Classes for Next Year?

[KGurlYY3]

Hi everyone, I've asked this elsewhere already, so don't be surprised if you've already seen this, but is my courseload doable? Many are telling me to drop to 3 HLs... but I don't really want to and can't at the same time. BOLD courses are blocked courses for Years 1 and 2. Italicized courses are courses that alternate between fall and spring semesters of Year 1 and Year 2. Open the spoiler to see my extracurriculars. DISCLAIMER: I'm likely majoring in neuroscience

• IB Math SL (my school only offers SL math. I'm okay with that though, because my major isn't math-oriented. And Honors Pre-Calc was just... nope. Year 1 course)
• IB Spanish B SL (again, only offers SL Spanish, but I don't care. I'm decent in Spanish. Year 2 course)
• IB English Literature HL (my school only offers this in HL, and I HAVE to take it for the diploma. I'm a very good reader, writer, and speaker though, [though my annotation skills leave room to be desired x_x] so hopefully I should be okay)
• IB History HL (same case as English. I'm not great at history, but it should be fun anyway. I predict this will be my hardest class.)
• IB Biology HL (I love the sciences and have been enthusiastic about them since forever. I heard Bio is a lot of memorization, but apparently I'm good at it...)
• IB Chemistry HL (same case with Biology; I also heard Chem is hard, but I took Honors Chem and enjoyed it thoroughly, and that's apparently prep for the AP?IB variant.)

Spoiler

I'm also a bit of a procrastinator, but I've definitely been improving on that. I have a job (which apparently won't work for CAS hours), and I also do speech and debate, and will be editing the school newspaper. I'm also planning on starting a club next year. Though my parents dream of it, I'm not doing athletics next year. I wasn't too good at them anyway. 

So, is this doable? Like I said, my classes are pretty much set in stone for next year, I just want to know the amount of workload and sleep I'll get with those classes. I enjoy academics, though, so although I tend to get sick and tired of repetition, the IB curriculum seems to sway from that, so it's going to be interesting for me.

Thank you so much! 

[Lord of the Pickles]

I don't think any course load would be "impossible". But yours definitely looks difficult. You don't need to do 4 HLs and personally I would drop one of them.

Math SL: I have taken a look at the textbook and have a pretty good understanding about what this course is about. This is pretty easy and for most people doesn't cause a huge problem. You get daily homework but it's not particularly difficult or time consuming, especially when you compare it to HL math.

Spanish B SL: I take HL French B so I can't tell you the exact details of Spanish B SL. Generally, if you can do a decent job speaking, reading, and writing in Spanish you should be fine. This course also doesn't require "studying" in the same sense as other courses. You just need to practice.

Literature HL: I don't do Literature, but again, I know a lot of people who do. Literature requires a lot of time. There is no way around this, you will be assigned a LOT of books and if you don't keep up you will be lost. You need to commit some time every day towards reading, and some more time for assignments. If you like reading you will be fine. Otherwise, drop to SL or switch to Lang and Lit if possible.

History HL: From what I've heard (I don't do History) it's mostly memorisation. A LOT of memorisation. You will need to set aside some time to review material regularly. If you're good at memorisation unlike me, you will do fine. But if this isn't your forte drop to SL or take another group 3 subject if possible.

Biology HL: again, this is mostly hoards of memorisation. But since this is important for neuroscience, I'd say keep it.

Chemistry HL: chem HL starts out pretty easy. The beginning of the course is similar if not identical to chemistry SL with a light workload. Then when people start getting a bit cocky, it gets to the notoriously difficult part where you will need backup resources and you will need to practice and review daily. Just keep in mind the extreme increase of difficulty. I don't know how it compares to your other chemistry course though.

Anyway, I'd recommend dropping either Literature or History to SL, but it's ultimately your decision. Good luck  

P.S. about your CAS hours: you don't need to join a sports team or do athletics at school for your Activity/Action hours if you don't want to. You can just work out at a gym or basically do anything else outside of school.

Edited May 28, 2017 by Lord of the Pickles

[KGurlYY3]

1 hour ago, Lord of the Pickles said:

Math SL: I have taken a look at the textbook and have a pretty good understanding about what this course is about. This is pretty easy and for most people doesn't cause a huge problem. You get daily homework but it's not particularly difficult or time consuming, especially when you compare it to HL math.

Well, thank goodness I'm taking SL and not HL!  I think I should be fine in that class.

1 hour ago, Lord of the Pickles said:

Spanish B SL: I take HL French B so I can't tell you the exact details of Spanish B SL. Generally, if you can do a decent job speaking, reading, and writing in Spanish you should be fine. This course also doesn't require "studying" in the same sense as other courses. You just need to practice.

