Does it matter that I do 6 HLs?

[susanne]

DO NOT DO 6 HLS, I think you will die, and Theatre and Dance HL are not easy subjects, especially theatre.

I think it might be the same case with bilingual diplomas, or even double degrees in uni, the people might look at it, but not actually being impressed by it.

Then again, doing 6 subjects, with 3 at SL and 3 at HL is bad enough allready, let alone doing 6HL, are you planning to live?

[Wicquor]

Oh man, my dream of going to law school has been killed. No way it'll happen when I compare myself with you

In any case, I'm ... quite frankly surprised that you can do this, because you don't need 6 HLs and a school would generally advise against it, but hey, it you have a deathwish then I'm sure your school will entertain your suicidal desires. 'Cause they have no value for human life.

Jokes aside, do you need 6HLs? If you don't and you're struggling, then I see no need for you to continue.

If you can manage ... and you don't want a life, then go ahead and do 6HLs and stun every university you apply for ;D. In fact, if you do go through with this, I can guarantee that you'll have future IB students kissing your feet for tips on how to survive the IB. xP.

To pick up on Arrowhead's comment, only about 2% of IB students (according to a friend of mine, I tried googling statistics but my search proved to be futile) manage to get 7s in history. This statistic seems questionable to me, but the point is that IB History is hardly a soft subject

Edited April 17, 2013 by Wicquor

[Erudite]

There is NO point doing 8 subjects. In the crunch times, it'll kill you.

Thanks for your concern! You're not the only person to voice it. Most of my teachers/IB Coordinator were skeptical, but they humoured me assuming I would like have a mental breakdown or something and drop the extras. They're tots surprised I've held up so far.

Well, I sort of did go through crunch time as our end-of-year IB exams are modelled after the IB exam schedule, so I had like all my exams and stuff for 6 subjects over the period of a month and before that had my Theatre and Dance showcases and submissions for all the IAs, etc. It was a little stressful, but nothing impossible.

DO NOT DO 6 HLS, I think you will die, and Theatre and Dance HL are not easy subjects, especially theatre.

I think it might be the same case with bilingual diplomas, or even double degrees in uni, the people might look at it, but not actually being impressed by it.

Then again, doing 6 subjects, with 3 at SL and 3 at HL is bad enough allready, let alone doing 6HL, are you planning to live?

Really? I actually find Theatre and Dance to be super easy! Don't get me wrong, thinking up and preparing for my showcases, the PPP and RI for Theatre was intense and the same goes for Dance, but I thought it was just fun and didn't take it too seriously since I do the subjects out of love more than anything else.

Why do you think a university won't be impressed by it? The way I see it, when someone from my school in India for example does a bilingual diploma, they're still doing 6 subjects (generally 3HL/3SL), they just happen to do 2 Language A subjects, which is hardly impressive because they speak both English and Hindi fluently. In my case, I'm genuinely challenging myself much more than a bilingual diploma.

Doing 6 HLs is really not that hard. At the risk of sounding up my ass, English and Economics HL are more of a free period for me than anything. There's nothing in the syllabuses I've found like hard or anything. I update myself and practice Maths almost religiously for anywhere between 5-7 hours a week outside of schoolwork for the subject...and History is about 3 hours of reading a week, which is tots easy as well. French and Bio take up some time, but it's all basically memorisation, so that's easy as well. Dance and Theatre take up a lot of time, but it's fun! So I never think of it as a burden.

I have a really good life actually! I do loads of extra-curriculars and have a good friend circle and I sleep every night for at least 6-8 hours! I'm living a pretty good life I'd say.

I appreciate your concern though!

Oh man, my dream of going to law school has been killed. No way it'll happen when I compare myself with you

In any case, I'm ... quite frankly surprised that you can do this, because you don't need 6 HLs and a school would generally advise against it, but hey, it you have a deathwish then I'm sure your school will entertain your suicidal desires. 'Cause they have no value for human life.

Jokes aside, do you need 6HLs? If you don't and you're struggling, then I see no need for you to continue.

If you can manage ... and you don't want a life, then go ahead and do 6HLs and stun every university you apply for ;D. In fact, if you do go through with this, I can guarantee that you'll have future IB students kissing your feet for tips on how to survive the IB. xP.

