Is this too much of a course load for junior year to maintain a 4.0 GPA?
HL Lit
BC Calc AP
Orchestra
HL Biology
SL Chemistry
HL History (one of the biggest work loads in my school)
SL Spanish 4
TOK
we have 8 periods and orchestra is my only elective since I am choosing to take an additional science course. Although TOK is more of a study hall for junior year, there will be at least a little bit of academic learning required.
I also have to balance many extracurriculars and also have to study for the SAT’s, hoping to shoot for a high score.
Is this too much to handle?
Is the BC Calc AP for HL math or SL math? Taking four HL classes, especially with math HL, might be a struggle. The course load of the IB program in general is challenging already no matter what classes you decide on (although some are definitely more challenging than others). As a current junior in the program, my classes are pretty similar to yours except I take SL ITGS instead of chemistry. I can give you advice on how challenging each course is but its solely based on my own experience with my own teachers but hopefully it will help.
HL Lit: A lot of reading/analyzing and essay writing however I consider this one of my more “easy classes”. As long as you can analyze a literary work effectively and produce a decent essay you should be fine.
HL Bio: One of my more challenging classes due to the immense information. There is a lot of memorizing and analyzing of graphs/tables.
HL History: Definitely a lot of reading and information to take in. Especially for HL, there is a lot of writing and more depth to cover.
SL Spanish: I personally struggle with this class because I skipped a level of spanish before IB this year. I would recommend studying grammar over the summer in order to be more prepared. Also, study vocab and do practice reading comprehension questions. Practice is very important for this class.
TOK: This is not necessarily a hard class, you just need to be open minded and willing to view certain ideas in a philosophical perspective.
I dont know which math class you are taking and do not have experience with IB chemistry so I unfortunately cannot give you advice on those. But, I hope this helped! Overall, I think your schedule is fine. Make sure to manage your time well and extracurriculars will not be much of a problem juggling. Sports may be a little hard to balance but it is definitely manageable if you try! Good Luck
Thank you for the advice! I am taking BC Calc as an AP course, but taking IB SL Math my senior year, which I plan to test in. I agree that 4 HL’s are too much to handle.