Which is the most difficult IB subject?

Obviously it depends on the teachers and how much you enjoy a subject etc.

But I was just wondering what people thought/had heard.

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Reply 1

Le.Bambi

I heard Philosophy but then again I didn't do IB. :frown:

Reply 2

nerdini

I took Math HL and it wasn't easy (after paper 1 I thought I'm going to fail, but it turned out really well...) - don't be scared of "difficult" subjects :smile:

Reply 3

NaidaA

I would say languages are quite hard, because the grade boundaries are very very high (85-86% to get 7s, which is 22-23 out of 25 for some of the papers). Other than that, it would probably be math HL.

Reply 4

rachel479

Math HL, it's much harder than a level maths, at my school the people taking it even have to have an extra lesson a week (in comparison to all other HL subjects), just to cover all the material and even the really clever ones seem to be struggling

HL chemistry i would say is also quite challenging

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 5

dani.elle1207

Original post by RayApparently

Obviously it depends on the teachers and how much you enjoy a subject etc.

But I was just wondering what people thought/had heard.

I'd say HL Maths, HL Chemistry is not too bad really, HL Biology is fine, most things at SL are alright.

Reply 6

NaidaA

Oh yeah another one, HL history is difficult from what I heard as well

Reply 7

octopauly

HL Maths. It's the one that's significantly harder than other equivalent courses

Reply 8

RayApparently

Original post by octopauly

HL Maths. It's the one that's significantly harder than other equivalent courses

That seems to be the general consensus.

Reply 9

LolaLowe

When we spoke to Math tutors at RG uni open days they all said they consider a 7 in HL Math as equivalent to A* in both Math and Further Math @ A Level.

Reply 10

CWR

Maths without a doubt! Oh and Mandarin, but I'm only doing Ab Initio!!

Reply 11

theorist2

How difficult is Design Technology?

I saw at http://www.ibo.org/facts/statbulletin/dpstats/ that it has VERY few students scoring 7's. I don't know if that says more about the difficulty of the course or the qualities of the students choosing this subject.

I'm thinking of studying engineering and am interested in Design Technology largely to verify my career interest. (I've already taken AP Chem and AP Calculus BC and will be taking IB Further Maths and Physics HL; I'm not neglecting the core, but still have little idea of what engineering is like.)

Reply 12

theorist2

DT (Design Technology), ITGS, and Arabic A have the lowest fraction of students scoring 7's globally. I don't know if this says more about those subjects or the students choosing them.

Reply 13

pbunny

Original post by theorist2

DT (Design Technology), ITGS, and Arabic A have the lowest fraction of students scoring 7's globally. I don't know if this says more about those subjects or the students choosing them.

My school offers Arabic A in a Arab country so i'd say it's more to do with the caliber of the students. Many of the people who take it at the school i'll be attending for IB have been going to international schools their entire schooling careers and therefore don't know the language really well (where Arabic is taken very seriously and nor are the classes rigorous). Many of the Arabs at my school speak/write Arabic that is the equivalent of 6th/7th graders in the national curriculum, which is quite appalling. The only students that tend to be really strong are those that take extra classes out of school.

But i'm sure many students that take Arabic A are capable enough, i should mention though that Arabic is a VERY hard language to begin with so that also adds to the lack of 7's.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 14

eaw

It's funny how math HL hasn't been any work for me so far. I guess it's because the lessons are mainly combined with the math sl students so the stuff we do during the lessons is pretty much the basics. We even do the same exercises from the book as what the sl people do, it's weird (and we get almost no homework). But then the test questions are incredibly hard, although they don't require much more knowledge about math than the sl questions; you just need to be good and able to come up with stuff on your own (and I don't see how you could practise this too much). I don't know what all the other math hl students do with the time they spend on math, but I've heard it is a lot of time they spend on it. This is only my own experience but what I'm saying is, math HL is not necessarily so much work; you just need to be good at it.

Reply 15

chookychook

Original post by theorist2

DT (Design Technology), ITGS, and Arabic A have the lowest fraction of students scoring 7's globally. I don't know if this says more about those subjects or the students choosing them.

Hi,
I'm an IB DT teacher and I also mark IA's and exam papers for IB. It is a combination of both really. At my school we don't get the brightest cohort, many students see DT as an easy option and/or they get kicked out of Physics and Chemistry and told to do DT as it is seen as soft. However the exams really are difficult. There is a lot of content and theory and unless you hit on exactly what is in the markscheme, even if it is a decent answer you'll lose marks. There really is a lot of luck involved. DT has the lowest amount of 7's out of group 4.

Reply 16

PumpkinNox13009

wow. well, thanks goodness i didn't choose DT just because i dislike science

Reply 17

NancyRoseC

I'd say HL physics, chem or maths.. and theres a girl in my glass doing all 3 HL! :O

Reply 18

anniechan514

The hardest HL would have to be:
History, Chemistry, Physics and Maths.

I think most people find math HL hard as there are just SOOO much to cover + those extra options you just don't have time to cover all of it and then the questions aren't easy given the limited time you have to study everything.

I personally took Chemistry, Maths and Economics HL and got 7,6,7 respectively in these subjects - so you can ask me about Chemistry and Maths if you want. Just pm me :smile:

Reply 19

monsieurmadeline2041

HL Maths, HL Physics, HL Chemistry, HL History, HL Business

I only took HL Maths and Business
honestly, i was really good at maths, but starting IB, my grades are really bad -_-
everyyone kept getting 3s and 4s in my batch. so bloody hard to get a 5 even, until the real exam starts
HOWEVER, i can assure you that it's not impossible at all to get a 7
just do practice a lot, and this can be annoying cause you won't see improvement until some time
persevere IB kids!

Idk about theothers, but Physics HL and Business HL have low boundaries - which suggest that they are really hard
anddd i honestly think these subjects are hard because they quite have a lot of critical thinkng going on..... not to say others dont, but not so much

HL Art is hard too i guess, but maybe in terms of workloads. So if u dont mind workloads....

Economics has critical thinking as well, but I think it's easy and I heard from my friends Econs at Alevels are harddddddd

(edited 9 years ago)

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