<p>Well of course one wouldn’t be allowed to take more than 4 HLs because they restrict your schedule since they’re 2 year courses.</p>
<p>At my school, we are really only allowed to do three. One person two years ago got special permission and did four, but that is the only person I know who has been allowed to do that.</p>
<p>I was going to do 5, since my German teacher suggested I take the HL test instead of SL. That’s a case where you usually end up taking it 2 years of IB for HL/SL (at least at my school). But it turns out that apparently IB doesn’t let you do 5 HLs…</p>
<p>Why in the world would you even want to do 5? 3 suppose to be bad enough, and 4 is usually the limit of HLs one can take.</p>
<p>Again - college credit.</p>
<p>My school makes us take HL English and History and I couldn’t decide between Chemistry and Math for my 3rd HL so I took both. Biology SL was my elective and it would have taken it for a 5th HL If I could have.</p>
<p>4 HLs was not very common at our school and our Diploma Program Coordinator tried to discourage me doing it. I’m good at math and our chemistry class was kind of a joke so I had no problem with the extra workload. We’ll see how my diploma points shake out.</p>
<p>I applaud all of the people taking 5 or more HLs. You kind of have to load up on the HLs because a lot of prestigious colleges won’t give credit for SLs, but my question is: strictly credit wise, wouldn’t it be better to take AP credit where needed instead of HL certificates?</p>
<p>You are exactly right with your last point @Marisa790</p>
<p>In most cases, probably yes. It depends, though, on how well the IB curriculum lines up with the AP tests and whether the AP test is even available. In the case of languages, the AP tests were rarely taken in my region of the country because most schools gave retroactive credit based on their own placement tests. I didn’t have the option to take AP for that, and didn’t end up at a school that gave retro credit, but I don’t really think it’s a big deal. Once I actually started college, I realized all that pickiness and obsession over credit I had in high school was way overkill.</p>
<p>Most take 3 HLs but a few take 4 if they really want to</p>