Chem HL or Bio HL?

[faith]

Which is harder out of Chem HL and Bio HL? Does Bio HL require A LOT of memorizing?

[Toffu-san]

I'm doing Biology HL and Chemistry SL, I think that Chemistry HL is harder than Biology. In Biology HL you won't need a lot of memory, you will only need to understand what about are you talking.

[KiwiFruit]

Definitely BIO HL without a doubt, Bio is just learning, Chem is learning and understanding. Bio is like a language its just memorizing words.

[moneyfaery]

It depends on your teacher! A good teacher makes the subject seem enjoyable and easy while a crap teacher... oh, enjoy your 2 years of torture. Anyway, if you're taking Math HL, you should be fine with either i.e. you'll be motivated enough to study... I think.

[LinuxBeta]

It depends, really. Our bio teacher is much better than our chem, but somehow we have a better track record with chem. For some reason, nobody in our school has ever gotten a 7 in HL bio, while in chem we've had a bunch.

[__inthemaking]

Depends on your strengths, I'm really good at memorizing so bio has always been my favourite and best subject. I find it really easy.

[SamP]

Chem HL is much more harder for me. That's because I find it easy to memorize and thereby bio is easier.

[Sandwich]

Biology is much, much easier (for me).

It is a lot of memorising, but it's sense-memorising, if that makes any sense at all. Everything you learn is a process, so it's 100% logical based on things you know already. If you relate it back to real life, you can see exactly why something happens, so it's not memorising in the strictest sense of the word.. more like logical thinking from what you know already with a bit of elaboration

There's the odd bit of learning off-by-heart (there's this ridiculous bit about classifying animals) but relatively short areas of the syllabus.

Chemistry, on the other hand, I find very obscure. It's a pretty decent amount of memorising itself, to be honest, but unlike Biology it's not something you can mostly work out without having memorised it before. It's quite mathematical (comparatively) and quite challenging.

To defy what somebody else said, we have a very high percentage of Bio 7's at my school because it's straight-forward teaching yourself at the end of the day. Chem 7's require a lot of flexible thinking, memorising and you do need to have either a flair or a definite work ethic to pull it off. Some people get chemistry naturally, but of those people I know, they're much fewer than Biology! I actually find IB sciences very mismatched. Chem & Physics are far harder than Bio.

[twoxten]

Definitely go with bio HL! I'm currently taking Bio HL and Chem SL. I find that Bio HL is much easier to grasp as long as you pay attention in class. Although it depends on what works best for you. Even though I'm doing Chem SL it's still really tough for me. It takes a lot more practice to understand than I ever needed for Bio. But I do recommend taking Bio HL a lot of the things you learn are very interesting.

[biochem]

Bio does require a lot of information but I feel like its based on effort and time. If you put the work into it, it pays off.

For HL Chem, I sometimes feel like work put in is not always the product you want. I find HL Chem a lot harder, and I take both Bio and Chem HL as you can see

[moneyfaery]

I see that I'm in the minority here.... okay, I confess. I find Bio harder (even at SL) because I am lazy, I hate memorizing, and I crammed everything leading up to the exam.

However, regardless of subject choice, the Study Guides are really helpful for both subjects. Concise and quick reads but more importantly, they test your knowledge and help you fill in gaps.

[greaterthaninfinity]

I'm currently taking Bio SL in combination with Chem HL. I'm in IB1, so we haven't really covered any of the HL stuff in the syllabus yet. However, even so, I find Chemistry to be 34902890423 times harder than Biology. Okay, that was a bit of an exaggeration there... but yeah, Chem is really pulling down my mark. I guess I have trouble applying the concepts more than anything else, and that's really killing my grades. Makes sense that I can't apply the concepts though, since I barely do the assigned practice problems for Chemistry.

However, I actually think that if you put in a fair amount of effort, you'd be more rewarded in Chem than Bio. Chem requires less memorization. You just have to do a fair amount of practice problems. However, the same could not be said in Biology where you have to memorize a significantly larger amount. If you are an extreme slacker like me though, Bio HL would probably be easier because Bio is a subject that gives more leeway for BS. If you don't know how to answer a question, you can probably BS something up and still get a few marks.

