HL Bio or HL Chem?

[aulona]

Hi! 

Now i am doing PreDP and I really don't know which subjects should i choose for the next year, i am thinking taking: 

HL- Business and Managment, Swedish B 

SL- Math, Eng A and Psychology 

but the problem is I have to choice or HL Bio or HL Chem, i am much better in Chem than in Bio but I don't need Chem for anything while i need Bio if i wanna do psychology in university but i dont know what to do because i dont even like that much Bio, which one should i choose? 

[dxsxnchxntxd]

I take both HL chem and HL bio,  and i would say that although HL chem is probably harder in terms of needing to understand and apply concepts more, bio has a crazy amount of content, so it is a LOT of work. Normally I'd say if you don't like bio don't do it, and I would always advocate doing subjects you like - so if you enjoy chem, although the course will still be challenging, it'll be far more bearable. HOwever, I took HL bio just because I needed it for doing chem at university, and i didn't think i liked it when I chose to take it - yet now it's one of my favourite subjects. And i guess if you need it for university, you might as well do it. One question though, if you want to do psych at uni, how come you're not doing it at HL? surely that would be more useful than hl bio?

[kanda_sorata]

HL chem is, imho, very rewarding and you come out with a lot of knowledge after you finish the IB. It's my favourite class.  

I take HL bio as well, and while I find both subjects very interesting, I still like chemistry more, because I already know most of the things we learn in bio.

As for uni admissions, I don't think it would put you to disadvantage at all, HL chem is a very challenging subject... At my school, people who want to study econ or business take HL bio for their group 4 just because it's the easiest science HL (and SL).

{in terms of academic rigour, I'd say Physics HL > Chemistry HL > Physics SL > Biology HL > Chemistry SL > Biology SL}

 

And why are you doing Psych SL? Why B&M HL? If I were you, and if I were to study Psychology later on, I'd take bio, chem AND psych HL (which is what I'm taking haha so feel free to DM me).

You probs don't need Language A HL so you could drop that if you don't want 4 HLs.

 

 

[aulona]

On 12/11/2017 at 6:13 PM, dxsxnchxntxd said:

I take both HL chem and HL bio,  and i would say that although HL chem is probably harder in terms of needing to understand and apply concepts more, bio has a crazy amount of content, so it is a LOT of work. Normally I'd say if you don't like bio don't do it, and I would always advocate doing subjects you like - so if you enjoy chem, although the course will still be challenging, it'll be far more bearable. HOwever, I took HL bio just because I needed it for doing chem at university, and i didn't think i liked it when I chose to take it - yet now it's one of my favourite subjects. And i guess if you need it for university, you might as well do it. One question though, if you want to do psych at uni, how come you're not doing it at HL? surely that would be more useful than hl bio?

thank you, but its not that i will do psych at uni because i wanna do B&M but i wanna have psych as a second choice if i change my mind or something and if i take Chem, it wont help me at all and most of the universities that i looked all wanted one science HL so i need  to take one of them, but the problem is i am not good in Bio and i am really scared but i might take psych HL too and then i will take Swedish HL if this is hopeful?  

[aulona]

23 hours ago, kanda_sorata said:

HL chem is, imho, very rewarding and you come out with a lot of knowledge after you finish the IB. It's my favourite class.  

I take HL bio as well, and while I find both subjects very interesting, I still like chemistry more, because I already know most of the things we learn in bio.

As for uni admissions, I don't think it would put you to disadvantage at all, HL chem is a very challenging subject... At my school, people who want to study econ or business take HL bio for their group 4 just because it's the easiest science HL (and SL).

{in terms of academic rigour, I'd say Physics HL > Chemistry HL > Physics SL > Biology HL > Chemistry SL > Biology SL}

 

And why are you doing Psych SL? Why B&M HL? If I were you, and if I were to study Psychology later on, I'd take bio, chem AND psych HL (which is what I'm taking haha so feel free to DM me).

You probs don't need Language A HL so you could drop that if you don't want 4 HLs.

 

 

thank u, but B&M i will continue doing in university not psych cuz it is as my second choice but i would like to know how is psych HL is it hard and whats it about cuz i dont have enough information and my IB school is not that good so can you do it by your own and what if it online? 

[kanda_sorata]

2 hours ago, aulona said:

thank you, but its not that i will do psych at uni because i wanna do B&M but i wanna have psych as a second choice if i change my mind or something and if i take Chem, it wont help me at all and most of the universities that i looked all wanted one science HL so i need  to take one of them, but the problem is i am not good in Bio and i am really scared but i might take psych HL too and then i will take Swedish HL if this is hopeful?  

Bio HL isn't as bad as people on this forum like to put it. If you did PreDP you should be okay. Remember to study after you come home after EACH Bio class and go through the stuff once more by yourself. You will love yourself for doing that. 

My teacher is very strict, but she explains everything thoroughly before we move on. Since we have 6 hours of Bio HL per week, we've managed to finish our entire syllabus, and now we're doing the IAs... After that, revision time! (I'm pretty sure not many schools do it this way lol). 

Psychology HL isn't THAT different from SL, except you study one more topic from Options and sit an additional paper (Paper 3). 

In my opinion, Psychology has to be self-studied, and teacher can only help you understand the basic concepts. You're required to give (3+1+2+3) 9 essay responses for your final Psych exams, and you can't just spit out a bunch of facts, you have to show "critical thinking", which is really not that bad, you only need to take a step back and think (easier said than done, but it's manageable). 

The concepts are pretty easy though - it's only the sheer amount of the content which has to be memorized! But if you work every week you should be okay, just never study 1 or 2 days before a test in DP - you could afford it in PreDP, but DP will smash you simply because of the amount of stuff that needs to be learned. 

To sum up, I suggest you take HL B&M, HL Bio, and HL Psych (because let's be honest, Psych SL is too much work for an SL subject). 

HL Business and Managment, Swedish B, Biology, Psychology

SL Math, Eng A

It's manageable, don't worry.