Ok so my son is confused right now as to what he wants to do careerwise. he is doing his first year of A levels now, the subjects he’s picked are Biology, Economics, Business Studies. He is not a high flier achieving As but he does try. I was suggesting accounting but many courses at uni want minimum B grade for maths he got a c for the higher paper.
Is it normal to not know what you want to do at this point?
What can he do with these subject choices assuming he gets places ( we will find out Friday inshallah).
first of all, you must encourage and provide opportunities for him to improve on his grades. he has to achieve higher grades in order to do any kinda meaningful studies in this highly competitive world. he may be better suited in pursuing studies in biological sciences, especially Microbiologyrelated disciplines.
I am always telling him he really needs to knuckle down and work very hard. he can't sit at his books for too long, I really envy those students that can be at the books for hours but my boy.....he;s not like that. I always tell him to take regular breaks so he can revise longer.
For some reason I can't see him doing a science related degree :/
I am always telling him he really needs to knuckle down and work very hard. he can't sit at his books for too long, I really envy those students that can be at the books for hours but my boy.....he;s not like that. I always tell him to take regular breaks so he can revise longer.
For some reason I can't see him doing a science related degree :/
i agree that you can NOT make someone study but you may give some incentives and some private tutoring. set small goals and ask him to achieve them and then reward modestly. how old is he? he has siblings too?
Each student has his/her own way of learning , learning abilities and learning disabilities. The biggest mistake parents make is compare their kids to other kids.
Did you ever ask him what he wants to do in life ? Let him pursue his own interests and he will do his best , Inshallah.
I know everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses and I appreciate this. We have never forced him to do subjects of our choice, even now we have said it's his choice what he feels he enjoys and can handle.
He seems interested in accounting and has even seen a course at a uni he might like to do, other similar courses elsewhere are asking for very high grades. I was just thinking that he should have a few other course choices for back up.
Inshallah he can do well in whatever he decides.
I know everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses and I appreciate this. We have never forced him to do subjects of our choice, even now we have said it's his choice what he feels he enjoys and can handle.
He seems interested in accounting and has even seen a course at a uni he might like to do, other similar courses elsewhere are asking for very high grades. I was just thinking that he should have a few other course choices for back up.
Inshallah he can do well in whatever he decides.
Accounting is a great profession , he can specialize by selecting courses related to Accounting for example some business administration or finance related courses.
Mrs NM, I would suggest you and he sit down and talk openly, and maybe he needs to speak to a career counselor as well to at least narrow the choices of what he wants to do. now as far as grades go, You sounds like my mum when I was 17. I had pathetic grades after elementary schools all the way to college and even early on in college. Learning style did not match at all with how the classes were and the exams. My parents allowed me to experiment and I went from engineering to computer science to business with a technology side and once I got into a place that was in line with my interests, I rocked it. all of my siblings learn more in the typical way, so I had been a challenge for my parents that they were not sure what to do, and the teachers just said I was lazy or dumb and not applying myself.
I can learn 10 times as much doing a case study than staring at and practicing formulas, memorizing concepts. Find out your son's learning style and aptitude/interest in certain areas and get a meeting with an expert in the field. get him on the right trajectory, and the right neighborhood in terms of a field, and guide him along the way if he needs to alter his course a little bit.
I would suggest if he likes accounting but you want to keep his options broad, that he goes for business studies, he can go into many different directions, accounting being one, finance, marketing, ops mgmt, supply chain mgmt, analytics, you name it
I was trying to make sure that two of my under performing children get somewhere in their education.
I have done anything a father could afford but no result, it is not she was not trying hard but things are simply now working for her, sending oversea also did help.
I even sent her to Canada, hoping change in environment and education system might help, nothing worked at all.
After burning huge sums on monies, time and energy, i given up on her, so i let her free to do whatever she want to do. That was break she needed, she enrolled herself in a privet university in Karachi took media/ advertising studies, and i started cursing myself wasting her 5 years.
I am so happy that she discovered her real talent and doing extremely well Alhamdulillah.
I realized it was my fault to push her for too much for something although she has not aptitude. Once she discovered her niche life changed for her.
Try to find something which he is really passionate make plans close to that.
You should let him decide what he wants to do. He is 17 years grown up so must know what are his strength and weakness. He would have an idea in what field he can progress in life. One should always remember you have to compete with people in open market so choose the field where you think you can beat the competition and land good opportunities. Most of my mates are in field of accounting and finance they wanted me to study the same with them. I knew that if i go in accounting or finance at the end of day ill pass the exams get the degree but ill not be confident enough to compete with others so i choosed the field where i thought i could progress and thanx God my decision was right if i had listens to my mates i don't think i would be that successful in life today
SOme great advice here, I think the problem is in finding how he learns better, exam technique and so on. He is getting something wrong somewhere. he did go to see a careers advisor a last week upon my suggestion and they have given him websites he needs to look through to help him decide.
As I mentioned he is not an As and bs student but i have said to him he can turn things around just needs to put time and effort into it.
Can someone give good revision techniques? He has previously been writing post it notes and sticking them around the room, on the fridge and everywhere around the house!!!
Mrs NM what i did in high school was (im in my second year of university at university of Glasgow so i was in his position not too long ago and i can relate) did past papers constantly. Just have him do past papers. Anything he is stuck at tell him to look it up in his text book. That way when he comes up against something that he didnt get right first time he'll remember the answer this time around because he actually went to the effort of finding it himself and it should allow him to fill in any gaps he has in his knowledge. Itll also let him tackle more difficult questions where he can apply what he has learned and these questions are what really come up in the exam so if he can tackle these questions his confidence will increase. Mine did 10 fold! but thats just me and everyones different. Its just a suggestion