What subjects should I take to become a prmary school teacher?

[nmac94]

What IB subjects should I take to become a primary school teacher? I am in year 10 now and am thinking of...

English A1 HL (Predicted A in lang. and lit. at GCSE)

French B SL (Predicted B) OR Spanish ab initio (not studied)

Geography HL (Predicted A) OR Psychology SL OR HL (not studied, predicted B in R.S.)

Environmental Systems and Societies SL OR Biology HL OR SL (Predicted A/A* (2 GCSE's))

Mathematics HL (Predicted A* + A* Statistics)

Theatre Studies HL (Predicted B in Drama) OR 2nd Group 3/4 option

With the French option, although I am predicted B, it is the GCSE subject I am least comfortable with and I could easily get a C. Would scraping a B be sufficient for SL, or am I better off starting from scratch with Spanish now I have an idea about learning languages?

With Psychology, it sounds like it could be useful to have when working with young children, and it sounds like I would enjoy it, but is it fine to study without previous knowledge, the closest I've got being a predicted B in religious studies. If so, is HL also fine, or should I stick to SL? Bear in mind, that if I did this at SL, it would probably have to replace theatre as my 3rd SL, meaning that I would take up Geography HL, or alternatively have Biology put up to HL and keeping theatre. If it's advisable, I would also be fine with ignoring psychology and just taking geography.

For my sciences, I am good at them, but don't have much interest in anything bar the ethics (most closely related to Biology) and would struggle to motivate myself at HL. Therefore, I was thinking of either Biology or Environmental Systems & Societies. Is the latter any good? Is it a good crossover of the three sciences? I guess HL Biology could also be an option, but how much harder is it than SL?

Finally, which is my best group six pick? Theatre (I think I could get an A in drama, my teacher has given everyone harsh predictions), or another G3 or G4 option? If so, which one?

Sorry for the loooong post!

[Sandwich]

Hey there,

Right, to give you a bit of feedback on what you've chosen...

HL English I think is a good choice, IB English is pretty much = GCSE English Literature when you really get down to it, so if you were on for an A or A* at GCSE, it's a good idea to do HL English. It also makes sense insofar as becoming a teacher is concerned, they're big on English skills.

As for French B SL, in my experience people who've got a B at GCSE are looking at a 4 (5 maximum) at IB, largely because people either got the hang of the language or they didn't and if you're getting a B at GCSE you probably didn't. IB grade boundaries are quite high relative to GCSE. I would suggest doing Spanish AB for that reason (that if you've not made A/A* standard you'll be starting off on the back foot). Spanish is also a much easier language than French

As for Geography/Psychology, I did neither of them to comment. Plenty of people seem to get 6/7 in them both, so they both sound like good choices. Nobody that I know of does Psychology at any level before picking it up for IB (and usually this is the same story for Economics and Philosophy) so no worries on that score.

I've not done ESS but in my opinion Biology SL is always going to be more interesting (I may be biased ) and it's certainly an easy choice if you're not really into sciences. HL Bio isn't much harder, but it's got a hell of a lot more memorising in it!

Maths HL is very, very hard. It's for people who thought Maths was an absolute piece of cake at GCSE, and then even those people struggle. The GCSE system isn't very good at preparing people for Maths, is the only conclusion I can draw from the demon of Maths HL and Maths SL HL Maths has a fearsome reputation as the hardest possible IB subject you could pick. An A* at GCSE and a reasonable aptitude for Maths got my friends no more than 4s at HL. People with A* at GCSE still struggled with SL. Some people can do it, but it seems to me they're the minority!

As for your group 6, Theatre Studies didn't seem too hard when my friends were doing it, you just have to make sure you get on with your fellow students, is all I would say! I'd personally do Geography/Psychology in this spot, but really it's your personal preference. What GCSE board are you doing Drama with? To my knowledge it's most similar to the AQA one (in that it's got a reasonably large written basis).

Hope that helps somewhat.

[nmac94]

That helps a huge amount, thanks! With French, I am a borderline C/B student and am not very confident with it. I did do Spanish earlier in secondary school, but we started it in year 8, at which time I was being bullied (another story...), I was in a nasty class for it and the teacher didn't care or try to help at all. Year 9 was better, but I was miles behind most others by that stage and GCSE was almost out of the question, so I concentrated in French, and should get a GCSE out of that. Is Spanish ab initio similar to GCSE level, taught from scratch over the two years? If so, I think I will go for that.

