double sciences

[sarcasticdeity]

hey guys! I'm going into the IB program this year, and I have 4 HLs and 2 SLs. 2 of my 4 HLs are Bio and Physics. I recognize that this is going to a particularly rigorous course selection, so does anyone have any advice? Just so you know, my other courses are HL Psych, HL English, SL Math Year 2 (took year 1 in grade 10), and SL French.

[sarcasticdeity]

15 minutes ago, MaferAA said:

Hi!

Wow that's definitely a hard choice of subjects, but if you're willing to work for it then that's great! I recommend you get started on your revision guides as soon as you start classes, and keep everything updated so that you don't have such a hard time revising for the length science subjects. Also, there are some really good guides that consist of summarized notes and questions for each topic that you can probably find if you go to the textbook section here : 

The ones I'm talking about are published by Oxford and they'll be very helpful. 

Lastly, don't forget about your other subjects, so don't let your HLs take away attention from math or french. Make sure to read and practice writing a lot in French, and for English just read all the books on time and you'll be fine!

 

wow thanks!! I'll be sure to use those resources and to practice a lot for French!

[SC2Player]

Interesting that you chose Bio and Physics - the usual combinations are Bio+Chem, or Chem+Physics. Biology and Physics aren't particularly interlinked, unlike the other combinations (Bio and Chem apparently supplement each other pretty well, whereas Physics supplements Chemistry very well). It's still doable, just remember that they may be quite far removed from each other. 

[TheMountainGoat]

I personally think that the biggest issue you might find is the amount of memorisation that is demanded from Psychology HL along with Biology HL. I personally don't do Psych HL but have friends who have complained about how difficult it is to memorise all the content (especially since you can't really understand it). 

However, I found that you can avoid/minimise memorisation in Biology HL by actually UNDERSTANDING the content instead of just memorising it. This doesn't mean don't memorise at all, like I don't think anyone expects you to understand a diagram, but it will make it easier to recall and relearn content a few terms after being tought it. Also, apparently the IB Biology exams are moving more towards questions that require more deduction/applying knowledge instead of recalling knowledge. At least that's according to my teacher who went to an IB conference. 

Nonetheless, I would DEFINITELY encourage you to do 4 HL's to begin with. It will not only develop good time-management skills in the beginning (as is necessary when you have 4 HL's) but you can always drop one of the HL's. I thought about doing 4 HL's to start with and regret it now. 

[sarcasticdeity]

12 hours ago, SC2Player said:

Interesting that you chose Bio and Physics - the usual combinations are Bio+Chem, or Chem+Physics. Biology and Physics aren't particularly interlinked, unlike the other combinations (Bio and Chem apparently supplement each other pretty well, whereas Physics supplements Chemistry very well). It's still doable, just remember that they may be quite far removed from each other. 

ah well my school is tiny, and other than SL Environmental Studies and SL Computer Science, that's all they had. I just wanted to get some higher level physics under my belt before I go to college and I was actually considering taking a chemistry course over the summer at my local community college.