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IB environmental systems and societies

Is environmental systems hard, is it a lower level of science?? Like how you have SL maths and maths studies, is the ess like a studies of the sciences, I'm currently doing biology sl and Im Not enjoying it and I'm struggling very much, I'm not gna do and sciences in uni, I want to do geography and economics and I'm very afraid I'm gna do bad on the biology test... I'm only in my first yr of ib so I want to make the decision to move as quick as possible before its not too late..

Reply 1

saachi

ESS is definitely easier content- wise. It's the kind of subject many people take light heartedly because you're right; similar to how Math Studies is for those who don't have an aptitude toward math, ESS is for non- science oriented students. It's kind of basic, really- just environmental stuff, not too simple, not too complicated, with LOTS of case studies involved.

However, the thing with this subject is that a lot of people are too complacent about it- the world average for it is surprisingly low. Also, the mark schemes are picky; they have specific words and terms they want you to use in your answers, and it doesn't always seem fair when you nail the explanation/ theory behind something but just used one word instead of the technically correct term and get 2 marks off. Also, because it's not considered very challenging, many people do reasonably well in the exams and the grade boundaries get set very high. Statistically you're more likely to get a 7 in Bio SL than ESS, but practically, you'd have to work harder for a 7 in Bio- in ESS it would be a matter of luck as well.

In my school, the subject was underestimated miserably, to the point where our ESS class didn't even have a proper teacher- half the time she wasn't there and when she was, she just told us to read the textbook, and we struggled with the labs quite a bit. So if your school doesn't neglect it, you should be fine. Our class got 4's and 5's all around, mine was one of the few 6's- but I hardly paid the subject any attention, and I'm not a science-y student at all- so you should be alright, too. Definitely take ESS if you're struggling with Bio- it'll only get easier, that's a guarantee. Universities really won't care if you're not applying for a science.

Reply 2

CeliaH

I see, thank you saachi, today I got my results from the end of unit test and honestly I am not satisfied, I got 26/40 which is a level 5, I think I am going to change to ess, but now I'm waiting to confirm. I am currently doing geography in group 2 and I want to do ess for group 4, but I heard from someone that if I do geography then I won't be able to do ess because its too similar, is this true?

Reply 3

saachi

Original post by CeliaH

That's strange that they're telling you that, because I did both Geography and ESS! Many times ESS feels like a subset of Geography, and it's actually very useful to take both because you can use the same case studies wherever they're appropriate. If I hadn't taken Geography I would have had to study a bit to get that 6 :smile:

So unless there's a timetable clash, you should be able to take both.

Reply 4

vixkyf

hi, I was wondering if anyone could suggest a good IA title for me?
What the investigation involved was measuring abiotic components of an ecosystem along an environmental gradient.
Would

"To measure the distribution of crabs over a perpendicular gradient in the mangroves of Sai Keng, Sai Kung, and to determine what factors influence this distribution" be a suitable title?

If you could help, it would really be appreciated!