diddy Posted April 9, 2015 Report Share Posted April 9, 2015 Hello all!I'm currently a junior and have my remaining classes planned out. But due to a packed schedule and my desire to take an additional science class during senior year (which is optional in my school), I've opted to take Biology at the higher level instead of having to take an IB elective course. The bio teacher in my school in certified to teach SL, but does he need a separate certification in order to teach HL?Have any of you chosen this route instead of taking an IB elective? Apologies if this topic was posted in the wrong forum! Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
biotonic Posted April 9, 2015 Report Share Posted April 9, 2015 I'm not quite sure about this because there is a lot more content at Biology HL so if your Biology teacher is only certified to teach SL then there's a lot of content he hasn't taught yet. You may need to check with your school on that. What are your other classes right now? If you're only taking Biology HL in your senior year I wouldn't recommend it because every subject is designed to be studied in 2 years, and since there's a lot of content and memorisation to do for Bio you really don't want to cram all of that in senior year since you're also going to be thinking of college applications etc. Also if you're a junior why are your exams in May 2015? (o_o) Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
diddy Posted April 10, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 10, 2015 Thanks for the response! My school's IB program is unconventional in that we are not only encouraged but required to take all HL exams and courses during senior year. (Our school has been lacking resources in the past few years for IB, mainly teachers.) I didn't even know the classes were supposed to extend over the course of two years until I read some forums here! I guess I'll be having a lot of fun next year. This year I'm taking Chemistry SL and Math SL, so that will leave me with Chinese SL, English HL, History HL, and an HL elective (or Bio) next year. I'll ask our coordinator about HL Bio when I get the chance. I vaguely remember her saying that there have been students before me that opted for HL science instead of an elective. Also if you're a junior why are your exams in May 2015? (o_o) Oh, my bad, just made my account in a rush. Fixed it! Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
biotonic Posted April 10, 2015 Report Share Posted April 10, 2015 (edited) The way your school teaches IB seems a bit odd because technically you should be taking both SL and HL courses over the two years. HL's teaching hours are longer than that of SL, so if you're only doing Chemistry and Math at SL this year technically you should have a lot of time left to study other courses. If your school is lacking resources I suggest you download IBO's Subject Guides for the subjects you are/plan on taking. It covers all the content taught for each course and the recommended teaching hours you should get for each subject. If your school is not following that, in my opinion, your school shouldn't be IB approved. According to the subject guides: the recommended teaching hours for SL is 150 hours, and HL is 240 hours.If you total that up it's 300 hours for the entire junior year. Let's say you have approximately 6 hours every school day... it will only take you 50 days to learn these two courses, and I'm pretty sure your junior year does not last for 50 days only. So your school is basically wasting the rest of your junior year on contents that only takes up 1/4 of a school year to learn. I really don't want to say this but you'll become extremely stressed in senior year. In my opinion your school shouldn't be structuring lessons like this. I'm taking 6 courses right now and I have 6 SL lessons and 9 HL lessons every 2 weeks. I have 6 lessons everyday so that's 60 lessons every 2 weeks. I take 2 SLs and 4 HLs, so that's 12 SL lessons and 36 HL lessons, plus 2 CAS lessons, 3 TOK lessons, 1 gym class, and 2 PSHE lessons. That leaves me with 4 free periods where I can catch up on work every 2 weeks.At least that's how my school does IB, and we're doing subject IAs and our EE all at the same time. Considering you're doing HL courses next school year, I wouldn't suggest you to take Biology HL next year because it is A LOT of workload. But if you're really interested in Biology the choice is yours. If you're not going to do Bio I would suggest you take the most straightforward, easiest, and least time-consuming HL elective course that is offered at your school. Plus you'll need amazing time management to keep up with everything else. And good luck to you because you'll need it. Edited April 10, 2015 by biotonic Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.