Throughout the years of around 12 to 16 students will forced to make a decision between which subjects to keep in the school years to come. First in year 8 or 9 when they will pick their subjects for GCSE where they will drop a few subjects to focus on others and then in two years when they will choose three or four subjects for A levels  which they will focus on more heavily…

The problem that arises when picking subjects is valuing how able you are in the subject against how entertaining and motivated you will be over the two years and how useful the subject will be in going towards your goals  for further education and jobs.

GCSE offers a greater range of choices and some new subjects. With four choice subjects and some mandatory ones you will only end up dropping about five subjects overall. It is because of this I would recommend taking two or three subjects that will be helpful in future endeavours and choosing two fun or new subjects that will act as a break from conventional work. While GCSE’s don’t hold as much value as A levels they will show you have a good range of skills and are an opportunity to branch into subjects that weren’t available before such as media, economics, and business and sports studies.

For you’re A levels the stakes are raised as you are only able to choose three or four subjects it is important you are motivated to do them as the work loads are significantly bigger than GCSE and your results will be taken heavily into account if applying for further education. At the same time though almost all of the subjects should be relevant to what you want to do. This does mean you can continue one or two less relevant subjects if you choose to.

Ultimately the subjects you do are up to you and while there is guidance on what to choose and what subjects work together well you should be happy doing those choices so that you can try to do well.

Oliver Gaedke, The John Fisher School.