How hard is Psych HL?

[wombat123]

Is Psych HL considered one of the harder HL courses in IB? I was thinking of taking it, but I already have three HL's and my IB coordinator (who also happens to be both the IB psych SL and HL teacher) says it's a very intensive course. On the other hand the IB seniors have told me that it's not that hard.

[laryxle]

No, I think it's considered one of the easier courses. I did the old syllabus but the new syllabus looked perhaps even slightly easier, as they seemed to take out behaviourism and humanism. I found the concepts fairly easy to understand, if you can write essays then IB Psych exams shouldn't be too hard. The hardest thing is definitely the IA, which is one of the most difficult IA's, especially with the inferential statistics and what-not.

[elmar]

I read/heard that Psych, even at HL, is one of the easiest IB classes. In my opinion, most of the Humanities are all easy. But laryxle said, the IA is extremely intensive, as I'm sure you have to conduct your own research for a topic you've chosen that relates to the course. But, other than that, it's a pretty basic class. You'll learn of the different perspectives of Psychology (social-cultural, humanism, Gestalt psychology, etc.) and their history, founders, approaches to treating people. If you're interested, don't be afraid to take it.

[I`m Potato]

I am quite sure it is not the hardest subject in IB even though I don't take it. The hardest subject I'd say in Group 3 and in the whole of IB is ITGS to score a 7 at both SL/HL.

[Minuet]

I'm taking Psychology HL, and I'd say it's not too hard but not too easy either. The only 'difficulty' in it is that you have to not only know, but understand and analyze a lot of information, else you'll get a little below average on your assignments and exams. Otherwise, it's a very fun and thought-provoking class, if you just review the lessons twice a week or so.

[laurennnnnnnnnn]

I wouldn't say it's one of the 'easiest' HL's, Psychology has a lot of content for both SL and HL.

I do HL, and we haven't finished the core topics yet, but there is a lot of things to be memorized and the main differences that I know between SL and HL are the extra option topic and the qualitative research methodology, and also a few extra criteria for the IA. but it's not too hard, not too easy, but It's certainly one of the more enjoyable HL's

[Saph]

If you already have 3 HL subjects I would not recommend you to take Psychology HL as you have to memorize massive amounts of information, but if you trust your memory go for it. Psychology is not THAT hard especially if you are good at writing essays (like the other very wise people mentioned).

If you have a good organised teacher the IA will not be hard at all, you need not make a sophisticated experiment and you only need a small sample; teacher should be helpful with the statistics. I haven't seen my own score for my IA so I don't know how it turned out but I was surprised how quickly it was finished and how satisfied I was with it (:

Good luck!!