<p>Anyone have had any of their children take Spanish B HL? What was it like for them? I'm a non-native speaker and I'm not very good with Spanish, but the only other option for IBDP in my school is German Ab Initio. Would B's (which I will most likely get) in all the 2 years of HL look better than A's in all the 2 years of German? Considering elite colleges that only check your unweighted GPA?</p>
<p>So why not the SL spanish? How many years of spanish do you have so far? I know my kids were always told the language they chose in grade 7 should stay with them through the IBDP, but none of mine would be more than SL. I assumed selective schools wanted at least 4 yrs of a language but I could easily be wrong. If my younger kids do an Ab, I would not be thrilled. Older kid did the SL and wouldn’t even touch the AP. </p>
<p>Selective colleges would like to see at least three and preferably four years of the same language. I think there’s more forgiveness for less than perfect grades in languages than in most other subjects.</p>
<p>At least my younger son got into U of Chicago, Tufts and Vassar with four years of Latin (didn’t take AP senior year) with many B-'s and B’s.</p>
<p>@Alfonsia My school only offers Spanish SL as a joint class with HL and does not offer it alone. I already have 4 HLs which is why I am worried because I don’t know if I can handle the course load.</p>
<p>If you are doing an IB diploma, it is only expected that you do 3 HL and 3 SL.
My daughter did HL Math, HL Physics, HL Chem, SL English, SL Business and German Ab Initio (we were living in Germany at the time!) I would not take a 5th HL.</p>
<p>The SLs here are mixed with HLs and or /and APs (if you think spanish is bad, try Physics HL mixed with an SL
class ) 4 HL’s are not at all uncommon though so don’t take that as standard advice. Just because the SL is in the HL class doesn’t mean you are held to HL standard, does it? I would not start another language as an Ab unless you are already stellar at your Spanish (if you had an AP for example). Talk to your IB coordinator, talk to your spanish teacher, they are going to be way more helpful than we are. IB structure seems to have regional quirks too.</p>
<p>@Alfonsia Spanish would be my 5th HL course but if I do decide to continue, it would be my 2nd SL test.</p>
<p>@bopper I’m taking Physics HL, Math HL, English HL, and History HL which is why I want to switch out of Spanish SL/HL because it is an HL curriculum and I don’t know if I can handle the workload?</p>
<p>This week my freshman’s Chinese teacher told me that most of her non native speakers who take chinese from 7th grade end up taking Ab Chinese, that was something I have never even heard of, I was operating under the assumption that the ab was for a second foreign language from scratch. Whether or not this is advisable for a selective school applicant, I wouldn’t be so sure. The ab is an SL, do you think the uni’s will even know enough to care? I will really discourage my kid from taking the ab route when the SL is on offer, but the teacher says Chinese SL is brutal too LOL. </p>
<p>Leaving aside the question of HL/SL/Ab, as mentioned above colleges will prefer to see you take 3-4 years of the same language. Going a step further, many top colleges have foreign language requirements to graduate, and usually high enough scores on the departmental placement tests or SAT II/AP tests can place you into a higher level or get the requirement waived. German Ab won’t get you far on a placement test, and another year of Spanish should get you a higher score. I’d suggest continuing with Spanish.</p>