IB Subjects

[nanon]

Hello

I am weighing up my options for my IB subjects, and I have to decide moderately soon. Coming from Australia, English is my first language. My choices so far are:

English A1 HL

Chemistry HL

Economics/World History HL (unsure which to do here)

Maths SL

French B SL

Spanish ab initio/ Biology SL

1. Do these subjects look alright? I am planning on keeping my options open as much as possbile, seeing as I am interested in Medicine and also law. In AUS, medicine has no specific prerequisites, so going for the highest score is the best way to go. Do these subjects seem to be giving me opportunity to go in practically any field? DO these subjects look to hard, what are my HLs like?

2. I am unsure which of Economics or History to do... basically which ever gives the highest score. Which is easier to get a 7 in? I am really motivated to get 40+ so i basically want as many 7s as possible, and humanities being my strong point I want to go really well in my Sose. Which is easiest?

3. I am weighing up whether to do a Spanish Ab Initio or a Biology SL. I would enjoy both, (probably Spanish a bit more) but which is more helpful, and what is easier to achieve a 7 in?

Thankyou so much for your help, I am looking for general advice as well as answers to my specific questions

Thanks again!

[timtamboy63]

I think Economics and Spanish would be easier to get a 7 in

[dubyawhy]

Agreed. But Econs is boring...so...

[Sublime Sunshine]

If you feel like you do well in humanities and you are decent at languages then I would go for spanish ab initio over biology. However, I've heard that the grade boundaries for spanish ab initio are really high versus other subjects. Depending upon how easily you pick up languages will affect greatly how well you do in ab initio. Biology is a subject for students have really good memories, somewhat like chem, so there are so pros and cons for each.

[wrcr87]

These subjects are fine. I would say econs would probably be slightly easier than history to score in. Bio at SL is essentially more practicals, and marked together with the HL students, although theory wise it covers much lesser than HL. I would say Spanish since you say humanities is your strong point, but you need to have constant exposure to Spanish to do well.

[nametaken]

Hello

I am weighing up my options for my IB subjects, and I have to decide moderately soon. Coming from Australia, English is my first language. My choices so far are:

English A1 HL

Chemistry HL

Economics/World History HL (unsure which to do here)

Maths SL

French B SL

Spanish ab initio/ Biology SL

1. Do these subjects look alright? I am planning on keeping my options open as much as possbile, seeing as I am interested in Medicine and also law. In AUS, medicine has no specific prerequisites, so going for the highest score is the best way to go. Do these subjects seem to be giving me opportunity to go in practically any field? DO these subjects look to hard, what are my HLs like?

2. I am unsure which of Economics or History to do... basically which ever gives the highest score. Which is easier to get a 7 in? I am really motivated to get 40+ so i basically want as many 7s as possible, and humanities being my strong point I want to go really well in my Sose. Which is easiest?

3. I am weighing up whether to do a Spanish Ab Initio or a Biology SL. I would enjoy both, (probably Spanish a bit more) but which is more helpful, and what is easier to achieve a 7 in?

Thankyou so much for your help, I am looking for general advice as well as answers to my specific questions

Thanks again!

1. They look fine. You're HL are nice and balanced. By 'balanced' I mean that you don't have HL subjects like mine: quite intense. So, you shouldn't struggle too much.

2. As a History student, I'd advise you to definitely go with History. As you've said that you might want to go into law, History would be required, I should think. Also, History is definitely more interesting than boring Economics.

3. Well, with Biology it's just a question of memorising information. It's not at all like say, Physics which requires you to do quite a few practice questions to fully get it. I'd say that it is quite easy in comparison to Physics, but I'd recommend you to take Spanish Ab initio. Spanish as a subject, at beginner level isn't too hard. You just need to go over tenses and vocabulary as with any other language, and you'll be fine.

Finally, I'd like to wish you good luck!!

[dessskris]

This is hard... Med and Law are two different majors with completely different prerequisites.

I suggest taking:

English A HL

French B SL (I somehow favour French more than Spanish)

History HL

Biology HL

Math SL

Chem SL/Econs SL

Even if there is no specific prerequisites for any course in Aus, there are still some subjects that are recommended to be taken b/c they are likely to help you in uni as you may study the same thing or at least you will know the basics of what you are going to study in uni.

History and English HL are said to be useful for Law. Econs may be useful too.

Econs is not boring! History is much more boring than Econs!! It's very subjective, though. But I studied both and TBH Econs seems to be more useful in life than History. Unless you want to be a historian or a tour guide who tells the history of something or some other jobs that use history.

Anyways, the new IB Econs syllabus is rather mathematical though, and is not really worth taking for you, remembering you are not interested in a Business major, esp if you end up studying Med! No use! So I'd say Chem will be more useful.

Anyhow why do you want to study 3 languages? Two ones is enough IMO and taking your 6th subject from group 4 or 3 would be more useful (IMO) esp if it's just Ab initio.. Not really worth taking.

I suggest you to think carefully about what you want to study in uni. Wish you the best of luck!

[nanon]

This is hard... Med and Law are two different majors with completely different prerequisites.

I suggest taking:

English A HL

French B SL (I somehow favour French more than Spanish)

History HL

Biology HL

Math SL

Chem SL/Econs SL

Even if there is no specific prerequisites for any course in Aus, there are still some subjects that are recommended to be taken b/c they are likely to help you in uni as you may study the same thing or at least you will know the basics of what you are going to study in uni.

History and English HL are said to be useful for Law. Econs may be useful too.

Econs is not boring! History is much more boring than Econs!! It's very subjective, though. But I studied both and TBH Econs seems to be more useful in life than History. Unless you want to be a historian or a tour guide who tells the history of something or some other jobs that use history.

Anyways, the new IB Econs syllabus is rather mathematical though, and is not really worth taking for you, remembering you are not interested in a Business major, esp if you end up studying Med! No use! So I'd say Chem will be more useful.

Anyhow why do you want to study 3 languages? Two ones is enough IMO and taking your 6th subject from group 4 or 3 would be more useful (IMO) esp if it's just Ab initio.. Not really worth taking.

I suggest you to think carefully about what you want to study in uni. Wish you the best of luck!

^^ thanks, thats helpful. You say to do Biology HL, instead of Chemistry... why is that? I have gone a bit off law, and medicine is definelty my first option for university. I think that Chem HL would be more useful, because if i fail the UMAT (which is likely as the pass rate is low), I will need to do a general science course instead. Chemistry is much more useful for general science than bio. Also, my school has REALLY great chem teachers. My current science teacher is the longest teaching IB Chem teacher in AUS, and our school gets a lot of Chem 7s.

I'm thinking that I will do Chem at a higher level, and Bio or Spanish at standard. You say that Bio will be much more useful than Spanish, I agree, but Spanish is meant to be easier and i would enjoy it more...