Which is the hardest/ most challenigng IB science?

[MaryamB]

Hello everyone,

I am going to be an IB student next year, and I am defintley taking up journalism in the future. I was wondering for those of you who have done IB science know which is the most challenging science. I practically suck at it which is why i am askin some of the people I have asked have said: Physics- you have to be good in maths (which i am kinda like uuuggghh... i am in core maths for my IGCSE's so you can probably guess :/)

Biology- Too much vocabulary and too complex

Chemisrty- (I hate it, so basically call it of the list )

Can those of you out there tell me what you think? Thank you very much

Edited April 20, 2010 by bo-memo

[Sandwich]

Well IMO Physics and Chemistry are very difficult if you're not especially mathematical and didn't want to do a science in the first place. Biology is easy, it just has a lot of content in it. However, if you're only doing SL and not HL, Biology has considerably less content in at SL than HL aaaand Chemistry isn't actually as hard at SL. Most if not all of the difficult concepts are in HL Chem.

If I wanted to pick an easy science, as a non-mathematical person, I'd say Bio every time xP Bio is also common sense. I also think SL Chem is manageable.. but I'd still say Bio

[lexie]

Chemistry SL is easy =) HL is hard.

[__inthemaking]

I'd say physics but that's because my strengths are bio and chem, they both come naturally and easily to me. Physics is a lot of application, which I'm not good at.

[Jason08]

i find IB chem hard, and IB Bio easy... thats so weird because i have SL Chem and HL Bio. However from grade 9, i have always been strong in Chem, but this year really hit, and i suddenly became strong in Bio, therefore i changed my decision for Unis, and now going for a Bio undergrad

[KLSmash]

I took SL Chemistry and SL Physics, and found Physics to be much more difficult. Chemistry used barely any math (and when it did, it was simple algebra for the most part), and the concepts were fairly easy in memorizing. Physics, on the other hand, was not so easy.

[nmac94]

See if your college/sixth form offers an alternative to this - Environmental systems is a good mix of the three at a more basic level apparently, and some Geography too, and according to IB, you can also do Design and Technology, but I don't know if this is common or a good idea.

[Summer Glau]

At my school, it's pretty much universally agreed upon that physics is the hardest IB science. I haven't started IB yet, but this is what I've heard.

It would depend on what your strengths are though. If you can handle the math/application, go for physics. Otherwise,go for bio or chem.

[Nickel_Cadmium]

I took all three sciences, though bio only for one year.

Bio bored me out of my mind; to me it really didn't feel like a science at all so I dropped it. There is no math, no experiments with real results, no real understanding. A lot of memorization and remembering names.

It is generally agreed upon that physics is the hardest IB science. The curve on the exam would say so too; around 70 percent is a 7 each year. Nonetheless, I have to dissagree: I found physics the easiest science. Completely logical, the math is not as deep as they say, not much to remember as all formulas are in the data booklet and you can solve pretty much any problem by looking at units. I went into the HL physics exam not having studied at all and came out with a seven. The thing is; a lot of people just dont GET it, so they think its hard. Once you catch on it's a breeze.

Personally, I found chemistry the most challenging science. The concepts are not easy to relate to, you have to remember all the formula's, there is a ton of information, concepts, processes, definitions, etc to understand. I had to look over some topics more than 5 times before I really understood them. Understanding is key because just memorizing will not help you very much during your IB exam.

But perhaps your opinion will differ from mine is I do like math. The math in the sciences is not complicated and you get by with understanding basic algebra but to fully appreciate all the theories you do need to understand calculus, stats and vectors.

[Center Field]

My school doesn't offer hl physics but sl was really hard for most people but for some of us it was the easiest subject.

I had never had any calculus, none of us had text books, and our teacher was lazy and forgot about our IA's till the last week (we did all of them in one week) and it was still easy for me.

I would say bio is the easiest science overall for anyone who doesn't like math or science.

[dessskris]

In my grade, the class that most students take is Physics and the one that least students take is Chemistry. My Phy teacher always says that Phy is very easy (which I dont really agree with) and my Chem teacher somehow persuades me by saying that Chem is actually easy in order for me to stay in Chem HL :| (I am going to drop my Chem to SL this Wednesday) (dangerous teacher). And I am not taking Bio.

For me, Bio is the hardest science because you need to memorise all the concepts and all the biological terms. And then you need to know about your opposite gender's reproductive system (and everybody in your class will be laughing throughout the lesson) and you also need to know how such animals make love??? OMG WTH.

Enough of Biology crap. In Phy you just need to understand what the question wants and then look for the right formula in the data booklet. But in Chem you need to be good at both memorising and calculation. You have to be imaginative too, in case if you dont understand subshells.

No offense to Bio people anyways. Just kidding.

All subjects are hard. Depends on what you like and what you don't.

Edited September 25, 2010 by R&B not I&B