The Student Room Group

Math standard vs. math studies?

It's February of my Junior year, and I've got good marks in all my classes but math is taking a toll on my potential GPA; I'm actually failing the class. I'm receiving 3's on average, and a 4 was my highest grade.

I've always been a more humanities focussed person, and I feel like math studies may suit me better since it's more real-life applicable math, the only issue is that my brother, an IB graduate, says it's near impossible to get into decent UK colleges if I take math studies, and so that's what my parents are convinced of as well.

Is that true? And is it too late for me to change courses? If so, what can I use to convince my parents to let me change courses with? Once they agree, I'm sure the school would allow me to, given my really poor performance...

Thanks so much!!
Original post by nafar
It's February of my Junior year, and I've got good marks in all my classes but math is taking a toll on my potential GPA; I'm actually failing the class. I'm receiving 3's on average, and a 4 was my highest grade.

I've always been a more humanities focussed person, and I feel like math studies may suit me better since it's more real-life applicable math, the only issue is that my brother, an IB graduate, says it's near impossible to get into decent UK colleges if I take math studies, and so that's what my parents are convinced of as well.

Is that true? And is it too late for me to change courses? If so, what can I use to convince my parents to let me change courses with? Once they agree, I'm sure the school would allow me to, given my really poor performance...

Thanks so much!!


Erm it depends on the school whether it is too late or not. Whether or not it would affect your chance of admissions depends on the subject you are applying for. If you are a more humanities oriented person and your chosen course would reflect that, you shouldn't have any issues if you choose Maths Studies. Search for the potential courses and show the entry requirements to your parents. Your HLs are more important in any case.

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Reply 2
Original post by nafar
It's February of my Junior year, and I've got good marks in all my classes but math is taking a toll on my potential GPA; I'm actually failing the class. I'm receiving 3's on average, and a 4 was my highest grade.

I've always been a more humanities focussed person, and I feel like math studies may suit me better since it's more real-life applicable math, the only issue is that my brother, an IB graduate, says it's near impossible to get into decent UK colleges if I take math studies, and so that's what my parents are convinced of as well.

Is that true? And is it too late for me to change courses? If so, what can I use to convince my parents to let me change courses with? Once they agree, I'm sure the school would allow me to, given my really poor performance...

Thanks so much!!


What are you looking to study? Why not check the websites for potential UK universities to see what their requirements are?
Although you may get into university with Math studies, you will probably have a hard time in the university if you do not have math SL knowledge at least. I don't know what you are interested in to continue study on, but I would recommend taking SL unless you want to do something like Arts, English or Psychology.
I took maths studies and got a 7. If you take studies, you want to aim and get a 6 or 7.
Good unis will still look at you, but it depends what course you want to do. if you want to do economics, then most unis want maths at SL or HL.
You should look at university entrance requirements.

I applied for veterinary science and got 2 offers so far (and I did maths studies)
First, a 3 is not failing in strict IB terms! I may be wrong, but only getting a 1 in a class will be an automatic failure of achieving your diploma. So if you're scoring fine in other classes, you will still be able to get the needed points to get your diploma. However,if you're scoring highly in all your other classes it can be very disheartening to see you score worse in one of your subjects no matter how hard you work. Also, if it's stopping you from getting the expected points for university it can be rather annoying.

My #1 advice: do not underestimate maths studies. Many universities and courses at amazing universities will take you if you take studies. It may be difficult to get into some science / engineering / economics courses, but as a general rule of thumb humanity based courses wont have an issue with you taking maths studies. This isn't true for all universities and courses, so if you know what you want to study / where it's vital you look it up to find out. Let's take a quick look at some 'prestigious' universities to see what they say about maths studies a in IB (I have no idea where you want to go, but this is just to give you clarity that you can get into Uni with studies):

Oxford human sciences: suggests Maths HL, but does not require it. You will not be automatically unconsidered due to studies, but I would argue for this particular course it would be a significant handicap. https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/courses-listing/human-sciences?wssl=1

Oxford History and English: no requirement or mention of IB maths at all. You should be fine with a studies diploma. (Though I would ask someone who knows Oxford better to see whether it would pose a handicap) https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/courses-listing/history-and-english?wssl=1

UCL: Law. No mention of maths at all. Your application will be considered with studies. http://www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/undergraduate/degrees/law-ucl-hku-llb/

Kings College London: Geography. No desired subjects. You'd be fine. https://www.kcl.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/geography-ba.aspx

Durham Philosophy and Psychology: They have requirements for GSCE mathematics, but no mention of it after that. This is a tricky one to dissect. What I assume is that if you have the required GSCE grade (a C I believe) studies should be fine. https://www.dur.ac.uk/courses/info/?id=11664&title=Philosophy+and+Psychology&code=CV85&type=BA&year=2018#admissions

I will admit that in some places maths was more desired than others. Some placesI looked at asked for maths HL for geography or psychology subjects, but this is not true for all universities. So it is true that you may limit some of your options, but if you score well in maths studies, I'd argue you're actually opening more doors for yourself than you're closing. My school has a huge number of Maths Studies students, and they have no issue getting into university. I wouldn't say Studies causes and issue for most people.

Finally, if your school allows it it's not too late to switch. However I should mention that it isn't going to be an easy switch. Many people simply say that studies is 'easy' mathematics, but that's not actually true. Studies is a very different course from SL. It's designed in a very different way with incredibly different goals. I spent a bit of last year as a teaching assistant at my school's studies class (I take HL) and I realised it's a different class that required a very different mindset. I'd argue that the ways of solving questions and the questions given are very narrow, meaning that you must recognise what is going on. This confused me on a quite a few questions, as I'm used to be able to use whatever knowledge I have to figure out a question. Studies is a different class, so do not go into it with the thought 'I'll score a 7 and breeze through this.' I have seen so many people do that and score a 4 in studies, because they underestimated the class. So if you switch, go to your teacher and get all the tests / materials from before and give it a shot. See what you can do and what you can't.

Best of luck!

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