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Call us on 0800 222 733Choosing school subjects
Knowing which subjects to take in your next year of school can be difficult, as you need to consider what you're good at, what you enjoy, and what subjects might be most useful to you in the future.
Know your options
Some subject choices will be outside your control. For example:
- certain subjects may not be available at your school
- your class timetable may mean that you can't do all the subjects you want to
- some subjects are compulsory at certain levels, such as maths and English.
Think about your abilities and interests
When you are deciding on what subjects to take, ask yourself questions like:
- What subjects am I good at or not so good at?
- What subjects have I enjoyed studying? What subjects don't I like, and why?
- Think about other things you are good at - for example, writing, working with your hands, fixing things, working with numbers etc.
- Outside of school, what do you like doing most? Consider things like your hobbies (playing with music, playing sport) and how you like spending your time.
Thinking about these sorts of things will help you figure out what subjects you could do and what jobs you could pursue in the future.
Andrew Purvis is taking Year 11 science and Year 12 computing to help him reach his goal of becoming an information systems officer in the Army.
"I chose these subjects because computers are turning up everywhere, in so many jobs, so you want to be able to do at least some of the basics when you start working. I was thinking about the future. That’s why you pick subjects – to help enhance your future, not just because your friends are taking them."
Andrew Purvis, Student
How will your choices affect your future?
When making subject choices, you need to think about how your choices will affect your future career options and/or your future tertiary training options.
Find out more about the careers that interest you to get an idea of what secondary subjects are recommended. Each job summary on our website includes information about recommended secondary subjects in the ‘How to enter the job’ section.
You can also use these tools to help you find out what subjects and careers might suit you.
- Subject choice action plan - use this to keep track of the subjects you need for the jobs you're interested in
- Subject Matcher tool - find out jobs you might be interested in based on the subjects you like
- Skill Matcher tool - find out jobs that might suit you based on your skills
- Jobs by Interest - discover jobs that match your interests
Keep your career options open
Most people change their minds about what they want to do in the future. Your interests and abilities will change over time, or you might find out about new careers that you had never heard of before.
So even if you're sure of what you want to do, try to study a wide range of subjects at school. This will give you more options later on.
Keeping a broad range of subjects may give you better options in the future, particularly if your plans change. After six years as a pharmacy technician, Nora Parore realised she'd found her passion and enrolled in a pharmacy programme. But she wished she'd kept up with science at school.
"For a lot of students coming into first year health science, it was a small stepping stone from Seventh Form. I thought that if I went to uni, I would do business or accounting, so I took Fifth Form science and that was it.
"If I could recommend to anyone, I would say do science – persevere through. Don't view science as being scary – it's not!"
Nora Parore, Community Pharmacist