Lack of Courses?

[elmar]

I was wondering if anyone had any experience requesting (or the desire to request) a teacher/class for a specific IB course not offered at the school.

At my school, there are only two science subjects: Chemistry and Biology. Someone who's interested in Psychology might want to take such, or Business and Management. There are so many varied courses for the six subjects, yet my school offers so little.

[CelestialCeres]

In my school, for sciences, they only offer Biology HL and not SL and only Physics SL and not HL. There is no IB Chemistry, I believe, at my school. We've had some students interested in IB Chemistry and Physics HL but our school just won't budge on it because there's not enough students to take it and not enough money to pay the teacher to teach a class of 3 students.

However, we do have Psychology HL but not any IB Business/Management classes.

Edited November 21, 2009 by CelestialCeres

[CommeDesEnfants]

At my school, we're forced into taking English A1 HL, French B SL and History of Europe/Islam HL. There's no exception to these except for the 2nd language, as people who have had no experience in French but know another language (per usual with our international students) can opt to self-study their own language.

For the other 3 groups, are choices are rather limited. Most people take either one of Biology HL/Physics HL, along with Chemistry SL. Biology and Physics cannot be combined at my school. Math SL and HL are also offered, with Math Studies no longer being offered because of the small amount of students who ever took it. In terms of Group 6, our school has Music and Visual Arts, but hardly anybody really takes these. We had Theatre Arts in the past, but that got canceled too.

I guess my school's pretty limited, but our classes usually range from only 20-25 people. :/

[__inthemaking]

We had no choice besides history or economics HL and physics or biology SL. Everything else was set for us..all IB students took English A1 HL, French B SL, chem HL, maths SL.

We tried to get a bio HL course but IBC didn't approve of it.

[elmar]

I feel better knowing it's just not my school that's highly selective of the IB courses. I know I should be grateful for the IB program alone, but still, I think I'd enjoy the process more (despite the fact that it's IB) if there were classes I could enjoy, such as Psychology and Business and Management.

At my school, all students take English A1 HL, History of the Americans HL, and Biology HL or Chemistry HL. We are allowed to choose our Math level (HL, SL, Studies), science (Bio vs. Chem), and sixth subject (Music, Social Anthropology, Physics, Chem if choosing Bio, and Art). For the additional language, most students take ab initio while the native speakers and/or fluent speakers take the higher level courses.

It's a bit of a shame that we all can't be given what is available though.

[sweetnsimple786]

Honestly, a lot of people are better off not having a choice. Plus your school offers more than many of ours have.

And having certain things required is almost a blessing if you're planning on going to a US uni because while the colleges recognize IB, if you're doing high school in the US, you should probably take the normal lit, language, social studies, etc that everyone takes, especially since it's at a higher level.

[Sandwich]

We didn't have Psychology or B&M either. We had one person self-teach themselves B&M (which is always an option, especially for less tricky theoretical subjects). You can always self-teach, but most people just compromised. After all, the last thing you want is a teacher with no experience who is unfamiliar with the IB syllabus being dragged into teaching you. We had both Psychology and B&M taught to a high level for other national courses at my school, but unless the teachers know how to teach the IB, you're probably better off teaching yourself and maybe using them as a resource to ask questions. Definitely an idea to avoid doing an EE with them!

I don't know of any schools which offer all IB courses. You do have quite a limited selection, though. I'd hate to be forced into doing History at HL! Or indeed just having your humanity decided for you. That would suck. We had History, Geography, Economics and Philosophy all offered at both HL & SL, which was much easier to pick from.

[clare.is.rice]

I'm only just starting to realise how lucky I am at my school, we have about 90 students in my year, and only 5 or 6 don't do the full diploma program but they still do certificates. so we get a good range of options

group 1: English A1

German A1

Japanese A1

Korean A1

group 2: English A2, B

German A2, B, ab intio

Spanish B

French B

group 3: History Europe

Psychology

Economics

ITGS

group 4: Physics

Chemistry

Biology

group 5: Maths studies, SL, and HL

group 6: Visual Arts

Music

As far as I know everything is available at both HL and SL although this is sometimes in the same class (mostly for languages or group six subjects)

Edited November 21, 2009 by clare.is.rice

[elmar]

Honestly, a lot of people are better off not having a choice. Plus your school offers more than many of ours have.

And having certain things required is almost a blessing if you're planning on going to a US uni because while the colleges recognize IB, if you're doing high school in the US, you should probably take the normal lit, language, social studies, etc that everyone takes, especially since it's at a higher level.