For Psychology, that's good news, but I don't know which is most useful out of that and Geography. Psychology is probably more related to a teaching course, but Geography is taught in Primary schools. And if I pick both, will having no G^ subject harm my variety... lots of food for thought. And I'm on AQA for GCSE Drama, and do a lot of written content.

Maths... another hard decision. I am very talented at maths (sorry for any arrogance!), as in always in the top 2/3 people in the top level maths group, so I think I should be able to handle HL. But then again, SL is a much lighter workload and is adequate for what I want to do. Finally, I think I will go for Biology as I am more than capable at science and it sounds interesting, but waht level should I do it at... So overall, I am looking at these choices.

English A1 HL

Spanish AI SL

Geography/Psychology HL

Biology SL/HL

Maths SL/HL

Theatre Studies/Geography/Psychology HL

So in terms of workload and my ability, I am probably best off putting Maths and Biology in at SL, forgetting theatre studies as it's less academic, I'm only on a B and it would have to be HL, and doing both Geography and Psychology at HL. That sound good to you?

[Sandwich]

So in terms of workload and my ability, I am probably best off putting Maths and Biology in at SL, forgetting theatre studies as it's less academic, I'm only on a B and it would have to be HL, and doing both Geography and Psychology at HL. That sound good to you?

In my opinion, yes that sounds like a good idea

I'd just like to point out though, that if you ARE very naturally good at Maths (and if you're right up at the top of your year, you could well be), there are people out there who get 6/7 for HL Maths. They're the people who had an excellent natural aptitude, a very good work ethic and were extremely well taught. I add in all those superlatives because, really, you do need all 3 in order to succeed if you're starting from GCSE level... at my school we had poor teaching so everybody was screwed from the start. However at a local school they had brilliant teaching, and those kids who fitted the other 2 criteria were able to achieve good grades The best thing to do, I think, if you're in two minds about HL versus SL and genuinely think you'd be capable of HL is to ask your Maths teachers what they think you should do (preferably the ones who'd be teaching you IB) and to ask the years above you what they think. They'll be able to tell you if the teaching is any good and how hard the course is. Just make sure to ask people from IB1 and IB2 as IB1 is usually very easy (on account of not being examined, bar mocks) and IB2 very horrible. So you should ask both to try and balance off two polarised views You might also think about looking at HL final exam papers.

Of course if I were in your position and didn't NEED to do HL Maths, I'd never do it, but I don't want to discourage you from exploring it as an option if you're genuinely very talented at Maths! One thing you can do is to ask your school whether it'd be okay to start out doing 4 HL subjects and then later to drop one down when you've worked out a bit better what's going on.

[nmac94]

I will consider that then. I will talk with my Maths teacher, but I am hoping to go elsewhere to do IB as it's not offered at my schools sixth form. Hoping for Islington & City college, although it is meant to be quite hard to get into. I really am torn, as I think I am capable of HL Maths, it's just I don't need it and it would require a lot of attention that I could be spending making sure I get a very good overall score. Although knowing my Maths teacher, he'll probably recommend HL and further maths on top.

[Sandwich]

I will consider that then. I will talk with my Maths teacher, but I am hoping to go elsewhere to do IB as it's not offered at my schools sixth form. Hoping for Islington & City college, although it is meant to be quite hard to get into. I really am torn, as I think I am capable of HL Maths, it's just I don't need it and it would require a lot of attention that I could be spending making sure I get a very good overall score. Although knowing my Maths teacher, he'll probably recommend HL and further maths on top.

Then I don't think your Maths teacher has ever done IB

Seriously, there's no comparison between A Level and IB. Think of SL as more or less nearly A Level Maths (somewhere between AS and A2), only with tonnes less teaching time, lots less practice and no opportunity for resits, HL as A Level plus Further Maths plus a bit of your first year of Uni doing Maths, and think of IB Further Maths as what little baby Einstein would do, were he to take the IB. Hardly anybody does Further Maths -- anybody who does should be at the very least in the profile of straight A*s at GCSE, masochistic, looking to do Maths as a career and just generally a waaayyy too high achiever. People do take it, but in the nicest sense possible, they're not like normal people xPP

[nmac94]

