Subject selections help!

[belliebanana]

Hi, I know there's a lot of forums on selecting subjects but I've read through most of them and I am still unsure what I should do. I study in Australia and in our school we have to choose 2 SL subjects, 1 anticipated SL subject (complete a SL subject in one year) and 3 HL subjects.

So far I have :

HL Chinese

HL Literature (english A)

HL Business & Management

Anticipated SL mathematics

SL Chemistry

SL Biology

I am thinking of becoming an English and Mandarin teacher, or a nutritionist if I change my mind, so are these topics suitable?

I am okay at English - I usually get Bs but I do enjoy the subject.

And also do you think this is a good combination? And will these topics be hard?

[Icekacang00]

If you want to become a nutritionist, why don't you take Chemistry HL? In my opinion, Chemistry HL is not that hard. And as for Bio SL, our bio teacher said Bio is even easier than regular Biology 12, so why not take at least 1 science HL?

Mandarin A really helps you to become a critical thinker. Good choice

[Because of Reasons]

I think your topic choice is ultimately up to what courses you like. I would say it looks like you have a good combination for the career choices that you are looking at. I would also say that it looks like you are well rounded in the classes that you are taking. I too am taking HL English and have the the same average grade, but I haven't tested yet so I cannot tell you what that meant for me. As long as you pick classes that you enjoy and you like the HL and SL choices that you have made you should have a good combination:)
I can also say that I took Chemistry and Mathmatics SL and tested this year and although they were challenging they were not impossible, depending on your work ethic and your dedication to the classes you should do fine:)

I hope this helped even a little bit.

[belliebanana]

If you want to become a nutritionist, why don't you take Chemistry HL? In my opinion, Chemistry HL is not that hard. And as for Bio SL, our bio teacher said Bio is even easier than regular Biology 12, so why not take at least 1 science HL?

Mandarin A really helps you to become a critical thinker. Good choice

I am still deciding whether I want to become a teacher or a nutritionist :/ I guess it depends on the university I want and if I can get into.

And tbh I don't think I'm particularly good at chemistry, it seems a bit hard for me to understand and I have been told it is really hard to get a 7 in.

I think your topic choice is ultimately up to what courses you like. I would say it looks like you have a good combination for the career choices that you are looking at. I would also say that it looks like you are well rounded in the classes that you are taking. I too am taking HL English and have the the same average grade, but I haven't tested yet so I cannot tell you what that meant for me. As long as you pick classes that you enjoy and you like the HL and SL choices that you have made you should have a good combination:)

I can also say that I took Chemistry and Mathmatics SL and tested this year and although they were challenging they were not impossible, depending on your work ethic and your dedication to the classes you should do fine:)

I hope this helped even a little bit.

Thank you that helps me a bit

Is chemistry SL easier than HL? :/ and also do you know the difference between HL english and SL

[Icekacang00]

If you want to become a nutritionist, why don't you take Chemistry HL? In my opinion, Chemistry HL is not that hard. And as for Bio SL, our bio teacher said Bio is even easier than regular Biology 12, so why not take at least 1 science HL?

Mandarin A really helps you to become a critical thinker. Good choice

I am still deciding whether I want to become a teacher or a nutritionist :/ I guess it depends on the university I want and if I can get into.

And tbh I don't think I'm particularly good at chemistry, it seems a bit hard for me to understand and I have been told it is really hard to get a 7 in.

I think your topic choice is ultimately up to what courses you like. I would say it looks like you have a good combination for the career choices that you are looking at. I would also say that it looks like you are well rounded in the classes that you are taking. I too am taking HL English and have the the same average grade, but I haven't tested yet so I cannot tell you what that meant for me. As long as you pick classes that you enjoy and you like the HL and SL choices that you have made you should have a good combination:)

I can also say that I took Chemistry and Mathmatics SL and tested this year and although they were challenging they were not impossible, depending on your work ethic and your dedication to the classes you should do fine:)

I hope this helped even a little bit.

Thank you that helps me a bit

Is chemistry SL easier than HL? :/ and also do you know the difference between HL english and SL

Chemistry SL is definitely easier than HL.

However, it is hard to achieve a 7 in both SL and HL. Our teacher told us at the beginning of the year not to think about getting a 7 because 7s are for crazy people

[belliebanana]

If you want to become a nutritionist, why don't you take Chemistry HL? In my opinion, Chemistry HL is not that hard. And as for Bio SL, our bio teacher said Bio is even easier than regular Biology 12, so why not take at least 1 science HL?

