Advice on option choice

[AdrianP]

Hey guys, 

I have pretty much decided on my subject choice (except for one subject but that is another thing). My question though is which options you people would advise. I will be taking 2 environmental sciences. Chemistry SL and Physics HL. Generally preferred choices for me would be those with a high amount of mathematics. So I'd like to know your experiences with options in either subject and which ones you could suggest. Much thanks!

[Rosalina]

I'm doing Chem SL right now. There's not a whole lot of mathematics involved (compared to physics) in the core or options.

Here's a breakdown of each option:

Option A: Materials. The only mathematics I had to do here was finding atomic mass of isotopes, molecular and empirical formulas. These were pretty basic math skills you would have acquired prior to entering IB. There was also mathematics involved when working with H NMR graphs but these were basic addition. In short, much of this is theoretical.

Option B:Biochemistry. I'm not taking this option but a brief overview suggests that there may be more maths involved.  There is also a nice overlap between this option and Biology HL but as you aren't taking biology, this may not be much use to you.

Option C: Energy. I would say this would have a very nice overlap with Physics. Many of my fellow classmates who have taken Physics says that concepts match up. As a result, maths would be involved, for example, finding efficiency.

Option D : It's the least mathematics involved topic. Nice overlap with biology but most is theory.

I can't say which one you should take due to there being no opinion on Physics and you have not mentioned your future aspirations.

Good luck!

[thecsstudent]

I'm doing (did) Physics HL and I think the option with the most maths is Option B: Engineering physics, since it is basically an extension of mechanics. Relativity and astrophysics have more theory than maths and then there's Imaging which I don't know about.