[horbas]

Hi guys,

My name is Michael and I come from Poland ( I'm 18 years old ). As u can guess, I study in the Secondary School. I am leaving my beloved country in September. I'm going to study in Goteborg in Sweden. Yea.. that's great opportunity for me to develop myself and make it big. I will have to go back one year to study in IB from the beginning ( i'm sure it's inevitable ). 2 weeks ago ib coordinator asked me which subjects I would like to study. So.. now I can tell u that I've choosen:

Maths HL <--- Am I mad?
B&M HL <-- I am rlly excited - that's a real subcject
English B HL

Physics SL
Spanish ab inito SL
Swedish SL

Lately I've been looking at your posts in which u said about your chosen subjects. I was quite confused, cuz I've chosen English B HL, and most of u picked up English A lang-lit HL. I was under great impression, because i think it's very difficult for Englishman , let alone foreigner. And thus I have a question. Namely, is English B HL as recognisable as the second one? And why poeple choose Eng A lang-lit ( I am thinking mostly about foreigners )?? And what do u think about my subjects?

PS Is my Eng pretty good?

[beautiful-lion]

Wait...you're doing the IB in just one year? Have i misunderstood, or is this total madness? If you were a genius/insomniac maybe you could cover the syllabus in a year...but do all of your CAS/TOK/EE/IAs and other work? Wow. I've probably misunderstood!

What's B&M?? Never heard of it before!

I think that English A would be quite hard for you. Your English isn't bad at all, but you need a really really high level of understanding for English A. You'll do really well in English B!

[horbas]

No, no, no. I'll have to go back one year to study for 2 years in IB, because currently I'm 18 years old and I'm in second form now.

Saying B&M I meant "Business & Management"

Could u even tell me whether my chosen subjects are enjoyable or not? But anyway.. thanks a lot !! Now I'm more confident of my English as my future subject.

[logiadoevus]

(Original post by horbas)
Hi guys,

My name is Michael and I come from Poland ( I'm 18 years old ). As u can guess, I study in the Secondary School. I am leaving my beloved country in September. I'm going to study in Goteborg in Sweden. Yea.. that's great opportunity for me to develop myself and make it big. I will have to go back one year to study in IB from the beginning ( i'm sure it's inevitable ). 2 weeks ago ib coordinator asked me which subjects I would like to study. So.. now I can tell u that I've choosen:

Maths HL <--- Am I mad?
B&M HL <-- I am rlly excited - that's a real subcject
English B HL

Physics SL
Spanish ab inito SL
Swedish SL

Lately I've been looking at your posts in which u said about your chosen subjects. I was quite confused, cuz I've chosen English B HL, and most of u picked up English A lang-lit HL. I was under great impression, because i think it's very difficult for Englishman , let alone foreigner. And thus I have a question. Namely, is English B HL as recognisable as the second one? And why poeple choose Eng A lang-lit ( I am thinking mostly about foreigners )?? And what do u think about my subjects?

PS Is my Eng pretty good?

English B is the standard route to take for non-native English speakers such as yourself. In the past (it is my belief this has changed) you could do A1, which was purely literature based (thus for native speakers) and A2, which was for non-native speakers with very good command of the language (I personally did English A2, doing A1 in my native language). However, since that is not the case anymore, unless your English is good enough that you think you don't need to do any traditional 'language' learning and only need to focus on literature, English B is the way to go. I would definitely have it at HL, and you should be able to get a 6 or a 7, if I'm honest, since you, I imagine, have been learning English for some time already.

Now, regarding your subject choices, I would be careful. Maths HL is great, it's not as 'impossibly hard' as people often make it out to be, but it does offer a good challenge and universities appreciate it as well. However, I would advise against taking B&M, and definitely not at HL, if you're only doing 6 subjects and 3 at HL. Substitute it for Economics instead, or do both Economics and B&M if your school allows it - that's what I did. I understand the appeal of B&M, since I did it myself and did enjoy it, but it's not at all ideal if you want to study in a very good university after IB. B&M is a very practical course, thus not that suited (or so it's considered) for academic development, as opposed to, say, Economics, which, with its traditional theoretical and essay based approach offers a better grounding and better preparation for university studies.

Of course, for a lot of universities this might not matter - so it definitely depends on what you want to do in the future. Whatever's the case, though, I would advise for keeping your options open, as you never know what might change, and Economics, or better yet B&M + Economics will keep many more doors open, especially with Maths at HL as well.

Looking further through your subjects, I am slightly confused - what is your native language? You say you come from Poland, so I'm assuming it'd be Polish. D'you speak Swedish as well? Thing is, you need to have at least one language A course - normally your native language. If you cannot do Polish, then you have to take English A, or Swedish A. ::

[horbas]

(Original post by logiadoevus)
English B is the standard route to take for non-native English speakers such as yourself. In the past (it is my belief this has changed) you could do A1, which was purely literature based (thus for native speakers) and A2, which was for non-native speakers with very good command of the language (I personally did English A2, doing A1 in my native language). However, since that is not the case anymore, unless your English is good enough that you think you don't need to do any traditional 'language' learning and only need to focus on literature, English B is the way to go. I would definitely have it at HL, and you should be able to get a 6 or a 7, if I'm honest, since you, I imagine, have been learning English for some time already.

