IB Combination advice? (urgent!)

I honestly think that taking 4 HLs might be pushing it a little, because you might not have time to juggle everything, along with TOK and your EE. If anything, demote the Maths to an SL straight away unless you need it for your university course. SL Maths is quite manageable. Music also seems sort of a tough subject for my friends who took it.

The rest of your choices seem fine I'm personally more of a Physics person than a Chemistry one but to each her own.

This might be a little far into the future but do you have an idea of what you wanna be doing in university? I wouldn't underestimate IB Music, my sister and some of my friends have done it and it's pretty intensive, apparently it's quite a bit of music theory and even the exam can stress some people out!

I did HL Chem and Econ but they drastically changed the curriculum for Econ for the grade beneath me, however I think it's still pretty straightforward so that's no problem, same for Chem if you have a genuine interest in it. You do more topics in HL Math and I think you also do an extra IA but if you're into math you'll be fine. What you said about Bio being good for future career choices is kinda bs, unless you want to study it in some manner, it really won't matter what you did in high school as long as you did well. I wouldn't take it if you genuinely don't want to, IB is already enough of a struggle, no need to make it worse by doing classes you don't like on top of it!

oh. do you know if the hl and sl math courses differ a lot? I thought they were the same except the hl had more topics to cover, but apparently they're really different I was planning to drop down after a while, since I really don't think I can cope with the level of maths, and I thought because the course was relatively the same HL classes would just learn the content at a faster pace, I would drop down and still be ahead of the SL classes? I just think Chem and Maths is a really good combination... But I probably won't be able to score very highly... oh but I really want to >w< I'm so torn gaaahh

I think Music will be fairly okay for me, especially since it's only an SL because I am quite familiar with the theory and all

My brother took SL physics and HL maths and he died doing the IB (at that time he really excelled at maths too) so I don't think I'll be doing physics :P It's really deceiving because in IGCSE, I actually consider it to be one of the easiest sciences out of the three!

Do you mind if I ask what you took for IB? :P

HL and SL Maths are worlds apart. I also thought that HL Maths wouldn't differ very much from the SL course but a few weeks into maths classes proved me wrong. The difference in standards are really different. Chem and Maths is a really good combination though, there's no denying that. You would be hard pressed to find a course you couldn't get into.

SL Physics is not all that different from HL, so I guess if you don't plan on doing it at a HL level then you're much better off doing something else (something less time-consuming)

I took HL History, Chem, Physics and SL Lang lit, Chinese B and Maths. I started off with HL Maths and SL History before finding that HL Maths was far too difficult. HL Maths shouldn't be pursued unless you really have an active interest in Maths and/or need it for your university course. Switching to HL History was the best decision I've made in my life. The course is engaging and history to me, is just far far less stressful than maths is.

dang iiiiit. I was planning on doing either HL Maths or Econ, and I think I'll just have to scrap maths now, but I got a reply from someone else saying HL Econ was quite difficult for someone without any background in economics (I didn't take it in IGCSE). I would do History for my humanities block choice, because I find learning it is rather interesting and enjoyable, but I just do really bad on the exams -- anything with writing really, so I suck at humanities which is why I really don't like it >__> There's also so much to remember, and I really don't think it'd be suitable for someone like me who has a really bad memory!

If I took swap my maths and english (so then I'll be taking HL Eng Lit and SL Maths), and scrapped HL Econ, what other subject would you recommend for my last HL slot? I miiiight go into food science/nutrition or into the business/econ/finance field in my future.(I just went to a university open day today, and those are the courses that I think I could do so yeah)

also..HL CHEM AND PHYSICS?!? how did you not die?? :P Is it really as difficult as everyone says? I mean, I've given up on engineering, but still I'm curious xD

All the IB HLs require a fair bit of time, but since you're interested and enjoy History, I would say to go for it. History is less of memorising and more of how to phrase arguments for IB anyway. I have classes for my HLs for four out of five days in a week, so I would say consider all the subjects and pick what you're most naturally inclined and interested in or school would start becoming really exhausting. My friends who take Econ, both SL and HL, whinge a lot about it but it does seem to be a more 'science-y' humanities than the rest, so don't give it up yet (especially if you want to go into business).

HL Chem and Physics are a terror. I'm all right with Physics because I love the subject but it is so difficult to do well in. It's basically constant practice or you'll get rusty. Chemistry is the science subject that I'm less interested in and it reflects in my grades. I find it quite dull but then again, still better than HL Maths XD.

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I do 4 HL's as well: Maths, Physics, Economics and Business Management - don't listen to the scaremongering on here, Maths HL is piss easy once you focus on proper mathematical understanding instead of jumping through hoops and learning things for the exam like most schools encourage.

I find that I barely have to do any work for Maths and Physics HL and the only subject that's hard and requires intensive preparation and revision is Economics. (although if you do it at HL, you get a third paper which is essentially free full marks because of how easy it is, the numerical paper).

Surely, easiness depends on the person? I did Scottish AH Spanish, History and English Lit (A2 / HL) and I didn't struggle at all, and actually got full marks for Spanish which the native speaker didn't even get. But, that's me; however, I struggled incredibly so with Scottish Higher Biology (AS / SL) even though I spent the most time on it...

Fair enough, but so does difficulty - which would make anybody saying "HL Maths is difficult" an opinion of their own and irrelevant to the OP?

My post was mainly going for "just because some people say it's difficult doesn't mean it actually is".

Yeah, that's true. But, I think the OP mentioned earlier that they don't really like Maths that much and that they're not very good at it. However, I think the OP assumes that it'd look nice paired with Chemistry and would open more doors for university etc, even though it's not something they're that good at/interested in.

ahah aw I'm not sure if I should do HL History though because although I do enjoy it, I don't think I will be doing anything that requires an HL History :P and gosh I'm glad I'm not doing chem and phys xD it seems to be torturous.. I have asked various university faculties (related to science), and a lot of them say that Chem is the one that they require and will look at the most (except for engineering of course) so I'm hoping it's okay if I don't take SL Bio or anything :P I don't particularly like bio >.< too much content to remember!

just out of curiousity, which year of IB are you currently in?

I didn't do the IB, but what about:

HL: Economics, History, Chemistry
SL: Maths, English Lit, Music/Chinese A?

Yeah, that's true. But, I think the OP mentioned earlier that they don't really like Maths that much and that they're not very good at it. However, I think the OP assumes that it'd look nice paired with Chemistry and would open more doors for university etc, even though it's not something they're that good at/interested in.

Fair enough, but so does difficulty - which would make anybody saying "HL Maths is difficult" an opinion of their own and irrelevant to the OP?

My post was mainly going for "just because some people say it's difficult doesn't mean it actually is".

Year 13. Well, I chose my subjects rather haphazardly. The university courses I've applied in no way involve Chemistry and Physics. But it's been a good two years studying them anyway.

I'm sure you'll be fine! Good luck!

Don't take 4 HLs. It's too much and you'l burn out. I suggest keeping Bio and Chem HL and trying out Maths HL. If you find it too hard (it's harder than A Level Maths), pick Economics HL which isn't too challenging. Drop English Lit to SL, as not many degrees require HL (unless you want to study an English Literature degree). Trust me, IB is stressful enough with 3 HLs, you don't want to increase your workload. At the end of the day, unis care about your points, not how many HLs you have. I got 44 points on the IB btw, and it wouldn't have been even remotely possible with 4 HLs.