According to my IBC, this is the best way in ensuring that a majority of the candidates receive the diploma. My school has a high passage rate. I'd like to say an exact number, but I feel uncomfortable quoting it. However, I do know from college representatives, they do enjoy the classes and courses my school has enlisted.

We didn't have Psychology or B&M either. We had one person self-teach themselves B&M (which is always an option, especially for less tricky theoretical subjects). You can always self-teach, but most people just compromised. After all, the last thing you want is a teacher with no experience who is unfamiliar with the IB syllabus being dragged into teaching you. We had both Psychology and B&M taught to a high level for other national courses at my school, but unless the teachers know how to teach the IB, you're probably better off teaching yourself and maybe using them as a resource to ask questions. Definitely an idea to avoid doing an EE with them!

I don't know of any schools which offer all IB courses. You do have quite a limited selection, though. I'd hate to be forced into doing History at HL! Or indeed just having your humanity decided for you. That would suck. We had History, Geography, Economics and Philosophy all offered at both HL & SL, which was much easier to pick from.

Are IB courses difficult to self-teach? I don't know if there's a difference between IB and AP self-teaching methods, but because I am unable to take the class next semester, I decided to self-study my way through AP Psychology. My only confidence is that, from previous students and scores, it seems doable, plus I'm cross-referencing from varied resources, such as Barron's and Yale's Open courses available on iTunes.

Economics and Philosophy would be really pleasing to me! But only at SL, because such subjects could probably put me to sleep easily, as my AP World History class often does. I'm already worried how IB History's going to treat me.

I'm only just starting to realise how lucky I am at my school, we have about 90 students in my year, and only 5 or 6 don't do the full diploma program but they still do certificates. so we get a good range of options

group 1: English A1

German A1

Japanese A1

Korean A1

group 2: English A2, B

German A2, B, ab intio

Spanish B

French B

group 3: History Europe

Psychology

Economics

ITGS

group 4: Physics

Chemistry

Biology

group 5: Maths studies, SL, and HL

group 6: Visual Arts

Music

As far as I know everything is available at both HL and SL although this is sometimes in the same class (mostly for languages or group six subjects)

You seem to have limited selections for your science and sixth subject, but otherwise, very wide. I'm very jealous of your humanities choices; between History of Europe, Psychology, and Economics, I would never be able to choose. Not sure of the number of current students in the senior class, but I know there are approximately 120 in my sophomore class. A majority of the students have had siblings complete the program and their parents approve of nothing else but IB while some do the IB program to enroll in the high school instead of attending the other high schools in the area.

[sweetnsimple786]

We didn't have Psychology or B&M either. We had one person self-teach themselves B&M (which is always an option, especially for less tricky theoretical subjects). You can always self-teach, but most people just compromised. After all, the last thing you want is a teacher with no experience who is unfamiliar with the IB syllabus being dragged into teaching you. We had both Psychology and B&M taught to a high level for other national courses at my school, but unless the teachers know how to teach the IB, you're probably better off teaching yourself and maybe using them as a resource to ask questions. Definitely an idea to avoid doing an EE with them!

I don't know of any schools which offer all IB courses. You do have quite a limited selection, though. I'd hate to be forced into doing History at HL! Or indeed just having your humanity decided for you. That would suck. We had History, Geography, Economics and Philosophy all offered at both HL & SL, which was much easier to pick from.

Are IB courses difficult to self-teach? I don't know if there's a difference between IB and AP self-teaching methods, but because I am unable to take the class next semester, I decided to self-study my way through AP Psychology. My only confidence is that, from previous students and scores, it seems doable, plus I'm cross-referencing from varied resources, such as Barron's and Yale's Open courses available on iTunes.

Economics and Philosophy would be really pleasing to me! But only at SL, because such subjects could probably put me to sleep easily, as my AP World History class often does. I'm already worried how IB History's going to treat me.

It's really going to depend on the subject. AP Psych and Bio are much more reading and memorization than AP Physics/Chem. The same relates with IB. But there are some complications with IB. I haven't taken IB Econ or Philosophy, so I don't know how well I can speak on them, but they both require a bit of reading, I would think, and understanding, so you'd definitely want to talk to your AP Econ and TOK teachers. Then each course will have its own IA, and I have no clue what that entails for these two courses. Keep in mind that your IBC may not allow you to self-study them, but you may be able to convince him/her.

Don't worry about the material in history--worry about the teacher because that's who it comes down to. The material's not boring or fun... it just is. The teacher brings another dimension to it, and the student takes away what he or she wants.

