Psychology SL or HL?

[Shahad]

Hey, I am contemplating whether to do Psychology SL or HL (obviously from the title haha).

I honestly do not see the logic of understanding and memorising over 12 essays for each syllabus point for each chapter.

when only one essay of each chapter will appear on the exam.

Thats a probably of less than 10% that the essay you studied will be on the exam depending on each chapter.

Is it not just the probably of being lucky on the exam?

Moreover, didnt only 4% get a 7 for Psychology HL last year?

Although I am doing exceptionally well in the subject, I just do not feel motivated to study Psychology whatsoever.

Many people find it stupid that I want to do SL and take up another HL science which would require more time and effort.

Tell me, is it worth doing Psychology HL?

[carpediem]

I think Psychology HL is only worth it if you are motivated for it. I would suggest you drop to SL (if possible), but the problem would be taking a science at HL - which science are you considering? I think if you took Biology HL it would be possible (it seems to me to be mainly memorization), but if it's Chemistry I'd recommend you to stay with Psych HL. Don't forget, your exams are in Nov! You'd have a lot of content to catch up on.

I can't tell you personally if Psych HL is worth it (the people I know only hate it because of their teacher, so they're no good for any comparison), so keep asking around.

[Shahad]

Wll im already doing Chemistry hl and Math hl. I was thinking of taking Biology hl too.

The thing is, if i take Psychology sl ill have free classes whilst psychology is going on.

So i can have more time to study for other subjects.

I dont know, i do good in psych without trying even though i dont like the subject.

You're doing Psychology sl?

Doesnt the internal assessment seem really restricted?

[carpediem]

I think with enough studying, you can get up to par with Biology HL. (I personally have a friend who is learning the Bio syllabus by herself because the teacher is useless.) But don't forget, you may have more free time during the Psych lessons, but Bio HL classes should replace that. So decide if you can juggle all the current work as well as new work before you change subjects.

Just checking, but are you taking Biology SL right now?

And I can't telling you anything about the Psy IA, I haven't done it yet.

Personally, I think you should change, especially since it's a Higher that doesn't interest you. But don't forget, you have 8 months to do it all, so think carefully!

[albinowalri]

The thing that you'll ultimately realize is that the difference between HL and SL is THAT notable. I'm taking HL History and SL Psych and regretting that I hadn't switched the two around. As everyone else has said, taking any math or science HL that isn't Bio is suicide. I'm taking Physics SL and am frequently presented with the HUGE disparity between the difficult of Physics SL and HL. From what I gather, HL Psych only has to cover one more option than SL does. Though I agree that memorizing studies is a pain (I hate it too), you really have to ask yourself whether you'd rather memorize 10 more studies (max) or cover around 8 more topics in an HL science class!

As far as the IA goes, once again there is not THAT big of a gap between SL and HL, it's just that HL has a bit more statistical mumbo jumbo required.

Good luck!

[Sandwich]

^^ There is a pretty massive difference between SL and HL Biology as well. Not so much in difficulty (although photosynthesis and respiration are much more complex at HL, they're the only things, really) but in content, there's a huge leap.

Biology HL is one of the most content-heavy subjects the IB offers, in my humble opinion. So it's not an intellectually challenging science, but it takes a heck of a lot of work and revision to do well.

[Shahad]

Yes, i must say Biology HL is not an intellectually challenging subject, but damn it injured my hand from writing so mcuh for revision.

And I actually found photosynthesis and cellular respiration quite easy to understand but seriously lengthy when doing the option for SL which is equivalent to one of the core in HL.

well i would rather study a further 5 chapters for biology rather than another option and quantitative data for psychology.

Moreover, because apparently its much easier getting a 7 for Biology HL than Psychology HL.

My actual choice for doing Psychology SL is that i finished the syllabus within my first year of IB.

Which means I can concentrate only on five subjects, with psychology revision here and there.

But what im worried about is that it might lower my atar doing two sciences and math at HL.

Is not wanting to do Psychology HL a legitamite excuse?

[Philovitist]

I'd kill to be to take Psych HL.

[sarahlouise]

I was tossing up between doing Bio HL and Psych HL as well. In the end I went with Biology, for a number of reasons.

Firstly, in my opinion it is easier to get a 7 on a Bio exam than a Psych exam, because ultimately it is completely up to YOU as to whether or not you do well. It hardly depends on the questions you get, because they are all pretty much identical to the syllabus. As long as you have studied well, and made sure that you KNOW your stuff, if you can just put that all down on paper in the exam you should be fine. With psych, it depends a lot on the questions you get. Because they're essay questions, they count for a lot each, and there are fewer questions, there's more of a chance for you to get owned and have only questions that you are terrible at on there. With biology, because the exam covers so many areas and there are questions from each different topic that don't count for too much each (except for the mini-essays, which count for more but still not too much), so you're more likely to have something that you remember.

Ultimately though, I chose biology because I find it much more interesting than psychology, andalso because I feel comfortable with being able to memorise information for the exam.

Really, if you like psychology, do psychology HL, but if you like biology, do biology HL. You'll be more motivated with the subject that you prefer at HL.