=-= Posted September 16, 2014 Report Share Posted September 16, 2014 Hi everyone:)! I am in 11th grade and have started the ib programme recently. My high levels are english lit, economics and biology, my standard levels are chinese lit and lang, history and mathematics. The main thing is that I am chinese and i consider myself more fluent in chinese than english(in speaking), however i have been doing bilingual courses all my life. For my IGCSEs i scored A* in eng lit and B in eng lang. I am hoping to apply to a British university...but I think I will only be able to score a mediocre score like 4 if i proceed with eng lit HL.Do British uni consider the actual grades you achieve more significantly or the subjects you choose? Should i switch to Chinese A1 lit instead and do english as second language? Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllieAndra Posted November 17, 2014 Report Share Posted November 17, 2014 I take English Lit HL and I think it might be a challenge if you are struggling with english in general. I'm in IB2 and currently applying to universities in England and Scotland and they look at your actual grades and your overall point score. My advice to you would be to chose subjects that you enjoy doing and from there you can find a field which you'd like to pursue. Some courses at varying uni's will require certain subjects such as English Lit HL this would be if you were interested in studying Literature, English or a language in general. Hope that helped:) Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bethiedrama101 Posted November 19, 2014 Report Share Posted November 19, 2014 I personally think that there is hardly any difference between HL and SL. You have to read 2-3 more books, your mark scheme only varies by a few points. However you will have these assessments called the IOP (YR11) and the IOC (YR12) that is all speaking. You will have to do these assessments regardless of HL or SL but you IOC will be 10 minutes longer if you're HL. I am EFL (English First Language) but I have seen my ESL (English Second Language) classmates do really well in HL. In fact most of our ESL classmates are HL! Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackcurrant Posted November 19, 2014 Report Share Posted November 19, 2014 (edited) It's not objective, then, as you can see. The answer lies in "who" you are. Some claim English at HL is a cinch -- some say it is hell. Some recommend SL over HL - some say there is no difference. Some say HL is far more demanding - some say not. If you take your TOK seriously, then you'll see the question cannot be answered easily or objectively. So back to the question: WHO ARE YOU? (caterpillar to Alice). Your answer is in that question. Edited November 19, 2014 by Blackcurrant 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandwich Posted November 19, 2014 Report Share Posted November 19, 2014 The level required of you at IB is the same as for GCSE in terms of English Lit. So the question is, did you do well at GCSE because you were good at literary analysis or did well at GCSE because you were taught what to say? If it's because you were good at the analysis part, I'd definitely take HL. Unless you're planning to apply for English or an essay subject (History, Law etc.) at University, I wouldn't worry about having it at HL or not - except that if you ARE capable it is an easy HL. Minimal effort required. Analytical thinking is a skill, so it dramatically unburdens your revision for the actual IB final exams if you are taking a skill-based subject rather than yet another one you've got to cram reams and reams of information for! 2 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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