[zakuropanda]

We have quite a few options now that I think about it, but we don't have Psych and stuff. (All courses are taught at HL except for Math which is split up)

Group 1: English

Group 2: B/Ab Initio: French, German, Spanish, Chinese

Group 3: History-Europe, Economics (you must take history, and Econ has to be elected as a sixth subject)

Group 4: Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Systems

Group 5: Math Studies SL, Math SL, Math HL, Further Math SL

Group 6: Visual Arts, Music

Out of curiosity, what are the other Group 6 subjects? I've heard that they were trying to introduce dance..

Edited November 26, 2009 by zakuropanda

[elmar]

Out of curiosity, what are the other Group 6 subjects? I've heard that they were trying to introduce dance..

Currently, there's Film, Music Theory, Theatre, and Visual Arts. I believe they're introducing Dance and Text And Performance as pilot courses.

All courses are taught at HL except for Math which is split up

Just out of my own curiosity, if only one subject is taught at SL, how are you able to handle 5 HLs?

Edited November 26, 2009 by Courtface

[Bee =3]

you're not supposed to. Hence, even if the courses are in HL, you should still be sitting for SL.

A guy at my school did 5 HLs because he didn't know the max was 4 (the IB coordinator didn't do much either) and they didn't want to give him the diploma..

[zakuropanda]

We obviously can't test everything HL. We have to learn all of the material though, like I'm testing Chem SL, but I have learned all of the HL material. And for English, I was forced into doing the WL2 even though it won't be submitted. Our school doesn't want people to not be able to take subjects because there is only 1 SL block at a certain time, etc. We decided what we were testing October of this year.

As for handling wise, I don't know. Maybe my life would have been a lot easier if I didn't have to learn everything, but no use wondering now. At least I don't have to study it for the exam!

Edited November 26, 2009 by zakuropanda

[KLSmash]

We have about 140 - 150 graduating students I believe and we have:

Group 1: HL English A1

Group 2: HL/SL French B, Spanish ab initio (you can only take it if you haven't taken French before)

Group 3: HL/SL History, SL Economics, SL ITGS

Group 4: HL/SL Chemistry, HL/SL Biology, SL Physics

Group 5: HL/SL Mathematics

Group 6: SL Visual Art

[Bee =3]

As for handling wise, I don't know. Maybe my life would have been a lot easier if I didn't have to learn everything, but no use wondering now. At least I don't have to study it for the exam!

you're right there.. I mean, I was doing Chem HL and then decided to switch to SL and the workload dropped by A LOT. there are some subjects in whcih doing HL actually helps to you thoroughly understand SL and sit for SL well ( I'm guessing Maths is an example) but then again, maybe maths isn't such a good example because the difference in workload is kinda great.. in languages the difference isn't too much..

as for the subjects at our school:

Group 1: ENglish A1/A2/B HL/SL

Group 2: Spanish A1 HL/SL (and I think one person is doing French Ab Initio)

Group 3: History, Economics, Business, Geography, ITGS (HL/SL)

Group 4: Chemistry, Physics, Biology (HL/SL)

Group 5: Maths HL/SL Maths Studies, Computer Science (or was this group 3? HL/SL)

Group 6: All group 3 and group 4 + theatre, visual arts, music HL/SL

[sweetnsimple786]

tehe we have English A1 HL, French B SL, Spanish B SL, Latin SL, History HL, Psychology SL, Chemistry HL, Biology HL, Physics SL, Math SL, & Music SL. Wow that's more than I originally thought. The good thing is we know exactly what we're going to take at SL and HL, and the only drama we have is between Chem or Bio at HL.

[Summer Glau]

Our school has...

Group 1: English A1 HL/SL

Group 2: French B SL

Group 3: History HL/SL, Economics HL/SL, Philosophy SL

Group 4: Biology HL/SL, Chemistry HL/SL, Physics HL/SL

Group 5: Math HL/SL, Computer Science HL/SL

Group 6: Visual Arts HL/SL, Music HL/SL (though group 6 subjects at my school often don't get enough requests, so the school must cancel the courses)

The only subject that we must take at a certain level is French B SL. We also have a rule where if you take Math at HL, then you must take English A1 at SL, and vice versa for English HL. Weird...

Edited December 22, 2009 by fire.realm

[Austin Glau]

What is the "Text And Performance" class?

[laryxle]

My school only has 16 people in the cohort but a fairly good range of subjects

English A1 HL/SL

Japanese/French/German B SL, Spanish Ab Initio

Psychology HL/SL, History (Europe) HL/SL

Chemistry HL/SL, Biology HL/SL

Maths Studies, Maths SL/HL

Theatre Arts HL, Visual Art HL, Music HL

They also offered Economics SL/HL and Physics SL/HL but there wasn't enough interest. For next year's cohort they are having Physics and Economics but not Chemistry, and I think they may also be doing B&M