Does everyone have to do English HL?

[CdnIBer]

everyone at my school has to take HL, iunno about others, i assume there's SL in english especially in countries where english isn't their first lang

[Tyro]

Our school is very specific about the classes we can take because most kids do AP not IB... *wishing she would have done AP*

We have to take History of the Americas HL, English A HL, Biology is only HL, Physics is only SL, only Spanish French & Latin are offered SL B, our other courses are limited as well....it's not that bad because they mainly had what I wanted to take

[deissi]

i assume there's SL in english especially in countries where english isn't their first lang

Well true, but obviously most people who don't speak English as their first language pick their mother tongue as their A1 language, like me. I could've done English A1 SL, but I wouldnt've done that well (5-6) as in Finnish HL (7)

[master135]

My school only offer English A1 in HL and French B in SL

[ranya]

Im sorry for all those who are not doing well if they are taking English A1 HL .........my school does not force us to take it as a HL..but it does not provide any languages except Arabic and English...and u must have one of these two as a HL....i Take English A1 SL...because my arabic is ab initio...but..i was wondering...HOW HARD IS ENGLISH A1 HL?...i wantd to take it but EVERYONE TOLD ME ITS TOOO HARD..and plus no1 in my school is taking English A1 HL/.....WHY IS IT SO HARD?

[__inthemaking]

Im sorry for all those who are not doing well if they are taking English A1 HL .........my school does not force us to take it as a HL..but it does not provide any languages except Arabic and English...and u must have one of these two as a HL....i Take English A1 SL...because my arabic is ab initio...but..i was wondering...HOW HARD IS ENGLISH A1 HL?...i wantd to take it but EVERYONE TOLD ME ITS TOOO HARD..and plus no1 in my school is taking English A1 HL/.....WHY IS IT SO HARD?

It's hard because it's very hard to achieve a 7 in it..or at least at my school that's how the pattern has been. The IOP is okay but it's the IOC that is difficult. You have 20 minutes to prepare a commentary on a passage on one of the works (which you don't know what it is until it's time for your prep) and then you speak on tape for 12 minutes, then your teacher asks you questions for another 3 minutes. It is a lot of pressure, especially since the IOP + IOC are worth 30% of your mark. You have to know many MANY works for the exam..basically we spend around 1 week for each work, longer for the Shakespearean plays but it's hard to keep up with it unless you've read all the books during the summer (I read all but 1 of the books). There's a lot of work involved..you have to expect to do one commentary/essay right after you hand in one. And the world lits are tough..we got 2 weeks to do the whole thing. Lots of all nighters writing a 1500 word essay in one night. That being said, I'm sure it's possible to get a 7 in it but I'm getting a 6 right now and I HIGHLY doubt I would be able to get a 7 after the exams..I mean, the exams are hard.

[chileanbob]

Well at my school we have two mandatory HLs... English A1 and European History. I don't know much about literature, I kinda hate it because it's so ambigious and needs creative thought, which is why my WL isn't doing so well right now. [it's like I'm lacking a creatvity chromosome or something!] Anyways, I've seen a past English A1 exam, and it doesn't seem THAT hard...? =\

[supbhang]

Yeah, I've got to take English HL as well...English HL and German HL are mandatory (I'm in a German IB School).

Edited March 24, 2008 by supbhang

[Twinkle18]

Well at my school we are the first graduating class with an IB diploma so we are very limited in classes. All our students were forced to take HL English, science, and history and SL foreign language, art or theater(I took art last year because they did not offer theater at the time), and math. Our teachers barely know what’s going on and we just knew about our math project in February and our group 4 science project in the beginning of March or end of February. Until I looked on the internet a few months ago I didn't even know that IB classes such as economics existed because we have to take it as an AP course.

[chang9121990]

We're not forced to take HL, but English is the only Language A1 my school has.

Other than that we have Chinese A2, Chinese B, French B, Spanish B...all with HL/SL to choose from.

Japanese B is also a choice and they'll let you do SL if you're a top student in Jap 4(the highest level offered).

The choices are not bad, but for all of the language Bs, we'll need to finish the SL curriculum in one year and take the exam before moving on to HL.

This means we'll have to pay TWICE for the exam which is ridiculously expensive at about US$100 per exam (don't forget the US$140 registration fee!).

Does anyone's school do this too? I think the school is just trying to rip us off by doing this<_<

[ibkid]

At my school , we have a choice to pick whether or not we wish to be in English HL or English SL. I picked HL, because i needed 3 HL's to get the full diploma. But, i hate how we have to take English in university after high school. Personally, i hate language classes, PERIOD.

[Tyro]

It my school we have to take IB English and take it HL, but our school has a small IB class and no one complains because English is our all of our native languages and would probably take it anyways . We also have to take History of the Americas HL and it is assumed that our Group 4 will be HL (only Chem or Bio), these I'm not so happy about, but hey I can't change it.

[aalisub]

The only HLs we actually have are English, History, Math, Art, Chem, Bio, and Music Theory. And for all of them, except for Math, they only offer HL and not SL. On the other hand, all the other subjects such as Econ, Anthro, and Business, etc. are only SL. It's weird.

Edited April 29, 2008 by aalisub

[IBMan9000]

At our school we get to choose.

I'm one of the 5 people taking SL English in our entire class, but the actual classrooms for SL and HL are integrated.

Just like Ibkid, I'm not to fond of the languages either (which is why im procrastinating for Spanish at the moment).

[Karasu]

At my school we have HL/SL options for all languages, but not for all classes. I can only take Business & Management SL, for example. Luckily we're not obligated to take HL in any of our classes.

I half-understand why your school would do that, but I think it's bad if you don't have an option because I'm guessing you'd have to spend all of your HL classes in Humanities, and wouldn't be able to take any HL science course, for example. I know it's death, but some colleges require it or give college credit for it depending on what you want to study...

[jbhasin]

We only have English HL, but then again I live in the United States and it's our first language; we also only have French + Spanish B at SL, although a lot of people would probably not be up for Language B HLs. This coming fall will be the first time that our school will offer Physics HL (yay).

Edited May 1, 2008 by jbhasin

[Guest syrianstar]

Ya I'm having problems with my IA's for English too...I really hate the whole English program in my school, mainly because we're forced to take HL in all our Humanities classes. Does everyone else around the globe have to take English HL? Or is it just our stupid school?

We have to English A1 SL - check this out:

English A1 SL - Must take

Arabic A2 HL - Must take

Biology HL - Must take

Economics HL - Must take

Maths SL - Must take

Chemistry and art - Choice of one

These are the only subjects my school offers; you only get to choose between chemistry and art! They might have more next year since this is only their first year of IB.

Edited May 2, 2008 by syrianstar

[vp1173]

At my school, we're forced to HL for english also. It's rather unfortunate, because I have several friends who are much better at math and science, and would do really well HL in those.