IB survival

Choosing IB subjects when you also compete in sport

13 July 2026 · 6 min read · by the Xero team

Subject selection is the single biggest workload decision you'll make in the IB, and you make it before you understand the workload. Two packages that look identical on paper — three HLs, three SLs — can differ by five hours a week for two straight years. If you train seriously, those five hours are your training.

Workload isn't evenly distributed

Some patterns hold across almost every school:

• Steady-drip subjects (maths, sciences, languages) cost hours every single week — problem sets, labs, vocab — but rarely explode. They're predictable, which makes them schedulable.
• Burst subjects (essay-based humanities, literature) look light week-to-week, then detonate: essays, orals, and IAs that each eat a whole weekend. Two burst-heavy HLs means your calendar has landmines.
• Lab sciences at HL carry hidden hours — write-ups and the IA data collection don't appear on any timetable but reliably cost evenings.
• Group 6 / arts subjects have coursework that compounds across both years — brilliant if it's your passion, brutal as a filler choice.

The rules that survive hindsight

• University requirements come first — but check the real ones. Look up 3–4 actual target courses. Engineering wants HL Maths + Physics; medicine wants Chemistry + usually Biology; a lot of degrees students assume need specific HLs genuinely don't. Don't carry a killer HL for an imagined requirement.
• At most one "grind" subject. Every package can absorb one subject you're taking purely strategically despite hating it. Two is where packages go to die — motivation is a budget, not a character trait.
• Interest is a workload multiplier. A subject you love at HL costs less energy than one you tolerate at SL. "Easy but boring" picks quietly become the hardest thing on your timetable by DP2.
• Mix drip and burst. Two or three steady-drip HLs plus at most one burst HL gives you a week with a predictable baseline — which is exactly what a training schedule needs to coexist with school.
• Ask a current DP2 student, not just the subject brochure. Every school has subjects whose reputation and reality have diverged — a legendary teacher who left, an SL that's secretly run like an HL. Ten minutes with someone one year ahead beats any guide.

For the athletes specifically

Your real constraint isn't total hours — it's evening predictability. Training lives at fixed times, so a package whose work arrives steadily fits around it, while a package that detonates every few weeks keeps forcing the training-versus-deadline choice. When two options feel equal, take the more predictable one. And keep perspective: a 38 with HLs a university actually wants beats a 42 built from strategic filler — the goal is the next door, not the biggest number.