Decisions Decisions

[Cilver]

K so Im gonna be choosing my IB subjects very soon.

However I am having some trouble with group 3 in particular

Should I choose economics or psychology?

Personally Im more interested in psych but apparently it is one of the hardest subjects in group 3

My school only offers these 2 along with history and i just dont really like history that much

Economics doesnt seem sound so bad tbh but I just really need some more information on them to make these decisions

[Sandwich]

I don't think that either of them have a reputation for being particularly easy or particularly hard within Group 3, I'd say they're both about average on the grand scale of IB difficulty levels to be honest.

Maybe check out the syllabi (they're in the General Downloads section of the Files part of this website, and free to access) or also this website might help you to preview what the course contents are like for Psychology: http://ibpsychrevision.blogspot.co.uk/ and here for Economics http://en.wikibooks....ki/IB_Economics

Personally I'd go with whichever interests you more. At the end of the day you've got to study one or the other for two years and it's a lot better if you feel motivated and engaged by the course contents! Or even if none of them particularly grab you, the least unmotivated by whichever one you pick.

To be honest (and I did none of these three subjects as my Group 3) I'd find History more interesting than the both of them as both Psychology and Economics are subjects which more or less seem to require learning a small pile of definitions - but each to their own

[Eastcoast93]

are you talking about a sl subject? if so: economics is very straight-forward and interesting, doesn't get much better in terms of content and difficulty, a really nice subject. just finished my last economics exam (SL). psychology from what I hear is quite a lot to learn, economics is basically all logic and a few key concepts! so difficulty wise I think economics will be easier, nonetheless chose the subject you find more interesting because indeed you will have to devote time to learning about stuff and if you don't care about that sutff you probably won't do very well.

[Tony Stark]

In my experience, Economics is fairly easy; however it can get dry at times, particularly in HL Micro where it gets really diagram-heavy. Nonetheless, I'd rate it as one of the easier HLs in terms of workload and understanding required. I don't know much about Psychology; though I will say that while it sounds well in theory the idea of researching studies etc. sounds boring to me, a bit like History.

[Cilver]

Thanks guys. Appreciate your helps

One more question, what's the relative difficulty difference between SL and HL for these subjects?

[Tony Stark]

I can only answer pertaining to Econ, but I think Econ is definitely a subject that should be done at HL; this is because a lot of the HL theory explains the SL, and it's not much more difficult (though there are a lot more graphs). It may be different in the new course, however - I hear HLs have to do a fair bit more maths now.

[yomanyomo]

Usually humanities at HL have 3 exams. Whereas in standard level there are only 2 exams. I agree that economics would be much easier than psychology but usually people who do well in psychology at my school are very interested in the subject. Quite frankly, most of the people who did well did not study much at all - compared to those people who didn't do well (even though they studied) and not passionate about the subject.

I am interested in Psychology myself, but if psychology wasn't offered at my school I'd go for economics.

And yes 'Tony Stark' is right, HL Economics requires a bit of maths (and if you're going to do it at University level you'd have to take HL Maths).

so to me, it sounds like a mathy subject.

MY POINT HERE IS (as many people would say) go to the subject your interest is at.

[sarahlouise]

If you just want to choose what's easy, Economics is easier than Psychology.

Otherwise I would go for whichever one that you are more interested in!

[ChocolateDrop]

The jump between Economics HL and SL is not that, big as far HLs and SLs go. Apart from the whole theory of the firm topic (which I am told is uber interesting), and other minor topics, HL and SL cover more or less the same topics. It is not uncommon to have a joint HL/ SL class. As for the maths, it's relatively straightfoward.