Ariana

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I am currently doing IGCSE this year and I have taken global perspectives along with chemistry, physics and biology for my IGCSEs.

We have to select our IBDP HL and SL subjects very soon and I have chosen Bio HL and Chem HL but I am confused about my third HL (psychology or english). I know that psychology is easier to score on than english but how hard is psychology HL if it has never been done before? Will bio, chem and psychology become too science based? Or will they go well together? I have heard that universities like diversity in subjects. I enjoy reading and I am equally interested in english and psychology so at this stage it is important for me to decide which one is going to be easier to score on. Also, psychology has just been introduced in out school this year so I am a little skeptical about it.

Which HL will help me keep my options open? Which one will be easier to score on?

Thank you :) 

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Personally I do both, and they are both well and truly manageable at the Higher Level.
My recommendation would honestly be to drop Chemistry or Biology to SL, and keep both at HL.
In English you might study a few more pieces and you have a more difficult IOC, otherwise it's pretty similar to SL.
Psychology HL is one more option [often more self-guided] and an extra methodology and ethics paper.
Both are relatively small jumps from SL to HL.

I can offer to you that the biggest jump from SL to HL is in the Sciences.
Do not do two at HL. For example, in Biology, you have to taken on almost double the content. Rather than 7 chapters, you have to take on 12. These are detailed. In Chemistry, instead of 12, you taken on 22. This is almost double the content, most is much more difficult than the SL content.

However in Chemistry the HL content builds on existing SL knowledge, whilst Biology introduces more complications to existing knowledge.
Biology is memory-based, Chemistry is understanding-based. Choose to your strengths.
For myself, I chose Biology as I am fairly competent with digesting a lot of information rather than understanding mechanisms quickly and accurately.

I take Biology HL, which I think will take up a lot of time, however, I take Chemistry SL, which is manageable. They complement each other. A clear example would be in organic chemistry. Psychology is helped by Biology and Chemistry [moreso Biology as a huge portion of the SL Core is the BLOA, the biological level of analysis]. Psychology won't really help with Biology, other than in Option A: Neurobiology and Behaviour. I would present your choices as this.

A) Biology HL, Chemistry SL, Psychology HL, English A HL {if you don't have a particular impetus for taking on two sciences at HL}
B) Biology HL, Chemistry HL, Psychology SL, English A HL {if you must have a particular two HL sciences for a uni course, which I would say is very unlikely.}

Psychology HL has narrowly more jump from SL than English A HL.

I hope this has helped!

Edited by aTeddy
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