IB Sciences - which to pick?

so, it's nearing that time where I have to pick my sciences and humanities in IB. I've already decided on history, but I'm having trouble picking which science(s) to take. In my school, at year 3 we pick and have to stick with that one science all through until year 5, but then we would be disadvantaged from others who started the science at year 3. would it be advisable to take two sciences and lose precious time to maybe drop one at year 5 or take one science and go through all the way even though idk what I want to do with my IB courses. also, which science is "easier" compared to others?

Reply 1

Mr.Troll

2

I did physics SL and chemistry HL. I could say being good at maths would definitely give you a very easy time in physics. I then would recommend design technology, because you can get your hands dirty and get a 5/6 easily. If what you are going to do in uni has nothing to do with the sciences, biology would also be a useful subject without being substantially harder than the other ones.

Reply 2

Yardlyeverton

1

I'm afraid I'm not sure I understand your dilemma with the year 3 or year 5 issue, however I studied chemistry and biology HL and from what I've seen from my school in order of increasing difficulty in the sciences it goes: design technology, biology, chemistry, physics. Other than design there is no easy science, some people took biology SL as they thought it was the easy option but the course is so content heavy that they regretted their choice. Physics HL is traditionally one of if not the hardest course (other than maths HL) so I would think carefully before choosing it. However I think choosing two sciences was very beneficial as the course content crossed over between biology and chemistry, and finally you need to tailor your choices to what you're thinking of doing after the IB

Reply 3

eaw

I'm sorry I didn't quite understand your main question either. Answering your second question, what is the easiest science for you highly correlates with how good you are at maths. Many people consider the order of increasing difficulty to be (as pointed out by Yardlyeverton) Design tech, Biology, Chemistry, Physics; due to the increasing amount of mathematical content in these sciences. If you're really good at maths it is likely that you will rank the difficulty of these subjects in a reverse order. Well, I don't really have an opinion about design tech since we didn't have it in our school, but for me, chemistry required more work than physics, and I'm glad I didn't have biology because it seemed like an insane amount of work.

I also agree that there is more overlap between different sciences than there is between humanities, especially with certain options, but I wouldn't base my choice on that. What I think is the most important is that you like the subject the most (or dislike it the least).

Reply 4

1004wsh

4

As many people say, Physics HL would be the toughest choice. But remember, it has the strangely lowest grade boundaries amongst all of them. Most of the subjects' grade 7 boundaries form at around 75%, but it is sometimes even lower than 70% for Physics.

Reply 5

serenes

OP

11

Original post by Yardlyeverton

I'm afraid I'm not sure I understand your dilemma with the year 3 or year 5 issue, however I studied chemistry and biology HL and from what I've seen from my school in order of increasing difficulty in the sciences it goes: design technology, biology, chemistry, physics. Other than design there is no easy science, some people took biology SL as they thought it was the easy option but the course is so content heavy that they regretted their choice. Physics HL is traditionally one of if not the hardest course (other than maths HL) so I would think carefully before choosing it. However I think choosing two sciences was very beneficial as the course content crossed over between biology and chemistry, and finally you need to tailor your choices to what you're thinking of doing after the IB

hey thanks! so between chemistry and biology, which one do you think would be the more useful subject (considering I have not decided what to do in uni yet) or the one that might be "easier" in a sense, I'm not bad at maths, but not excellent either.

Reply 6

nikknokk

2

Original post by serenelim

hey thanks! so between chemistry and biology, which one do you think would be the more useful subject (considering I have not decided what to do in uni yet) or the one that might be "easier" in a sense, I'm not bad at maths, but not excellent either.

I did chem and bio HL and honestly, they're both difficult in vastly different ways. For chemistry you really must be able to understand all the concepts you cover, whereas with biology you can scrape by if you simply memorize all the information.
Concerning usefulness, it really depends on what sort of subject you think you'll study in Uni. Both sciences are very well respected by Unis at HL, but if you want to study science at uni, it's usually an advantage to have both at HL (for biochem, medicine etc)
Chemistry does have much more maths than biology, but overall, the maths is very formula heavy and is relatively simple, but if maths is a weak point then biology would be easier for you.
I think it really boils down to whether you're able to successfully memorize information well, because there's no other way to get a good grade in biology. If your school lets you, I'd really suggest you take both if you're unsure, as having options really takes some stress off and is very beneficial for later choosing a uni course. Simplifying to a huge extent, biology is probably more useful if you want to study most science subjects, as long as they're not directly related to chemistry or maths (such as chemical engineering)

Reply 7

serenes

OP

11

Original post by nikknokk

I did chem and bio HL and honestly, they're both difficult in vastly different ways. For chemistry you really must be able to understand all the concepts you cover, whereas with biology you can scrape by if you simply memorize all the information.
Concerning usefulness, it really depends on what sort of subject you think you'll study in Uni. Both sciences are very well respected by Unis at HL, but if you want to study science at uni, it's usually an advantage to have both at HL (for biochem, medicine etc)
Chemistry does have much more maths than biology, but overall, the maths is very formula heavy and is relatively simple, but if maths is a weak point then biology would be easier for you.
I think it really boils down to whether you're able to successfully memorize information well, because there's no other way to get a good grade in biology. If your school lets you, I'd really suggest you take both if you're unsure, as having options really takes some stress off and is very beneficial for later choosing a uni course. Simplifying to a huge extent, biology is probably more useful if you want to study most science subjects, as long as they're not directly related to chemistry or maths (such as chemical engineering)