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The "Which IB subjects should I choose" Thread

Original post by DamyanP12000

Well its not 100% certain yet whether I'll be studying these subjects at the following levels but here they are:
Higher Level
Maths - will be very difficult i know
Chemistry
Physics
Standard Level
English Lit & Lang
Dutch- language B
Economics

Feel free to give me tips and advice, many thanks

I personally love HL Maths and Physics. I think they are awesome subjects and I don't regret choosing them. The best tip is to probably keep working hard even if it seems impossible. Don't get discouraged if you get low grades to start with; the harder you work the more progress you're going to make. Lastly, don't worry if you don't to that great in HL Maths - according to UCAS a 5 in HL Maths is the same as an A* at A-Level. Just do your best.

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 1621

ohno123

Hi,
I'm currently selecting subjects and I submitted mine last week -- they were:
1. English A HL
2. Spanish Ab Initio
3. Economics HL
4. Chemistry HL
5. Math HL
6. Music SL

I was (and still am) apprehensive about doing Music since I'm doing it for my IGCSEs and its one of my more uncomfortable subjects. However, I was informed by my coordinator that my school is unable to provide Chemistry for Group 4 due to lack of numbers (everyone's doing it for Group 6). Therefore I am left with a few options
- Choosing Bio SL and Music SL
- Choosing ESS SL and Music SL
- Choosing Physics SL and Music SL
- Choosing ESS SL and Chem HL
- Choosing Bio SL and Chem HL

I'm doing 4 HLs to see which one suits me best since I'm still undecided between English Lit HL and Chem HL and then I'll drop one. Personally, I don't really enjoy Biology or Physics that much. My grades aren't terrible at IGCSEs but personally they're not subjects I like studying or revising for. Chemistry is my favourite science and I really want to do it. Some people have suggested choosing ESS SL and Chem HL but I've read that ESS is a soft subject. If I do decide to choose ESS, will it affect my university applications? Also, in the future if I drop Chem HL (then my two options are ESS SL and Chem SL), would it be considered "not challenging myself", thereby affecting my uni applications?
I'm from Vietnam and some of my teachers have suggested doing the billingual diploma. Is it extra workload? Are there major benefits of doing the billingual diploma?

Thank you!

Reply 1622

username2978004

Currently doing IGCSES:
English Lang, English Lit, Chinese First Language, Economics, Extended Maths (already did it and got 98%), Additional Maths, Triple Award science (bio, chem, phys). All predicted A*s.

Also did half of the Computer Science and History courses but had to drop them when I changed schools midway through the year. Also predicted A*s. So I do have a background in those 2 subjects.

I love all of my subjects and do well in them, so it's difficult when people ask me what my interests are and what I want to do in the future. But if I had to narrow it down to a few fields: science/engineering/CS/econ/medicine.

'Draft' IB subject choices: HL: Maths, chem, phys, econ (3 of the 4) SL: Chinese B/A2, English L&L, Maths if I don't take it at HL/one of the above unchosen subjects/CS.

Advice? What combination would make more sense? I'd love to take 4 HLs but I don't think I can manage.

Another question: some schools sell bilingual diplomas really hard. Is it worth taking Chinese at A2 level just to get one?

Reply 1623

John.Chunduru

Original post by HiBear

Here is a thread to ask what kind of subjects you should take.

Universities do have requirements, and if you know what you would like to study in uni it's best to check several university websites to see whether or not a specific subject is required.

Currently there is only a breakdown for Medicine universities, but you can easily go onto UCAS and check the requirements.

Medicine Requirements

If i want to go to a particular university like let's say PENN state or yale or MIT or any other university, how can i know what scores in ib it needs.

Reply 1624

wolfmoon88

21

Original post by John.Chunduru

If i want to go to a particular university like let's say PENN state or yale or MIT or any other university, how can i know what scores in ib it needs.

They care more about GPA then your IBs

Choose subjects you'll do well in and make sure you get good scores in SAT/ACT and SAT 2s

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Reply 1625

John.Chunduru

My last date to decide is today.can you please tell me whether or not i can take ib or a levels

Reply 1626

wolfmoon88

21

Original post by John.Chunduru

My last date to decide is today.can you please tell me whether or not i can take ib or a levels

You can take either, US unis don't care

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Reply 1627

John.Chunduru

Original post by wolfmoon88

You can take either, US unis don't care

Posted from TSR Mobile

i thought ib was more recognized . Also I am aiming for a top universityand i want to pursue any two of these with one of them as a major and the other one as a minor:
economics
business-finance
business-business analytics
business-business management

Reply 1628

wolfmoon88

21

Original post by John.Chunduru

i thought ib was more recognized . Also I am aiming for a top universityand i want to pursue any two of these with one of them as a major and the other one as a minor:
economics
business-finance
business-business analytics
business-business management

Tbh if you get good grades both are ok...

