Course change in year 13

[kankeel]

guys, i am in kind of a dilemma. I am in year 13 right now and doing maths HL, but i have always been struggling with it getting 4s and 5s only. I just fear i will get a 3 in my final exam and lose my diploma. I am looking to change to maths SL, do you think i will be allowed to do so or would it be a bad idea to do it now.

[Abu]

You can change your courses before the 15th November for no charge (provided that your school hasn't registered you completely for all your exams yet. You can also change to SL by the 15th January since that's when a friend of mine dropped.

From the handbook of procedures:

G5.1 Up to the first registration deadline

The first registration deadline is 15 November/15 May, six months before the examinations. Therefore coordinators must enter candidate registration details on IBIS for the May 2009 session by 15 November 2008, and for the November 2009 session by 15 May 2009 to incur the lowest fees. After these respective dates there is a fee for making changes to subject details and a higher fee for registering new candidates.

G5.2 Between the first and final registration deadline

The final registration deadline is 15 January/15 July, three and a half months before the written examinations. Between the first and final registration deadlines there is a fee for changes to existing subject details and a higher fee for registering new candidates.

G5.3 After the final registration deadline

At the discretion of the IB, new candidates and changes to existing subject details may be accepted after the final registration deadline. However, significantly higher fees will be charged. If a candidate takes one or more subjects again at least one year after his or her previous session, the above deadlines apply. However, if a candidate takes one or more subjects again six months after his or her previous session a later deadline applies. Candidates from a November session must be registered by 29 January for the following May session. Candidates from a May session must be registered by 29 July for the following November session. Registrations are not accepted after these dates. Requests for exceptions will be denied. The fees payable are those that apply to registrations up to the first registration deadline.

That said, do make sure that you have another HL subject to change to since you have to take 3 HLs and 3 SLs to get the diploma.

[deissi]

I'll supplement that a 3 in HL Mathematics does not mean you have failed your diploma provided you have a total of 12 points at HL (or 16 if you have 4 HLs).

[Taigan]

If I were you, I'd change my subject. I mean, even if you do get a 3, deissi said, you still have a chance of not failing the diploma, but I wouldn't take the risk. I'd have a talk with your math teacher to see if there is anything you can do to really give you a boost, but if there isn't much, I'd change to SL. Also, make sure you have a subject to switch to HL (a subject which won't consume all your time by trying to catch up in). I'd say maybe English (the difference is 4 texts which may not have been studied at your school already, though, you'll have to check) or another language which you may be strong in. I wouldn't recommend switching any of your sciences that you may have at SL to HL as there is usually a huge gap between them.

Hopefully this helps!

Good luck

[Chelleee]

yer it's do-able

in IB1 we had 12 SL kids, now we have 4 doing math studies (only changed at beginning of this term) and 8 doing SL

if you think it'll benefit you then why not?

just remember:

1. you need to change another subject to HL so that's the tricky part i guess

2. you won't fail the diploma by getting a 3 in a HL subject as long as you meet the conditions