Overworked IB student dropping class and taking study hall - advice?

Parent Cafe
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<p>My son is a junior in the IB Program.</p>

<p>He is currently taking</p>

<p>IB/AP English Language
IB/AP Calculus AB
IB Chemistry
IB Physics SL
IB Spanish 4
IB Economics SL
AP US History</p>

<p>His workload is overwhelming. He chose these courses of his own volition (he likes a challenge), but underestimated how demanding it was going to be.</p>

<p>He has straight A's (he is currently ranked first (tied) out of 250 in his class with a 4.0 UW cumulative) but it has been at a huge personal cost. He is doing 5-6 hours of homework per night (sometimes more) plus both days on the weekends. He is getting burned out. He's a kid who loves learning and loves school but is really getting discouraged with basically having no life. He doesn't get enough sleep because of the workload and we worry about him being tired all the time.</p>

<p>To make matters worse, he is also a high level athlete in a non-NCAA/non-recruited sport. In fact, he has competed at the world championships for the past three years and placed in the top ten last year. His workload is preventing him from training regularly so we think that if it keeps up, he will probably not make the national team this year which is hugely frustrating to him. Having said that, his grades are very important to him and he is unwilling to let them slide.</p>

<p>I met with his teachers and the administration to discuss the workload and they are offering to let him drop Physics and take a study hall instead. They tell me that there will be no trace of dropping Physics on his transcript. </p>

<p>I should add that Physics is a huge burden for him since the teacher is not that strong and my son is having to teach it to himself at home with my support (I'm an engineer) which is very time consuming. In spite of that challenge, my son is still maintaining an A in it but it is has been really hard work.</p>

<p>Should he drop the Physics and take the study hall? How do adcomms view Study Hall? Will his remaining courseload be sufficiently "rigorous" enough? </p>

<p>He could take an easy elective in second semester instead of study hall so it would really only be one semester of study hall.</p>

<p>BTW he is planning to take the following senior year:</p>

<p>AP Calculus BC
IB English HL
IB Spanish V HL
IB Chemistry HL
IB History HL
AP Statistics
Theory of Knowledge</p>

<p>Thanks in advance for any advice!</p>

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<p>I think he should drop the Physics course. His schedule is more than demanding enough without it.</p>

3

<p>I don’t think he needs two sciences, if he is going to do chem HL. I know they say taking all three of bio, phys, and chem looks best, but I know a lot of kids that did either bio or chem HL and due to our sequence, couldn’t do physics. I don’t think it really hurt them. Will study hall actually appear on his record, or will it just be a free period? I mean he probably won’t be graded on it. Perhaps you could arrange something where he uses some of the time to conduct individual research, and then that could be explained in the application. This would probably be positive.</p>

4

<p>Thanks for the quick responses.</p>

<p>Study hall will not appear on his transcript. It won’t affect his GPA. </p>

<p>Thanks for the suggestion about conducting research but I’m not really sure that he could manage that. The homework in the remaining courses is still demanding and we were hoping he could use the study hall period to make a dent in it, thereby freeing up some time after school to train, work on his community service project and have a life!</p>

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<p>I second (third?) dropping physics. SL sciences aren’t good for much, and he has a tough schedule. I can sympathize; I spent a lot of time after school my senior year trying to understand physics. The ONLY thing that kept me motivated was my plan to be a science major. If I hadn’t needed to take it, I would’ve dropped it in a heartbeat. </p>

<p>Physics is perhaps the one subject that AP does better. The IB physics curriculum is far too broad, in my opinion, and it lacks the math that is essential for a good grasp of college-level physics.</p>

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<p>I agree with the above posts.</p>

<p>Take it from someone who really burned herself out Junior year by doing too much-IT ISN’T WORTH IT. Both my GPA (by about .14) and Class Rank suffered (while I’m still in the top 5%, I’m now 31st instead of 13th in a class of about 800). I’ll say it again: it’s not worth it. If your S isn’t careful, he’ll end up losing his love for school.</p>

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<p>Drop physics. It is so not worth it.</p>

8

<p>Assuming that he will be taking the SL Math Methods test at some point, there is no need for him to take SL Physics. He will still have six IB diploma subjects. Drop it.</p>

<p>He might also consider doing one of next year’s subjects SL rather than HL if that option is available. Nobody really needs 4 HLs. Another option at some schools would be to take the Spanish SL test this year and have a study hall instead of Spanish next year. Why not?</p>

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<p>If he drops Physics he will do the IB Math SL and IB Econ SL exams this year. Then in senior year, he will take AP Calculus BC and four HL exams (Spanish, English, History and Chemistry)</p>

<p>Any comments on taking a study hall? How do college admissions officers view study hall? I think my son’s courseload is pretty heavy even without the physics but we’re worried that taking a study hall might make him look like he’s slacking. (even though he isn’t!!)</p>