Mandarin A really helps you to become a critical thinker. Good choice

I am still deciding whether I want to become a teacher or a nutritionist :/ I guess it depends on the university I want and if I can get into.

And tbh I don't think I'm particularly good at chemistry, it seems a bit hard for me to understand and I have been told it is really hard to get a 7 in.

I think your topic choice is ultimately up to what courses you like. I would say it looks like you have a good combination for the career choices that you are looking at. I would also say that it looks like you are well rounded in the classes that you are taking. I too am taking HL English and have the the same average grade, but I haven't tested yet so I cannot tell you what that meant for me. As long as you pick classes that you enjoy and you like the HL and SL choices that you have made you should have a good combination:)

I can also say that I took Chemistry and Mathmatics SL and tested this year and although they were challenging they were not impossible, depending on your work ethic and your dedication to the classes you should do fine:)

I hope this helped even a little bit.

Thank you that helps me a bit

Is chemistry SL easier than HL? :/ and also do you know the difference between HL english and SL

Chemistry SL is definitely easier than HL.

However, it is hard to achieve a 7 in both SL and HL. Our teacher told us at the beginning of the year not to think about getting a 7 because 7s are for crazy people

Haha well I'm not exactly an expert on chemistry and my expectations aren't that high, I'm probably hoping to receive a 5 or a 6 if I really study hard?

[cricketcrazynerd]

If you want to become a nutritionist, why don't you take Chemistry HL? In my opinion, Chemistry HL is not that hard. And as for Bio SL, our bio teacher said Bio is even easier than regular Biology 12, so why not take at least 1 science HL?

Mandarin A really helps you to become a critical thinker. Good choice

I am still deciding whether I want to become a teacher or a nutritionist :/ I guess it depends on the university I want and if I can get into.

And tbh I don't think I'm particularly good at chemistry, it seems a bit hard for me to understand and I have been told it is really hard to get a 7 in.

I think your topic choice is ultimately up to what courses you like. I would say it looks like you have a good combination for the career choices that you are looking at. I would also say that it looks like you are well rounded in the classes that you are taking. I too am taking HL English and have the the same average grade, but I haven't tested yet so I cannot tell you what that meant for me. As long as you pick classes that you enjoy and you like the HL and SL choices that you have made you should have a good combination:)

I can also say that I took Chemistry and Mathmatics SL and tested this year and although they were challenging they were not impossible, depending on your work ethic and your dedication to the classes you should do fine:)

I hope this helped even a little bit.

Thank you that helps me a bit

Is chemistry SL easier than HL? :/ and also do you know the difference between HL english and SL

Chemistry SL is definitely easier than HL.

However, it is hard to achieve a 7 in both SL and HL. Our teacher told us at the beginning of the year not to think about getting a 7 because 7s are for crazy people

I think your teacher's a crazy person coz that's definitely NOT what you tell a to-be IB student.

See SL Chem will be easier coz it's SL but I personally feel that doing HL helps you understand the SL concepts much better. HL is not a harder course but just has more content to learn....if you get the difference

Literature, well the SL has less works to study and gets 1.5 hours on paper 1 instead of 2 (at HL) also the IOC is shorter for SL than HL

I think HL Lit is a popular subject as all my class but me is doing it

[Because of Reasons]

I believe the only difference between HL and SL English is that HL has to read a few more books and write 1 or 2 more essays that SL would. There is also a more difficult markscheme (or that it is graded more strictly)for HL English that SL.

[belliebanana]

I believe the only difference between HL and SL English is that HL has to read a few more books and write 1 or 2 more essays that SL would. There is also a more difficult markscheme (or that it is graded more strictly)for HL English that SL.

Just wondering but is it easy to get a 6 or 7 in HL english?

[IBCONQUERER]

For SL, I would say its not difficult to get a 6. I was not particularly amazing at English and still got a 6. Getting a 7 in SL is hard. I could be wrong here but I think getting a 7 in SL is as hard as getting a 6 in HL. You need to amazing at English to get a 7 in it at HL. If you look at statistics, you will find that around 2% of all English HL candidates get a 7. At SL its usually around 5%. Thing that's hard about English is its not an objective subject and its quite hard to know how a particular examiner will look at your work. There are well defined criteria for each of your assessment components but then again, interpreting those criteria is at the discretion of the examiner.