Edited March 19, 2009 by greaterthaninfinity

[saya]

I dropped Chem HL to SL because I found it really difficult. Although I must admit that I had not taken GCSEs and there was a knowledge gap due to a bad chemistry teacher the previous year. But if you already have a good knowledge then it doesn't really matter.

Although I agree with the majority, Bio HL is much more easy and it actually does not require only memorizing. You have to understand it too. Although that's fairly easy as the content is really applicable to real life situations whereas all those atoms and substances we study in chemistry are less (have to admit, have done some experiments that kind of made me change my mind).

Anyway, the best option would be to take both at HL and then drop one. But if you can't do that, see which one you are good at right now and go for it. Bio HL is the easiest for me, but every individual is different so go with what you think is best for you.

[Rizzelet]

I'm taking Chemistry HL and Biology HL for 12th grade this year and I have to say that Chemistry is the harder of the two. With chemistry, as drewrow said, there is a lot of memorization but you also have to know how to strategically implement what you've memorized in various situations.

Also with chemistry, there is more of a foundation system of learning where various topics build, expand and rely on others. Often times with biology, you can learn two separate topics and they'll be completely unrelated (e.g. cell structure and evolution) and this will happen with chemistry as well, but much more rarely.

In essence the majority of the strain of HL Biology will be on memorizing definitions of key terms and understanding their meaning.

Hope this helps

Edited March 22, 2009 by Rizzelet

[IBdoc]

For me chemistry HL is a bit harder than biology HL because I think it's a riskier subject. For bio, if you study the material you get your grades unlike chemistry where it is harder to expect what is on the exam. The degree of memorization in biology depends on the person. Personally, when I read the material a couple of times it get stuck in my head whereas other people need hours to memorize it. This is why I score well in biology. I also think that biology is by far more interesting than chemistry.

[hermine0817]

Yes, Bio requires a lot of memorizing, and I currently take Bio HL and Chem SL, but I would have taken Chemistry HL if our school offered it.

It really depends on your strength, probably.

[ivy12003]

I personally find Biology HL harder than Chemistry HL. If you're a good memorizer, then yes, biology will probably be easier for you. Biology is more technical in terms of names, labelling parts (of a cell, the heart, the kidney, plants, etc.); however, I find that with chemistry, a lot of the topics overlap. In an exam situation, if I didn't know the answer to one question, I would have a higher chance of getting right than in biology. If I don't know the specific term in biology, I won't get the mark, but in chem, I can use my understanding from one topic to apply to another.

Contrariwise, I find biology concepts a little more easier to understand because they relate to everyday life most of the time. Chem concepts are a little harder to grasp at first, but once you do, it's a lot easier to remember in the long-term.

[Mahuta ♥]

Definitely BIO HL without a doubt, Bio is just learning, Chem is learning and understanding. Bio is like a language its just memorizing words.

I must disagree, bio is mostly about the human body, for me that's understanding, i almost never memorize bio..i always understand. Whereas with chem, it's literally memorizing..especially organic.

Sorry, but a HUGE difference between bio and learning a language.

and whoever is asking, take my word, if you like biology and have a keen interest into it, then its much easier than Chem. If biology is an ok subject to you and not your favorite, then you're going to suffer. Because either you give it a lot of attention(interest that is) or you're going to end up memorizing words you dont understand.

[1-2-3]

I wouldn't take Bio HL unless I wanted to persue Biology after high school.

& I wouldn't persue Biology after high school if I was scared of too much information to memorize.

I hope you get my drift.

Speaking from experience, I'd say you should choose subjects that you are considering in persuing after high school/ career opportunities and so on...

I have a friend that took HL Music and she regrets it since she knows that she would have had more options if she's taken HL Biology instead.

Also, the sciences are not that difficult.

The Study Guides are amazing. & So are the curriculum documents.

Interest in and effort for the subject will make sure that you do well.

Good Luck!

[fml_ib]

Definitely Bio HL. I'm planning on taking both Chem and Bio HL, and at the moment I'm hating myself for taking Chem HL. Mostly because our teacher can't teach chemistry at all. But I really lobve Bio because it's pure memorization.

Then again, getting a 7 on the Bio HL test is extremely difficult.