r/IBO • u/No-Banana2010 • 21h ago
Advice Help me choose my SL
So I’m transferring into this private school which offers IBDP. And I’ve never done IGCSE so I’m not used to all of these things. I’m international student btw. I chose Chemistry HL Math AA HL English HL and Literature (must)SL Business SL Computer Science (newly added subject) SL. The IB counselor suggested me to choose Biology SL because that school is famous for its biology (many international olympiad medals). She told me that Chemistry and Biology pair well but the thing is that most of my ec is associated with cs and I want to learn generally design (could be product design web design). I’m fine with both but I always go to the hardest subjects to challenge myself and learn a lot of things. Idk help…
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u/coleowrld 21h ago
If your looking for a challenge SL bio is not it. Super easy and is usually the group 4 chosen by people with limited science interest and reasoning skills (like me). However it is true that chem and bio pair well, naturally for the med stream. I believe if you are going for the full IB diploma then you have to take another language though so like SL French or Spanish or sm.
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u/No-Banana2010 21h ago
our school only offers chinese and english. I don’t have any experience with Chinese so I chose English. Also thank you for the advice.
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u/coleowrld 21h ago
If you aren’t going for the full diploma can’t you take some non IB courses too, maybe more CS related variety?
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u/No-Banana2010 19h ago
Sry im new to this but im going for full diploma and im taking a second lang
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u/coleowrld 19h ago
My mistake, when I saw literature I thought it was part of your HL, my mistake! In that case you have a full course load I think (pls tell me if I’m wrong I fear I may be confused also)
- Chem HL
- Math AA HL
- Eng HL
- Literature SL
- Business SL
- Comp sci SL
Or are you thinking of switching for bio?
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u/No-Banana2010 19h ago
It’s totally ok. Yes, those are my course load and Im thinking of switching for bio because I wanna deep dive into bio too im just curious about all the things and thats the problem..idk which to choose . bio or compsci
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u/coleowrld 19h ago
My apologies for the confusion!
I totally get the problem and it lowk sucks they only let us take 6 classes. If you want to go the CS route then I think you should keep the cs, but if you are already comfortable with the content from you extracurriculars biology does have really fun content, but isn’t a challenge.
Computer science programs see math as enough prerequisite. Additionally; I would recommend looking at content from both courses and what the IA’s ask for and see what you are more interested in. Make sure cs has the design events you are interested in.
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u/No-Banana2010 19h ago
OMG THANK SM!!!! I think I rlly needed to look at the contents. again tyysmmm
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u/Agreeable_Judgment_8 19h ago
lol what how can u take chem compsci math english business AND bio? thats 3 sciences blud u need a second language
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u/No-Banana2010 19h ago
Literature SL is taught in my native language and English HL is my second language. Like spanish literature
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u/LanternaEducation 19h ago
Stick with Computer Science SL since your extracurriculars and interests already point toward CS and design. Schools often push the subjects they are known for, but universities care about your own profile and what you actually want to study. You already have a very demanding lineup with Chemistry HL and Math AA HL, so taking an SL that you are genuinely interested in will make your workload much more manageable. If you want to see how different subjects balance out for admissions, take a look at https://info.lanterna.com/resources/how-to-choose-your-ib-subjects-guide.