Language Choice

[ndx1661123]

Right now I am taking English B and Self Taught Chinese. However, it seems like many universities require English A. I was in English SL initially, and my English teacher said I would likely to get a 4 or 5 (I got 86% as converted mark on my fall term report card), but it always takes me triple time working on an essay to get the same mark as my Canadian friends. In English B, my teacher said I would probably get a 7. However, I have just heard about how difficult Self Taught Chinese would be even for me who finished grade 9 in China. What should I do? Stay in English B and count on my Chinese? Or switch back to English SL?

[twilight]

I think you should take English A SL. I had friends who did Chinese A SL. They were not self taught and were also in China up till 9th grade and they are always talking about how difficult Chinese A is. The grade boundary for Chinese A is insanely high, which could mean either they have high expectations or they're really lenient with marking. I don't know which though. My friends said they're quite lenient with marking, but the 7 rate in my school has been only about 50%. But then again, if you're a very strong literature student, I think you'll be fine with Chinese A. I have a friend who's really good in Chinese Literature and he just coasted through Chinese A, took English B and got 7 for both.

I don't think universities need English A per se; I think it's more like you need proof of English proficiency, which you can demonstrate through other tests, so if English A is much more difficult for you than Chinese A, just do English B.

Personally, I did English A and I scored 5 consistently in my school exams as well as homework essays, but I worked really hard for my IAs and sought help when needed, and I managed a 7 in the end. I don't think school exams are a good reflection of your scoring potential for IB because English A LIterature is 55% IA and Lang&Lit is 50% IA, so if you can do your IAs well, that's really half the battle done. For me, having never studied literature before IB, I had no idea what was going on and what examiners expect in a literary analysis, but as time passed, I started getting the hang of it, and it all came together during my IB exam. Since you still have one year to go, there's still time for you to wait for things to click. But then again, you would need to catch up with all the English A IA that your friends had already done. It may be a lot of work, or it may not be, depending on how far along they are, so take this into consideration when you decide to switch or not.

Or you can do both English A and Chinese A. Quite a number of people did that in my school, though my friend said that's one of her greatest regrets due to the sheer amount of work there is.