Every student in high school will come across a state of confusion where they need to decide whether to take an electives or not. Some of you might think that electives even matter. This article will provide you with the necessary information to clear your doubts regarding electives in high school and will guide you to choose a good elective.
Electives Matter In High School
The decision of taking or not taking an electives in your high school purely depends on the total number of credits required to get graduated. This number of credits required to get graduation depends on the institute in which you are pursuing your high school. In most cases, it is not possible to get graduated without taking any electives.
Necessity of Electives
To Earn Credits
It is a matter of fact that one can able to earn a lot of credits by taking core courses only. But if you want to remain on the safe side, it is a wise choice to take some electives. Taking easy electives will boost your credits. This will nullify the effect of securing low marks in a core subject.
To Take a Break
Students these days are going through a lot of stress indeed. Maths, science, computer science, and all these core subjects put considerable pressure on the shoulders of students. Choosing an elective that is easy for you to study and is something you love will act as a stress buster in your rigorous schedule.
To Chase your Dreams
Electives such as filmmaking, and digital arts will provide fuel to your creativity. For instance, if you have a hobby of taking photos or videos, an elective related to media or digital arts can serve you well. You will enjoy learning It and at the same time paves the way to apply your creative solutions to real problems.
Multiple Perspectives
Multi perspectivity is a characteristic of representation where an object is represented from more than a single point of view. When you are always busy working on your core subjects, there are chances that you get stuck somewhere. Sometimes it is necessary to think out of the box to solve critical problems.
For example, you may be a computer science student. When you get an opportunity to study psychology as an elective subject, you will get a whole new perspective on the algorithms of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Connecting Subjects
Everything is related to everything else in this beautiful world. Various subjects that you learn in high school are also not an exception to this statement. Every subject is either directly or indirectly related to another subject in one way or the other.
Electives provide a chance to connect the knowledge repositories of two or more subjects, thus enabling students to think intensively. Inventions like artificial limbs would not be possible without connecting computer science and biology.
To Find a Good Career
A correctly chosen elective can even guide you to a brand new career path. A career should be something that you choose on your own, without any external driving forces influencing you. It should reflect your love for a particular domain.
There are chances that you are not interested in the core subjects and you are looking for something different. In that case, you can pick a new career based on the elective you have chosen.
Good Opportunity To Make Friends
Taking electives not only affects the technical side of your character but also provides non-technical benefits. This includes opportunities to make friends from other departments.
Interaction among students from various backgrounds is essential to build a healthy relationships among students. This, in turn, will lead to the emergence of a peaceful society.
Electives cover a wide range of subjects. So, students from one department are often pooled with students from another department. This paves the way to share their knowledge and experience with each other. Thus, for extroverts, taking an elective opens the gate to building a big network of friends.
Tips To Consider While Selecting an Elective
GPA Is Not The One And Only Goal
I admit that GPA is essential to showcase your strength in academics. But there are other things to consider too. GPA is only essential for those who want to enter a new program after getting graduated. you might need a good to enter into an institute and get further education.
When your aim is to get an internship in a big company or to get placed, your focus should be mainly on the knowledge that you acquire during the period of education rather than chasing a high GPA. Since most of the students will pursue higher education in a university, GPA becomes essential.
Choosing an easy elective may boost your GPA but choosing the one that you are interested in will fill you up with valuable knowledge.
Value Over Difficulty
Students usually go after easy electives. Easy in this case means that it is easy for any student to get high marks in that subject, even on the last day of study. It may be easy to score marks without having in-depth subject knowledge.
For example, for a particular elective, the question paper may be repeated for so many years or the instructor will lend a helping hand to all the students during an examination. These courses are commonly referred to as bird courses.
If you are only aiming for GPA, you could take a bird course but you have to keep in mind that all your colleagues might have the same idea and the thirst for getting a high GPA. This means that you will face a high level of competition there.
If you really want to explore things and grow your knowledge, choose an elective that sounds interesting to you. Your keen interest in any subject will surpass its difficulty and finally grants you the fruit of success in your career.
Choose A Good Instructor
A good instructor has the power to turn a barren ground into a beautiful garden. Before choosing the elective, go through the bio-data of the instructors who are going to handle each subject.
Some electives may be taken by world-class instructors. Do not be afraid to take an elective that is going to be taught by a resourceful instructor. There are possibilities that you’ll start loving a subject that you felt was difficult to learn before.
Conduct an Analysis
Conducting an analysis of various aspects of an elective by yourself is necessary to make the right decision. Investigate the credits allotted for every elective. Go through online resources and study the future scope of every elective course.
It is advised to gain the required information from multiple sources rather than holding on to a single source. Interact with the students and staff of other high schools and compare the ideas that you got from them with the ones that you got from your own school.
You need to be careful while taking the advice of someone else, since some of the educational advisors may misguide you to the wrong path. So, instead of taking information for granted, analyze the gathered content and make your own decision. Do not let people make influence your choices.
Do Not Follow The Herd
When it comes to choosing an elective, it is not necessary to go after a choice that is selected by most students. Choosing an elective just because your friend has chosen it is going to hurt you in the long run.
Most of the students usually pick bird courses as their electives. More strength in a course means more competition. Everyone will aim for an A grade but the institution is not going to grant it to everyone as they need to show some difference in the academic performance of the students.
You need not hesitate to stand alone and go after a course that attracts you. Before joining an elective, make sure that you know about the assessment techniques followed for every elective.
An elective with a unique assessment technique that deviates from the usual pen-paper exam is the best choice. For example, if an electives course requires you to submit a real-world project to complete the course in school, you will have your proof of work which can be shown to anyone in the future, whether to join an institution or to get a job.
Conclusion
I hope you got a clear idea about the importance of electives in high school. Electives cannot be considered a trivial thing as they not only help students to boost their GPA but also guides students to the way of genuine learning and skill development.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Is it compulsory to take an elective in order to get graduated?
Your goal should be to earn the minimum credits required to get graduated. This requirement varies for different schools. In most cases taking only core courses will not be sufficient to achieve the minimum credits required.
Can I choose the easiest elective?
It is a personal choice. If you want to have a break from your tight routine, you can opt for an easy elective. But if you want to prosper in the long run, I would suggest you go for an elective that sounds interesting to you.
Is it okay to complete all the electives at the very end?
If the chosen electives are pretty easy, you can execute this plan. But it is advised to take one elective per semester to give proper attention to electives and acquire enough knowledge from them.
