Tuesday, February 12, 2013

STUDENT TIP: WHAT SUBJECTS TO STUDY

STUDENT TIP: WHAT SUBJECTS TO STUDY … A number of our PLS friends (in Facebook) are continuing onto Grade 11. Some are asking for tips on which line/strand they should follow. Here are some tips (from off the top of my head):

1. CHOOSE SUBJECTS THAT ARE EASY FOR YOU TO DO
One of the best tips I got in life regarding choosing subjects to study/career came from my Maths teacher from India. She told us to choose subjects/tasks (as in careers) we found easier to do. I think she said that to help us avoid getting the headaches and frustrations that some get because they were forced to do something. 

2. LOOK FOR CHALLENGES
While choosing subjects/tasks that are easy to do, do not avoid taking on challenges. Often we do not know our strengths until we take on challenges. And while overcoming the challenges, we see another side/talent in us that was “latent”.
If you are good with Chemistry but poor in Physics, but want to be a technician in the future, you must take on Physics also – and work hard to improve your grades in that subject.
Plumbers, mechanics and electricians must be good with their Physics as well as in other sciences.

3. FOLLOW YOUR PARENTS/GUARDIANS
It is often the case that children grow up learning a lot from their parents. Teachers’ children know the routines of their parents and later easily adapt to a teacher’s life; the same can be said of a doctor, lawyer or mechanic.
A former student of mine decided to study mechanical engineering because his father ran a workshop. He was driving motor vehicles and selling their parts while still in secondary school.
(NB. But you do not always have to follow the footsteps of your guardians. You can cut out a different path for your people by venturing into another profession – one that none of your relatives have ventured into. Yes, you can be a pioneer.) 

4. BALANCE YOUR CHOICE OF STUDIES
While working to excel in your favourite choice of subjects, make room to balance with another subject that may not be your favourite to give a balance in your learning.
Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple advises students in the sciences or other areas to learn art. He later combined his art knowledge with Steve Wozniak, his computer tech pal, to form Apple.
When I was in Grade 12, I chose to do all the Sciences but made time available to learn Music, to up my level of comprehending written music.
That knowledge enabled me to learn to teach myself to play the descant recorder/flute (the instrument on my profile page). (I might learn to play the flute later on?)
If I did Economics instead of Music, my learning life could be very dry. (More on my choice of subjects in the next post.)

5. A BIT MORE
If you want to do Science or Engineering (and become a geologist, chemist, computer scientist, aircraft engineer, pilot, navigator, etc), you must choose the Physics/Advanced Maths/Chemistry/Biology strand of studies.

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