Last minute subject choice help!!!

[alexalexalex]

Hey guys, so about a month ago I handed in my subject choices for the IB and there were this:

HL: Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Geography

SL: English L/L and German B

 

Currently I'm studying for my IGCSEs and I've realised that I find Biology more interesting than Chemistry. I get 7s in all of the sciences so that doesn't make a huge difference. Right now I'm just kind of freaking out a bit because I feel like if I were to change from Chem to Bio I should probably ask to do so fairly soon.

Another factor in all of this is that all of the 11th graders say HL Chem is insanely hard. But then again, I'm not great at memorising stuff... I don't know about the IB but for the IGCSEs I just feel like chemistry is memorising random stuff that doesn't make any sense... or I suppose that could also be my middle-of-studying blues hahaha. 

So, from a general perspective, is Chemistry or Biology "easier" at HL? As I want to pursue a physics/engineering career in the future I dont need either of them so I just kind of make my life a bit easier for myself so I can focus on Physics more.. 

I just need some advice because I dont really know whether I should ask to change or not..

Thank you guys so much hahah!!

[kw0573]

Logistically you can change courses at any time, but before November of 2017 (for May 2018 exams) to avoid fees.

The previous chemistry syllabus (2009-2015) had a bit of memorization (10%?). The current chemistry syllabus is better at emphasizing concepts over memorization. For biology, both the past and current syllabi have LOTS of memorization. For both courses, when you are not learning concepts but facts you are going to find them out of touch. I am very biased because my major heavily relies on chemistry, but chemistry is like that bridge between physics (the mostly theoretical) and biology (the mostly empirical and dynamic).

Engineering has many subtypes that heavily involves chemistry or biology or both. If you are not sure what you want to go into after secondary school then it would be a really good idea to invest time and effort into one of these two disciplines, instead of just taking because you have to. 

Keep in mind my bias, I say HL Chemistry is harder than both HL Physics and HL Biology. Though we never did HL Physics, we finished SL Physics in bit more than a year, with essentially no previous physics education (except for some simple circuits and refraction) in any students, having only 2-3 hours of classes every week. We spent remaining time learning extra stuff like fields or doing HL kinematics problems and almost everyone (about 35 of us) got predicted a 6 or 7. HL Physics is not calculus-based, so instead of going deep, IB opts to bring in a very broad range of topics that do not necessarily make the course harder. Similarly, my classmates who took 2015 SL Biology said they learned some of HL, and HL is not much more difficult. Only in chemistry, out of these classes, do you see a significant increase in complexity and emphasis on conceptual understanding from SL to HL.