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Wanting a class change badly, any way to convince the school after an initial 'no'?


KtotheD

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So I just started IB this year from august and so far it hasn't been that rigorous at all (I'm sure it will be next year). The problem is that I hate one of my classes (global politics) and I want to change it. So I asked the school " Head of High School College and Careers Counseling" guy and he said he'll try to make a case for it (to change it to psychology). 2 weeks later he comes just with an email saying "The decision was that it is too late to change I'm afraid." with no other explanation. Should I be assertive and try to convince him somehow? Or would that just make me seem rude and too insistent since he said no already? I guess the problem is that it was explicitly stated in an email from the head of HS at the beginning of the year stating: "Any course changes must be requested prior to September 21. Students will not be allowed to change courses after that date, as there will have been significant learning completed by that time." Yet, in the initial meeting with the counselor 2 weeks ago he said it is possible but only in certain circumstances, for example when a student decides a complete career change and need to arrange classes to fit that.

The thing is psychology was originally what I wanted to take in the beginning but couldn't due to conflict in my schedule, and the same guy had suggested global politics instead saying that it was "the easiest" so I took that. But so far I hate the class so much and I'd rather cut myself in the bathroom instead (ok maybe not that bad but still). The field I'm interested in studying in after IB has no use for GloPo, and I think psych would help me in some sense for AI as I'm likely gonna go for computer science. Actually, CS HL had been originally what I wanted to take along with psych SL but I had sacrificed them both for physics HL(to get a qualification for studying proper 'science' as CS isn't considered one apparently) and glopo SL. I'm having no problems with my HL's so far (math, physics, music), I actually find them way easier than the SL's which I hate (english, spanish, glopo(vomit)). Would this be enough of a case to be more assertive about my initiative to change my classes? Schedule wise there's no problem if I change spanish to french apparently. I just can't stand to think I'm gonna sitting through glopo the next 2 years knowing it isn't gonna help me later in any way, tie that along with my utter lack of interest in social sciences. Psychology had always been a topic of interest for me and I was indeed excited to learn it, and it has potential to help in terms of AI when I go for CS in uni.

 

TL;DR (I'd prefer you read it all) So I want to change an SL class, and talked to the counsellor about it. He said he'd make a case for it, but two weeks later I get an email saying that it was too late with no further explanation. Would it be possible to try to be more assertive about it even after the initial 'no' with enough of a case for it? How did you guys come to changing your classes if you had? I've started IB this year from august so it hasn't even been that long.

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You can try getting psychology notes from a friend and then tell the coordinator that you got the notes and you are able to catch up. Geography should also be quite easy to catch up in if your school offers that. Geography is about demography, development and resource management. If you want something more math-based you can try economics but that is more difficult to catch up in as concepts are compounded on one another. I think you should be respectful yet assertive otherwise your next two years will be quite miserable. If you are able to take night or summer classes you can also see if you can take year 1 in an non-IB environment then take year 2 IB. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I had a friend who had the same issue, he wanted to go from chem to physics but school did not allow it. One way to change it, as he did it (4 months into school) he just brought his parents in (ofc your parents would need to want and support your change). Some how parents always seem to work out the problems when it comes to schools. Thats one way of doing it :)

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