<p>Hello everyone! I'm a rising junior in the IB Diploma Programme and have chosen my classes, but I feel like I should change them around given my desired majors in college. My counselor is very helpful pleasant to work with and she is willing to change my schedule around if I ask her. I would like some input on which courses I should take. Any and all Suggestions, comments, input, etc is appreciated </p>
<p>I intend to major in international relations and/or political science. Here's my schedule:</p>
<p>HL Psychology
HL Physics
HL Chemistry
HL or SL Spanish (havent decided)
SL English
SL Math</p>
<p>I am concerned with this schedule because it is very strong in the natural sciences with psychology being described as a mixture of a social and natural science. Unfortunately, the only other classes in the social sciences offered are Business and Management (both HL and SL) and Information Technology in a Global Society (both HL and SL). I am considering Changing my schedule to the following:
HL English
HL Business
HL Chemistry or Physics (undecided)
HL Spanish
SL Math
SL Psychology</p>
<p>Again, I would really appreciate any input. Thanks!</p>
<p>First, doing 4 HL courses is a bad idea, it is extremely difficult, and the extra work involved is intense. I’m not sure if it is normal at your school to take 4 HL courses, but at our school few did, fewer passed, and all regretted it.
That being said, something you need to factor in is teacher quality, if for instance the teaching style of your HL Chem teacher is pretty bad while Hl Physics has a wonderful teacher then your decision is obvious.
If you want us to look purely at the courses and their syllabi then:
HL English - easy, especially if you have a good teacher
HL Psych - Easy to self study for, not that much different from SL Psych
HL Chem - This takes a lot of extra work to prepare for compared to SL Chem and is difficult in comparision to Physics prep
HL Physics - compared to SL physics it isn’t too difficult; recommend over Chem
SL Math - depends on the type, if you mean math studies, its a joke
SL/HL Spanish - depends on your proficiency (near native level for HL is a good idea)</p>
<p>Their is nothing wrong with having more hard sciences, but it will be more difficult for you, I don’t have knowledge about Business but I can recommend taking SL Spanish over HL Spanish, the level of difficulty in HL is much higher. </p>
<p>I would recommend the following:
HL English
HL Chem
HL Physics
SL Math
SL Psych (HL if you really want 4 HLs)
SL Spanish</p>
<p>This is based on my experiences with the courses. I will say I have no idea regarding the difficulty of business, but I have heard it is demanding. Colleges will be happy to see you have two hard science HLs because they are perceived as being more difficult. Furthermore most colleges will only give you credit for HL courses. You want to be able to knock out freshman level science courses because they are known as ‘weed out’ classes and are generally detrimental to your GPA. By doing well on Chem and Physics you can make your life easier.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for your input! My school just started the IB Programme; I’m in the first Class offered the option of the IB Diploma at our school. My Physics and Chemistry teachers are both fantastic people, I have only heard the best about them so it would be hard to choose. I didn’t know 4 HLs is that difficult, thanks for the warning. I think that making English an HL is a great idea. Thanks for the input!</p>