To pick up on Arrowhead's comment, only about 2% of IB students (according to a friend of mine, I tried googling statistics but my search proved to be futile) manage to get 7s in history. This statistic seems questionable to me, but the point is that IB History is hardly a soft subject

OMG, where d'you want to go to law school? Somewhere in the UK as well or in Australia?

Nah, I don't need 6 HLs, I just happen to want to do these subjects. They're fun!

But History is tots easy if you just memorise and regurgitate, memorise and regurgitate, and repeat. That's all it takes! It's not hard like Chemistry or Physics HL where you actually have to think and calculate and be creative. Read three authors with three different views on every war/event and memorise what they have to say and History HL turns into a cakewalk!

[TykeDragon]

I disagree with you about history there, it is not just about memorising facts and regurgitating them... And as you get to the end of the IB, and you've studied the other half of the content, there's even more you need to know and prepare for... History requires skillful writing, analysis, links, and even evaluation as to what is most significant. Also deciding what is relevant. If you write everything you know about the topic, regurgitating all the facts, it actually won't do you any good. Also, the questions are unpredictable, and often 'oh it's fine the topic I study has 6 questions to choose from' can narrow down to being stuck between only a couple that are possible for you - for example, it mixing things you've studied with things you haven't. That sucks. For that reason, even though I'm predicted a 7 (and my IA has given me a major boost over everyone in my class) History Paper 2, alongside Japanese, are the IB exams I'm most 'dreading' this May.

If you can handle all 8 subjects for the rest of IB (particularly seeing as though you can expect to only know half of the content for each course so far, that's a big doubling!) then props to you, and I'm sure it would work in your favour. The point is that you would stand out, and in law that's what you want to do - just as long as you know the extra hobby certificates are expendable if the going gets tough. And I get what you say about people getting a bilingual diploma when they're fluent anyway - I have found it irritating (obviously it's more drastic) that some people in my school who are fluent/very proficient in a language due to their upbringing are getting away with dossing around in an ab initio class for an easy 7. It annoys me that I wasn't allowed to drop to ab initio japanese for the points, just because I've been learning it for a few years... Be consistent with the rules, school ¬¬

Good luck though, I'm interested to hear how you do in May 2014, if you could pull off 57-59 IB points that'd be pretty cool.

Edited April 17, 2013 by TykeDragon

[cjy]

With that attitude you won't get a 7 in History HL. It isn't about factual regurgitation it's about SYNTHESIS. Yes you might use historiography, but if your structure is terrible you won't get a 7. Do not underestimate history, it is the undoing of many an IBer much smarter than you are.

[Erudite]

I disagree with you about history there, it is not just about memorising facts and regurgitating them... And as you get to the end of the IB, and you've studied the other half of the content, there's even more you need to know and prepare for... History requires skillful writing, analysis, links, and even evaluation as to what is most significant. Also deciding what is relevant. If you write everything you know about the topic, regurgitating all the facts, it actually won't do you any good. Also, the questions are unpredictable, and often 'oh it's fine the topic I study has 6 questions to choose from' can narrow down to being stuck between only a couple that are possible for you - for example, it mixing things you've studied with things you haven't. That sucks.

Well...How is any of that hard? I would think the time-consuming part is memorisation of all the events and content. When you write an essay, you have to model your answers accordingly. "Skillful writing, analysis, links and even evaluation" don't exactly take a lot of effort or preparation. They take some practice, as you need to get the essaywriting technique down, but making links and bridges between the causes/effects of historical events and evaluating the importance they hold with regards to the broader Q raised in the exam Q, that's hardly a challenge if you know what the events are and what caused them/what effects did they have generally.

As far as Paper 2's concerned, I've memorised the World Wars and the Cold War and done some dictators like Hitler, Mussolini, Mao, Nasser and Stalin, and done some other random wars like the Indo-Pakistani wars in the 70s and the Six Day War and Yom Kippur. I'll probably end up revising half of this for the Paper 2 exam and am fairly confident that will still give me a lot of choice.

Paper 1 is all about like knowing how to answer those Qs skilfully as well.

Maybe Paper 3 might be more challenging in its content, I guess I'll know next year, but so far, History's not really been that hard...at least for me (but I confess that my History teacher is amazeballs in class!) Nobody actually 'struggles' in History in my year or finds it difficult (granted there's like 7 of us in HL and SL combined...but still...) I never realised people found History that hard, this is tots news to me!

Thank you for your insight though. I will like work really hard to keep on top of things for History to ensure I don't fall into a puddle of complacency!

