P1 English A1 HL or Biology HL?

[hsy.hsy]

hello..i will be a future student of ib this coming august.and i just wanna ask .. is english a hl harder than bio hl..? I need to choose between this two subjects because i lack one HL. I'm soo scareeeed... of the decision I made.. because my friends who graduated from our school said "NEVER TAKE ENGLISH A. It will pull down your grades.." I'm so scared ! I need opinions from others!!! thnxxx

[Ala Ho]

I think it depends on what you like better. I'm taking biology HL and it's not too bad:) I think it's a more predictable subject than English A, you have everything in the syllabus, so you know exactly what you have to learn, which makes it less risky I guess

[ellie]

I have both HLs, and for me, the difference is that if I lose points on a test in Biology, I can check the syllabus and see what parts are unclear and revise them... but when I lose points in English, I have no clue how to improve. English HL is super competitive, you're going against so many others (and native speakers have an advantage), plus it's marked harshly and subjectively. You have to have an excellent grasp of English and great structure in everything you write and/or present in addition to being on topic and making good points. 

 

Even so, I had to drop one HL and I've chosen Biology; simply because even if I'll be stuck with 6s in English, HL Bio content is way too specific for a social sciences/languages person like me and studying it is too time-consuming. I also find English much more fun and creative. The course is challenging and actually teaches you a lot that is useful elsewhere (for example, it goes well with IB History). Learning to analyse texts is extremely useful in life & almost any university course as well.

 

Do you have a choice between Lit and Lang&Lit? If you do, the latter is said to be easier. Choose by your own interests and uni requirements––people in my class who take both of these HLs are on completely opposite sides as to which HL is harder and which is easier. Good luck!

[Pink97]

I second what the first poster said, biology is far more objective and predictable. You really just need to learn all the syllabus points and know how to apply your knowledge - if you're more science/maths oriented, this will be a far more easier course. However if you aren't good at memorizing large amounts of information, avoid taking biology HL. 

 

It should be mentioned that there is little difference between SL/HL English (slight difference in marking etc) where as there is a massive difference between SL/HL biology (literally learn double the amount of content in HL). So if you're decent at both subjects, your workload will be less if you take biology SL and English HL. 

 

I recommend you also consider the teacher that is going to teach each course - a good teacher will make your life so much easier (trust me!). Ask people who are in the grade above you about the reputation of the teacher and what their track record is (i.e. do most student do well/poorly etc). If you have no personal preference, go with the course that has the better teacher. 

[kw0573]

Well an interesting thing about English A (Literature?) is that each assessment, whether IA, Written Assignment or the Papers, only assess a single unit of study, so it's not like you need to know all 12 or so works studied when you do your exams. Many schools prepare the students to excel either in the orals (including an on-the-spot poem commentary, oy!) or in the final papers (and/or the written assignment). Like the average for the orals in my school is a 4 or 5 but the average for the paper 1 + 2 is a high 6. This course as one of the lowest number of people getting 7s but that's partly due to more people are forced into taking the subject.  

HL Bio is more about memorization, according to my friends and others on IBS.