Econ, Maths, and an essay subject at HL may be best for econ majors. For business anything goes. Any HL subjects as long as you do well.

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Reply 1629

John.Chunduru

Original post by wolfmoon88

Tbh if you get good grades both are ok...

Econ, Maths, and an essay subject at HL may be best for econ majors. For business anything goes. Any HL subjects as long as you do well.

Posted from TSR Mobile

i really love to do chemistry and have already thought abt doing chemistry as my subject sat and advanced placement.
if i take ib , i want to take the following subjects:
CHEMISTRY HL
ECONOMICS HL
BUSINESS HL
ENGLISH SL (cause im not that good at english)
MATH SL/HL(HL maybe)
FRENCH B

They say to take A levels if your memory is pretty good.I'm doing pretty fine in my subjects in igcse but can you guide me about what routine i might have to abide by and a view of how my day is going to be in general

Reply 1630

LisaNikita

2

Original post by tashaaaness

Hey!

Okay so I basically need some help.

I'm planning to pursue either vet med/med/pharmacy (but more likely pharmacy) and I picked these IB subjects:

HL
Maths
Biology
Chemistry

SL
Spanish ab initio
English A1
History

BUT, I recently got my IGCSE results - I only got an A (ie not A*) for Maths and a really horrible grade for Additional Maths :p:

and my school is now recommending that I drop Maths HL and take up either English or History.

I have 2 questions.

1. Is it advisable to drop Maths HL despite wanting to pursue the sciences at university? Will this make me a little bit more disadvantaged than other applicants applying for the same courses? I know Maths HL is not required as I've got both Biology and Chem at HL but.. is it preferred?

I COULD try my best for Maths HL - that is, work my butt off for it but I'd just like to hear everybody's opinion on whether it's worth it, and whether I even need it! :smile:

2. Also, IF I do drop Maths HL, which HL should I take up, English A1 or History? I love both equally, and scored A*s for English First Language, English Literature and History at IGCSE and I'm pretty much torn between the two. So I WOULD like to pick the one I love - but I love both so uhhh, yeah I kinda need help :p:

.

Can anyone out there tell me which HL they felt was better for them & why, whether the workload will be too much if I were to take one instead of the other..etc?

It'd be much appreciated, thanks! :smile:

Take A-levels. You're clearly not good at everything and you need to make 40 points at least to get into the sciences.

Reply 1631

John.Chunduru

Original post by HiBear

Here is a thread to ask what kind of subjects you should take.

Universities do have requirements, and if you know what you would like to study in uni it's best to check several university websites to see whether or not a specific subject is required.

Currently there is only a breakdown for Medicine universities, but you can easily go onto UCAS and check the requirements.

Medicine Requirements

I want to pursue an undergrad in business and economics ,and my dream is to get to harvard.also I'm thinking of doing my ib,and i need to know what subjects to choose to suffice the requirements to be able to get there .thanks

Reply 1632

sophiehoughten1

2

hey guys, I'm studying the IB in england, but i am not sure if my higher are useful, and will help me in the future
I don't know what i want to do, but think I'm interested in the government, and languages, although not sure
My choices currently are : HL French B, Spanish B, History
SL English Lit, Maths studies, DT

Is having two language Bs at higher pointless? They are my best subjects and i really enjoy them, but am wondering if something like philosophy or psychology would be more useful
Thanks XD

Reply 1633

blueprintkyk

3

Hello
So I'm stuck with choosing IB subjects for next school year and I really can't decide. Please help :frown:

The subjects I am sure I will take are:
Math HL, Econ HL, Chem SL, and Chinese B SL.

Now the part I'm all stressed out about is that I can't choose between Visual Arts, History and English A.
I only have two more subjects free and I have to take English A because I need another language.
But I really don't know whether I should take Art or History. I am well-rounded but not to a terrific extent. I don't feel extreme love or hate for any subject except statistics. I'm just okay at everything(that's my problem).
I am not sure of what major I want to apply for college with. I want to do something related to Education or Design, but none of the subjects are intriguing enough for me to delve in or even become really good at. I get 6 or 7 out of 7 in almost every class(our school is transitioning to the MYP now), and I want to keep that up for IB also. I know that IB is hard so I am looking for subjects that helps me get good grades, and especially English A is a stretch for me so I'm very worried that I might fail to choose the wrong subjects.
I am sort of artistic(I sing at a school band and have taken graphic design class for two years it's pretty fun and music is my life and I love graphic design), but at the same time I want to take History HL because then I would learn about my country's heritage more(I'm from Korea and only History HL includes the history of East Asia during the 1800s) and our History teacher is an awesome storyteller, teacher, and person. I love listening to him talk. He such a good talker lol
The last time I asked an expert, he told me to take English A HL, Econ HL, and Math HL with History, Chem, Chinese B, as that is the most suitable way to get into a good school's economics major.(I won't apply for Economics tho)

Any suggestions or comments? Just anything would be helpful at this point :cry:

How was your experience taking Visual Arts? or History? I know it's hard to get a 7 in both subjects, but how hard is it? Is 6 a reachable goal?
I pretty much suck at time management....do they consume a lot of time compared to other subjects? Which one is comparably better to take?

