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Math SL vs Math Studies


peanuts

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So I've just got back my first set of official predicted grades:

 

Chem HL: 6

Bio HL: 7

French B HL: 6

 

Math SL: 5

Business and Management SL: 6

English A SL: 6

 

I've been really struggling with maths ever since the beginning of the year, and I had been getting 4-5 in all my tests but my teacher predicted me a 5. This was all with the help of a math tutor, but I had to stop with the tutoring because it was getting too expensive, and my most recent math test result was a 3. I do know for sure that if i go to studies I'll get a 6 or 7, but I don't know if i can get above a 5 in math sl. If I drop to studies then my overall grade will be at around 37-38 without core points, and I can't choose whether to have a score below 40 but with math sl, or a score potentially over 40 but with math studies.

 

Basically for uni I want to get out of Switzerland (although it is very nice, I've been here too long :P) and I was looking at universities in Canada and the UK, but also in mainland Europe as well, to study medicine/forensic science/sport science. On the UBC website (one of my strong choices) it says that a 3 in SL Math is accepted with math studies not being accepted, but I have heard that for sciencey related courses, math studies is sometimes accepted. I don't have a swiss passport, and I have researched that international students have to pay much more than EU students. I can't really deal with paying the full scholarship for med school and other sciencey courses so I have to look for scholarships and grants, but I have heard that international students like me have less of a chance of being accepted to scholarship programs. 

 

I guess my question really is: should I drop to math studies? I don't know if i'll be able to hold that 5 in math sl for the whole of the two years. My course choices aren't set in stone and I'm open to suggestions of any alternatives, but I really do want to study abroad.

Any advice would be appreciated, thanks!!

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It depends on your intended stream. I looked for Economics/finance, and UK, stuff like Cambridge, LSE, Oxford all need Math HL. I assume engineering will need HL math too.

But, if your not aiming for the big name colleges, SL math is fine.

But without knowing your intended stream, I'm not sure we can help you.

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It depends on your intended stream. I looked for Economics/finance, and UK, stuff like Cambridge, LSE, Oxford all need Math HL. I assume engineering will need HL math too.

But, if your not aiming for the big name colleges, SL math is fine.

But without knowing your intended stream, I'm not sure we can help you.

What do you mean by stream?

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I initially did Maths Studies, and realised it was going to be too boring, so here I am doing Maths SL. I think it'll be better for you to do Maths SL (at least) since you want to do Engineering, most unis want HL preferably actually. But since I want to do Medicine, I'm doing SL. I do understand your struggle, I've been getting 3s in my recent tests too, but did manage to jump to 5s with tutoring, and yes, tutoring is expensive, so I can relate to you a lot! I'm also looking into 6s and 7s here, and I'm feeling hopeless with the results I'm currently getting. But seeing that there's many people getting 7s in Maths, and also the fact that Maths should be a 'logical' subject, makes me not lose hope. I feel that with a little more training, we could actually achieve well - after all, Mathematics is all about practise, practice, and more practice.
But I've managed to find a reasonably priced tutoring service, they're based in Hong Kong, so you get online videos and I find them helpful! They actually used to advertise here in this forum, their name is HKExcel (I'm sure you've seen their name before), so that's how I actually came across them, through their advertising here. 

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I suggest you to continue taking Math SL - a lot of unis need Math SL as a BASIC REQUIREMENT.

 

Also, most unis prefer to look at the subjects you chose and think that you have taken the subjects that challenged yourself - instead of achieving a high score by going the easy way.

 

Just do plenty of past papers and questions and good luck! :)

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