[Erudite]

With that attitude you won't get a 7 in History HL. It isn't about factual regurgitation it's about SYNTHESIS. Yes you might use historiography, but if your structure is terrible you won't get a 7. Do not underestimate history, it is the undoing of many an IBer much smarter than you are.

Don't get me wrong, I tots understood where you're coming from. But I just assumed knowing how to like structure and write essays was common sense. I never would've thought that was the tough part of History HL. At least, we were never told all of this, it was just...assumed that we knew I guess. The History HL average in my school every year is a 6, we only had 1 person get a 5 in last year's batch and that was the lowest in his year group. History HL is in no way considered a hard course in my school, it's actually considered a content-heavy, but overall easy course truth be told.

Wow, I never appreciated how unique that was to my school.

[TykeDragon]

It's hard to explain, but, I know you don't have any ill intentions, just be careful with wording things like that on these forums - implications that things are common sense, or that a certain grade is easy to achieve, particularly in history where a lot of people do struggle to get 6s, may cause offence to those individuals. I'm not saying I think anybody in particular has been offended, I'm just saying that this is a wholly supportive online IB community and be careful not to discourage or belittle those that are unsure of exam technique, or struggle to remember the content

Again, I have no suspicions that you intend to do anything like that, just remember that some people who are struggling do turn to the site for support/encouragement, and dismissing what may be a major concern to them as common sense may not be very helpful.

Good range of topics remembered in preparation so far though. As for the higher course, I personally found my higher course (Italian & German Unification, Bismarck, Russia 1850-1917) more straightforward than Single Party States (Rise & Rule) topic of paper 2. How many past papers have you looked at, just to get an idea of how many questions would have been possible/advisable for you to do in exam conditions? I found that to be useful in preparing myself for the exam.

[Erudite]

It's hard to explain, but, I know you don't have any ill intentions, just be careful with wording things like that on these forums - implications that things are common sense, or that a certain grade is easy to achieve, particularly in history where a lot of people do struggle to get 6s, may cause offence to those individuals. I'm not saying I think anybody in particular has been offended, I'm just saying that this is a wholly supportive online IB community and be careful not to discourage or belittle those that are unsure of exam technique, or struggle to remember the content

Again, I have no suspicions that you intend to do anything like that, just remember that some people who are struggling do turn to the site for support/encouragement, and dismissing what may be a major concern to them as common sense may not be very helpful.

OMG! I never meant to be mean, I promise!

Good range of topics remembered in preparation so far though. As for the higher course, I personally found my higher course (Italian & German Unification, Bismarck, Russia 1850-1917) more straightforward than Single Party States (Rise & Rule) topic of paper 2. How many past papers have you looked at, just to get an idea of how many questions would have been possible/advisable for you to do in exam conditions? I found that to be useful in preparing myself for the exam.

I've looked at past exam Qs back until 2009 so far (both May and November sessions). We write an essay under exam considerations every other week in class. I do most of my practice by writing outlines for all the essay Qs from past papers before my History finals. Generally, I could answer up to 5-6 Qs in any given Paper 2. I did struggle a bit with the Nov 2010 exam where I could only answer 4 well, but I figured that was enough.

How have you gone about with prep for your exams (Best of luck for them!)

Edited April 17, 2013 by I_Dream_Of_Law_School

[cjy]

With an attitude like this you won't get a 7. Many people underestimate HL History. I do 2 essays a day and I could still easily mess it up. It isn't about regurgitating facts, it's about SYNTHESIS.

[lilianna009]

What's wrong about positive attitude? It's better than constantly telling yourself something is 'too difficult'. Great part of success begins in the mind.

I accept the fact that some people are just more gifted + better organised. Even if for an 'average student' something may seem impossible such people may need actually the same amount of time and committment just because e.g. they can cover a particular topic in 2 hours whereas somebody else needs 10 hours.

It depends on your life-style choice. Me, for example, I like sleeping, procrastinating and scrolling tumblr ;p, so I think that my combination of subjects is enough (plus I wish I took Maths Studies ;p), even though I think that, if I were better organised and all, I could do much more ;p.

I'm not well acknowledged with UK universities but I think that as long as you stay passionate about the things you do and manage to score well, doing all the stuff you mentioned can only help.

Fingers crossed .

[Wicquor]

OMG, where d'you want to go to law school? Somewhere in the UK as well or in Australia?

