Four HL Subjects?

[Matthew Sinclair]

How many students at your school do 4 HLs?

What were their motives?

I am just wondering because no-one else at my school does 4 HLs and the IB coordinator could not understand why I would do 4 haha.

[greaterthaninfinity]

At my school, about ten out of ninety or was it one hundred IB kids did four HL subjects. However, this was SERIOUSLY messed up because my school only allows this if you take the fourth HL subject as an extra subject. This means that the kids who did this did seven IB subjects in total. If they didn't want to, well, they wouldn't be allowed to do four HLs then. So, it was either hypermasochism or minimizing IB torture.

As for why they wanted to do it, well, this could be explained by the equation M = m^2 * x. M, motivation for doing it, 0 < M < ∞ (surely no one has negative motivation!); m, masochism; x, I have no idea. Nerd-ism aside, I really don't know. Some of them took the fourth HL because they believed that it would help them get into their university of choice (although honestly, I doubt it would considering the already considerable amount of work it takes to replace one of your SLs with an extra HL, let alone outrightly doing another HL altogether).

Hm, I just realized I sound a tad bit condescending in this post towards people who do four HLs. I honesty can't fathom why you would but I have a lot of admiration for you if you do do it. Good luck!

Edited August 8, 2010 by greaterthaninfinity

[kingdomx]

At our school, we aren't allowed to do 4 HL subjects, even if we wanted to.

I'm pretty sure all school in New Zealand don't allow students to take more than 3HL subjects...

But then again, there are only like 15ish schools that do IB in the whole of our country.

[Vist_09]

Hi

Well, I just started IB 2 weeks ago and I'm doing 4 higher levels. The main reason I chose to do it was that I'm really not sure what I want to study in university so I want to keep my options open. I'm really interested in all 4 of those subjects so I can't decide which one to drop to SL. There are about 5 people in my year taking 4 HLs and i'm pretty sure all of them are in the same situation as me. I feel that dropping 1 subject to Standard Level later on is much better than being really pissed later on when you haven't done a subject you need at HL. I was also told by a friend a year older than me that it isn't "that" much harder.

O and to the poster above, I go to Auckland International College in New Zealand and they let us but only in certain circumstances

Just my 2 cents worth

Edited August 8, 2010 by Vist_09

[Matthew Sinclair]

Hmmmm Thank you for your replies!

I am almost at the end of IB2 and have done 4 HLs (although they aren't exactly the most demanding subjects); but still, it's not that much harder than SL if you ask me. Especially for biology and psychology.

That's soooo bad if the school would make you take it as an EXTRA subject!

[Summer Glau]

At my school, we aren't allowed to do 4 HLs because there would be a ton of problems with scheduling an extra HL But then again, I don't know of anyone at my school who wanted to do 4 HLs.

[Cynthia]

In my school taking 4 HLs is mainly encouraged if you take Maths HL because in most cases it is hard to know who can actually cope with the course. I also had HL Maths for the first half of IB1 but then dropped into SL as it became increasingly certain that I wouldn't need it for my course at university.

[Sandwich]

Nobody! We didn't have the option because of timetabling, so even if you'd wanted to, there was no way you could have done However nobody exactly asked for it either I dunno why you'd do it except for to try and stress yourself out a bit more. That's all I can personally see getting from it.. maybe it's different in other countries, but in the U.K. I would be mildly surprised if the people reading your application even realise either one of two things:

1. that you're only meant to do 3 anyway

2. that one of the little 'SL' blobs is a 'HL' on your application and not on many others

Most people where I was just wanted to get as close to 45 as possible Looking back on it, I would have absolutely hated doing 4 HLs (even more time in school uggghh), although I suspect that I would have optimistically said 'alright' if you'd offered back before I started the IB and told me it would help get into Uni! Then regretted it intensely forever more

[Tsubaki]

Of our class of 10, 8 people (myself included) did 4 HLs. Most people did 4 because a lot of people in IB were also French Immersion students, meaning they were required to take English and History at HL (because neither is offered at SL at our school) and also French B HL (to get French Immersion designation), and they also wanted to take a science at HL, so they took Biology HL (none of them did Chemistry HL instead, even though 4 of them took Chemistry as well). Those who didn't do French Immersion but who did Biology and Chemistry (there were only three of us) all did Chemistry HL, and biology HL as well. I chose to do 4 HLs because I needed a number of science credits in order to bypass the general studies year at my university, and I wouldn't get enough credits by taking either science at SL (although it turned out I could have taken Biology SL, because I ended up getting credit for Physics).

