Need help with S's HS schedule (IB)...

orjr
Thu, 19 Mar 2009 02:08:01 +0000

I have a current soph son who is planning his classes in a full IB diploma program. Don’t want to get into a debate about IB, but will say I find the rigidity at our school frustrating.
There are limited offerings and zero AP classes. IB or regular (no honors or AP).

Son thinks he is interested in med school eventually and wants to be prepared for pre-med college track. Here is problem: at his school English and History must be HL and foreign language must be SL. He will also be taking math SL. Therefore he needs one more SL and one more HL. sciences offered are Bio and Chem, and he must do one of them HL. He has heard that the HL Chem test is a true bear with our last year’s NMF barely passing - and this kid was the nearest thing to a math genius my S knows. Son would like to take Bio HL instead, but is afraid that without Chem he will be totally unprepared for chem in college.

I see choices as: (1) doing one year Bio and one year Chem - don’t get the IB diploma, but feel better prepared for college. (2) Bio HL, skip Chem and try to get through it with help during college freshman year (3) Do Bio HL plus one year of IB Chem, which means giving up the favorite elective class - IB Business. And would this be too difficult of a load? I already think the IB load is too much without doubling up in science. (said as a person who took NO science in college, unless you count falling asleep in “physics for dummies” class.
Any suggestions? Any experience with HL Chem?