Choosing Classes

[beaniemorton]

So I'm starting IB1 next year after two pretty rigorous years of my school's Pre-IB program. And even though schedule choices were supposed to be finalized quite a while ago, I'm hoping I could maybe talk to my IB coordinate and change some things. As of right now, I'm taking:

HL English A1

HL History

HL Biology

HL Spanish (A2 or B, I haven't decided)

SL Math

SL Philosophy

HL English and History are required at my school. HL Biology used to be a one-year double period course mixed with AP Biology students but the IB didn't like that so it's officially a two-year course starting next year and they won't offer SL. I like the Biology teacher though and I think the course itself is interesting. I was originally planning on doing SL Spanish and HL Math, but I really love Spanish and want to be fluent (I'm Hispanic but not a native speaker).

What I'm really fretting about is choosing Philosophy, for several reasons. It's the first time my school will be offering Philosophy, so I have no idea if the class will be any good or if they'll be a lot of overlap with TOK. I also know that US colleges don't really care about SL exams, and Philosophy is just about the only sixth subject I could take where there's not an equivalent AP exam I could take. So I'm getting pretty nervous about choosing it. I'm considering instead either Psychology or Chemistry, but leaning towards Chemistry because I was planning on self-studying AP Psychology anyway. I'm interested in Psychology, but I figure it could be manageable without a class whereas it'd be more valuable to take Chemistry.

By the way, senior year I'll most likely take my school's HL Math course just without taking the exam, since I don't want to just stop taking math. I'll also be taking AP Physics since I want to take some form of Physics but even SL Physics at my school has to be two years. Would Bio/Chem/Physics be too much work or just unenjoyable if I enjoy but don't love science?

I really don't know what I want to do in college or beyond that, but I'm not ruling a career in medicine out and don't want to sabotage myself by not taking the right classes now. I'm really undecided on this and not even sure I can switch this late, but I would appreciate some opinions on SL Philosophy/Psychology/Chemistry. Thanks.

[herbert]

So I'm starting IB1 next year after two pretty rigorous years of my school's Pre-IB program. And even though schedule choices were supposed to be finalized quite a while ago, I'm hoping I could maybe talk to my IB coordinate and change some things. As of right now, I'm taking:

HL English A1

HL History

HL Biology

HL Spanish (A2 or B, I haven't decided)

SL Math

SL Philosophy

HL English and History are required at my school. HL Biology used to be a one-year double period course mixed with AP Biology students but the IB didn't like that so it's officially a two-year course starting next year and they won't offer SL. I like the Biology teacher though and I think the course itself is interesting. I was originally planning on doing SL Spanish and HL Math, but I really love Spanish and want to be fluent (I'm Hispanic but not a native speaker).

What I'm really fretting about is choosing Philosophy, for several reasons. It's the first time my school will be offering Philosophy, so I have no idea if the class will be any good or if they'll be a lot of overlap with TOK. I also know that US colleges don't really care about SL exams, and Philosophy is just about the only sixth subject I could take where there's not an equivalent AP exam I could take. So I'm getting pretty nervous about choosing it. I'm considering instead either Psychology or Chemistry, but leaning towards Chemistry because I was planning on self-studying AP Psychology anyway. I'm interested in Psychology, but I figure it could be manageable without a class whereas it'd be more valuable to take Chemistry.

By the way, senior year I'll most likely take my school's HL Math course just without taking the exam, since I don't want to just stop taking math. I'll also be taking AP Physics since I want to take some form of Physics but even SL Physics at my school has to be two years. Would Bio/Chem/Physics be too much work or just unenjoyable if I enjoy but don't love science?

I really don't know what I want to do in college or beyond that, but I'm not ruling a career in medicine out and don't want to sabotage myself by not taking the right classes now. I'm really undecided on this and not even sure I can switch this late, but I would appreciate some opinions on SL Philosophy/Psychology/Chemistry. Thanks.

Hi thar!

Looks like we'll be taking the same higher level subjects.

I think if I were you, I would take chemistry, especially if you want to, as you said, not rule out a career in medicine.

Psychology is alright, but it doesn't really help anything in particular, so I would say only take it if you

a. have heavy interest in it

b. are positive you'll get a good grade in it.

I also don't think you should take philosophy.

With TOK as a compulsory, you might get a little tired of the subjectivity and the "we can be sure of nothing except self existence" stuff. I can't really think of anything else to recommend in the place of it, so just take some time to think about it.

So, yeah, I'm an advocate of taking Chemistry.