That's good. I suck at impromptu Spanish though- on the other hand, even my teacher praises my prepped speeches. Does your French teacher make you do a lot of impromptu speeches? Conversations do not count.

1 hour ago, Lord of the Pickles said:

Literature HL: I don't do Literature, but again, I know a lot of people who do. Literature requires a lot of time. There is no way around this, you will be assigned a LOT of books and if you don't keep up you will be lost. You need to commit some time every day towards reading, and some more time for assignments. If you like reading you will be fine. Otherwise, drop to SL or switch to Lang and Lit if possible.

Well, I used to read a bunch. I'm just getting back into it and I love it. It's just so relaxing. I already know the three books I'll be assigned, so I have that going for me. And, hehe, my school doesn't offer Lang and Lit. Is it way easier than Lit?

1 hour ago, Lord of the Pickles said:

History HL: From what I've heard (I don't do History) it's mostly memorisation. A LOT of memorisation. You will need to set aside some time to review material regularly. If you're good at memorisation unlike me, you will do fine. But if this isn't your forte drop to SL or take another group 3 subject if possible.

This is the only course I'm iffy about. I did pretty average in AP Euro History, but I think I did well on the AP test. If it's conceptual memorization, then it might be a bit of a problem, but at least I'm used to it.

1 hour ago, Lord of the Pickles said:

Biology HL: again, this is mostly hoards of memorisation. But since this is important for neuroscience, I'd say keep it.

Chemistry HL: chem HL starts out pretty easy. The beginning of the course is similar if not identical to chemistry SL with a light workload. Then when people start getting a bit cocky, it gets to the notoriously difficult part where you will need backup resources and you will need to practice and review daily. Just keep in mind the extreme increase of difficulty. I don't know how it compares to your other chemistry course though.

I think I'll do well in these two subjects. My mom has experience in both of these fields, so she can help me whenever she can. And I love science.

1 hour ago, Lord of the Pickles said:

P.S. about your CAS hours: you don't need to join a sports team or do athletics at school for your Activity/Action hours if you don't want to. You can just work out at a gym or basically do anything else outside of school.

Hehe, it's ironically my parents who are worried about that, not me. They think colleges won't like it if I don't do school athletics. I think I've persuaded them though. I know they want the best for me, but I'm not good at any particular sport, and a school sport just won't fit into my schedule anymore. I will take your advice.

Thank you verey much!

[SC2Player]

Overall your course workload doesn't seem too bad.  I'm not too sure if you have to take history HL - maybe there's another Group 3 subject?  If not, then you may just have to stick with it.  Doing 4 HLs probably won't help too much when applying to university, but if you have to it's definitely doable (I'm doing 4 myself).  

Chemistry HL honestly isn't too bad if you're decent at memorization and basic math skills.  It's fairly conceptual (not as much as HL Physics, but probably more so than HL Bio), so just be prepared to face a lot of fairly new concepts (although you may have covered quite a bit in Honors Chem).  Bio HL is apparently a lot of memorization from what I've heard (as @Lord of the Pickles pointed out), so if you're good at that you should be fine.  

[Lord of the Pickles]

On 2017-5-28 at 4:35 PM, KGurlYY3 said:

That's good. I suck at impromptu Spanish though- on the other hand, even my teacher praises my prepped speeches. Does your French teacher make you do a lot of impromptu speeches? Conversations do not count.

Well, I used to read a bunch. I'm just getting back into it and I love it. It's just so relaxing. I already know the three books I'll be assigned, so I have that going for me. And, hehe, my school doesn't offer Lang and Lit. Is it way easier than Lit?

You will have to do some impromptu for your language B. That is what your oral evaluation will be on. For SL, you will see 2 images then you will have to pick one, prepare for a couple of minutes, then talk about it for a little bit. The speech doesn't need to cover any sort of formal structure, it just has to touch on a few key points. You will have plenty of practice orals. It's not really difficult in my opinion. 

As for lit vs lang and lit, I'm not sure about difficulty. From what I've heard, it's roughly the same difficulty, it's just that lit has a much higher workload. You will be assigned over 10 books over the whole course I believe. In lang and lit you will be assigned around 5 since you focus on media as well as literature.

[agncsw]

Bio+Chem+History+Literature HL

That is the definition of overload in the IB. 

Trust me, all those four has a lot of reading + memorizing (especially for Bio, Chem, and History)

Unless you are strong in reading and/or memorizing, it's fine. BUT, if you are not "great" by the definition of the IBDP in History, I really suggest to change it... Most of my friends who thought that History HL is going to be fun end up getting a 3 or maximum a 4 (in their predicted) so... Just don't want you to end up regretting your decision.

And also, it's important to look at what you need for college applications. I definitely recommend looking into what the universities require. Just because you're planning to take on a degree that is not Math centric, does not mean you will not need Math HL to apply.