If you could guarantee yourself a 7 in any IB subject, which one would you choose?
It is an interesting question, but perhaps not the most useful one to ask when choosing your IB subjects. With the pressure to achieve high grades and build a strong university application, it can be tempting to choose subjects based on what seems easiest, most impressive or simply the most fun. However, your IB subjects are also an opportunity to explore how you think, what you enjoy learning about and where you might want to take those interests in the future. For me, the most valuable part of choosing my IB subjects wasn’t simply how they prepared me for university, but how they helped me figure out what I actually wanted from it. A decision that initially seemed like a matter of picking six subjects eventually became something much bigger.
That is why in this article, I will be explaining not only how I chose my subjects but why I thought they were worth pursuing.
- Start with a direction, not a destination
When I chose my IB subjects, I already had a fairly clear idea of what I wanted to study at university. International Relations, Political Sciences or something within the Humanities were all possibilities I was considering, so I used that direction as an anchor when making my choices. At the same time, I didn’t want to make my IB subjects so specific that I would be locked into one path. I was also interested in Journalism and Media and I wanted the flexibility to explore where those interests could take me.
This meant looking at my subjects more than individual classes. History of Europe Higher Level (HL) and German B HL were both choices I made with my future studies in mind. History was an especially deliberate decision. My previous curriculum had focused almost entirely on my country’s history, meaning I came into the IB with very little knowledge of European history. Choosing the more advanced option was therefore not necessarily the easiest choice, but I knew that understanding history would be a valuable asset for the areas I was interested in.
German B HL was another decision where I looked beyond simply asking which subject I would enjoy. I chose it over ab initio (ab initio is a beginner-level language course provided by IB in the language you want to begin your studies with) because the level aligned more closely with where I wanted my language skills to develop and with the competencies I could eventually use beyond IB. Looking at what universities expect from their students, as well as what different subjects could offer me afterwards, helped me make a decision based on where I wanted to go rather than what seemed convenient at the time.
But not every subject had to have a direct line to my intended degree. In fact, one of the most valuable choices I made was ESS (Environmental Systems and Societies) Standard Level (SL). I initially saw it as a subject that could complement my broader interests, but topics such as Urbanization and Biodiversity introduced me to the relationship between people, the environment and sustainability in a way I hadn’t previously considered. That experience helped me realize that my interest in International Relations was not necessarily leading me towards diplomacy or government.
Looking back, this is probably the biggest lesson I took from choosing my subjects: your future plans should give your choices direction, but they shouldn’t dictate every decision. Some subjects can prepare you for the path you already have in mind, yet others can introduce you to a path you didn’t know you wanted to take. So give yourself that opportunity.
- Don’t confuse easy with worthwhile
It can be tempting to approach IB subject choices with one question in mind: Which subjects will give me the best chance of getting a 7? And while there is nothing wrong with wanting to do well, choosing subjects solely based on how easy they seem can mean overlooking what you could actually gain from them.
I found myself thinking about this when choosing History of Europe HL. Not coming from a background of European roots, I was entering the IB with little to zero preparations. Choosing an advanced history course, therefore, came with a fairly obvious learning curve. It would have been much easier to choose something I was already familiar with, but I knew that the challenge was also part of the value.
This doesn’t mean that every difficult subject is automatically a better choice. There is a difference between challenging yourself and taking on a workload that doesn’t serve any purpose for you. The question I found more useful was not about which was the easier subject but which subject can I actually get something from. That could be knowledge that will be useful later, a skill you want to develop or even an opportunity to discover something new.
I also had to make choices about the subjects I knew I could probably do well in. English A Language and Literature HL was an obvious example because English is my mother tongue, so I knew I had a natural advantage. That made it a sensible choice, but I didn’t want every subject in my diploma to be selected purely around what I thought would be comfortable. At one point, I also considered Visual Arts SL, but eventually decided against it when I realized how much time it would require relative to what I wanted to gain from it. I wanted the time and effort I was putting into my subjects to contribute to the direction I was building for myself.
That is not to say that enjoyment should be ignored. In fact, genuine interest can make a challenging subject much more worthwhile. A subject that pushes you but makes you curious can teach you far more than one you chose because it looked safe on paper. The IB is demanding enough that spending two years studying something you have no interest in simply because you think it will be easy can become its own kind of challenge.
Ultimately, I don’t think the goal should be to find the easiest combination of subjects, or even the most difficult one. It is about finding the mix where the work feels like it is taking you somewhere. Sometimes that means choosing the subject that is directly to your future or it means choosing the one that challenges you. And sometimes it means choosing one that opens a door you didn’t know was there.
- Aligning Your IB Subjects and CAS
If your IB subjects are helping you build an academic direction, your CAS experiences can reinforce it. I did not want CAS to become a collection of activities that I chose simply because they sounded fun, were easy to complete or happened to fulfill the requirements. I saw it as an opportunity to build experiences that could complement what I was already learning and, ultimately, contribute to the portfolio I wanted to take to university.
That did not mean every CAS experience had to be directly related to International Relations or my intended field. Instead, I tried to think about what each experience could add to the bigger picture. My interests were already developing through subjects, so I could use CAS to explore those interests in a different setting. This made the process feel less like completing a requirement and more like building on something I was already doing.
I think this is where the idea of “two birds with one stone” comes in. You are already spending your time on your IB subjects and you already have to complete CAS, so why not let the two support each other? An interest that begins in the classroom can become a CAS project, while an experience outside school can give you a different perspective on something you have been learning about academically. Over time, these experiences can start to form a pattern.
For me, that pattern helped strengthen the interests I was discovering through my subjects. As I became more interested in sustainability, humanitarian issues and policy, I could look for experiences that reflected those interests rather than treating CAS as completely separate from my academic life. The result was not just a longer list of activities for my university applications, but a portfolio that actually told a story about what I cared about and what I wanted to explore further.
At the same time, I think it is important not to turn this into another form of optimization. You do not need to engineer every CAS experience around a university application or force yourself into activities that have nothing to do with who you are. The point is to be intentional. If you already know that you are interested in something, CAS can be a chance to test that interest in the real world. And if you do not know what interests you yet, that is exactly what the experience can help you discover.
Choosing your IB subject is not a decision you need to get perfectly right. Your interests will change, your plans might change and you may discover subjects or fields you had never considered before. What matters is giving yourself enough direction to make intentional choices while leaving enough room to explore. If there is one thing I would take away from the process, it is that choosing your IB subjects is not just about asking “What will get me a good grade?” or even “What will get me into university?”. Instead, ask yourself, “What will I learn from this and where could it take me?”. You do not have to know the exact answer yet. Sometimes, the right subject is not the one that takes you directly towards the future you imagined, but the one that helps you discover a future you had not imagined at all.
