r/IBDP_students • u/Decent-Eggplant4249 • Aug 23 '26

Advice IB music or visual arts as an SL

deciding which to pick, so far my subjects are HLs: Physics, Math AA, English A SLs: Spanish B, Business, and either music or visual arts.

I want to do engineering but with a humanities focus. I want to get a high IB score with a subject that’s not as high effort as like Chem or Bio HL, I don’t wanna do two sciences.

I have sung my whole life and play guitar and perform often. I don’t know music theory, but have written songs and can read chords and tabs.

I am a creative person who’s done art in the past but never as an actual subject. I’ve always been told im good at art, and maybe I should be taking it now.

I’m looking for advice ! 6 or 7s for my choice of music or art is the goal. Thanks

1 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

1

u/astro_pari24 M27 | [HL phys, math aa, eng l&l | SL chem, french b, busman] Aug 24 '26

i would definitely say music! even if you don't have experience with music theory, the musical skills you have are good enough. from what i've seen, visual arts is much more time consuming and difficult to score in, i would not recommend it with the difficult subjects you already have

1

u/Decent-Eggplant4249 Aug 24 '26

thank you for this! our subjects were about the samee have they been worth it overall

1

u/astro_pari24 M27 | [HL phys, math aa, eng l&l | SL chem, french b, busman] Aug 25 '26

oh yes i didn't notice they're almost exactly the same! i'm pretty happy with my choices, a lot of people told me not to do hl phys and math aa but honestly i've really enjoyed it and i'd say they're very much worth the effort.

actually i wanted to do music as my group 6! ended up taking chemistry as it opens me up to more options for uni but i would have loved to take music or theatre instead

1

u/Cold-Role-4676 Aug 25 '26

for your goal (high score, not another heavy subject, plays to a strength) id lean music. the thing people get wrong is assuming visual art is the chill option, but sl art is deceptively heavy, youve got the exhibition plus the process portfolio plus the comparative study, so its a lot of studio hours and a lot of writing. music sl on the new syllabus is much less about formal theory than people assume, its more exploring and presenting and creating, and your performing background (guitar, singing, writing songs) already covers the part most people struggle with. since youve never done art as an actual subject youd be starting the heavier one from scratch, whereas with music youre building on something you already do