SL Biology or Music? (URGENT!)

[chenji]

Hi!

So I'm starting IB next year, and I just need some help/advice on choosing my subjects. (Technically, I've already confirmed them, but I still have under a week to make adjustments.)

My current choices are: HL Chem, Econ, Maths // SL English A Lit, Chinese A, and Music (though I am probably going to drop to HL Chinese B and take 4 HLs)

However, I am now doubting whether I should swap SL Music with Biology. I am not sure what I'll be taking in university, however, I do know that I do not want to major in music. I'm leaning towards maybe the more "sciency" side, say, maybe Pharmacy or Chemical Engineering or Food Sciences. I only chose music as I have a good background in it, and know I can pretty much guarantee myself a 6 (I'm completely fine with performing and theory, but my analysis skills are pretty bad). 

But I've looked at the listening paper for Music, and it looks so so incredibly hard compared to the 3 papers for biology. I am not super interested in biology (chemistry is more my thing), but I know that it will be beneficial for me if I am deciding to go into the aforementioned fields for university. I think at the moment (I'm doing IGCSE), I am doing okay for Biology (usually getting A's and A*'s) but I'm already finding it rather difficult to remember all my notes and information for my exam, and I know in IB, the amount of things to memorise and remember is definitely going to increase by a lot, which is one thing that is keeping me from swapping. If I want to swap, I also need to make sure that I can get at least a 6 in Biology, so I just want to ask if getting a 6 or 7 is easy to achieve for SL?

I'm also keeping in mind that I am taking HL Maths and Chem, because I'd like to spend more time on those subjects to make sure I can achieve the highest score as I possibly can. Taking music would mean that I could give myself much more time to focus on those two HLs, but if I take biology, I'd have to take out some of the time used to revise Chem and Maths to revise Biology, which makes me worried. My parents also keep stressing that I can take SL music for now, and catch up on my Biology in university. 

What do you guys think? If anyone can give any advice on what you think I should do or anything like that, I would really appreciate it! 

Thanks!   

Edited May 12, 2016 by chenji

[Guest iblearner]

1 hour ago, chenji said:

Hi!

So I'm starting IB next year, and I just need some help/advice on choosing my subjects. (Technically, I've already confirmed them, but I still have under a week to make adjustments.)

My current choices are: HL Chem, Econ, Maths // SL English A Lit, Chinese A, and Music (though I am probably going to drop to HL Chinese B and take 4 HLs)

However, I am now doubting whether I should swap SL Music with Biology. I am not sure what I'll be taking in university, however, I do know that I do not want to major in music. I'm leaning towards maybe the more "sciency" side, say, maybe Pharmacy or Chemical Engineering or Food Sciences. I only chose music as I have a good background in it, and know I can pretty much guarantee myself a 6 (I'm completely fine with performing and theory, but my analysis skills are pretty bad). 

But I've looked at the listening paper for Music, and it looks so so incredibly hard compared to the 3 papers for biology. I am not super interested in biology (chemistry is more my thing), but I know that it will be beneficial for me if I am deciding to go into the aforementioned fields for university. I think at the moment (I'm doing IGCSE), I am doing okay for Biology (usually getting A's and A*'s) but I'm already finding it rather difficult to remember all my notes and information for my exam, and I know in IB, the amount of things to memorise and remember is definitely going to increase by a lot, which is one thing that is keeping me from swapping. If I want to swap, I also need to make sure that I can get at least a 6 in Biology, so I just want to ask if getting a 6 or 7 is easy to achieve for SL?

I'm also keeping in mind that I am taking HL Maths and Chem, because I'd like to spend more time on those subjects to make sure I can achieve the highest score as I possibly can. Taking music would mean that I could give myself much more time to focus on those two HLs, but if I take biology, I'd have to take out some of the time used to revise Chem and Maths to revise Biology, which makes me worried. My parents also keep stressing that I can take SL music for now, and catch up on my Biology in university. 

What do you guys think? If anyone can give any advice on what you think I should do or anything like that, I would really appreciate it! 

Thanks!   

Choose subjects that interest you, but make sure you don't overlook subject requirements for the course you want to pursue for your further studies. You won't have to worry about the difficulty level of examinations if you have a strong interest towards the subjects you pick ^^

[chenji]

1 hour ago, iblearner said:

Choose subjects that interest you, but make sure you don't overlook subject requirements for the course you want to pursue for your further studies. You won't have to worry about the difficulty level of examinations if you have a strong interest towards the subjects you pick ^^

But what if neither of the two subjects interest me very much?  For me it's just that gradewise, I can guarantee my score for music, while with Biology, it's more of a gamble.

I mean, I am more confident for the performing part of the SL Music course (worth 50% of the grade, I believe), but for the other 50% I have practically no faith in. For biology, I took a look at some past papers (forgot which year), but to me, they seemed a lot easier to do compared to the music past papers. 

I have looked at undergrad requirements for many universities, and from what I've seen, most only require HL Chem (which I have), and another science (including HL Maths, which I also have, and sometimes even Economics -- which I also chose). But I just feel like taking biology as well would make me a better candidate since what I'd like to study in uni involves quite a few (if not lots) of elements from biology (in my opinion).