The two students who chose NOT to do 4 HLs did it for two completely different reasons. One person was unable to take 4 HLs because she was forced into French B SL (because she didn't do French Immersion) Maths SL (because we don't offer HL) and Music SL (because we only offer HL when an exceptionally capable student comes along. Pretty much never). The other person hated Biology and thus didn't want to do it at HL, and couldn't do Music at HL, so he was stuck doing English, French B, and History HL.

Doing 4 HLs wasn't really a lot more work than just doing 3, I think, though Biology at HL is much more in depth than at SL. We were all very interested in getting university credits, so those of us who did 4 HLs did so primarily for that reason, but also out of interest; for example, I enjoy science courses for more than English and History, so I took the two science courses I could at HL, and then I was forced into English and History HL.

[HelenaStage]

We are 85 people at my school this year doing the IB (mixed IB and Danish school), out of which I think maybe 10 (including myself) are taking 4 HLs. Some people are doing it because they need a certain subject combination for Uni, while others can't decide what they want to do; the number of people with 4 HLs decreased drastically in October when the workload started to get heavier and people decided.

I'm still doing 4 because, well, I want to work more with those subjects. I was told I was going to kill myself with the combination (Maths, Physics, Chem and English A1) but it is actually quite manageable is you organize your time a bit. In terms of more time at school it hasn't actually been all that bad since I had a lot of free periods to begin with.

Something I love about our school is that we are allowed to keep having 4 Highers and take and extra SL subject on a separate diploma.

[IOwnAndPwnU]

Prior to our year, people could take 4 HLs only and only if they took French HL. The reason being was that French SL and French HL took the same amount of course time to teach (which is questionable ...). But now, the amount of time for French HL has been increased 1.5 times. This means another 4 months (approximately 75 mins for 90 days) for the new French HL at our school.

And like people have said, scheduling is the main problem with 4 HLs. 4 months is a considerable amount of time, and no one wants to stay back a year in high school just so they can say they did 4, or even 5 HL courses. But I would have done it if there was no schedule conflict. Actually, they could remove our lunch period, so 5 subjects a day instead of 4 ... tempting ...

[theloserwins]

We have 70 people in Diploma 1. Only 2 chose to take 4HLs. And some people would consider the two people stupid and time wasting.

Anyways, I'm one of the two, I'm taking:

Physics, Chemistry, Geography, Chinese B HL

the other guy:

Physics, Chemistry, Maths, Chinese B HL

See... we are native Chinese taking LangA. English.

Chinese B HL would be comparatively easy, so that's why we would "waste our time" on 4HLs

[Sonneteer_Trombonist]

My school only offered three HL subjects (English A1, History, Bio). If anyone would have done 4 HL subjects, it would be to receive more university credit. Then again, as you only get the university credit for a 6 or above where I'm going, four HL subjects might prove more detrimental than helpful. That's the only motivation I could think of, though.

[custardapple101]

If you can do 4 HL'ss. Will that give you more potential to Universities? Would they place you on the top first? Is there any advantages on taking four higher levels? Sorry I am new to all this.

[Grumps]

I did but I later dropped one. I think it's good safety valve.

[dessskris]

If you can do 4 HL'ss. Will that give you more potential to Universities? Would they place you on the top first? Is there any advantages on taking four higher levels? Sorry I am new to all this.

Read my reply in the is it worth taking 4 HLs thread btw..

Not a guarantee, it depends on what HL subjects those are. Advantage: if you are struggling in one of your HL's then you can just easily drop it to SL if you do 3 HL 3 SL, and you want to drop one of your HL's, you will need to upgrade one of your SL's which is more like a hassle than just dropping one HL