Fair enough, I will defiantly not be taking that anyway. The only thing that baffles me is that despite the fact it is so highly regarded by UCAS, so few state schools/colleges offer it in London. According to the IB site, there are four - one is a no-go for me as it's at the other end of London, two are sixth forms of schools with rather worrying ofsted reports and the last one actually seems good - Islington & City College. However, if the courses they offer stay the same, I would have to make some changes. Maths would have to be SL, there is no HL offered, so that's one problem solved, No Spanish so I would have to do French B or the much less useful Italian/German AI, and neither of the social sciences I listed, so I would end up with something like:

English A1 HL

French B SL

Social and Cultural Anthropology HL

Environmental Systems SL

Maths SL

Philosophy HL

I'd want to take Environmental Systems as it is apparently a good mix of the three sciences and geography, but it is SL only, so by the time I factor in my forced SL maths and SL language (I am NOT doing French HL!!!), I must pick my group six subject as HL. Am thinking of Philosophy as my G6 if it stays like this as I'm not sure if Theatre Studies is too soft to be a good HL, but is Philosophy/Social and Cultural Anthropology any better?

P.S. Thanks a lot for all the help!!!

[Sandwich]

I think it's because it's expensive to run the IB and the IB is still a bit iffy. They have to train all the teachers, run more courses than normal (so their efficiency goes down) and plus they'd have to assume high uptake, which generally there isn't, especially in a first year or two. People want to see how the first few guinea pig years come out before committing themselves to it Basically state schools are taking a risk and starting off in a loss-making position. It's much better for them to keep offering A Levels. The expense is why it's largely private schools which have taken it on... and, of course, so long as it remains expensive, you'll just get a bigger divide between private schools and state schools as it makes the IB into a private school 'perk'. In some respects this is good (IB is taught pretty badly nearly everywhere, so at least it's taught badly in an environment where they can also afford to be perhaps more supportive of individuals and answerable to complaints than in the state system) but it's not really doing much for the IB's image, in my opinion.

Anthropology is meant to be hard (although I don't know anybody who's actually taken it outside of hearsay on this site, not many schools seem to offer it), but I did Philosophy and would really recommend it as a subject. It was interesting and easy all in one If you're decent at writing essays and organising your ideas/other people's ideas, you're more or less sorted.

How come you're so determined to do IB, anyway?

[nmac94]

I feel that A-Levels value is continually falling, and I want to do something that will really push me. I also want to keep up a wide variety of subjects and like the idea of the course being linked together. Anthropology actually sounds very useful, and sounds interesting, so I reckon I can handle it, especially if I am doing my Science and Maths at SL. And philosophy definitely sounds like my kind of thing, so I will probably go with that - assuming this doesn't all change by the time I'm applying next academic year.

[Tilia]

Don't be too obsessed with the grades you have now. I had not too good grades in some subjects before starting IB, but I actually appeared to be better at some subjects than I would ever have expected.

Don't do any science HL unless you really want too! They don't have to be too difficult, but they require motivation. If you're not into them, I think ESS seems to be a very good course.

Philosophy is a bit weird, but it is fun and useful, no matter what people say. You learn to argue and to construct essays. It is also useful in ToK, but not as much as some tend to think. So I recommend that.

All in all, this seems like a fairly broad combination (not meant as anything negative), which probably is good if you want to be a teacher. You'll get depth automatically just by doing the IB, so don't worry about that.

[nmac94]

Yeah, I will probably go for ESS as a mix of all three sciences and geography is probably much more useful to me than specialising in one science. Thanks for the good luck smiley too - sounds like I'll be needing it!

[Tilia]

Yeah, I will probably go for ESS as a mix of all three sciences and geography is probably much more useful to me than specialising in one science. Thanks for the good luck smiley too - sounds like I'll be needing it!

Don't worry too much. IB is not a piece of cake, but it's not impossible. If you just paln your time and don't procrastinate, you'll be fine. And you sound like a rather dedicated student, so calm down. Even if it feels hard, it'll be worth it in the end, of that I'm sure.

[nmac94]

Thank you Best of luck with your own results by the way, what did you take?

[Tilia]

Thank you Best of luck with your own results by the way, what did you take?

Thank you My subjects were

Swedish A1 HL

German B SL

Philosophy HL

Chemistry HL

Maths Sl

Physics SL