How hard is it to get a 7 in HL Math?

[anvit]

Does it an unimaginable amount of hardwork and practice? Why is it the hardest?

 

[Emmi]

It doesn't require an ungodly amount of work, but it will take a lot of work and practice to get a 7, which is true for most subjects really.

It's the "hardest" because most students at that age haven't been exposed to a very rigorous math curriculum and once they get into IB they're doing stuff way beyond what they're used to in difficulty, and unless they practice a lot to get familiar with the material and like math in general it makes for a long two years. But that being said some people find HL math very easy and find stuff like HL literature courses to be their hardest subject.

[kw0573]

(time to go TOK)
Difficulty of a subject, I think, mostly depend on
- knowing how to study. Many subjects have difference study techniques. If you don't know how or how frequent to study, you cannot effectively grasp the knowledge or perform well in the exams / IAs. 
- non-IB / pre-IB preparation. Some people don't study math as hard may be because they spent hours after hours when they were little. Some may be solid at English because they would read 2-3 hours per day, every day for few years now. If you do not have the strong foundations, the subject will be more difficult.

- available resources. The resources your school can offer you can often change up to two scores (eg 4 to a 6). If your school keeps a record of all the past papers, EEs, IAs for past 10 years, you will have an easier time than those who don't.
- teaching methods. How a teacher teachers will greatly affect how much you absorb and how much you have to learn by yourself.

- others' opinions on the difficulty. If your teacher gives homework once a week, you might think it's an easy course when really the teacher might expect you to practice on your own. Conversely if you are getting 3 hours of homework one day, maybe the teachers are just throwing all the resources they have and expecting you to pick and choose what to do. If all your friends think math is hard, you will probably think that math is not an easy course even if you are very good at math yourself.

So, there are a lot of reason why many people spend a wide range of time on HL math but to only get the same mark. Difficulty is (as you know) very subjective. For example personally I think the hardest subject is the language B (non-Classical languages) course. If I have to explain a specific reason why more people think HL Math is the hardest? The course is 95%+ applications when most other courses would have some knowledge-base question in there. Each question worth more marks (more room for errors). The border line between right and wrong is also very rigid so if you don't know the answer, it's harder to get marks, than say if you make something up.