Is this a decent IB subject combination?

[Guest imperialbee1]

Hi, all! At my school, we're having IB course selections and I would really appreciate some input. 

English Literature HL (I’m really good at English and really enjoy it!)

Psychology HL (I’ve always been interested in psychology)

Biology HL - 

Chemistry HL

German ab Initio SL (Excited for this course)

Math SL (I’ve always been horrible at math. I don’t want to do math studies.)

 

If not, what can I change?

 

Let me know what you think!

Edited January 28, 2017 by imperialbee

[Gaurav19]

I am assuming you're going into sciences? If you're going into medicine, you need Bio and preferably, Chem HL. If you're going into engineering, you need physics and (i think) chem HL. Make sure you take math SL, most Canadian universities need that for sciences.

[Guest imperialbee1]

30 minutes ago, Gaurav19 said:

I am assuming you're going into sciences? If you're going into medicine, you need Bio and preferably, Chem HL. If you're going into engineering, you need physics and (i think) chem HL. Make sure you take math SL, most Canadian universities need that for sciences.

I'm not really sure what field I would like to go into. I know what I enjoy and what I'm good at, but I'm not sure if they would provide much financial stability in the future. I am interested in neuroscience and psychology, so that's why I'm taking bio, chem, and psych. Anyway, thanks for the info! I heard that not many Canadian universities accept math studies so I think I'll try to do my best in Math SL. 

Edited January 28, 2017 by imperialbee

[Gaurav19]

51 minutes ago, imperialbee said:

I'm not really sure what field I would like to go into. I know what I enjoy and what I'm good at, but I'm not sure if they would provide much financial stability in the future. I am interested in neuroscience and psychology, so that's why I'm taking bio, chem, and psych. Anyway, thanks for the info! I heard that not many Canadian universities accept math studies so I think I'll try to do my best in Math SL. 

 

Yep, math studies is treated like college math

[aTeddy]

Hey! My subjects are very, very similar to your proposal and I'm currently in mid-IB2, so hopefully I can lend you some tips on how I've navigated subject selection so far. I went into the IB knowing I wanted to get into Medicine and seeing as you also have generally sciency premonitions, this seems a very apt subject selection. 

Things you should know/expect:

What my first piece of advice to you in IB1 would be is - be concrete about your university choice and whether or not Maths SL will really be useful. If you are sure you don't need it, I would recommend dropping it. I did not fully consider this, and dropped Maths SL to Maths Studies SL. Whilst it has been considerably easier, what I've effectively done is lock myself out of any remotely scientific course at Melbourne Uni [around equal for the best university in the country]. My imperative to you is get into contact with your prospective universities, explain your scenario and ask them about their prerequisites. I only managed to get in contact with Melbourne University at the very end of last year, where they outright told me that they don't accept Maths Studies. By this point, it had been 6 months since I dropped SL and couldn't go back up. 

Be aware that you have selected content-heavy HL subjects. Eventually I settled with English Lit, Bio and Psych and my estimate is that you should be prepared to dedicate at least 60% of your time to these subjects in IB1 and IB2. Biology in particular has a massive syllabus, where I assert to you, you genuinely need a full two years to get it all in your head. Kick your head into gear with it early. My thoughts are that you've made a good choice and should keep English and Psychology at HL, because compared relatively to sciences or math, there is fewer differences with SL. Spend IB1 judging whether you prefer Chemistry or Biology at HL. For me, I picked Bio, because I was more ready to dedicate time to content-memorisation than conceptual-memorisation. Additionally, my grades where better in Biology. This choice should be based on your own preference.

In my opinion, its a good choice to go for Ab Initio. Try to not regard it as easy marks and try to learn the language organically rather than in a formulaic manner [which you'll be used to with Biology and Psychology soon enough]. English Literature is probably my favourite IB course because it allows for personal flair and is assessed in a much more progressive way over the course, as opposed to a simple emphasis on the final product. Sorry if this came off as excessively negative, though I spent a long time in IB1 and even early on in IB2 making poor choices about my subject selection and seeing as your subjects are eerily similar to mine, I thought you should know these things. 

