Due to popular demand, AHS will be offering IB Psychology Higher Level (HL) for next year’s juniors, expanding the school’s psychology program beyond its current Standard Level (SL) class. The new two-year HL class will require 240 hours of teaching and will be taught by current psychology teacher and Skier Scribbler advisor Sarah Ward. The class will give students the opportunity to explore the subject in greater depth.

Until now, students interested in psychology at AHS have only had access to IB Psychology SL, a class that at AHS compresses a wide range of materials into a single year. The SL curriculum covers the three core areas (cognitive, biological, and sociocultural) of psychology, while also dedicating time to the Internal Assessment and preparation for the IB exam. Students also study one optional unit, either child development, human relationships, abnormal psychology, or health psychology.

“The one-year SL course is really overwhelming because we’re shoving so much content into such a short period of time,” Ward said.

IB Psychology HL builds on the SL foundation but allows significantly more time and depth. HL students will explore multiple optional topics, additional content within each core area, and complete an additional assessment, Paper 3, where you read a scenario and answer three set questions. Ward said that the HL class is designed to allow for teaching in more depth, rather than just increasing the workload.

“With HL, we get more time to spend with the content,” Ward said. “It’s more advanced, but it is not a marathon where you have to do everything really quickly in order to get through it in one year.”

Ward also said that HL Psychology allows students to spend more time on topics that tend to resonate most with high schoolers. Units like abnormal psychology, which examine mental health concerns, such as anxiety and depression, often spark the most interest among students, but are currently limited by time constraints in the SL class.

The structure of the class will mirror IB Business, where all students will take the SL course in their first year, and then students who are interested in delving deeper into the content will take the HL class in their second year. This model allows students to experience the subject before committing to a 2-year HL course. Also, the addition of Psychology HL is especially significant for IB diploma candidates, as it can count towards the required three HL courses.