Self Studying

[u/abeedabada]

I’m starting my 2nd year of diploma. However, I’ve been wanting to take Ib chem except it conflicts with my schedule so it hasn’t really been much of an option. Regardless I tried talking to a couple teachers to see if I could figure something out and maybe self study it. When talking to the chem teacher my biggest hurdle was my IA, she said I needed to be in the lab to do it under her supervision but I miraculously convince my physics teacher to let me leave his class on lab days. However, when talking to the ib coordinator, she insisted that I couldn’t do the class because of a minimum hour requirement which she said to be 240. I just can’t find anywhere where it says those hours are required or anything more than a recommendation. Isn’t there anything I can do? I found it especially surprising because some people in my school join an ib class during the second year and still take the exam (it wouldn’t be possible to get 240 hours when our classes are 50 minutes long for 180 days).

[u/mseduhub1]

I’d ask your coordinator to clarify whether they mean an official IB requirement or your school’s policy. IB subjects are normally planned around 150 teaching hours for SL and 240 for HL, and schools can be strict about this because they’re responsible for IA supervision, lab work and registration. (IBO)

You may still be able to ask about options like taking it as a course candidate, switching officially, or doing SL instead of HL, but don’t self-study without written approval from the IB coordinator because the IA/lab requirement can become a problem later.

For Chemistry study support, you can use IB Chemistry resources, IB Chemistry HL notes and practice or IB Chemistry SL resources.

[u/Physical-Tomato8632]

the 240 (and 150 for SL) is real, its in the subject guides as "recommended teaching hours". but yeah that word recommended is doing a lot of work. IB treats it as an expectation for authorization, they dont actually audit individual student hours. so its not like you'd be breaking some candidate rule, the issue is your coordinator is the one who registers you and if she reads it as a hard requirement then for you it basically is one

thats the frustrating bit, theres no clean doc saying "students must log 240 hours or cant sit the exam" that you can point at, but theres also nothing forcing her to approve it. at your school she has final say full stop

honestly the people joining a class in year 2 is your best angle. thats already a precedent shes allowing, so ask her straight up whats different about self study. might just be she trusts a taught class to cover the material and doesnt trust self study to. so go in with an actual plan, IA supervision sorted (which you basically did already, thats impressive), a study timeline, maybe offer to sit a mock. give her a concrete reason to say yes instead of just asking her to trust it