After choosing the IB courses I am going to take next year, I became curious about how the current IB students feel about the courses they take. Also, because choosing which courses to take was quite hard, I wanted to collect enough objective data for people to refer to when choosing courses. In order to make that data, I decided to make a survey and ask the current 11th graders about the difficulty and amount of work in their IB classes. The data below is the digitalised and organised data I received. The diagrams to the left show students’ opinions on the difficulty of the class and the diagrams to the right show students’ opinions on the amount of work per class.
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Group 4
Group 5
Group 6
There were answers for other subjects, like French SL, and Film SL and HL, but not enough data points to include in the data. Also an important note on the data: the individuals who took Japanese SL include the data for both Japanese A-SL and Japanese B-SL.
According to the survey, the hardest class in CA is Mathematics HL, which 60% of the answers reported was “very hard.” However, the amount of work is the second last among the classes. On the other hand, Biology HL has the most amount of work, with 69% of the answers reporting “a lot.” Also 69% of the answers said Biology HL is hard. The easiest class according to the survey is Geography SL, with 54% of the answers reporting it as “easy.” The class that has the least amount of work is Spanish SL, with 75% of the answers saying “little.”
The most interesting piece of data I found was the difference between the SL and HL courses of Language and Literature. I thought HL would be harder than SL, but SL’s reports show that it’s harder than HL Lang & Lit (the shortened moniker of the class). Also, while the answers for HL said it has “normal” or “above normal” work, some of the answers of SL said it has “a lot” of work. This may be because only the people who are really confident in their English abilities choose to take the higher-level course, while people who take the standard-level course are taking it only because they have to.
Also, there were some results that were different from my expectations. Based on what I’d heard from teachers, I’d thought History HL would have “a lot” of work. However, most of the answers said it has an “above normal” amount of work. Furthermore, I thought Physics HL would not have much work, while the majority of the results reported that it definitely has a heavy workload.
I showed the results to some of the teachers to see their reaction. Ms. Durkin, one of CA’s math teachers, said she was surprised about how many people said there was a lot of work in Physics HL. Also she was surprised about the difficulty of Japanese Language and Literature SL; how 25% of the answers said “very hard” and “a lot” of work. In addition, she was surprised about the difficulty of History HL, how not many people reported it as a difficult class. Lastly, she said that she wasn’t surprised about the results but she felt sad about the difficulty of Mathematics HL and how more than half of people said that the course was “very hard.”
I also showed the results to Mr. Wagenaar, one of CA’s physics teachers. Most of the answers reported that Physics HL was a “very hard” course and it has “a lot” of work. He said he was not surprised by how the students feel about the amount of work or the difficulty of Physics HL.
Also, I showed the results to some students and asked how they felt or what they found interesting. According to Kevin Chung, who is an 11th grader at CA, he agrees with most of the results. He thinks that most of the HL IB classes are hard once the student falls behind and that it can be quite difficult to get back on track. He finds it interesting that even though the students of Japanese HL are mostly Japanese people, he sees a lot of complaints about the difficulty of the course.
I asked another student, Daiki Yamamoto, another CA junior. He thinks that people who have experienced the Mathematics HL course have different views of the difficulties of classes. He thinks that Mathematics HL is very difficult compared to other classes. Therefore, if someone who takes Mathematics HL answers it as very hard, the person would not put Economics HL or Physics HL as “very hard,” but rather as “normal” or simply “hard.”
In addition, I asked one senior, Ayano Nakatani. She finds it weird how some people think Chemistry HL is easy or normal because she thinks it is one of the hardest classes she takes. Also, she realizes that people’s opinions on the classes’ difficulties vary greatly. She thinks some subjects are really hard, but other people find those classes easy.
By conducting this research, I found out what people think about the classes they take. Because I got answers from many people, I think the data I collected is objective enough for incoming IB students to use when choosing their classes next year. However, because people think differently, this data is not completely reliable and definitely not the ultimate answer to determine the difficulty and amount of work. The data above is but a collection of the CA juniors’ general opinions on the real content of courses they take in these important two years of high school.
According to the survey, the hardest class in CA is Mathematics HL, which 60% of the answers reported was “very hard.” However, the amount of work is the second last among the classes. On the other hand, Biology HL has the most amount of work, with 69% of the answers reporting “a lot.” Also 69% of the answers said Biology HL is hard. The easiest class according to the survey is Geography SL, with 54% of the answers reporting it as “easy.” The class that has the least amount of work is Spanish SL, with 75% of the answers saying “little.”
The most interesting piece of data I found was the difference between the SL and HL courses of Language and Literature. I thought HL would be harder than SL, but SL’s reports show that it’s harder than HL Lang & Lit (the shortened moniker of the class). Also, while the answers for HL said it has “normal” or “above normal” work, some of the answers of SL said it has “a lot” of work. This may be because only the people who are really confident in their English abilities choose to take the higher-level course, while people who take the standard-level course are taking it only because they have to.
Also, there were some results that were different from my expectations. Based on what I’d heard from teachers, I’d thought History HL would have “a lot” of work. However, most of the answers said it has an “above normal” amount of work. Furthermore, I thought Physics HL would not have much work, while the majority of the results reported that it definitely has a heavy workload.
I showed the results to some of the teachers to see their reaction. Ms. Durkin, one of CA’s math teachers, said she was surprised about how many people said there was a lot of work in Physics HL. Also she was surprised about the difficulty of Japanese Language and Literature SL; how 25% of the answers said “very hard” and “a lot” of work. In addition, she was surprised about the difficulty of History HL, how not many people reported it as a difficult class. Lastly, she said that she wasn’t surprised about the results but she felt sad about the difficulty of Mathematics HL and how more than half of people said that the course was “very hard.”
I also showed the results to Mr. Wagenaar, one of CA’s physics teachers. Most of the answers reported that Physics HL was a “very hard” course and it has “a lot” of work. He said he was not surprised by how the students feel about the amount of work or the difficulty of Physics HL.
Also, I showed the results to some students and asked how they felt or what they found interesting. According to Kevin Chung, who is an 11th grader at CA, he agrees with most of the results. He thinks that most of the HL IB classes are hard once the student falls behind and that it can be quite difficult to get back on track. He finds it interesting that even though the students of Japanese HL are mostly Japanese people, he sees a lot of complaints about the difficulty of the course.
I asked another student, Daiki Yamamoto, another CA junior. He thinks that people who have experienced the Mathematics HL course have different views of the difficulties of classes. He thinks that Mathematics HL is very difficult compared to other classes. Therefore, if someone who takes Mathematics HL answers it as very hard, the person would not put Economics HL or Physics HL as “very hard,” but rather as “normal” or simply “hard.”
In addition, I asked one senior, Ayano Nakatani. She finds it weird how some people think Chemistry HL is easy or normal because she thinks it is one of the hardest classes she takes. Also, she realizes that people’s opinions on the classes’ difficulties vary greatly. She thinks some subjects are really hard, but other people find those classes easy.
By conducting this research, I found out what people think about the classes they take. Because I got answers from many people, I think the data I collected is objective enough for incoming IB students to use when choosing their classes next year. However, because people think differently, this data is not completely reliable and definitely not the ultimate answer to determine the difficulty and amount of work. The data above is but a collection of the CA juniors’ general opinions on the real content of courses they take in these important two years of high school.