Nah, I don't need 6 HLs, I just happen to want to do these subjects. They're fun!

But History is tots easy if you just memorise and regurgitate, memorise and regurgitate, and repeat. That's all it takes! It's not hard like Chemistry or Physics HL where you actually have to think and calculate and be creative. Read three authors with three different views on every war/event and memorise what they have to say and History HL turns into a cakewalk!

- Considering Canberra right now, but I've also thought about LSE ... except paying for a student visa isn't easy :c.

- Well then go ahead! ^^

- I think creativity comes easily to someone like me; it why chemistry makes absolute sense to me but biology is challenging; it's also why I adore languages, but I don't fare too well if anything requires me to remember more than I need to :<. But as others have said, history is all about interpretation, judging, evaluating and understanding ... it's really not memorisation as the cliche goes xP.

Goo luck for law school! (:

[Arrowhead]

With an attitude like this you won't get a 7. Many people underestimate HL History. I do 2 essays a day and I could still easily mess it up. It isn't about regurgitating facts, it's about SYNTHESIS.

Someone's a bit of a negative nilly. As someone who did get the (supposedly) difficult-to-attain 7, SYNTHESIS is a bit obvious, isn't it? Personally, I agree with I Dream of Law School (what is her name, anyway, it's too awkward to write such a long username every time!) to an extent: History isn't that complicated and if you're good with your facts/events/timelines/details, it's easy enough to get a 6 at the very least.

I remember my old History teacher who described IB History essay writing technique to us:

1. Identify the event.

2. What was its major historical significance?

3. How does it relate to your thesis?

Frankly, part 3 of that step (which involves SYNTHESIS) is the easiest step in the process. It's recalling the right historical event, mentally assessing its value as a feature in your essay and knowing enough of its details so that it ably contributes to your thesis - that's what matters - and that's pure rote learning.

That's my two cents, anyway.

What's wrong about positive attitude?

Thank you! My point exactly.

- Considering Canberra right now, but I've also thought about LSE ... except paying for a student visa isn't easy :c.

Shoot me an email if you end up considering LSE. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have about the place, the law department, accommodation, etc.

[IBTutorOnline]

If you can handle it, don't let anyone tell you different

You say you take theater and dance as after-school extra certificates, which I assume means you are pretty passionate about those things and would like to continue doing them at uni? As long as its not hurting your potential in the other subjects. You'd be surprised how much attention top UK universities are giving to extra-curricular stuff these days. They need a way to differentiate the growing number of 40+ point candidates.

How do these certificates work though? I doubt you will get an IB Diploma giving a score out of 59? I guess they are just worked out separate?

On a side note, and as someone mentioned above, be very cautious of predicting 7s in HL Math and HL English, especially after only 1st year. I'm happy to hear that your school is basing predictions on things that actually matter (how you perform in IB-type exams, and internal/external ASSESSMENT). Oh how I wish more schools did this, rather than glancing at your last 'test' or homework results and using that as an IB success gauge. Nonetheless, I have seen some schools now bar teachers from predicting 7s in HL English or HL Maths because it's just so damn difficult sometimes.

Best of luck!

[Wicquor]

Shoot me an email if you end up considering LSE. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have about the place, the law department, accommodation, etc.

Thank you! I really appreciate that (:.

[Erudite]

If you can handle it, don't let anyone tell you different

You say you take theater and dance as after-school extra certificates, which I assume means you are pretty passionate about those things and would like to continue doing them at uni? As long as its not hurting your potential in the other subjects. You'd be surprised how much attention top UK universities are giving to extra-curricular stuff these days. They need a way to differentiate the growing number of 40+ point candidates.

How do these certificates work though? I doubt you will get an IB Diploma giving a score out of 59? I guess they are just worked out separate?

On a side note, and as someone mentioned above, be very cautious of predicting 7s in HL Math and HL English, especially after only 1st year. I'm happy to hear that your school is basing predictions on things that actually matter (how you perform in IB-type exams, and internal/external ASSESSMENT). Oh how I wish more schools did this, rather than glancing at your last 'test' or homework results and using that as an IB success gauge. Nonetheless, I have seen some schools now bar teachers from predicting 7s in HL English or HL Maths because it's just so damn difficult sometimes.

Best of luck!

I'm tots hoping that I'll like have the time to continue Theatre and Dance at uni, but I know that uni work can be really overwhelming, so it won't be my first priority truth be told.

