Grade 8 Course Selection Advice
Since course selection took place recently and course verification is very soon, I wanted to give some 8th graders going into grade 9 some advice I wish I had when I was entering high school:
(Disclaimer: I go to a public high school in Ontario, so this might not be as relevant outside of the province)
ENGLISH: If you’re English skills are up to par, I highly suggest taking enriched as opposed to academic. I chose to take academic, but I now realized that my school prioritizes enriched students and makes sure they have the best teacher in the department. You’ll learn a lot more in enriched and it will prepare you much better for grade 11/12 than academic.
MATH: Same thing as English, if you’re doing well in math you should just take enriched. You might be forced to enter math competitions, but usually you’ll be given less work than academic classes and a better teacher.
SCIENCE: At my school, enriched science was the worst because the science teachers had no clue what they were doing. Academic might be the better choice here if you’re looking into a STEM career.
FRENCH: Honestly the curriculum wasn’t that hard, but if you haven’t learned passe compose by the end of this year, you will struggle. I suggest either taking beginner/applied (if they still offer that) or learning this on your own during the summer break :/
GEOGRAPHY: There aren’t many options for this one, but at my school, the workload depends significantly on the teacher. I never had any homework, but my friends got loads. The summative was also a huge pain, but I’m not sure if it’s the same at every school. There’s always summer school if you hate social studies and want to get it over with :)
GYM: You need to take this lol. Don’t really know what to say...
BUSINESS: Grade 9 business was a huge waste of time for me. If you can, I suggest just taking grade 10 business because a) you don’t need a prerequisite and b) nothing from grade 9 continued into grade 10 for me.
TECH: I heard it was pretty interesting, but you have to take part in 3 different units throughout the year (can include computer tech or hair-styling.) If you’re not interested in a strand, you could probably just take the grade 10 equivalent of what you’re interested in.
MUSIC: I love music personally so I chose this as my arts elective, but if you hate playing instruments then don’t take it. You have to show up to weekly rehearsals (at least at my school), so it’ll really suck if you don’t enjoy it.
VISUAL ARTS: This course is extremely time consuming. I watched my friends draw during their lunch period to finish assignments they already worked for hours on. Same as music, if you hate drawing don’t take this course.
DRAMA: At my school this was easy marks and the workload was light. Might be good if you just want to complete an arts course.
I think that’s about it from me, if you have any specific questions feel free to ask :)