Now, regarding your subject choices, I would be careful. Maths HL is great, it's not as 'impossibly hard' as people often make it out to be, but it does offer a good challenge and universities appreciate it as well. However, I would advise against taking B&M, and definitely not at HL, if you're only doing 6 subjects and 3 at HL. Substitute it for Economics instead, or do both Economics and B&M if your school allows it - that's what I did. I understand the appeal of B&M, since I did it myself and did enjoy it, but it's not at all ideal if you want to study in a very good university after IB. B&M is a very practical course, thus not that suited (or so it's considered) for academic development, as opposed to, say, Economics, which, with its traditional theoretical and essay based approach offers a better grounding and better preparation for university studies.

Of course, for a lot of universities this might not matter - so it definitely depends on what you want to do in the future. Whatever's the case, though, I would advise for keeping your options open, as you never know what might change, and Economics, or better yet B&M + Economics will keep many more doors open, especially with Maths at HL as well.

Looking further through your subjects, I am slightly confused - what is your native language? You say you come from Poland, so I'm assuming it'd be Polish. D'you speak Swedish as well? Thing is, you need to have at least one language A course - normally your native language. If you cannot do Polish, then you have to take English A, or Swedish A. ::

Thanks a lot for your reply. Yep.. I've been learning English for ,approximately, 11 years. I started when I was 7, however I didn't like it then at all and I actually felt like fish out of water. Since 4 years ( when I started preparing for cambridge exams ) I finally got to like this language!

I attached a copy of a list of subjects from ib-coordinator of my future school that I had to choose. I've just looked at it one more time and I haven't seen Economics there.

Ohh my goooddneess.. U have brought home to me.. I am obliged to take an exam in my native language? Am I right? yep, my native language is Polish, but I am almost certain that school is not able to teach me Polish, because of the lack of the teacher. Oh dear.. Nay, I have never learned Swedish. My parents study it VERY intensively and I sometimes hear some words. Also, I have been learning German since 6 years which is pretty close to Swedish. WOW... In this case I will have to take English A yep?

[logiadoevus]

(Original post by horbas)
Thanks a lot for your reply. Yep.. I've been learning English for ,approximately, 11 years. I started when I was 7, however I didn't like it then at all and I actually felt like fish out of water. Since 4 years ( when I started preparing for cambridge exams ) I finally got to like this language!

I attached a copy of a list of subjects from ib-coordinator of my future school that I had to choose. I've just looked at it one more time and I haven't seen Economics there.

Ohh my goooddneess.. I've brought home to me.. I am obliged to take an exam in my native language? Am I right? yep, my native language is Polish, but I am almost certain that school is not able to teach me Polish, because of the lack of the teacher. Oh dear.. Nay, I have never learned Swedish. My parents study it VERY intensively and I sometimes hear some words. Also, I have been learning German since 6 years which is pretty close to Swedish. WOW... In this case I will have to take English A yep?

If you don't speak Swedish, then the appropriate level to take it is ab initio SL - that's for starting a new language. However, since that's not available, and you've studied German, I'd advise to take German B. Doing Swedish B with no prior knowledge will be quite difficult, though doable since you're actually living in Sweden and your parents know it/are studying it.

You should also, therefore, as you say, take English A. If you don't feel that confident about it, take language and literature (as opposed to pure literature) and/or take it at SL.

It is weird that you can't do Economics, it's usually, together with History, the cornerstone of G3. If you don't like History, then B&M should be ok, though there will still be some universities that dislike it a little.

[horbas]

(Original post by logiadoevus)
If you don't speak Swedish, then the appropriate level to take it is ab initio SL - that's for starting a new language. However, since that's not available, and you've studied German, I'd advise to take German B. Doing Swedish B with no prior knowledge will be quite difficult, though doable since you're actually living in Sweden and your parents know it/are studying it.

You should also, therefore, as you say, take English A. If you don't feel that confident about it, take language and literature (as opposed to pure literature) and/or take it at SL.

It is weird that you can't do Economics, it's usually, together with History, the cornerstone of G3. If you don't like History, then B&M should be ok, though there will still be some universities that dislike it a little.

Ok, so I inferred that in this case the best solution for me would be choosing

Maths HL
B&M HL
English A1 lit-lang HL <-??

Physics SL
Spanish ab inito SL
Swedish SL

I suggest configuration as above, because I am really afraid of taking Physics HL. It could be a real bane.. At worst, I will replace Eng A1 lit-lang HL by Physics HL.. Is Eng A1 lit-lang HL as hard as majority says? Is there a fairly big difference between Eng A1 lit-ling HL and SL ? And what's better - Eng A1 lit-lang or Eng A1 lit?

As I've looked at current schedule,unfortunatelly, they don't have economy as a seperate subject..

God, firstly it seemed to be as easy as ABC.. Now it's gonna be a nightmare..


PS What is the difference between Lang A ang Lang B? I see threads in which authors want to change their level, for instance: I want to study Chinese B instead of Chinese A. Where the hell is a catch?

[horbas]

can anybody help me, please?