The Student Room Group

ib hl biology, too easy???

hi im actually doing crap on the ib at the moment, but i was wondering if ib hl biology is harder or easier than alevel biology, im in my second year of teh ib and find biology a dodle except for section b on paper two that always brings my marks right down. i dont really work hard atall in biology and have had numerouse different teachers and seevral months with no teacher cus my college has had problems, but doing past papers i find that the questions other than part b on the hl paper are very easy, i may do marine biology in uni (if i pass this dam course), will they accept ib biology? it seems too easy for a hl subject, i mean maths and chemistry are solid and parts of geography are hard too at hl. is it much easier than alevel or are they about the same?

P.s im in my second year of the ib
Reply 1
ib sucks
hi im actually doing crap on the ib at the moment, but i was wondering if ib hl biology is harder or easier than alevel biology, im in my second year of teh ib and find biology a dodle except for section b on paper two that always brings my marks right down. i dont really work hard atall in biology and have had numerouse different teachers and seevral months with no teacher cus my college has had problems, but doing past papers i find that the questions other than part b on the hl paper are very easy, i may do marine biology in uni (if i pass this dam course), will they accept ib biology? it seems too easy for a hl subject, i mean maths and chemistry are solid and parts of geography are hard too at hl. is it much easier than alevel or are they about the same?

P.s im in my second year of the ib


I just finished my IB and I didn't find IB HL Biology that hard either but apparently the grade boundaries are really high? I think only 3 people out of at least 50 got 7s in Biology HL in our last exam? I know a lot more people were predicted 7s. I don't think the standard is that much lower that a level(if it is at all...)Maybe you're just good in Biology?
Reply 2
yep, for sure biology is s*** easy with the ib, much easier than A level...i'm in my second year too, but i had done A level biology for bit before i changed schools, so i'd say the ib is somewhere between A and O---
hey, you mentionned bio past papers???!!! where did you find those? could you please help me out with that...
Reply 3
IB biology is just about cramming everything mentioned in the syllabus into your head and being able to regurgitate on the day of the exam. Yet, I must admit that I have to put quite a lot of effort into doing just this, but that might be the result of lacking pre-knowledge after having followed an educational system without any examinations (neither o nor a level) at all before starting the IB. Most people in my class had never encountered the concept of osmosis before starting the IB course. For us, hl biology could be quite challenging.

From what I've heard, the IB gods have removed loads from the bio syllabus over the last few years to make it more manageable. However, if you find bio hl or chem hl more difficult probably depends on your personal preferences (whether you prefer cramming or understanding.... :wink: )
Reply 4
well I think IB HL Bio is challenging if you are not born to have a scientific mind ( DNA make up haha) : )
I am rather interested into Psychology and Art etc but I need Bio because I want to study psychology and we need to know how the body works etc..
unfortunately in IB HL Bio we do a lot more than just bacis stuff about human body so its quite challenging for me..especially Bio-Chemistry and all that funny stuff : )
Reply 5
i take HL Biology in french. i think it can be really hard. there's a lot of stuff to memorize... the class itself isnt super hard but my bio teacher gives us insanely difficult tests (sometimes there are questions on things we never even learned... :frown: ). we do a lot of labs too...sometimes those are really hard, but mostly theyre just time consuming.
Reply 6
i've heard it's damn hard but i can't judge it myself (i'm not taking it)
Reply 7
yeah, i think HL bio is pretty intense. there's a lot of information to remember...
As there's only 2 months left until my final exams, I'd like to think that Biology is a super easy subject thats easily remembered... but I'm afraid that's not the case... It's easy enough to understand but i doubt I will be able to remember all the boring - in detail facts!
Reply 9
who said hl bio was easy...? there is soo much stuff to learn and memorise, and you need the tiny little details, its horrid, if you don't need it, don't do it
I found HL bio very easy in my first year coz I had a great eacher and made great notes easy to learn... As a result I got a 7 on my mock at the end of IB1... Now this year I have the worst teacher ever and because I do bio in french, (there are no books or revision guides watsoever in french) my only source of knwoledge is my sucky teacher! :eek: As a result my grades droped to 5s and now that exams are coming in 10 days, I'm freaking out on bio coz i need a 7 for uni :frown: :bawling: So people who do bio HL in english stop moaning and consider yourself extremly lucky!
Reply 11
I'd say hl bio isn't difficult as such. The only difficulty is trying to remember all the information. Whether or not you'd consider that difficult is another matter.. But most of the stuff is fairly easy to understand (in my opinion) it just doesn't stick in my head!