HL Bio or SL Physics?

[ElvenRanger]

Hi everyone,

I'm a 10th grader right now, and my school is trying to finish course choices extremely early this year to try to work out all of the scheduling problems that will inevitably come up, so they're asking us to have our choices ready in ~2 weeks.

Here's the rest of my planned schedule so that you guys can see what it's like:

HL English A

HL French B

HL Chem

SL Math (no HL at school)

SL Business and Management (There's a 90% chance I won't do history. I hate it. Always have, probably always will.)

I'm a math/chem person (taking Calc right now if that helps), and I've heard way too many horror stories about HL Art, so I'm probably going to do a 2nd science. I just don't know which science would be a better fit for me, because almost all of the IB juniors/seniors at my school take HL Chem. And then there's the fact that I'm not sure I'd be willing to have 4 HLs, particularly 2 HL sciences. However, our physics program is relatively new, and I don't have much experience in that subject either (I'm taking pre-IB physics right now, but we started 2 weeks ago so....)

So basically, I would like to know:

1) Which of these is more demanding in terms of the workload and/or the content?

2) Based on your own experiences, which types of students succeed in those respective classes?

3) Do more people take the Bio/Chem route or the Chem/Physics route?

Thank you so much!

[flinquinnster]

Firstly, I have to say that I only do SL physics. I don't do chemistry, nor biology. And, I seem to have a reputation for being somewhat biased against Biology SL as being an 'easy option' for IB that I sort of wish I chose instead of Physics... Anyway...

1. I think I can say that SL Physics is probably the more demanding course in terms of its problem solving and application of knowledge. I really hesitate to sound elitist towards biology, but most of it is based around memorisation. Physics, memorisation gets you 1 or 2 marks (crucial to understanding, but still small), but most of it is knowing how to solve problems. So I would say Physics SL is still harder than Biology HL.

However, Biology HL is a lot of memorisation, and if you aren't interested in the type of knowledge you get in biology/bad at memorisation - then physics might be better. Also, if you are generally good at maths, this helps with the problem-solving skills - but it is no guarantee. Some people find physics fairly simple, particularly the SL, so if you do do more physics and find that, then Physics SL is probably a really good choice. I'd say stay away from Physics HL unless you are really confident or passionate about physics.

2. Students who like memorising = biology. Students who prefer to problem-solve and apply - physics. However, there is considerable overlap, so it's probably not that reductionist. If you do choose to go for physics, it is crucial to know your basic definitions, but then to focus the majority of your time in understanding concepts by solving actual IB problems with them. I can't give you advice for Biology, but my impression is that you need to focus on understanding concepts.

3. Our school is definitely biased - for some inexplicable reason, everyone is terrified of physics and loves biology. It irritates me how much my school fits into the stereotype of girls being bad at physics (don't get me started on maths), but I guess that even generally (and I hesitate to generalise) Biology is more popular than Physics. We have about 20 people in Biology HL, 15 in Biology SL, and 8 in Physics SL (no HL).

Pretty much no one does Physics and Biology with no Chemistry, so that's not really an option. It's quite weird.

I'd say that probably an equal number of people do Physics/Chem and Bio/Chem - chemistry is really the common unit, there is overlap with both physics and bio. So either combination is fine. However, due to my inconceivable bias against biology, I personally feel that Physics/Chem is probably a better choice. However, that being said, I have heard that the overlap between Bio/Chem is greater than that between Physics/Chem, so that may be a factor affecting your decision. If you're a medicine person, perhaps your decision would be weighted towards Bio, but certainly both are acceptable.

Hope there aren't too many obvious typos in the above post, because I am sort of over doing any productive work now. Hope that helped

[Leanne Lagroon]

I ended up taking both SL physics and HL Bio. I did not have a good physics teacher and my entire class got 2s and 3s, with one 4. Half of Biology HL is what you learned in your first biology class. DO NOT TAKE 4 HLs. Our teachers have told us that it is harder to get a diploma with 4 HLs because you have to get a higher score on each one. You can take 4 SLs like me and choose your best 3 your senior year, after you have taken an SL exam. For me, I am keeping my 3 in physics and my band SL is just an extra subject. It will not count towards my diploma, but I am still doing all the work to be eligible for a certificate. If you know that you want English, French, and Chem as your 3 SLs, keep that. Don't add Bio. However, if your school offers BIo SL (mine doesn't) then you can take that.