Is there a lot of Math in Chemistry HL?

[beth-]

Hi!

 

I'm great at chemistry and biology and plan on studying medicine at university. I love both bio and chem and have received straight A+'s in them and if I don't study (which I usually don't, cause I love the subjects) I end up with a B+. It comes naturally to me.

 

However, I'm not very good at Math. I received a B in freshman math and I'm currently a sophomore (so in year 10) and I find math to be a bit challenging. Not too much, but I have to study if I want to get a B, which I don't usually do in other subjects, and if I study normally without putting in too much effort I end up getting a B, and I've never gotten an A.

 

I plan on taking Math Studies because a) I don't need it for university (Math SL/HL is not a requirement, even for top unis) and b) I can tell, even with just a B in freshman math, that math studies will be ridiculously easy. Like, I'll probably be able to get a 7 in it without studying too much, so Math Studies will probably just be an easy 6-7 for me, which will improve my general IB grade. If I studied my heart out, I could probably end up getting a pretty good mark, but I'd rather focus on Chem and Bio HL because I won't really be needing Math SL for uni.

 

I'm wondering however if biology and chemistry involves a lot of math and if studying math SL would be beneficial for me when it comes to getting top grades in those subjects. Is Math Studies sufficient for Chemistry HL or do I have to go into Math SL?

 

[kw0573]

Hi I don't know about the new syllabus, but here are some math I used for May 2015 session of HL Chem
- addition, subtraction, mutiplication, division
- solving x^2 = y, for two values of x, because they simplify the quadratic. otherwise you might also need to plug in quadratic formula.
- suppsedly we were supposed to use ln and natural log for part of reaction rates
- understand how units change with +, - *, /
I'd say on final exams, 30% of the marks where allocated to math or somewhat math related. Most of which is just stoichiometry  

"I have to study if I want to get a B" is not how IB works. You are taking courses that are nearly equivalent to some college/university courses both in terms of speed of learning new content and the content itself. People have to study just to pass the course. I am not quite sure that you're developing a good enough study habit.

[Msj Chem]

I'd say the most difficult math is found in topic 18, which is acid and bases (HL).

Here is my video of what to expect:

https://youtu.be/KFCSh4Y4n0o

If you are o.k with this, I'd say that you'll be o.k with most of the other math in HL chem. 

Another video of topic 17 (equilibrium HL) which also contains a fair bit of math. 

https://youtu.be/ORnhV56L6yQ

Edited September 9, 2015 by Msj Chem

[UncleChopChop]

The worst maths probably comes in the form of the Arrhenius Equation, which requires a good understanding of logarithms to manipulate. I think it should be fairly manageable.

[Emilia1320]

Its very very simple math, there is no reason to not take chem because of it. Just linear equations, maybe odd logarithm somewhere.

[beth-]

Hi I don't know about the new syllabus, but here are some math I used for May 2015 session of HL Chem

- addition, subtraction, mutiplication, division

- solving x^2 = y, for two values of x, because they simplify the quadratic. otherwise you might also need to plug in quadratic formula.

- suppsedly we were supposed to use ln and natural log for part of reaction rates

- understand how units change with +, - *, /

I'd say on final exams, 30% of the marks where allocated to math or somewhat math related. Most of which is just stoichiometry  

"I have to study if I want to get a B" is not how IB works. You are taking courses that are nearly equivalent to some college/university courses both in terms of speed of learning new content and the content itself. People have to study just to pass the course. I am not quite sure that you're developing a good enough study habit.

Thank you, this was really helpful! I'm not in the IB right now, I'm in the Pre-IB, so I'm kind of just talking from what I've personally experienced in math, and it's quite true that I do not have very good study habits, this is something that I'm working on because I know that I'll need it for the real IB later on. 

I don't have a real aptitude for math because it doesn't come naturally to me. Anyone can study, but to handle things like math HL, you have to be naturally good at math, and so I wondered if Chemistry involved a lot of Math (think to the level of Physics HL where you'd deffo need Math SL and preferably Math HL), cause I don't need math anyway for my university course. 

