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Changing subjects! (French B SL to HL and dropping BM to take German AB)

Hello everyone, I'm doing the IB, and I'd like a little bit of guidance with my choices.
My subjects are Eng Lit HL, Maths HL, Psychology HL, BM SL, Bio SL, and French B SL.

I have two dilemmas.
Firstly, I've always been fond of languages, and have a good knack for them. I plan on taking up English Literature and Creative Writing at university level. I have been studying French for 5 years, been a, if I may say, good student. I've always been mesmerized by languages, and they really are my strong point. For the first ten years of my schooling, I was in a national board, where French started in grade 5. It's been over five years now, and the national board really focused on grammar, writing and literature, so I have a strong grasp at the rules and am able to express myself quite well in writing. I found myself getting bored in the French B class. Not because I wasn't learning, but because I wanted to learn more, which is why I want to take French B HL.
The only good, and tough, part of the subject was the orals, which were not as strongly stressed upon in my previous years. It's hard, but I know I could do it because I have a teacher that places importance on it. I speak fully in French in class now, and I have already started reading Monsieur Ibrahim et Les Fleurs du Coran, a book which I saw here that some HL students were studying for their course, on my own. It's been challenging, but certainly fun, and not as hard as it was made out to be.
My co-ordinator was quite apprehensive about shifting, as the teacher is part time and has never taught at HL, and the fact remains that they've not had a case like me.
I also want to make this change because I find Psychology quite tough, and its paper pattern stressful, and I want to shift to SL, but I need something to replace it with. I scored a 7 in both French and Psychology (we just had our school exams), but I'd much rather work hard on French.
I want to make an informed decision, and the skeptical opinions I am getting ("ew why do you want to that???"--person doing all the sciences) is really bothering me. Am I making an unwise decision?


Secondly, my second humanities, that is Business Management, is turning quite monotonous. The classes were really fun at the start, but now I'm really not interested in continuing. It was the only subject I scored bad in (I got a 37/60 in Paper II) and I want to drop it and take up German AB instead. Only one senior of mine takes it (at B SL) and he said it would be quite easy and scoring, seeing my strong interest in etymology and linguistics. I'd love to do it, and I spoke to the teacher before my exams, and she said she'd love to teach me too. I could make the shift, but I wanted to know about the amount of vocabulary that goes into the subject, and if it could be handled with a French B HL/SL. I didn't take up Spanish AB because of how similar French and Spanish are, but German is much more distinct so I probably won't mix them up.
My school began in June, though, and many friends that dropped the subjects they didn't like opted for ESS, which would be quite a different experience from learning a new language, and I can't tell how much I've missed, and if I'll be able to catch up.

I topped in all of my other subjects, and I find them manageable. These two issues, however, are creating a problem. Could people who've had similar experiences share their stories, or anyone who takes these subjects help me?

Thank you very much for reading, and I hope you're having a lovely day! :smile:
Reply 1
To put it simply, take French HL & drop B&M (take either German or ESS - would advice you to take German, though)

Honestly. I think there is no point doing a subject you struggle with/dislike at higher level so I suggest you drop psychology to standard level. That way you won't need to worry about the research methodology paper (paper 3) and your workload will decrease as psychology (especially HL) is a very taxing subject. There isn't much difference between SL/HL french B other than the literature component so it shouldn't be too difficult. You've got a little over a year to improve your oral so you shouldn't worry too much about that. Plus, you seem like you're willing to put in the effort to French HL to do well which likely means you'll do better in it than HL psychology.

Regarding B&M/ESS/German ab initio: Definitely, drop B&M. I'll reiterate what I said previously: don't do an IB subject you dislike - you'd setting up yourself for disaster! I recommend you take German ab initio instead of ESS because
you're planning on studying languages or whatever at university and this pertains to your interests. I currently am doing Spanish ab intio and think the ab initio courses aren't too hard, however, they do go at a fast pace. Of course, you'll be learning a lot of vocabulary since you'll be starting German from scratch. But that shouldn't deter you from taking it as it is manageable alongside French B HL.

Plus, many of the students in my school that do ESS complain about it and/or hate it. It really is quite a dull subject (unless you're into the environment or whatever) so I won't recommend you take it. Oh, and don't forget that since ESS is an interdisciplinary subject that you'll need to do another group 4 project, more labs etc. So, if the sciences don't interest you, steer clear of ESS. Plus, its probably easier to get a 7 in German that ESS.

Hope I helped! :smile:

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