Should I take HL Philo or HL Psych?
I'm planning to choose HL Biology, Chemistry but I have no idea if I should choose Philo or Psych.
I'm taking Psych right now for GCSE and it's hard and I've never gotten 7 but I don't exactly hate it. I've done Philosophy and Religion (PRS) before from year 7-9 and I got As but IB is probably gonna be more than 10x harder.
Psych
Pros
- I've got a tutor for it right now and we're probably going to start preparing for it during summer
Cons
- My predicted score for GCSE Psych is only a 5
Philo
I have no idea but it seems more interesting? But I feel like it's going to be riskier since I don't have much background knowledge on it.
Tbh I'm aiming more to get a high score for IB than doing something I'm interested in. I'm also planning to do something related to science for uni.
I'm taking Psych right now for GCSE and it's hard and I've never gotten 7 but I don't exactly hate it. I've done Philosophy and Religion (PRS) before from year 7-9 and I got As but IB is probably gonna be more than 10x harder.
Psych
Pros
- I've got a tutor for it right now and we're probably going to start preparing for it during summer
Cons
- My predicted score for GCSE Psych is only a 5
Philo
I have no idea but it seems more interesting? But I feel like it's going to be riskier since I don't have much background knowledge on it.
Tbh I'm aiming more to get a high score for IB than doing something I'm interested in. I'm also planning to do something related to science for uni.
(edited 3 years ago)
Original post by imloki
I'm planning to choose HL Biology, Chemistry but I have no idea if I should choose Philo or Psych.
I'm taking Psych right now for GCSE and it's hard and I've never gotten 7 but I don't exactly hate it. I've done Philosophy and Religion (PRS) before from year 7-9 and I got As but IB is probably gonna be more than 10x harder.
Psych
Pros
- I've got a tutor for it right now and we're probably going to start preparing for it during summer
Cons
- My predicted score for GCSE Psych is only a 5
Philo
I have no idea but it seems more interesting? But I feel like it's going to be riskier since I don't have much background knowledge on it.
Tbh I'm aiming more to get a high score for IB than doing something I'm interested in. I'm also planning to do something related to science for uni.
I'm taking Psych right now for GCSE and it's hard and I've never gotten 7 but I don't exactly hate it. I've done Philosophy and Religion (PRS) before from year 7-9 and I got As but IB is probably gonna be more than 10x harder.
Psych
Pros
- I've got a tutor for it right now and we're probably going to start preparing for it during summer
Cons
- My predicted score for GCSE Psych is only a 5
Philo
I have no idea but it seems more interesting? But I feel like it's going to be riskier since I don't have much background knowledge on it.
Tbh I'm aiming more to get a high score for IB than doing something I'm interested in. I'm also planning to do something related to science for uni.
I'm not an expert on psych, however I'm a first year HL Philosphy student and can say that there is A LOT of content to take on. It's difficult but the course does take you through philo in a detailed way - I never studied philo before then but could still pick up pretty much everything in classes. In other places here I've seen that psych maybe better for science related courses (especially medicine etc) and that getting high grades is achievable. However, overall, you get out what you put in so no matter which you choose, as long as you work hard and enjoy it anything is achievable. Hope this helps
Original post by imloki
I'm planning to choose HL Biology, Chemistry but I have no idea if I should choose Philo or Psych.
I'm taking Psych right now for GCSE and it's hard and I've never gotten 7 but I don't exactly hate it. I've done Philosophy and Religion (PRS) before from year 7-9 and I got As but IB is probably gonna be more than 10x harder.
Psych
Pros
- I've got a tutor for it right now and we're probably going to start preparing for it during summer
Cons
- My predicted score for GCSE Psych is only a 5
Philo
I have no idea but it seems more interesting? But I feel like it's going to be riskier since I don't have much background knowledge on it.
Tbh I'm aiming more to get a high score for IB than doing something I'm interested in. I'm also planning to do something related to science for uni.
I'm taking Psych right now for GCSE and it's hard and I've never gotten 7 but I don't exactly hate it. I've done Philosophy and Religion (PRS) before from year 7-9 and I got As but IB is probably gonna be more than 10x harder.
Psych
Pros
- I've got a tutor for it right now and we're probably going to start preparing for it during summer
Cons
- My predicted score for GCSE Psych is only a 5
Philo
I have no idea but it seems more interesting? But I feel like it's going to be riskier since I don't have much background knowledge on it.
Tbh I'm aiming more to get a high score for IB than doing something I'm interested in. I'm also planning to do something related to science for uni.
Hi, I did SL Philosophy (the only reason I didn't do HL is because my school only offered the philosophy of religion module as an additional one for HL because it was a small school so maybe check which units your school does?) and I really enjoyed it!
It is structured in a really interesting way (core questions such as what does it mean to be human) and you definitely do not need prior philosophical background to study the subject. There is a lot of space to learn the theory and form your own view too. You do the core themes, ethics and then study a text (the school usually picks this so maybe check out which one they do and if it interests you? my school did Nietzsche's On the Genealogy of Morality).
I haven't done psychology so I can't comment on that but my friends have said that it is heavy on case studies and research methods so maybe look into this?
I am very glad that I took philosophy and feel I have learnt so much and developed my essay and thinking skills so much! I am going to study law too and was useful for this although I think it just helps the way you structure arguments in general - especially in other IB subjects like English lit. I also did my EE in philosophy and really enjoyed it (although it was difficult at times for sure
). I hope this helps and best of luck with the IB!
(edited 2 years ago)
Original post by imloki
I'm planning to choose HL Biology, Chemistry but I have no idea if I should choose Philo or Psych.
I'm taking Psych right now for GCSE and it's hard and I've never gotten 7 but I don't exactly hate it. I've done Philosophy and Religion (PRS) before from year 7-9 and I got As but IB is probably gonna be more than 10x harder.
Psych
Pros
- I've got a tutor for it right now and we're probably going to start preparing for it during summer
Cons
- My predicted score for GCSE Psych is only a 5
Philo
I have no idea but it seems more interesting? But I feel like it's going to be riskier since I don't have much background knowledge on it.
Tbh I'm aiming more to get a high score for IB than doing something I'm interested in. I'm also planning to do something related to science for uni.
I'm taking Psych right now for GCSE and it's hard and I've never gotten 7 but I don't exactly hate it. I've done Philosophy and Religion (PRS) before from year 7-9 and I got As but IB is probably gonna be more than 10x harder.
Psych
Pros
- I've got a tutor for it right now and we're probably going to start preparing for it during summer
Cons
- My predicted score for GCSE Psych is only a 5
Philo
I have no idea but it seems more interesting? But I feel like it's going to be riskier since I don't have much background knowledge on it.
Tbh I'm aiming more to get a high score for IB than doing something I'm interested in. I'm also planning to do something related to science for uni.
You said one of the cons of philosophy is that you haven’t done it for GCSE. Fortunately, this isn’t a concern as very very few do it for GCSE so everyone in the class will be in the same position as you and the teacher will take this into account. Even those who have done GCSE RS won’t be at an advantage as the focuses for the two syllabuses are completely different. Maybe look at the spec for both phil and psyc if you haven’t already. If available on your school’s website, you may want to look at their charts of the results previous years have got in every subject. If you find that barely anyone gets 7s or 6s in one of the subjects that may be an indicator that it’s a very challenging course of that your school doesn’t teach it very well. On the other hand if the results show that a significant proportion do very well then that could be an additional reason to take it, suggesting that your school has a very strong department in that subject.
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