The certificates are like extra subjects for me, outside my diploma. So my IB Diploma only counts the 6 subjects (English, History, Economics, Maths HL and French Ab Initio and Biology SL). That way I still get an IB score out of 45, but the remaining two are extra, official certificates I receive that can be taken into account when assessing my overall scores in university applications. Like UCAS gives a number score to your predicted/attained scores in whatever system you're in, as far as the IB is concerned, you get UCAS points based on a scale on how many points you get in the diploma. In my case, I get those diploma-based points + extra points for my certificate subjects. It's tots unconventional, nobody in my school has ever been in my situation, so it's something I'll be explaining in my Personal Statement when I apply to universities.

I know 7s in Maths and English HL are super rare, but I only mentioned the scores in my sig that were in my report card from school.

OMG, where d'you want to go to law school? Somewhere in the UK as well or in Australia?

Nah, I don't need 6 HLs, I just happen to want to do these subjects. They're fun!

But History is tots easy if you just memorise and regurgitate, memorise and regurgitate, and repeat. That's all it takes! It's not hard like Chemistry or Physics HL where you actually have to think and calculate and be creative. Read three authors with three different views on every war/event and memorise what they have to say and History HL turns into a cakewalk!

- Considering Canberra right now, but I've also thought about LSE ... except paying for a student visa isn't easy :c.

- Well then go ahead! ^^

- I think creativity comes easily to someone like me; it why chemistry makes absolute sense to me but biology is challenging; it's also why I adore languages, but I don't fare too well if anything requires me to remember more than I need to :<. But as others have said, history is all about interpretation, judging, evaluating and understanding ... it's really not memorisation as the cliche goes xP.

Goo luck for law school! (:

I'm looking at LSE myself, alongside Oxford, UCL, Durham, Warwick, KCL and a few others. But I went to this US College talk yesterday and I was like SO impressed with everything there! I know I want to be a lawyer, but I'm considering the conversion route if it means I could do go to the US possibly. It all depends on what my options will be next year. *Nervous*

You're lucky! Creativity comes to me easily with stuff like music and dance and theatre and literature, but put me in a lab and I'm like shaking like a fish out of water. None of it ever made much sense to me.

[Wicquor]

I'm looking at LSE myself, alongside Oxford, UCL, Durham, Warwick, KCL and a few others. But I went to this US College talk yesterday and I was like SO impressed with everything there! I know I want to be a lawyer, but I'm considering the conversion route if it means I could do go to the US possibly. It all depends on what my options will be next year. *Nervous*

You're lucky! Creativity comes to me easily with stuff like music and dance and theatre and literature, but put me in a lab and I'm like shaking like a fish out of water. None of it ever made much sense to me.

Ah, that's really cool. Sadly all my options are restricted to Australia, but luckily ALS is decent ... as is ANU ... Your passion is really impressive because law is challenging and most people would just be all "Nah, it ain't for me, I'll pick something else". But good luck with whatever you choose to do ^^.

Also, thanks! My creativtiy really comes in the form or writing more than science, actually ... I can't dance at all and I'm not very creative outside of literature or theatre when I think of it. And whatever little creativity I have even that form is being repressed and locked away by my conservative parents who think writing is a waste of time :<.

Enough of my whinig though, lol.

[nandhinishanmuga]

I currently take 4 HL subjects. In this case, how will the universities decide which 3 HL subjects to consider when looking at my application? Will they consider the score for the highest three subjects or the lowest three?

[kingprawn]

That will be extremely difficult! I wouldn't recommend it at all!

[ChocolateDrop]

I currently take 4 HL subjects. In this case, how will the universities decide which 3 HL subjects to consider when looking at my application? Will they consider the score for the highest three subjects or the lowest three?

Depends where you apply and the course. In the UK they'll most probably just consider the overall score and possibly related or specified subjects in the minimum requirement. For example, if you're applying for a course which requires a 5 in History and English HL and 34 points overall, they'll check you fulfil the requirements or access your level.

If you're applying to some North American universities, there's an academic credit system which gives credit usually based on your HLs. Academic credits basically acknowledges that you may have already previously covered some advanced or college level work via your HLs ergo your placed at a level to match your presumed knowledge. In some cases you can skip some [usually introduction] classes.

Edit: Or they might look at your overall HL "sum" and specify they want certain numbers, eg a 7666 at HL.

Edited June 7, 2013 by ChocolateDrop