Subject Help! ASAP!

[SvdW]

So basically, I'm gonna be starting IB in August this year. I want to pursue fashion journalism in college. The sibjects I've chosen are:

HL

English A literature

Psychology

Visual Arts

SL

French ab initio

EVSS

Math Studies

Now, should I take Psychology or history HL? Which is easier? Will either of them help me later? How's my subject combo?

[cricketcrazynerd]

What's EVSS? do you mean ESS? I don't think your subject combo is on the harder side. Psychology is seemingly easier than History, but coz I do neither you shouldn't really trust me Depends on your taste I think. But, I think your other HLs are reasonable considering what you want to do...yeah your fine according to me!

*my 199th post *

[SvdW]

Also, I've never done psychology before as I come from a CBSE background. I'm new to IB and all. So is Psych HL reasonable??

[susanne]

trust me, History is one of the hardest subject there is (maybe it's because I'm not a language student), and there is loads to read and write and practice. It's about as bad as english, really.

Overall, your subject combo looks like it will give you a easier time than many other people's, except beware of English and History HL, they are evile, evile

[The Rainbow Connection]

Also, I've never done psychology before as I come from a CBSE background. I'm new to IB and all. So is Psych HL reasonable??

Psychology HL is relatively reasonable and you do not need a background in it It requires a lot of memorising for studies and applying evaluation skills - which you learn in class. I can't say anything about history though.

[braindead]

Strange, I see my History HL as one of my easier subjects - yes, there's a lot of writing, but if you have a methodical way of thinking already it'll be quite easy to cram a few numbers and policies into your head. To be honest, the difference between Psychology HL and History HL is minimal from my first-hand experience - all my friends who chose Psychology are complaining that they can't remember everything because there's too much content, the layout of the exam sucks, does anyone have any tests for depression, blah blah blah. From what I can see, History is a lot more dependent on whether you know how to analyse and write a persuasive, strong answer to an essay question. That's luckily one of my stronger areas, so I get good grades in History with minimal effort.

The thing I should warn you about is Visual Arts HL - NEVER let yourself fall behind. It's very nearly impossible to catch up. I managed to salvage a 6 in my course, after 3 solid weeks of neglecting every other subject to churn out workbook pages and set up my exhibition.

[Arrowhead]

Between Psychology and History, both require a massive amount of memorisation. If you're good with that, either will work for you. It is harder to get a 7 in Psychology HL than History HL though.

If you're not good with memorisation, but are good with your concepts and ideas and grasping them, I would go with Economics HL actually.

Don't worry too much about it. Coming from a CBSE background you're already used to mindless memorisation and regurgitation, the IB will be a breeze. Coming from an ICSE background, I certainly felt the IB was easy.

[psychologystudent501]

I do both at HL, and personally find that, in general, Psychology is easier. If it helps, here's my comparison:

• Psychology: Case studies etc take a while to remember, and there are quite a few! However, you can make up little sayings and find ways that suit you-for example, I remember some studies by the spelling of the researcher's name: e.g. Buss has 2 's' in their name and their study was into mate selection, so BuSS= Sexual Selection. I find this subject more fun and interesting, but that may just be me (Also, I want to become a psychologist, so yeah )
• History: I find the course has A LOT of content, which I find harder to remember than all the psychology stuff. You need to be more analytical in this subject to achieve the higher grades, rather than narrative (which to an extent you can get away with in psychology). If you have a good memory for events/dates and can critically evaluate what happened, this is a good choice.

You could, if you have any idea what uni you might go to, contact them or look up their requirements to find out what the admission team prefers in a student.

As I've said, I personally find history a bit harder and more content-heavy than psychology, but I still enjoy it, I just prefer psychology

Hope this helps you, and good luck with your choices!

[lilianna009]

Between Psychology and History, both require a massive amount of memorisation. If you're good with that, either will work for you. It is harder to get a 7 in Psychology HL than History HL though.

If you're not good with memorisation, but are good with your concepts and ideas and grasping them, I would go with Economics HL actually.

Don't worry too much about it. Coming from a CBSE background you're already used to mindless memorisation and regurgitation, the IB will be a breeze. Coming from an ICSE background, I certainly felt the IB was easy.

WHAT?!

Such statements just show how much one's attitude depends on the teacher in your school...and maybe some personal preferences... Even though I had history classes since I was 10 I would never take it in IB or consider it easier than Psychology. It's not that I scored low, but in my junior high you had to learn from 3 textbooks and note at classes to get highest level at tests. So for me there is much more memorization in History. I don't have experience with IB History but people from my class complained much about History and most had rather low scores from tests whereas, honestly, I didn't spend much time learning Psychology.

And after having, finally, all my Psychology exams I think you don't really have to memorize THAT much. It's all about method. You just focus on studies you could evaluate more than giving results and name and you can end up with 20-30 studies for all three levels of analysis.

[Arrowhead]

Between Psychology and History, both require a massive amount of memorisation. If you're good with that, either will work for you. It is harder to get a 7 in Psychology HL than History HL though.

If you're not good with memorisation, but are good with your concepts and ideas and grasping them, I would go with Economics HL actually.

Don't worry too much about it. Coming from a CBSE background you're already used to mindless memorisation and regurgitation, the IB will be a breeze. Coming from an ICSE background, I certainly felt the IB was easy.

WHAT?!

Such statements just show how much one's attitude depends on the teacher in your school...and maybe some personal preferences... Even though I had history classes since I was 10 I would never take it in IB or consider it easier than Psychology. It's not that I scored low, but in my junior high you had to learn from 3 textbooks and note at classes to get highest level at tests. So for me there is much more memorization in History. I don't have experience with IB History but people from my class complained much about History and most had rather low scores from tests whereas, honestly, I didn't spend much time learning Psychology.

And after having, finally, all my Psychology exams I think you don't really have to memorize THAT much. It's all about method. You just focus on studies you could evaluate more than giving results and name and you can end up with 20-30 studies for all three levels of analysis.

I looked it up and you're right. I had heard wrong that it was more difficult to get a 7 in Psychology HL than History HL. In the May 2011 session, 2% of History HL students got 7s while 4% of Psychology HL students received 7s.

So, statistically at least, for every student getting a 7 in History HL, there are two getting 7s in Psychology.

http://www.ibo.org/facts/statbulletin/dpstats/documents/statistical_bulletin_may_2011.pdf