The only things that I'm worried about are:

• not having enough time to focus on Chem and Maths
• not being able to do as well as I anticipated (memorisation, etc.)

May I ask what you took for IB? 

Edited May 12, 2016 by chenji

[Lewis981]

If neither of them interest you, why not scrap the both of them and choose something that does? The great part about IB is all the things that it offers, and it is much more than making a good score. Choose a subject you could see yourself really enjoying. For me, that was Philosophy, it is a great way to get yourself thinking about the world. This may not be your choice, but there is a choice for you. IB is about becoming better than the average student, it takes learning into a whole different realm of knowledge that cannot be offered by any other school. Don't pass this up. You have been given an amazing opportunity to become something better than the general run of humanity.

What exactly are you planning on doing in uni?

[chenji]

57 minutes ago, Lewis981 said:

If neither of them interest you, why not scrap the both of them and choose something that does? The great part about IB is all the things that it offers, and it is much more than making a good score. Choose a subject you could see yourself really enjoying. For me, that was Philosophy, it is a great way to get yourself thinking about the world. This may not be your choice, but there is a choice for you. IB is about becoming better than the average student, it takes learning into a whole different realm of knowledge that cannot be offered by any other school. Don't pass this up. You have been given an amazing opportunity to become something better than the general run of humanity.

What exactly are you planning on doing in uni?

I mentioned in my original post that I am considering something along pharmacy/chem engineering/food science  

I don't really have much interest in other subjects that would benefit me greatly. At this point, I just think either Biology or Music are my best bets. I am already taking several subjects that I enjoy, and my greatest interest at the moment is not a subject that is offered at my school (so I'm pursuing it in my own time already ). 

[Guest iblearner]

1 hour ago, chenji said:

But what if neither of the two subjects interest me very much?  For me it's just that gradewise, I can guarantee my score for music, while with Biology, it's more of a gamble.

I mean, I am more confident for the performing part of the SL Music course (worth 50% of the grade, I believe), but for the other 50% I have practically no faith in. For biology, I took a look at some past papers (forgot which year), but to me, they seemed a lot easier to do compared to the music past papers. 

I have looked at undergrad requirements for many universities, and from what I've seen, most only require HL Chem (which I have), and another science (including HL Maths, which I also have, and sometimes even Economics -- which I also chose). But I just feel like taking biology as well would make me a better candidate since what I'd like to study in uni involves quite a few (if not lots) of elements from biology (in my opinion).

The only things that I'm worried about are:

• not having enough time to focus on Chem and Maths
• not being able to do as well as I anticipated (memorisation, etc.)

May I ask what you took for IB? 

Ah, I see your problem. My friends who took up all three sciences seem fine, so I'm guessing you'll do fine. ^^ I don't have much knowledge about Music since I didn't take it up as a subject, and only two students took it up in my batch. 

I took Math HL, Physics HL, Business HL, Mandarin SL, English Language and Literature SL and Biology SL. 

Edited May 12, 2016 by iblearner

[chenji]

8 minutes ago, iblearner said:

Ah, I see your problem. My friends who took up all three sciences seem fine, so I'm guessing you'll do fine. ^^ I don't have much knowledge about Music since I didn't take it up as a subject, and only two students took it up in my batch. 

I took Math HL, Physics HL, Business HL, Mandarin SL, English Language and Literature SL and Biology SL. 

Ooh, how is Maths HL? (If you don't mind me asking haha..) Do you have any tips for doing well in HL Maths? 

Also I heard that the Physics paper was rather brutal this year...  

[Guest iblearner]

1 minute ago, chenji said:

Ooh, how is Maths HL? (If you don't mind me asking haha..) Do you have any tips for doing well in HL Maths? 

Also I heard that the Physics paper was rather brutal this year...  

I just finished paper 1 and 2 haha, paper 1 was not that good, paper 2 was so much better and so far, I'm hoping for a realistic 5 or 6. I'm not the smartest student at Math, but my only tip would be to practice all the past papers and revise concepts regularly!

And yes, Physics HL wasn't received by many of us well, but for me, only Paper 2 was a blunder. The rest of the papers were okay  

[chenji]

Just now, iblearner said:

I just finished paper 1 and 2 haha, paper 1 was not that good, paper 2 was so much better and so far, I'm hoping for a realistic 5 or 6. I'm not the smartest student at Math, but my only tip would be to practice all the past papers and revise concepts regularly!

And yes, Physics HL wasn't received by many of us well, but for me, only Paper 2 was a blunder. The rest of the papers were okay  

Ooh, sounds great! Good luck for the rest of your exams  (and thanks for the tip!)  

[Guest iblearner]

1 hour ago, chenji said:

Ooh, sounds great! Good luck for the rest of your exams  (and thanks for the tip!)  

Thanks, you too! If you have any problems regarding subject choices, etc., feel free to PM here  

[chenji]

26 minutes ago, iblearner said:

Thanks, you too! If you have any problems regarding subject choices, etc., feel free to PM here  

Awesome! Thanks for the offer!