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Help needed with choosing IB subjects for marine biology

Hello! Can anyone help me figure out on what subjects to choose if I want to become a marine biologist?
For sciences, my knowledge of biology isn't that great, so I'm not sure if I should even take it, thinking that I should replace bio with chem, but I've seen people saying that it's better if you take bio. I also want to ask if geography is needed?
I'm not sure for what other subjects I should change since for I've chose art,business, and econ for gcses.

Reply 1

Original post
by babalala
Hello! Can anyone help me figure out on what subjects to choose if I want to become a marine biologist?
For sciences, my knowledge of biology isn't that great, so I'm not sure if I should even take it, thinking that I should replace bio with chem, but I've seen people saying that it's better if you take bio. I also want to ask if geography is needed?
I'm not sure for what other subjects I should change since for I've chose art,business, and econ for gcses.

If youre not great at bio and you dont enjoy it that much then why are you aspiring for a degree in marine biology?
Biology is the most important subject for marine biology, if you dont like bio then strongly consider whether marine biology is really the best choice for you.
Geography isnt needed but it can be helpful to have studied, again if you dont like geography or biology type subjects its confusing to me why you’d want to take a subject which is basically a combination of biology and environmental geography!
Original post
by babalala
Hello! Can anyone help me figure out on what subjects to choose if I want to become a marine biologist?
For sciences, my knowledge of biology isn't that great, so I'm not sure if I should even take it, thinking that I should replace bio with chem, but I've seen people saying that it's better if you take bio. I also want to ask if geography is needed?
I'm not sure for what other subjects I should change since for I've chose art,business, and econ for gcses.

As above, if you struggle with biology then choosing to pursue marine biology seems a little puzzling. What is it that drew you to marine biology in the first place? Why is it you want to pursue it/what do you envision yourself doing as a marine biologist?

Realistically I would expect biology plus another science at HL (chemistry probably most relevant although physics may be acceptable for many/most courses). Geography may have some relevant element pertaining to human impact on the environment although I suspect many of the examples are probably going to be more terrestrial. That said geography wouldn't be necessary or expected, it's just thematically relevant in some respects and so may be of interest to you.

Reply 3

Original post
by DerDracologe
If youre not great at bio and you dont enjoy it that much then why are you aspiring for a degree in marine biology?
Biology is the most important subject for marine biology, if you dont like bio then strongly consider whether marine biology is really the best choice for you.
Geography isnt needed but it can be helpful to have studied, again if you dont like geography or biology type subjects its confusing to me why you’d want to take a subject which is basically a combination of biology and environmental geography!
Thank you for asking me that question, I had to think really deep about it for some time. I didn't feel really confident in biology and it was quite hard for me to decide whether or not if I should even choose it, but you helped me realise that I do want a degree in marine biology since and that it's kinda useless if I don't bother choosing biology so I'll take it. As for geography, there were some other subjects that needed to be picked but i'll figure that out later. Thank you again!

Reply 4

Original post
by babalala
Thank you for asking me that question, I had to think really deep about it for some time. I didn't feel really confident in biology and it was quite hard for me to decide whether or not if I should even choose it, but you helped me realise that I do want a degree in marine biology since and that it's kinda useless if I don't bother choosing biology so I'll take it. As for geography, there were some other subjects that needed to be picked but i'll figure that out later. Thank you again!

No problem, i wish you the best of luck with your decision 🙂

Reply 5

Original post
by artful_lounger
As above, if you struggle with biology then choosing to pursue marine biology seems a little puzzling. What is it that drew you to marine biology in the first place? Why is it you want to pursue it/what do you envision yourself doing as a marine biologist?
Realistically I would expect biology plus another science at HL (chemistry probably most relevant although physics may be acceptable for many/most courses). Geography may have some relevant element pertaining to human impact on the environment although I suspect many of the examples are probably going to be more terrestrial. That said geography wouldn't be necessary or expected, it's just thematically relevant in some respects and so may be of interest to you.

I have passion for exploring marine creatures and many more, though im not sure which aspect I want to focus on. I've decided to take biology, I'm not sure if my school would allow me to choose 2 sciences at once, but if it's possible, would chem be the better option? For geography I'll maybe have to put in some more thought on this. Thank you for your help!
Original post
by babalala
I have passion for exploring marine creatures and many more, though im not sure which aspect I want to focus on. I've decided to take biology, I'm not sure if my school would allow me to choose 2 sciences at once, but if it's possible, would chem be the better option? For geography I'll maybe have to put in some more thought on this. Thank you for your help!


Well for your group 6 option you either take a group 6 (arts) subject or a second subject in another area (commonly a second science).

Worth bearing in mind, marine biology doesn't just involve large organisms like marine mammals, birds, and fish but also the very large scope of marine invertebrates including small and microscopic ones like corals and zooplankton, as well as non-animal organisms (especially phytoplankton but also various marine bacteria etc). In fact the smaller stuff often is ecologically of much larger importance!

Equally the underlying physiology, marine biogeochemistry, molecular/cell/developmental biology, genetics etc of all these organisms are all key areas where marine biologists are involved. Hence all the A-level Biology content is quite relevant...! It is a formal experimental science in the same manner as biology so do keep that in mind.

Geography would be purely optional, don't feel compelled to take it if you're not interested in it - a lot of the content isn't going to be specifically relevant to marine environments I imagine (although I expect quite a lot indirectly does connect to marine environments in the big picture of things).

For a second science I suspect any is fine, chemistry is probably generally the most relevant both from a biosciences perspective (chemistry underpins much modern molecular biology) and earth sciences perspective (in terms of earth materials and marine and atmospheric (biogeo)chemical cycles). Physics I'm sure also has its relevance if you particularly enjoy that though.

Reply 7

Original post
by babalala
I have passion for exploring marine creatures and many more, though im not sure which aspect I want to focus on. I've decided to take biology, I'm not sure if my school would allow me to choose 2 sciences at once, but if it's possible, would chem be the better option? For geography I'll maybe have to put in some more thought on this. Thank you for your help!

Im looking to go into a similar kind of degree (ecology) and so have looked at many entry requirements at a range of unis (not joking i may have looked at all of them for England unis). Youll be best of taking bio and either maths or chem. if you really dont want to do maths or chem HL then geography is a good option if you like it as lots of unis count it as a science for marine bio cos the content is quite relevant. The most important thing will be 2 HL sciences including bio. Sciences are maths, physics, bio, chem, env studies, geography, sometimes psych etc Hope that helps 🙂

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