IB subject difficulty?

[tired]

Hi guys,

I'm currently in grade 10 pre-ib and was wondering if anyone currently in the diploma program or graduated already have any idea of whether or not the ib subjects I plan on taking are difficult or easy.

Rank on a scale of 1-10 if possible with 10 being most difficult

SL Math

SL French

SL Chemistry

HL English

HL Economics

HL Biology

Thank you!

[emantse]

So three things, I haven't taken all of the courses, so I'll place an asterisk besides the ones that I'm just guessing on.

Also it depends on what you mean by difficulty, difficulty in doing well in general or in comprehending concepts or difficulty in amount of memorisation or essay writing etc.

Lastly, the difficulty of each subject of course is very subjective (haha get it, subjective), and it depends on your interests, aptitudes, background, etc.

Anywho, without further ado, these are my personal rankings based on the ability to attain a 7.

3- SL Math

7- SL French*

5- SL Chemistry

8- HL English (Do you mean Lang + lit, or just literature, i personally took literature)

3- HL Economics*

3- HL Biology

[Guest Marioti]

I haven't taken all of these courses either, but I'm currently taking some

SL Math

Honestly I don't think math is THAT hard, but the way the grading scale is makes it hard to achieve a high IB grade. I'm taking it SL also. I think it requires a lot of studying and practice. If you're good at math (I'm not), you won't have such a hard time grasping the concepts of it.

SL French - N/A

SL Chemistry

It's harder than bio SL (I've been told) - I'm struggling with chemistry because of the options only.. since you're taking it SL you won't have to worry about those. You also won't have to worry about all the 13.1 or 14.1 for example ... like all the HL stuff.. so it will be easier for you.

HL English

I'm ESL and I'm taking HL English. I honestly don't think it's hard at all....

HL Economics - N/A

HL Biology - N/A

It all really depends on how good you are in each separate subject. I suck at anything involving math and #'s so chem & math are my hardest subjects.

Edited March 15, 2014 by Marilia Maki

[tired]

So three things, I haven't taken all of the courses, so I'll place an asterisk besides the ones that I'm just guessing on.

Also it depends on what you mean by difficulty, difficulty in doing well in general or in comprehending concepts or difficulty in amount of memorisation or essay writing etc.

Lastly, the difficulty of each subject of course is very subjective (haha get it, subjective), and it depends on your interests, aptitudes, background, etc.

Anywho, without further ado, these are my personal rankings based on the ability to attain a 7.

3- SL Math

7- SL French*

5- SL Chemistry

8- HL English (Do you mean Lang + lit, or just literature, i personally took literature)

3- HL Economics*

3- HL Biology

I think its just literature cause its English A1. Is it honestly very difficult though cause I heard many people say that its difficult to get a 7 but not very hard to get a 6 or a 5.

[by.andrew]

Based on the difficulty of getting a '7':

SL Math - 3

SL French B - 5

SL Chemistry - 6

HL English Lit- 10

HL Economics - 4

It's very hard to quantify the difficulty of each subject (I just BSed these numbers on the spot). English Lit HL is notorious for giving few 7s each year. Only 1~4% get 7s worldwide in this subject; I have yet to see a subject that is harder to score a 7 in (maybe History?).

I also think French is fairly easy too, but they recently changed the curriculum so I gave it a 5 because I'm not sure how the new batches of scores will pan out.

[pieispi]

Based on my personal opinion + things I heard from other IB students:

SL Math - 3

SL French B - 7

SL Chem - 5

HL English Lit - 9

HL Econ - 5

HL Bio - 5

As far as I know, Econ and Bio are the easiest subjects in their respective groups. For english, it's just probably me, 'cause I find it to be pretty challenging. Any science SL is relatively easy. Math SL is not going to be your hardest subject unless you are really bad at math (in which case you might consider studies) and I generally rank Language Bs as being hard.

[emantse]

So three things, I haven't taken all of the courses, so I'll place an asterisk besides the ones that I'm just guessing on.

Also it depends on what you mean by difficulty, difficulty in doing well in general or in comprehending concepts or difficulty in amount of memorisation or essay writing etc.

Lastly, the difficulty of each subject of course is very subjective (haha get it, subjective), and it depends on your interests, aptitudes, background, etc.

Anywho, without further ado, these are my personal rankings based on the ability to attain a 7.

3- SL Math

7- SL French*

5- SL Chemistry

8- HL English (Do you mean Lang + lit, or just literature, i personally took literature)

3- HL Economics*

3- HL Biology

I think its just literature cause its English A1. Is it honestly very difficult though cause I heard many people say that its difficult to get a 7 but not very hard to get a 6 or a 5.

Totally agree with your statement, I got a predicted 6 but definitely felt like I didn't put as much effort as I would have liked or should have, especially being in my last year.

Edit: Also, I know that our school gives one 7 in Eng HL Lit each year, max, if any, but then somehow our graduating class got maybe 5 people who got predicted 7, haha our year's just crazy, but yeah, the case usually is that getting a 7 is for those who not only have a great work ethic and have the drive to get good marks, but also has a natural aptitude towards literature and analysis.

Edited March 21, 2014 by emantse