 

Edited January 28, 2017 by aTeddy

[Guest imperialbee1]

4 hours ago, aTeddy said:

Hey! My subjects are very, very similar to your proposal and I'm currently in mid-IB2, so hopefully I can lend you some tips on how I've navigated subject selection so far. I went into the IB knowing I wanted to get into Medicine and seeing as you also have generally sciency premonitions, this seems a very apt subject selection. 

Things you should know/expect:

What my first piece of advice to you in IB1 would be is - be concrete about your university choice and whether or not Maths SL will really be useful. If you are sure you don't need it, I would recommend dropping it. I did not fully consider this, and dropped Maths SL to Maths Studies SL. Whilst it has been considerably easier, what I've effectively done is lock myself out of any remotely scientific course at Melbourne Uni [around equal for the best university in the country]. My imperative to you is get into contact with your prospective universities, explain your scenario and ask them about their prerequisites. I only managed to get in contact with Melbourne University at the very end of last year, where they outright told me that they don't accept Maths Studies. By this point, it had been 6 months since I dropped SL and couldn't go back up. 

Be aware that you have selected content-heavy HL subjects. Eventually I settled with English Lit, Bio and Psych and my estimate is that you should be prepared to dedicate at least 60% of your time to these subjects in IB1 and IB2. Biology in particular has a massive syllabus, where I assert to you, you genuinely need a full two years to get it all in your head. Kick your head into gear with it early. My thoughts are that you've made a good choice and should keep English and Psychology at HL, because compared relatively to sciences or math, there is fewer differences with SL. Spend IB1 judging whether you prefer Chemistry or Biology at HL. For me, I picked Bio, because I was more ready to dedicate time to content-memorisation than conceptual-memorisation. Additionally, my grades where better in Biology. This choice should be based on your own preference.

In my opinion, its a good choice to go for Ab Initio. Try to not regard it as easy marks and try to learn the language organically rather than in a formulaic manner [which you'll be used to with Biology and Psychology soon enough]. English Literature is probably my favourite IB course because it allows for personal flair and is assessed in a much more progressive way over the course, as opposed to a simple emphasis on the final product. Sorry if this came off as excessively negative, though I spent a long time in IB1 and even early on in IB2 making poor choices about my subject selection and seeing as your subjects are eerily similar to mine, I thought you should know these things. 

 

No, don't be sorry! I appreciate the honesty, really.

Regarding maths, I really wanted to sign up for math studies because I am honestly horrible at mathematics (Even my functions teacher thinks so :/). Although, in Canada, little to no universities recognize math studies so I chose math sl so I don't completely limit myself. Luckily, I don't just want to study in Canada. I think I may want to go to the UK or some other European country for university. I've heard that people have gone to Oxford and Cambridge to study Experimental Psychology or PBS with math studies because it's the equivalent of GCSE maths. Although, there's a slim chance that I might get into one of those top schools. 

I will also try to figure out which science I enjoy more. Canada does not have the most challenging/rigorous education system so OSSD has not really given me a lot of exposure to Biology and Chemistry. All I know is that many people on IB Survival say that for a medicine track, Bio and Chem at HL is good choice so that's why I selected them. I'm in MYP right now and I did pretty well in Chemistry (My grade ranged from a 93-96) and we're learning Biology right now in our general science course and I kind of like it.

Seeing how you're almost done with IB2, I think it would be in my best interest to listen to your advice. Thanks you so much! I really appreciate it. 

 

Edited January 29, 2017 by imperialbee

[cjy]

If you're interested in medicine in the UK, you should look at this programme. It's a medical degree taught by the Universities of St Andrews and Edinburgh for Canadian school leavers. You need HL Biology and Chemistry and SL Maths as a minimum, but it gives you something to think about.

http://medicine.st-andrews.ac.uk/teaching/bsc-hons-medicine/alberta/