For Chem, getting a 7 is not really that difficult. You need to know your syllabus well and do lots of past papers but because the markschemes and the subject itself is quite objective, a 7 is very possible. I got a very high 6 myself, was very very close to a 7 but I didn't devote much time to Chem at all because I had harder HL's (Math lol).

Edited May 30, 2013 by IBCONQUERER

[belliebanana]

For SL, I would say its not difficult to get a 6. I was not particularly amazing at English and still got a 6. Getting a 7 in SL is hard. I could be wrong here but I think getting a 7 in SL is as hard as getting a 6 in HL. You need to amazing at English to get a 7 in it at HL. If you look at statistics, you will find that around 2% of all English HL candidates get a 7. At SL its usually around 5%. Thing that's hard about English is its not an objective subject and its quite hard to know how a particular examiner will look at your work. There are well defined criteria for each of your assessment components but then again, interpreting those criteria is at the discretion of the examiner.

For Chem, getting a 7 is not really that difficult. You need to know your syllabus well and do lots of past papers but because the markschemes and the subject itself is quite objective, a 7 is very possible. I got a very high 6 myself, was very very close to a 7 but I didn't devote much time to Chem at all because I had harder HL's (Math lol).

wow your results look absolutely amazing. getting a 7 in HL is considered almost impossible at our school - last year only around 1 or 2 people received 7.

What about HL bio? is there a lot of studying/memorising for that?

[IBCONQUERER]

It really depends on your strengths to be honest. I don't really enjoy memorising so I found Biology HL a pain. For a lot of people though, Biology HL is an easier HL than chem, physics or maths. I personally thought Bio was harder than Chem, easier than Math though. It does have a lot of memorising. If my memory serves me correctly, there are about 11 topics, 6 of which are studied by both SL and HL. Then you also have your two options. Thing I disliked about Bio is you could memorise your whole syllabus and know everything, but still be brought down by databased questions. In paper 2, the first question in the exam is data response and sometimes, the data is very tricky and you have to be very tactful in analysing it.

If you look at statistics, they show that Bio is the hardest science to get a 7 in. In my school though, people did much better in Bio than Chem. A few people even failed their diploma because of Chem (even though they had over 24 points). But then again, we had 1 7 in chem but none in Bio. I think I would say that like it's easier to get a 7 in chem, but it's easier to pass Bio, if that makes any sense lol? I think that is because if you study hard enough, memorising isn't too difficult but application, which is what chem is mostly about, is a more difficult skill. It just depends, are you good at memorising or better at application?

[Gaby]

Firstly, check the entry requirements of both of the courses at the universities you might want to apply to. It will be the best indication of whether or not your subject choice is the right one.

[belliebanana]

Firstly, check the entry requirements of both of the courses at the universities you might want to apply to. It will be the best indication of whether or not your subject choice is the right one.

I do realise this, but if I don't take chemistry and biology at HL, will universities not count it as a prerequisite if I want to enter a med course?

[Gaby]

Firstly, check the entry requirements of both of the courses at the universities you might want to apply to. It will be the best indication of whether or not your subject choice is the right one.

I do realise this, but if I don't take chemistry and biology at HL, will universities not count it as a prerequisite if I want to enter a med course?

Well, if you want to enter the med course, and the prerequisite is to take chemistry and biology at HL, then you are not going to get in if you haven't taken them, full stop. However, if you're at the stage when you're still choosing courses/can change your mind, you can alter them accordingly, can't you?

[IBCONQUERER]

It really depends. I'm not familiar with the system in Australia but in the UK, your subject choices influence your admission to the university because you apply to go into a course. For medicine, it varies with many universities requiring chem at HL and few requiring Bio at least at SL level. With the US, you don't apply for a specific major so your subject choices don't matter as much, they only count when they consider how rigorous your classes are. In the US, if you haven't taken a specific pre-med course then you will take it at college instead of just getting credit for it and skipping the course.

You will want to check about Australia, and you also want to consider the area of study that interests you i.e. teaching or nutrition.

[Lero]

Firstly, check the entry requirements of both of the courses at the universities you might want to apply to. It will be the best indication of whether or not your subject choice is the right one.

I do realise this, but if I don't take chemistry and biology at HL, will universities not count it as a prerequisite if I want to enter a med course?

Australian universities don't care whether you've done SL or HL, as long as you have studied the actual subject. Although HL obviously gives you an advantage when it comes to university studies as you'll be ahead before the semester even starts.

[RandomPeersoon]

Why not biology HL and business and management SL? The latter isn't exactly relevant to any of your career choices but biology would be helpful with becoming a nutritionist.