Calling ALL IB'ers...Your subject combinations!

Choose the subjects you actually (will) enjoy, because if you don't, you'll be in misery for the next 2 years.

CAS is a compulsory component of IB. You have to do it - CAS does NOT give you any points whatsoever - the core points come from TOK and EE.

IMO, taking two languages is already difficult, let alone three at higher !

But a word of warning, I hate to say this, but taking a group 6 subject can SOMETIMES be considered 'soft' by some universities (of course, unless you are taking that subject at university level).

However, I don't think the 'soft' bit is entirely true, seeing that group 6 requires a lot of effort into coursework and projects etc. zzzz

PS. I take psych SL myself and it is quite easy.

Thank you! Oh I didn't know CAS didn't contribute any points .. so you just do it to complete the diploma then?

Yeah I thought it might be difficult doing three languages at HL but they're my strong point, I do two languages at GCSE now and it is a total breeze for me.. I'm not bragging or anything, it's just the thing I'm good at. I know HL IB would be a lot harder than the GCSE course but I think I'd be able to get through it.. Although I think it would be a shame to not do an art considering theatre and art are both interests of mine and I love doing them, even if unis do think it's 'soft' :/

First year reporting in

Physics HL
Math HL
Chem HL
English A1 SL
Geography SL
Spanish ab initio SL
ToK

Really enjoying the course so far.
I've been told my choice of highers is a death sentence, but seeing as I want to go into engineering (not to mention i love them all) I had to take them.

ToK is a load of BS, but it's fun as hell to just debate something for an hour.

Hello all
By the way this is my first ever post on TSR ^^

I'm currently in year 10 but I'm already starting to look at what I want to do at 6th form (or college) and then at Uni.

My school offers the IB and a few of my friends in year 12 have just started it. It looks really interesting but the idea of having to do Maths and English sort of puts me off.

I'm thinking of taking:
HL - Roman and Greek Studies (aka Classics - I know it's not a widely offered course for IB but I've heard from someone that my school offers it - I need to query it with the HoD) or Chemistry.
HL - English
HL - Art
SL - Maths Studies (I hate maths)
SL - German (I'm currently doing the GCSE ab initio)
SL - Chemistry (or Geography if I do Chemistry as HL)

I'm predicted straights As (and a few A*s) at GCSE - English Lit., English Lang., Maths, all three sciences, RS, German, Classical Civ., Geography, and Art.

I'm looking to study Classics of some sort (hopefully CAAH) at Uni

What do you guys think about my plans? Any advice?


Thanks in advance

Could you not take Latin or Greek HL? If you dislike the prospect of having to take English (although it's a compatible subject for your prospective degree subject), why would you take it HL?

Can't really do Latin or Greek as my school doesn't offer Greek at all, and Latin is only available up to GCSE level... when we chose our options I picked Classical Civ rather than Latin because I found the syllabus a lot more interesting.

I have considered self-teaching Latin, or moving to a different school or college so that I could study Latin ab initio. I've discussed the possibilities with my mum and we've concluded that we cant really afford to transfer elsewhere (due to commuting costs, etc). I'm very at home in my current school and fear moving would do more harm than good as I don't deal with change well.

Taking English depends on how I do in my GCSEs and how my older friends find it. I guess I'd swap it to SL and do Chem or Geog at HL.

I recommend keeping English HL if you're interested in doing Classics. Have you considered taking History HL or a language HL? Chemistry/Geography is fairly useless for your degree choice. Most universities would want you to have taken Latin or Greek to HL (but I'm not sure how your Classics HL course would play into that). I would also consider taking Latin GCSE to show them that you are dedicated, and that you only decided not to take Latin/Greek because it was not available. You should be fine, just explicitly get your reference to mention that you were not able to take a classical language at your school.

Thanks for pulling up those examples from universities for me.
As I don't really want to study "straight" Classics, many unis don't require qualifications in the ancient languages. Indeed, Oxford offers 5 or so different variants of the subject, many of them not asking for prior knowledge. I would truly love to study at Oxford but we all know that isn't the easiest thing in the world.

I could argue that Chemistry and Geography are both important due to the Archaeology side of things. Both subjects could prove useful with many aspects of the course... I shall spare you from the details.

I might bug Head of Classics to offer some ab initio classes for 6th form... Don't know how it will turn out though as our last Latin teacher is due to retire next year. I have also repeatedly asked him to take our class to an Open Day/Workshop kind of thing at Oxford University. I presume if we went on that trip the department staff could offer me advice.

Many of my friends are telling me I'm way too young to be planning so far ahead but I disagree. I would be awfully upset if I got to Year 13 then realised I'd taken stupid subjects.

Oh! If you are more interested in the Archaeological aspects, then that is much more understandable (Sorry about that!)

Then your subjects are much more appropriate

My courses are:
HL Mathematics
HL English A1
HL History
HL Spanish B
SL Bulgarian A1
SL Chemistry

EE - History written in Spanish
TOK -

Wow, you're writing your History EE in Spanish, despite only being in Spanish HL?