Anyway, thank you.

Edited September 9, 2015 by beth-

[bguloglu]

I personally found that the most challenging parts containing maths were graphical techniques. Throughout the course, and especially throughout chemical kinetics you'll be required to manipulate data to get different fits, which means you need to understand the math you're doing. With all other topics, maths is just a tool. In many cases, you can get a good grip just by doing practice problems. In terms of the sophistication of the maths, it's really quite basic, so nothing fancy like using calculus, just basic operations and a little bit of logs.

[Aninda Saha]

Hardest mathematics in Chem deals with logarithms. So I'd say it's pretty basic.

[UncleChopChop]

 

Hi I don't know about the new syllabus, but here are some math I used for May 2015 session of HL Chem

- addition, subtraction, mutiplication, division

- solving x^2 = y, for two values of x, because they simplify the quadratic. otherwise you might also need to plug in quadratic formula.

- suppsedly we were supposed to use ln and natural log for part of reaction rates

- understand how units change with +, - *, /

I'd say on final exams, 30% of the marks where allocated to math or somewhat math related. Most of which is just stoichiometry  

"I have to study if I want to get a B" is not how IB works. You are taking courses that are nearly equivalent to some college/university courses both in terms of speed of learning new content and the content itself. People have to study just to pass the course. I am not quite sure that you're developing a good enough study habit.

Thank you, this was really helpful! I'm not in the IB right now, I'm in the Pre-IB, so I'm kind of just talking from what I've personally experienced in math, and it's quite true that I do not have very good study habits, this is something that I'm working on because I know that I'll need it for the real IB later on. 

I don't have a real aptitude for math because it doesn't come naturally to me. Anyone can study, but to handle things like math HL, you have to be naturally good at math, and so I wondered if Chemistry involved a lot of Math (think to the level of Physics HL where you'd deffo need Math SL and preferably Math HL), cause I don't need math anyway for my university course. 

Anyway, thank you.

 

 

I do know someone taking Physics HL and Maths Studies - it's obviously a bad idea but it's still possible.

[beth-]

 

 

Hi I don't know about the new syllabus, but here are some math I used for May 2015 session of HL Chem

- addition, subtraction, mutiplication, division

- solving x^2 = y, for two values of x, because they simplify the quadratic. otherwise you might also need to plug in quadratic formula.

- suppsedly we were supposed to use ln and natural log for part of reaction rates

- understand how units change with +, - *, /

I'd say on final exams, 30% of the marks where allocated to math or somewhat math related. Most of which is just stoichiometry  

"I have to study if I want to get a B" is not how IB works. You are taking courses that are nearly equivalent to some college/university courses both in terms of speed of learning new content and the content itself. People have to study just to pass the course. I am not quite sure that you're developing a good enough study habit.

Thank you, this was really helpful! I'm not in the IB right now, I'm in the Pre-IB, so I'm kind of just talking from what I've personally experienced in math, and it's quite true that I do not have very good study habits, this is something that I'm working on because I know that I'll need it for the real IB later on. 

I don't have a real aptitude for math because it doesn't come naturally to me. Anyone can study, but to handle things like math HL, you have to be naturally good at math, and so I wondered if Chemistry involved a lot of Math (think to the level of Physics HL where you'd deffo need Math SL and preferably Math HL), cause I don't need math anyway for my university course. 

Anyway, thank you.

 

 

I do know someone taking Physics HL and Maths Studies - it's obviously a bad idea but it's still possible.

 

Really? My IB coordinator doesn't let anyone who takes Physics HL take maths studies - you have to take at least Math SL and you also have to take a mathematics test to be able to take Physics to higher level, considering physics does involve quite a lot of math. Hm, maybe it's just my school then. Anyway, considering physics has way more math in it than Chemistry, this probably means that I'd be able to do the Chem+Maths Studies combo. Thanks!