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<p>Oh boy! I am glad I am not in your shoes. Son took 5 higher level IB’s (Math, physics, chem, History and English) and a couple of standard levels Spanish and French. But Thank God he did not have to take any AP’s with the IB’s as well. His school did not offer any AP’s. We are American Citizens who live overseas. His IB schedule was very similar to what your son is taking. Junior year was okay for him despite the SAt’s he also competed in a few international chess championships, but it was very stressful the senior year when the TOK and the extended essays deadlines were approaching and so also the college essays and application deadlines. He did not drop any IB until after the first semester of his senior year where we forced him to drop IB HL chemistry to standard level. The colleges only look at the first semester grades of one’s senior year especially if they are IB students. The final grades do not come out until after their admission to the universities in September. In any case you only need 4 higher levels and at least 2 standard levels to get a full IB diploma. I am assuming that your son is doing the full IB diploma. If physics is tough, it can be without a good IB teacher he should try online IB tutoring I don’t know how it works but some people say it works well because one does not have to spend a lot of time trying to figure things out . Also some IB physics help cd’s might do the trick. But then again if he is stressed out then it may be worthwhile to drop the subject. But son says taking the IB was a good experience because after all that pressure in school, college is relatively easy. There will be light at the end of the tunnel. He is currently in a very selective program at a top 15 university pursuing a combined program in mechanical engineering and law.</p>

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<p>

Technically you only need three HL and three SL. Some people do choose four HL and two SL, but it’s not necessary.</p>

<p>resonance (the chemistry term?), I don’t think they’ll have a problem with it. An admissions officer for MIT once posted that the average applicant to MIT has 4-6 APs by graduation. Doing the IB Diploma is definitely rigorous enough, I should think.</p>

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<p>Why on earth is this child taking 7 challenging classes? Does he really have to have 5 years of science (I assume he had 9th and 10th grade sci. classes)? I would go easier on the senior year schedule, too. With a schedule like that, he is setting himself for a major burnout. He will not be able to get any credits for SL classes at top colleges (again, I assume he is shooting for top schools), but these classes still require a lot of homework.</p>

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<p>Your son will totally look like a slacker if he takes study hall. </p>

<p>Just kidding :slight_smile: I hope he’s dropping physics. He can always learn it in college, you know.</p>

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<p>There are some schools (like mine!) which require the kids to have a free period, aka study hall. Don’t worry about adcom’s thinking he is slacking. Different schools have different maximum course loads. If you want to verify with the GC what the school profile will show and what box will be checked for challenging courseload, go ahead, but even if someone could infer that he isn’t doing the maximum, taking a lesser load with better grades (and better health!!) is still the better choice. </p>

<p>Not that it matters, but how does his load compare to other top students at his school? Is he trying to do more than the maximum?</p>

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<p>Our son is taking 7 challenging classes because that’s the kind of person he is. He challenges himself in whatever he does. And generally, he is very successful. We try to let him make his own decisions but this is a case where we are so concerned about burnout, we are intervening. We are exercising some parental perogative here in terms of making his workload more manageable.</p>

<p>He understands our concerns but he is also struggling with the decision to drop the class. He doesn’t like to step away from a challenge but I think he does realize that things are likely to go from bad to worse if he stays the course.</p>

<p>BunsenBurner, I appreciate your comments on his senior year schedule. I think it’s a bit much too, so I’m happy to have some corroboration!</p>

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<p>jackief:</p>

<p>My son’s current load is tougher than most everyone else’s in the class. Most other students are taking a “light” (read non-academic) seventh class. Also, most other juniors are taking Pre-calc which is much, much lighter than the Calc AB at our school. There’s only about a dozen juniors taking the Calc AB. </p>

<p>The year has been very difficult so far. Quite a few of the “A” students are now “B” students because of the workload and tough grading. It’s been a challenge for everyone.</p>

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<p>resonance:</p>

<p>All kidding aside, your concerns are very familiar to me, and I’m sure to many parents here who have highly motivated children. This year our daughter dropped an extra class she had added on to her already demanding schedule, which was threatening to suck up a huge amount of time. She is EXTREMELY glad she dropped the class. I suspect your son will also be relieved.</p>

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<p>As an IB student with a similar schedule, I can say that if you think physics will begin to affect his GPA, ability in sports, and interest in learning then definitely drop it. Chemistry HL will be plenty impressive. This is especially true if he is already taking the most challenging course load relative to his class.</p>

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<p>Well, so far his GPA hasn’t been affected, but that could be coming down the pipe if he keeps this up! The lack of sleep and stress has definitely has affected his performance in his sport which leads to frustration, which leads to more stress…well you get the idea.</p>

<p>Our primary concerns are for his physical and mental health. Frankly, the GPA is secondary to that.</p>

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<p>resonance, I understand your inclination to let him make his own decisions about his workload, etc, he will be on his own soon enough. I hope he makes it to drop the class, so he can stay well and continue to persue his sport.</p>

<p>My daughter is an overachiever also which is why we petitioned her private school to allow her to take a 7th class which they denied requiring the free period. She is only a sophomore and wanted to have one non-academic class and in her case I think she could have handled it, but they have their policies in place because of student health and they have quite a few students come to them talking about stress to the counselors. </p>

<p>If he still wants to take physics, he could look into an academic summer program, if that would fit in with the rest of your schedule. We keep telling our daughter that there is always going to be more out there than she will be able to do at once, she needs the lessons in prioritization and putting some things off even though she wants to do them all right now. She is doing some ECs which are taking a lot of time, and so even though we disagree with our school’s decision I am a little happy she will have some time of her own during the day.</p>