<p>For my schedule next year i'm currently signed up for
IB English HL
IB History SL
IB Spanish HL
IB Psychology HL
Pre-Calculus
IB Bio HL
Honors Chen 2/Honors Physics 2</p>
<p>But I only did this because my teacher implied that doing 2 IB sciences was near impossible, which I now have heard is not true. So what I want to do is drop Honors Chem 2 and Honors Physics 2(each 1 semester) for IB Chen HL. Now, am I allowed to do 5 HL classes and still get the IB diploma? And also, is this a reasonable course load? Is doing 2 IB HL sciences out of the ordinary difficult? </p>
<p>Thanks for reading and hopefully answering!</p>
<p>No, you can only take 4 HL classes</p>
<p>
Unless they’ve changed the rules recently, a student can take more than 4 HL classes so long as (s)he also has at least 2 SL classes. Additional SL/HL classes count for a certificate rather than the Diploma. I don’t think it’s a good move for most people, though.</p>
<p>
Doing two at HL is reasonably demanding but definitely not that unusual. Taking all three is much more rare. The only annoying part is fitting in all of the requisite lab hours and completing the Group 4 Project (either one for each of your sciences or both a biology and chemistry component for one project).</p>
<p>If you want to take Chem HL, it might be a good idea to drop Spanish or Psych down to SL.</p>
<p>Thanks for the help, now I’ve narrowed it down to either keeping my schedule the same or dropping psychology to SL and do Chen HL. If you’ve taken either, what do you learn about in each? How difficult did you find them each? And, did you think what you learned was useful?</p>
<p>Taken from the IBO site:</p>
<p>The Diploma Programme is a two-year, full-time programme. Students must choose one subject from each of groups 1 to 5, thus ensuring breadth of experience in languages, social studies, the experimental sciences and mathematics. The sixth subject may be an arts subject chosen from group 6, or the student may choose another subject from groups 2 to 5. At least three and not more than four are taken at higher level (HL), the others at standard level (SL). HL courses represent a recommended 240 teaching hours; SL courses cover 150 teaching hours.</p>
<p>^
As I mentioned previously, a 5th HL would have to be an extra IB class due to the cap on 4 HL classes for the Diploma.
</p>
<p>
I took both, but that was a while ago, and each high school teaches them differently. Your best source of info would be other students at your school who’ve already had those classes. </p>
<p>IB Psych is one of the easier IB classes, I think. The material itself is not all that difficult if you’re able to learn and remember a lot of info, and the exam is not too difficult if you’ve memorized the major psych experiments and can apply them. The AP Psych exam is one of the easiest AP exams and should be a breeze if you want college credit for psych. </p>
<p>Chem HL is similar to AP Chem in that it covers the major topics of chemistry (stoich, kinetics, atomic theory, redox reactions, acids/bases, thermodynamics, and the like), but it goes much more in depth, and it also includes advanced options of your class/teacher’s choosing – there’s some pretty cool options like environmental chem, pharmacology, organic chem, analytical chem, etc. Chem HL prepares you very well for college chemistry; I took organic chemistry my freshman year at Duke and had absolutely no problems.</p>
Well this is ridiculous. I took five HL classes when I started my diploma program, and back then, my school said it was totally fine for me to do so. Thus, for the past year and a half, I’ve been giving HL exams for an extra class and making sure I never got less than a six on any mock exam or assessment. Now, my coordinator just emailed me asking what my three SL subjects were, and while I emailed her back saying that I was taking five HL classes (English lit, Chem, Phys, Math and Econ).
Can someone tell me which one I should drop to make it look better for admissions? I’ve never gotten less than a six on any of them, and that only happened due to health issues.
Ahmad12345, it depends on your intended major in college.
ITY, my son did HL Physics, HL Chem, and HL Math and he was absolutely fine.
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