Are you new to IGCSE? Well, all freshers have to go through the struggle of choosing their subjects. IGCSE is probably the first time the schools give their students a choice of choosing subjects according to students' own will.
In this situation, most of the students are overwhelmingly excited because their choices are responsible to decide the long-term field of study or career for them. It's crucial to make the right choice! Being an IGCSE student, I had to go through the same procedure and I can understand your circumstances better than anyone else. In this blog, I'll discuss how to choose your IGCSE Subjects wisely.
International/Compulsory Requirements:
Cambridge, Pearson, or Edexcel (whichever your IGCSE board is), the minimum INTERNATIONAL requirement of IGCSE subjects is 5. These 5 subjects would include English and Mathematics as Compulsory and the rest of the 3 subjects would be of your choice based on the area of study you choose and likely to pursue as your career.
Regional Requirements:
The country or region where you are studying IGCSE and plan to continue your A-levels or university from the same country, then you have to take "Regional Requirements" in the account. Regional requirements for IGCSE subject selection include the International/Compulsory subject requirement (mentioned above) PLUS some of the local subjects of that country.
For example, I started my IGCSE in MALAYSIA as an international student and I had 7 IGCSE subjects (English, Maths, Chemistry, Biology, Physics, French, Malay). But, in the second year of IGCSE, I shifted to PAKISTAN. Being a local, I had to choose local IGCSE subjects such as; Urdu, Islamic Studies, and Pakistan Studies.
Thus, I dropped French and Malay languages because I was no longer in MALAYSIA and I needed local PAKISTANI IGCSE subjects to pursue my A-levels from here.
Major Courses:
When your international/compulsory subjects plus regional subjects are selected, now comes the moment you make a real move. You have to decide your major subjects, which would influence your career. In IGCSE as long as you fulfill the international AND regional subject requirements, you can choose up to the "endless number" of subjects, nobody's going to judge.
However, according to my opinion, you need to have an adequate number of IGCSE subjects that are neither too low nor too high in number such as; 8. This is because you don't want to stress out yourself and at the same time, you don't want to feel completely free.
That's why 8 subjects are adequate in number. This includes your international, regional, and major subjects. Major subjects decide your field as discussed below:
Engineering:
If you plan to be an engineer in the future, you have to choose IGCSE Chemistry, IGCSE Physics, and IGCSE Maths. With these subjects, you attain a strong base and help you to skillfully ace engineering fields such as chemical, mechanical, or aeronautics.
However, the software engineer is an exception as you would have to drop IGCSE Physics and replace it with IGCSE Computer Science or IGCSE ICT in this special case.
Medicine:
The basic IGCSE subjects you need to pursue medicine include IGCSE Biology, IGCSE Physics, and IGCSE Chemistry. With these subjects, you will get an overview of the medical field and prepare you to accelerate in dermatology, cardiology, etc.
You may want to take IGCSE Physical Education along with these scientific subjects if you plan to be a physiotherapist.
Food science:
This field helps to tackle and analyze problems related to food. So, choose IGCSE Biology, IGCSE Agriculture, and IGCSE Food Nutrition.
Law:
If you want to become a lawyer and help to serve justice, you need the following IGCSE subjects. You have to go with IGCSE Global Perspective, IGCSE History, and even IGCSE Sociology.
Hospitality management:
If you are interested in managing administrative, or commercial activities of hotels around the world, you might pursue hospitality management. You would need IGCSE Travel & Tourism, IGCSE World Literature, and IGCSE Business Studies.
Commerce:
If your interest is inclined towards business and economics such as trades, businesses, management, stock markets, inflation, currency fluctuation, entrepreneurship, etc, then you should study IGCSE Business Studies, IGCSE Economics, and IGCSE Enterprise.
Acting:
Are you planning to ace the movie industry soon and aim to work in dramas or films? Then you must take IGCSE Drama, IGCSE Music and IGCSE World literature to solidly you as a complete actor or actress.
Art:
Don't be shy, if you feel you are potential enough to become one of the leading artists, then polish your potential by studying IGCSE Art & Design, IGCSE Drama, and IGCSE Music
VERDICT:
At the end of the day, these career deciding IGCSE subjects might sound fascinating, but it also depends on your school, whether they have proper teachers to teach such subjects or not. Also, no matter what subject you choose, you need to apply long-term thinking because you should place your interest in perspective as compared to the suggestions given by your parents or teachers.
For example, if you want to become an artist but your biology scores are great too, so, your teachers or parents choose the medical field for you as a suitable profession with decent earnings. But deep down in your heart, you still enjoy arts more than anything. In this case, you would gradually start to lose interest in the middle of your medical course and it would become hard for you to focus. Your heart & mind are would be at different places and you DON'T want to do this.
Therefore, choose those subjects which you find interesting and you are confident to pursue your career in that particular field without any hesitation.
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If you want to know how to get A-stars in IGCSE read my blog using this link or if you want to know what to do after IGCSE, then this blog using the link. Best of luck and I hope you will choose captivating IGCSE subjects.
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