Reply 1634

sweetcutiepie

3

@blueprintkyk

hey Im taking both history HL and music HL (but I have a number of classmates studying VA so I know what it's like..). tbh you should figure out what you want to study in college.. If it's something related to design, why not take design technology rather than Chemistry SL (replace the science subject) or arts/history (The additional subject/group 6) just something to think about.

Tbh, I scored 7 in MYP in every subject except for science and PE (both 6). However, you probably should expect that it's harder to get 7s compared to MYP, especially if you choose difficult subjects.. In my opinion, history is definitely harder than Visual Arts. There's a lot to do in Visual Arts, the comparative study, many drawings (depends on school~ a bit different in terms of the balance)... but at least there's no external papers for VA. If you're a good artist and are going to study something related to the Arts/design, i think you should really take visual arts.

I personally know a lot about history. While it might seem very interesting (tbh if you don't found it interesting, there's absolutely no point to study this). Over the years, it has been harder to score high in history compared to Visual Arts. It's mainly because of the 3 external papers for history. They are extremely difficult, and it's not just about studying, but you have to excellent time management skills/fast-writing skills/good evaluation/analysis skills in order to do well.

In terms oF timE SPent, yoU need a lot oF TImE fOr bOTh visuAL arts and history. You spenD wAy mOre TIME Drawing for Visual Arts and moStly stUdying for HIstorY (memOrIze sTUff) [sorry for the caps idk whaT HappenEd with my kEyboaRd lol)

First make sure what you want to do first. Good luck

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 1635

sweetcutiepie

3

Original post by sophiehoughten1

hey guys, I'm studying the IB in england, but i am not sure if my higher are useful, and will help me in the future
I don't know what i want to do, but think I'm interested in the government, and languages, although not sure
My choices currently are : HL French B, Spanish B, History
SL English Lit, Maths studies, DT

Is having two language Bs at higher pointless? They are my best subjects and i really enjoy them, but am wondering if something like philosophy or psychology would be more useful
Thanks XD

I never know you can take two language Bs. I thought it always has to be one language A and one language B (can you even take 3 language courses :O ) Well I take two language A courses soo.... Even if it's allowed, two language Bs is really useless... because they are super easy... Also, math studies is generally considered to be an easy subject (DT is also not a particularly difficult subject compared to physics/history).

Reply 1636

sweetcutiepie

3

Original post by John.Chunduru

I want to pursue an undergrad in business and economics ,and my dream is to get to harvard.also I'm thinking of doing my ib,and i need to know what subjects to choose to suffice the requirements to be able to get there .thanks

Check the university websites, but generally for economics, you need Maths HL [math is even more important then taking economics, but it's helpful to take economics too]. language courses won't really matter for economics mmm. Less restrictions for business courses.

Reply 1637

Violetmoon

1

I'm planning on taking Music, Latin and Philosophy higher and English, Maths and Chemistry standard. Quite a lot of people think this will be extremely hard... (at least 5 people have told me I have a death wish xD) but are my highers really hard, or is it just because people in my year find those subjects hard now? I'm definitely sticking with music higher but not certain about the other two - still considering English higher instead.

Reply 1638

tim_72

12

Original post by sweetcutiepie

I never know you can take two language Bs. I thought it always has to be one language A and one language B (can you even take 3 language courses :O ) Well I take two language A courses soo.... Even if it's allowed, two language Bs is really useless... because they are super easy... Also, math studies is generally considered to be an easy subject (DT is also not a particularly difficult subject compared to physics/history).

You need to take two languages in order to do a language at uni. And HL Language Bs are not easy, they are a step-up to SL and are designed to be a pre-university qualification.

Reply 1639

tim_72

12

Original post by Violetmoon

I'm planning on taking Music, Latin and Philosophy higher and English, Maths and Chemistry standard. Quite a lot of people think this will be extremely hard... (at least 5 people have told me I have a death wish xD) but are my highers really hard, or is it just because people in my year find those subjects hard now? I'm definitely sticking with music higher but not certain about the other two - still considering English higher instead.

A person I know takes SL Philosophy and is finding it very easy. Don't know about HL, though.

(edited 7 years ago)

The "Which IB subjects should I choose" Thread

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