Soft Subject Combination?

[elmar]

I've seen the word "soft subject" thrown around on the board and I was wondering what is a soft subject? What sort of criteria is needed for a subject to be considered soft? It made me wonder if I'm taking a soft subject combination and if I should switch them to look as if I actually was challenged by IB and not taking the "soft combo."

I know some people who are taking both sciences and I was considering it when I selected my courses. Someone at my school told me I was crazy and I immediately dropped out, but maybe I should take 2 HL sciences (Bio + Chem), especially if I want to go to medical school, correct?

[__inthemaking]

Everyone has to take 2 sciences at my school, it's the norm. We only got the option of taking one at HL and one at SL though, I would've taken both my sciences at HL if I could. You will definitely need bio and chem to go into med. I took IB bio and chem and then physics during summer school so I'd have all 3 sciences.

[elmar]

Should I change then? It's almost a month since we've started our classes, so I would have to switch tomorrow. I would end up taking Bio and Chem HL, but I would have to move out of Visual Arts to take up an Humanities at SL. I enjoy Visual Arts and I know it will probably get me more points that I can use to dock down if I do poorly in my Spanish papers/oral, but I also know it's not going to help me get into med school...

[Daedalus]

Spanish ab initio is probably a 'soft' course as are stuff like computer sciences, math studies, etc. The soft courses are ones that are generally easier to complete than the rigorous IB courses like languages A

It's quite possible to take four highers if you're capable of it and bio and chem are okay, for medical you probably need them both. You could consider taking four highers and three standards, or 3 highers and four standards with chem sl; this has been done before and with success, but you have to be a hard worker and pretty well organized.. one of my friends died doing this.

Otherwise yeah if you're strongly interested in medical school then you probably need to drop visual arts.

[Summer Glau]

Yeah if I were you I would drop visual arts and take chem HL. And like __inthemaking, I took physics in summer school but I'm taking bio and chem HL because I want to go into medicine eventually. You can still do something art-related for CAS though, so it's not like you're completely losing out on art!

Btw it's not that crazy to take two HL sciences. Many people have done it at my school and most of them do quite well. I think if you have the motivation to do it, you'll be fine.

[Tsubaki]

I don't know why anyone would give you the idea that taking two sciences at HL is crazy or impossible; a great deal of people do it, and a good number of those people do rather well. It's entirely possible to do Chemistry and Biology at HL and even then do AP Physics or Environmental Science if you were so inclined, for example.

As for what a "soft" subject or subject combination is, most people agree that Maths Studies, Environmental Systems and Societies, Business and Management, Computer Science, and certain Group 6 subjects can be called "softer" subjects. Economics and Ab Initio languages are sometimes also seen as "softer," but I wouldn't be inclined to say that myself. That's not to say that they're not perfectly valid subjects to take (IB wouldn't offer them if they weren't) but universities don't always look favourably on them (for example, Maths Studies can't be used as a university entrance-level math course at my university). That said, taking one or two "soft" courses won't be the end of the world, especially if you're genuinely interested in that subject area or if you really don't think you could handle a more difficult course in the same group. I mean, if you were to take, for example, English A1 HL, French A2 HL, Business and Management SL, Chemistry HL, Biology HL, and Maths Studies SL, you'd still be taking a rather difficult set of courses, and as long as you did well in those courses no one could say you took the easy way out.