Which HL Biology or psychology? help!

[Tess TheBest]

I was wondering how hard is biology higher level is, I am in pre-Ib right now. Before this year I had taken biology in the US in a regular high school academic level, this was in sophomore year i had gotten the grade (B+). I as wondering how difficult the class will be? Secondly I was wondering how Ib higher level compares to AP biology if it similar, do we learn just as much.

I like the topic biology and want to take it but I am nervous I will not get a good grade, so I was thinking instead that I would do biology standard level and take psychology HL.

Notes: I am a native English speaker and definitely taking both History and English HL

Please help !!

Edited February 24, 2013 by Tess TheBest

[sameera95]

depends on what you want to do in the future. i find bio the hardest of my highers but every person is different. psych is definitely much easier than bio but there's a lot of case studies to memorise. choose one which suits you best personally i think psych fits in better with your highers than bio, but be warned bio is so not easy, it requires a lot of patience and dedication but its very interesting

[Lero]

HL biology is quite easy to get the hang of, it just needs plenty of time to remember all the facts and processes involved. I can only speak for my school, but 7's in Biology HL are faaaaaar more frequent than 7's in Psychology HL. This doesn't necessarily reflect the difficulty of the subjects, but could be merely the quality of teaching at my school in each discipline.

Just choose which subject you find more interesting, nothing worse than taking a subject you despise at HL with the extra hours involved compared to SL subjects, ultimately proving torturous.

Edited February 24, 2013 by Hus

[cricketcrazynerd]

I don't know much about psychology, but seriously hl biology is so much fun... after the first topic of statistical analysis

Although no subject in ib is easy easy, biology isn't that bad. You do have to memorise lots of diagrams, but the content is really interesting

[IBchicken]

Biology is a bit hard for me... although I find Psychology quite easy. My HLs are biology, psychology and English.

In Biology, it takes quite some time to get used to the sort of questions asked in the paper, especially data analysis questions. Make sure you can effectively memorise the facts and definitions. It IS very interesting.

Psychology is also very interesting and it is a tad easier than biology (for me), but you have to memorise several case studies which can be quite tough. I've also heard an extended essay on psychology is quite hard to do.

If your school allows it, you can switch classes if you find bio HL/psych HL tough. Remember that there is no such thing as an 'easy' IB subject... I feel all IB subjects are tough in their own way. I don't know much about AP courses though, sorry.

Biology and psychology are VERY interesting and I'm sure you'll have fun studying them in class. They're both my favourite subjects

[Hampus Milleding]

Tess, pick HL Biology! You will need the support of smart people like Hampus in your class^^

[Boltone]

Definitely choose HL Biology, its quite fun and as long as you put forth the effort to study and get help when you need it, it isn't too hard. Also many colleges require HL biology to be taken over psychology.... so why not get it over with? Then maybe certain colleges won't require you to take it, leaving you more open time in your schedule to take classes relevant to your intended major! Plus i know that in senior year of IB at my school, we have some open blocks, so you may still be able to take Psychology then! Good luck!

[SurajM]

HL biology all the way, trust me HL psychology will put you to sleep after you get to the options...way too much to memorize

[Angel M.]

Its all about that #IB Bio HL life.Especially if your thinking to go into Medicine or Some Bio field in college.Also the labs are pretty fun (except for the write Up-got mostly zeros for the criteria but eventually you'll get the hang of it ).

[lilianna009]

HL biology is quite easy to get the hang of, it just needs plenty of time to remember all the facts and processes involved. I can only speak for my school, but 7's in Biology HL are faaaaaar more frequent than 7's in Psychology HL. This doesn't necessarily reflect the difficulty of the subjects, but could be merely the quality of teaching at my school in each discipline.

Just choose which subject you find more interesting, nothing worse than taking a subject you despise at HL with the extra hours involved compared to SL subjects, ultimately proving torturous.

Funny, cause in our school there was never a 7 in Biology HL, yet there were quite a lot 7s in Psychology ;p.

I find Psychology less difficult, but more boring actually. And for me, there is like little difference between SL and HL. Paper 3 is quite easy and requires more thinking than memorizing, and you have one option more to learn.

As to Biology, for me there is a huge difference between SL and HL - almost every topic is extended, and at HL you usually have to know specific names and processes - the best example is photosynthesis, at SL you just learn about VERY basic mechanism whereas in HL...s*it just gets crazy ;_;

But it's up to you and your plans for future. If it doesn't change a lot then, well, maybe try to find out which teacher is better at your school or which classes seem more interesting to older students? After all, I don't think that your previous performance in Biology matters THAT much. If it is something interesting for you and you put a little effort, it does not matter - for both you have to memorize a bit.

And don't make a common mistake - Psychology classes are not that much about popular psycho-bubble, I mean, maybe classes - depends on the teacher - but in the exams you must be specific about theories, experiments and researchers. But if you take English and History at HL I guess you don't problem with argumentation and evaluation .