5 keys to choose subjects for Baccalaureate
Adolescents must decide what academic path they want to take when they start 4th of ESO and later in Bachillerato. It is time to choose an itinerary that will condition your professional future. Therefore, knowing the capabilities and tastes of each one and identifying their interests and their competences (scientific or not) will be the key to building an academic itinerary that guarantees their success.
How to decide an academic itinerary from 4th ESO
These are some of the keys that parents, teachers and especially students, must take into account to be successful with future academic decisions:
1. Know yourself Self-knowledge is the key to successful selection of new subjects. Know your strengths and weaknesses and being aware of them, will be the first step for the student to make decisions regarding their future. It is also necessary to know what skills are required for each subject.
Establish a relationship between tastes and aptitudes of each one with the competences demanded by each subject will be a fundamental task for the student. Knowing what each subject will require will help you see if what you want to do matches what you can really do. Thus, from a self-knowledge, the student can build a personal and professional itinerary.
2. Have the help of parents and guardians. The election should never be taken alone, that is, without first consulting with parents, teachers and tutors who can give the student a guideline to guide their choice. All these figures (parents, teachers and tutors) can help the student to know their abilities, weaknesses and limitations. This information that is provided to the student from outside can help you to have another approach to help you in your choice.
In addition, the schools have a team of guidance counsellors whose function, among others, is to help students decide on their academic future. Likewise, the tutors, who are the people who best know academically and personally the students, will have more information about them and will be able to advise them more effectively. Likewise, both teams, both the teacher and the guidance, will be an important resource for parents to help their children make the most appropriate academic decisions.
3. Know the offer of subjects. The changes introduced by the LOMCE (Organic Law of the Improvement of the Educational Quality) consist, among other things, of increasing the educational offer, leaving the student more freedom to choose. However, if the student is not properly informed about the subject: what they are, what content they have and what each of them implies; surely, the risk of making mistakes when choosing which courses to study, will be greater.
Thus, knowing those possible subjects and carefully study the contents of each of them will be a very important preliminary step to the final decision that will mark, to some extent, your academic future. Equally, it is necessary to know what is the offer of subjects of later stages, that is, to know what subjects are chosen in the Baccalaureate and even what possible careers the student may take depending on the itinerary he / she chooses now.
4. Think of a future profession. The students who are still studying Compulsory Secondary Education see their professional future very far, think about the possible professions which they would like to dedicate themselves to in the future is a task that they must carry out now. Your decisions today may limit your future tomorrow.
To think about what they would like to do is as necessary as someone to guide them on the itineraries they should choose to be able to practice a certain profession. Working day by day based on what you want to achieve in the not so distant future (being a doctor, being an architect, being a journalist, etc.) is also a extra motivation for the student, who sees how the effort he makes now will be decisive to get the professional future he wants.
5. Better rectify than follow the error. Sometimes, making the right decision is a difficult task. Each student has a maturity and a different knowledge of himself. Some will know their preferences and aptitudes very soon, while others will be more lost and will discover later what academic path to follow. In any case, the important thing is to keep in mind that there is always a possibility of rectifying. Just as the student evolves and changes, sometimes it is better to rectify and take a step back than to follow an academic option in which the student is doomed to failure.
Patricia Núñez de Arenas
