Chemistry HL or Theatre HL

[debbieadrienne]

I posted this under science because I feel it relates more to chemistry. I started IB in January and have been taking Lang Lit, Chem and Math HL and Theatre, business and Chinese B SL. I kinda feel really lost in chemistry classes now and I don't understand clearly what my teacher is going through. When I go home to study for chemistry tests, I get more and more confused. I keep telling myself it will get better but I'm just unsure now. Should I change my chemistry to SL and theatre to HL? How diff in chem SL and HL as compared to theatre SL and HL? Help?! I hope to decide by June.

P.s. I am scholar so I'm also thinking about how the school will see me if I change my HLs midway. Would they think that I can't cope and maybe take away my scholarship or have a bad impression of me?

[cricketcrazynerd]

Well Chemistry HL basically just has more material of the same difficulty to learn. I actually think the HL components help you understand the SL parts better. Can't say much about Theatre HL coz I'm not doing it.

What school do you go to? I doubt the school with form an impression about you based on the subjects you take. Everyone realises (or should at least!) that IB is a tough course regardless of the subjects you take and only your marks should make the difference.

I know lots of people who are stuck earlier on in the Chem course, but i do think it gets better as you progress through it. For starters, start watching these dot point videos (http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnKyCBclmK1dqPj9r3iw5gA)...Seriously helps you understand everything!

Simran

[bluedino]

If you are struggling in chemistry now, you should definitely reconsider Chemistry HL, especially since you should remember that you will be doing pretty much 2 years of it. Chem HL will not get better unless you put in the effort (the amount of effort required is different from person to person), and figure out why you're getting confused. I would firstly advise you to go and talk to your chemistry teacher about the problems you are having and to consider asking for some extra help - maybe a little more explaining and everything will become more understandable? Or maybe get a tutor to help you through it?

I can't really tell you if you should change your chemistry to SL and theatre to HL seeing as I don't know too much about you - you have to consider other things as well when making this decision. Answering some of these questions would make it easier: Do you enjoy chemistry? Are you struggling with the chemistry SL content, just the HL content, or both SL and HL content? How are you going in theatre? Do you enjoy theatre more than chemistry? One other thing to consider is your Theatre class - if you switch to HL now, will you have missed a lot of HL content/work/assessments that would be really difficult to catch up on? I know at my school something like Theatre has both HL and SL in the same class so you could easily switch between the two, but if there's two different classes for SL and HL and maybe even different teachers, that could be a little more difficult.

If you haven't already, you could check out the Chemistry and Theatre syllabus to read up on the differences between SL and HL to get a general idea. By the way, I have also heard that Chemistry HL is just more material, not really that much more difficult.

Scholarship holders generally seem to be very capable people, and I don't see why changing HLs should cause your school to think that you can't cope! I don't know what your school is like, but at my school, a lot of people switch between HL and SL in the first few months of the course and it has absolutely zero impact on scholarships, and I'm pretty sure nobody would ever lose their scholarship just for essentially switching subjects. If you're still worried about the position of your scholarship, maybe go and talk to someone at your school - IB Coordinator or your Head of Studies or someone.

[debbieadrienne]

Hi guys! Thanks so much for your help. Really. I am currently in a HL theatre class cause the people taking theatre is a small group so they just place the HLs with the SLs. So I'm not worried if I would be able to catch up. Yes the HL part in chem is the one confusing me. ):

[debbieadrienne]

And Simran, thanks for the advice too, I really think you're right. I hope that as I move along with chem HL I'll understand it better