[laryxle]

If you are doing all of that plus all those other subjects, then you're going to be insanely busy for the next 2 years of highschool. If you want to keep your options for medicine open, then you should do SL Chem instead of philosophy. I'm sure that Philosophy is an interesting course, but in terms of application in university I don't think that it's as useful as Chem or Psychology.

SL Chemistry isn't too hard, it's pretty much a matter of understand concepts and being able to apply them. I struggled with it at first, but i'm starting to get my head around it. Psychology is a really engaging and interesting course, and it revolves around understand key concepts and being able to remember a lot of studies to back up your opinions.

From what you've described, you'll be doing 4 HL courses, 2 SL courses, plus AP psychology and AP physics. Admittedly, I don't know anything about the work level of AP courses, or even what they are, but i'd imagine it requires some work. On top of that, you've got CAS, EE and TOK (I'm presuming you are a diploma student). To me that seems really hard Maybe you could take Spanish B SL to lighten the workload a bit?

I would recommend you to do Chemistry instead of Philosophy though definitely, because it will help you more in uni.

Edited June 14, 2009 by laryxle

[Xelar]

I don't really understand. Are you going to do the full diploma or just certificate classes? IB courses are two years long, AP are one (unless you take pre-AP). If you're taking the full diploma I don't think you'll have time to do a self-study AP course. Does your school not offer IB psychology?

[Mattias]

See, if you want to keep the possibility of keeping medicine/science related job, you are probably going to have to take Chemistry. It is a prerequisite for many science programs, and the school will simply not let you in if you don't have it.

However, chemistry is a really cool subject, so you certainly won't regret taking it.

It's also my understanding that philosophy is a lot like ToK, so would you really want to do it?

Finally, Psychology- this is really interesting if you ask me. Even if you aren't going to pursue a career in it, it's still good to know. However, only take it if you have a subject which you can afford to not take.

If it comes down to Psychology or chemistry, unless you plan on doing something related to psychology, take chem.

[Tilia]

I must say that philosophy is not necessarily similar to ToK. Of course it's more similar than chemistry, but there are a lot of people in my philosophy class who dislike ToK, but love philosophy. It migth not be recognised very well by unis, but it's interesting and you learn a lot of stuff about how to argue, which I think ToK lacks.

Chemistry is not that hard, either, but I recommend you to have one social science. I think psychology can be interesting, and it IS pretty close to philosophy, even though personally, I think that psychology is a bit less scientific, since they claim to know why we act as we do, but they don't always have that many evidence. But that's just my view, and I'm not taking it, and there's probably more in psychology than Freud.

[Bishup]

Quite simply take Chemistry and ignore psychology. In case you conjure up a passion during your time at IB you still will be able to pursue studies such as psychology along with your main study. Concerning your APs, I strongly dissaprove of taking APs during IB, unless you're a super-being who can cope without much of a social life. But listen, if you think you can do it, know what it takes, have a good and positive input and know what it entails then I have no reason don't say don't do what you do. I can tell you like Spanish as well and that you feel a connection, I recommend you do A2 it's not considerably much more work than B if you're nearly fluent which I think you are despite you saying it's not your mothertongue. Also one thing you can also change your mind during the summer, so if anything pops to mind about changing the course, do it a the beginning of the year. ENJOY YOUR SUMMER

[Vvi]

What everyone else has said petty much sums up the arguments; just wanted to add that taking IB Pyschology is hardly ever a prerequisite for studying psychology in college, and so if you decide to pursue psychology in college rather than medicine, you can start learning material from the beginning in college without having any prior knowledge. So it makes more sense to take Chemistry, because you're expected to have studied it before if you go on to take it in colleg/study medicine.

[beaniemorton]

Thank you everyone for the quick and thorough replies. I think I probably will take Chemistry, provided it's not too late to switch. I am doing the full diploma program but I don't think Psychology on the side would too much trouble. I have a few friends who self-studied last year, and with the Anatomy class I took last year and Biology next year, I think I have a strong base for that aspect of Psychology. Thanks again for the opinions.

[Sandwich]

I think you should do Philosophy. I found it reasonably easy (although I screwed up the exam.. that was my own fault!). Our teacher hardly taught us - we read loads of random books and got sent out the room a lot to 'study alone'. All the information is online, at the end of the day. You just need to have an interest and some essay writing ability (which I presume you feel you have if you're considering HL English).

Perhaps you should start out doing it and then change if you don't like it? or switch to it later perhaps?

I know somebody who did no Philosophy for all IB1, then switched to HL Philosophy and got a 7. It's just that sort of subject. Workload is not an issue!