Dear reader,
You have breached dangerous territory. Ask any senior or even junior, and you will surely start a big debate, each person defending their own, desperate to prove that...they are braving the most brutal IB course.
Generally speaking, the consensus is that either Math AAHL or Physics HL is the hardest IB course. As someone who takes both these courses, I wouldn’t necessarily agree. There is indeed an insane amount of content in physics HL. In fact, it’s one of the only courses where students are still learning new content during their last class before the final IB exams. As for math, calculus is definitely intimidating. However, conceptually speaking, both the content in math and physics aren’t that difficult to grasp as long as you have a solid foundation in analytical thinking in general.
Butttttt, if these courses aren’t the hardest...then what is? Great question!
It really depends on who you are, dearest reader.
If you are what would be considered a “STEM student” (me), then probably English Literature HL or History HL. Both these classes require A LOT of writing; my hands ache just thinking about it. Not only that, but if you’re not genuinely interested in reading literature or history, that ups the difficulty level infinitely. Common complaints from literature students are that they simply can’t understand the texts they have to read even though their English skills are more than proficient. This wouldn’t be a problem in any other language course, such as English Language and Literature HL. Common complaints from history students are that not only is there a lot of memorization required, but you also need to come up with a solid argument on the spot with minimal preparation. It also doesn’t help that there’s tons of content.
On the other hand, if you are more of a humanities student, then probably the courses I’ve already mentioned: Math AAHL or Physics HL.
However, there is a secret deadly course that challenges everyone, STEM or non-STEM. And that is.....drum roll please...Chinese A HL. The language requirement for this course far surpasses the ability of any recently transferred public school student. So...maybe just beware of this course :)
But at the end of the day, try not to base your IB course selection on everything written above. What you choose should be based on what you like or what’s most practical for what you want to pursue in the future!
Hope this was helpful!
Bye byeeee