Difference between French B SL and HL

[sarahlouise]

Hey guys,

So I was just wondering what the difference is between doing French B HL and French B SL. Is there, say, more content to cover, more things to do, any additional IAs, or are you just marked more harshly in the papers or something?

I have no clue about this, so sorry if my questions are stupid!

Thanks in advance!

[Peanut Butter Jelly]

I believe the only difference in exams is that paper 2 is 400 words in hl instead of 250 word for sl. The texts and reading comprehension will also be harder in HL so you should cover more stuff in class.

Orals should be the same format but probably marked harder.

I think many semi-fluent take B HL, so if you're not that fluent I wouldnt recommended going up to HL.

[khalid]

Your level of writing and answering questions are expected to be of a higher standard. Also the you would have to write more words on the second paper

[gg14]

Like the others said, the reading paper is harder and you write more!! I do HL, in my school we get 4 lessons a week with SL (3 topic based, using the textbook and 1 grammar) then 2 lessons just for HL where we do literature. The lit doesn't come into the exam at all, we can only use it for the presentation, but I enjoy it (I'm even doing my EE on one of the texts :/) and it's really helpful for vocab and general understanding....not sure if it's just my school that does the lit though!! I do german SL too and as far as I can tell those are the only differences. For me it's my easiest HL by far (actually out of all my subjects!!) and i'm nowhere near fluent!!

[yomanyomo]

I'm a Pre-IB student and I'm thinking of taking French B HL next year. My initial idea was to take English: Lit, Economics, and Theatre at higher level (because I wanted to go into Business related course in university), however, I am Swiss (not fluent in French but I have been learning it for 3 years) and I really want to be fluent in it and I might also go to universities in Switzerland. Should I drop Economics and take it at standard level? (I wouldn't drop English nor Theatre because I believe it would get me good grades) I really need some advice on this. Thanks!

[sarahlouise]

Well, I've heard there's not a big difference between Eco HL and SL, so if anything it's probably better if you keep that as one of your HLs and drop English or Theatre to SL to do French.

As for whether or not you should do French HL or SL - if you want to become fluent, your decision here probably won't have too much of an impact on it. Just be careful because if you apply to Swiss universities, some of them may (or may not, I don't know) have requirements as to the level of French required.

[Tony Stark]

Going off of the course up to 2012:

French B HL uses more complex vocabulary in P1, and expects more complex vocab and grammar from you in P2, generally you'll learn some further tenses as well. Up until 2012, you studied Lit, but weren't assessed on it, from first exams 2013 I believe HLs are assessed in a Literature component. This is irrelevant from 2013 onwards, but on 2012 exams HL is also marked on language in P1b, whilst SL is not. In terms of word limits, P1b increases from 100 to 200, P2 from 250 to 400, in the same time limit. The biggest difference I've seen in the difficulty is in the orals: I've seen heard SL orals which scored 24/30 which sounded worse than HL orals which scored 16/30.