The Student Room Group

easiest IB subjects

well, a thread was started about which subjects are the most difficult, and it was pretty much maths and the sciences... this just got me wondering which are considered the easiest?

also, as you all know, IB is v. difficult and so therefore looked upon quote favourably by unis etc. (or so I've been told! I hope it is!) so does it make that much of a difference if you take at HL the "easy" subjects? considering it's quite a difficult course anyway?

I think my HLs are considered quite easy... got me a little concerned :s-smilie:

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Im finding Philosophy HL quite easy. Im not really sure about the other subjects I "think" its going well for me...
History HL. You only need to pick up two skills: essay writing and source analysis.
Reply 3
afua12
well, a thread was started about which subjects are the most difficult, and it was pretty much maths and the sciences... this just got me wondering which are considered the easiest?

also, as you all know, IB is v. difficult and so therefore looked upon quote favourably by unis etc. (or so I've been told! I hope it is!) so does it make that much of a difference if you take at HL the "easy" subjects? considering it's quite a difficult course anyway?

I think my HLs are considered quite easy... got me a little concerned :s-smilie:


from what you say i can bet my balls that you are a first year?? :p:
i wouldn't go as far as saying that IB is looked upon favourably by UK universities..
rather i would say their predicted grade expectations seem to suggest that they prefer A-level students... but that's for another day :p:

easiest classes i would say...in order

1. ITGS
2. Math Studies
3. Environmental Systems
4. English B (assuming your doing your IB in english)

what are your HL's??
Reply 4
lol yeh first year!

my highers are philosophy, psychology and German B

I know psychology is generally considered easier/lighter in A levels and well, just generally, and a couple of people have also called philosophy a "filler" subject, so...yeh, just a little worried i guess... I didn't choose them because of how easy they would be, I chose them because it's what i find interesting...
afua12


my highers are philosophy, psychology and German B



woo philosophy :p:

aren't you finding it easy?
I don't what you mean by easy...like in HL range...or as in all the courses? If it's HL, I suppose Philosophy, Psychology, etc. is easy.
Reply 7
All the standard levels are easy except for physics, geography.

Chem HL is really easy for me.
Lol, someone who thinks the extra work is recognised by Universities? Right...
are we talking the easiest HL when compared to SL, or easiest HL in general, or easiest subject...i think, as i said in the other thread, that it depends on what you're good at. I personally find Thai A2 ridiculously easy (but then, that's cuz i've been doing Thai A1 all my life). But if you want to compare the HL section to SL section of any subject, i think Economics HL is the easiest because the only difference is theory of the firm (which is easier than some SL units). I've also heard that B&M is based solely on common sense, and is easy, but it is hard to score well in the exams because the markscheme is too specific.
Reply 10
dafunkyguy
I don't what you mean by easy...like in HL range...or as in all the courses? If it's HL, I suppose Philosophy, Psychology, etc. is easy.


this is what I'm worried about...guess what my HLs are?
Reply 11
depends what you want to do in Uni.
if in uni you want to do psych/philosophy then having them in HL is neccessary :smile: however if you were bent on doing engineering...then ermm.
id change.
fast ! :biggrin:
Reply 12
Engelbert
Lol, someone who thinks the extra work is recognised by Universities? Right...


hehe :wink:

ps: I told you i KNEW you were a first year :biggrin:
you still seem dillusioned by the fact that IB is more "recognised"

hehe.
i was like that :p:
dw we all are/were at some point...
one day, you will realise that UK uni's give tuppence abt us working out butts off :redface:
Reply 13
ashwin2290
depends what you want to do in Uni.
if in uni you want to do psych/philosophy then having them in HL is neccessary :smile: however if you were bent on doing engineering...then ermm.
id change.
fast ! :biggrin:


I think I want to take Philosophy at university... but I'm not yeat 100% sure...

if i want to go to good university, though, will they look down at my subject choice?
Reply 14
ashwin2290
hehe :wink:

ps: I told you i KNEW you were a first year :biggrin:
you still seem dillusioned by the fact that IB is more "recognised"

hehe.
i was like that :p:
dw we all are/were at some point...
one day, you will realise that UK uni's give tuppence abt us working out butts off :redface:


ahh dam it lol
Reply 15
w00t about Drama? My gf takes it and has to write maybe 1-2 300 word essays every 2 weeks, seems pretty easy.
She always tells me how hard it is, but I don't quite believe her.

Art on the other hand seems kinda hard, a friend has to make a 200 page art portfolio or so. That equals to about 1 page every 2 days in 2 IB years...
Reply 16
afua12
I think I want to take Philosophy at university... but I'm not yeat 100% sure...

if i want to go to good university, though, will they look down at my subject choice?

Both philosophy and psychology aren't very common subjects in a school's IB curriculum. My school's been teaching IB since it was introduced (is also the fiftieth school to adopt it) and I don't think they've ever had an IB psychology, philosophy, CS teacher etc...

So no, they won't really look at it. It won't give you an advantage either in terms of the application process, however, philosophy HL is definitely a kick-start if you have a keen interest on it.

@above; yeah, apparently Art is really difficult to get a seven in. And to be fair, the final IB exhibition looks absolutely painful to do :p:...
itgs i think is a bit like bnm the course content is easy but the exams are deceptively hard. to get a good grade in an itgs ee for example i know to be very hard.
Reply 18
I would say ITGS and Film. They seem very, very simple to me when I compare the amount of work I do to that of my classmates' that have those classes. Psychology seems mad hard to me. I don't think theatre is very easy at all. You need to really have a mind for it, and be really detailed in exactly what you write about.
about IB being recognised...depends where you are.

in NZ, IB is seen as a 'better' qualification than our national certificate (mainly cos NCEA is crap) but its not offered in many places (ie we are the only school in my city that does IB and theres probably around 10 schools in th whole country with IB).

also, our nat. cert. (NCEA) isn't recognised well overseas, so if you wanna go to uni elsewhere it's hard because they can't compare your NCEA scores with their own country's marks.