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IB subjects

These are my current IB subjects:

Chemistry HL
Biology HL
Mathematics HL
English language and literature SL

And now, the school is making me choose between

Physics SL and German SL
Or
Psychology SL and Spanish ab initio

Let's ignore the languages
Is it worth it to drop physics for psychology?
I want to study medicine in England. But I am very bad at essay writing. I really don't like writing essays and I am bad at English like analysing poems and short stories and all that. But I have no problem learning off by heart, which is what I heard psychology is about. But if I take psychology I cant change it, so I don't know if I want to risk it.
On the other hand, I really like physics and I enjoy learning it and I am not bad at the subject. My parents say that psychology will help me with medicine but I don't want to become a psychiatrist or a researcher I am aiming for surgeon.

The teacher at school said that taking 3 sciences will be too much because in June I will be running ro complete all the experiments. I dont like the idea of dropping physics because I really like it. My parents are under the impression that Spanish is easier. I need help I dont know what to choose could I please have some advice?
On the languages side of things, Spanish a.b. will definitely be easier than German SL. This is because it is an ab initio class, therefore is targeted at students who have no prior knowledge of the language - it'll be much easier than Standard Level language, ergo you'll have a higher chance of getting a 7 for languages if you went w Spanish ab.

To do medicine, HL chemistry and biology are more than enough. If you really do enjoy physics SL, then I'd say go with it but prepare yourself for a shedload of work in Y13. But tbh, your 3 HLs are already perfectly more than enough to get into medical school. I recommend taking the easier route ie SL pyschology & Spanish ab initio, therefore you're likely to get higher overall IB points. You already have the necessary subjects for medicine, now you should focus on getting the highest possible points. It's a point game, and at the end of the day that's the determining factor of whether you get into university or not. SO i defintely would recommend taking the easier route, and aiming for higher points.
Reply 2
Original post by confuzzledteen
On the languages side of things, Spanish a.b. will definitely be easier than German SL. This is because it is an ab initio class, therefore is targeted at students who have no prior knowledge of the language - it'll be much easier than Standard Level language, ergo you'll have a higher chance of getting a 7 for languages if you went w Spanish ab.

To do medicine, HL chemistry and biology are more than enough. If you really do enjoy physics SL, then I'd say go with it but prepare yourself for a shedload of work in Y13. But tbh, your 3 HLs are already perfectly more than enough to get into medical school. I recommend taking the easier route ie SL pyschology & Spanish ab initio, therefore you're likely to get higher overall IB points. You already have the necessary subjects for medicine, now you should focus on getting the highest possible points. It's a point game, and at the end of the day that's the determining factor of whether you get into university or not. SO i defintely would recommend taking the easier route, and aiming for higher points.

Thank you so much for the advice. My only concern is that I don't think Psychology will actually be easier for me as I am quite bad at writing essays. I don't understand why they say physics is so hard I mean most of the chapters are like IGCSE in more depth and maths won't be a problem. The only thing that concerns me about physics is the experiment. Will I have to do an experiment the second year as well?
Original post by Smaragda0
Thank you so much for the advice. My only concern is that I don't think Psychology will actually be easier for me as I am quite bad at writing essays. I don't understand why they say physics is so hard I mean most of the chapters are like IGCSE in more depth and maths won't be a problem. The only thing that concerns me about physics is the experiment. Will I have to do an experiment the second year as well?

Lol, I can confirm that IB physics is on another planet compared to IGCSE physics :colondollar:
Depending on which medical school you apply to psychology might give you an advantage because medical education is starting to focus more on the holistic medicine and tries to incorporate more mental health into the new curriculums.

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