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    Subjects You Wish You'd Studied

    EDIT: Removed
    Last edited by Johnny Velvet; 05-11-2021, 12:13.

    #2
    I wish I'd studied physics past GCSE. But I'm just not capable of doing the maths required. I have and have always had a block endnote it comes to algebra. I'm deeply jealous of anyone for whom it comes easily.

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      #3
      Originally posted by hobbes View Post
      I wish I'd studied physics past GCSE. But I'm just not capable of doing the maths required. I have and have always had a block when it comes to algebra. I'm deeply jealous of anyone for whom it comes easily.
      Same here. Was never able to wrap my brain around algebra at school, hence my grade C in GCSE Maths and just scraping through Physics as part of Combined Science. Couldn't give up those two subjects quick enough, a situation not helped by my Physics teacher being an extremely rum cove indeed: he insisted on referring to everyone as 'boy' and often responded to questions with comments like "Who is that coming in my rear?" before turning round from the blackboard and often refusing to help, just like he flat-out told me to 'go away and think harder' when I approached him for assistance during one lunch break. Well, fuck you, I'll just stop trying entirely now.

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        #4
        Luckily, I got a chance to make up for an earlier regret, as in secondary school, I had to choose between French and Spanish in first year, but after opting for the former, I then got to study the latter as part of a Business and Modern Languages course at third-level.

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          #5
          My first choice of a degree was Egyptology but there were only 3 courses available; Liverpool, KCL and Oxford. I immediately ruled out ever wanting to live in the first two as Liverpool was too close to home and that London was, just London. I visited Oxford for a “taster” when I was offered a place and pretty much hated everyone I came across. So went to Edinburgh for Ancient History instead. Which was ace but still occasionally stare into the middle distance about what I missed out on.

          That said I would have been equally unemployable regardless and still could never have afforded to do any postgraduate work.

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            #6
            Statistics is the big one. I got some very basic knowledge through doing A-level and beyond maths, but not enough to practically use it.

            But there's loads of stuff I wish I knew that I don't necessarily want to have studied instead of something I did study — several languages, history, geology/paleontology, computer science.

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              #7
              Hmmm. I sometimes wish I'd taken Further Maths at 'A' Level. I found Maths a bit of a doddle, really, and by doing Further Maths perhaps I'd have done better at Physics when I took it at degree level, or may have even done Maths at university. Things would then have probably turned out differently, though, and I'm reasonably happy with the way they actually did, so it's not a huge regret. I never got chance to study German at all at school which is more of a regret as I am doing now and would probably have found it a good deal easier when I was younger.

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                #8
                I regret dropping Biology from my middle school curriculum and keeping Economics. Should've been the other way around.

                I also detest the manual bullshit the middle school made me do. Draw a garden through the eyes of a garden gnome. Make a fish out of this lump of clay. Sow an oven glove. Build a miniature piece of furniture. Fix a bicycle tire. They can all go do one. They could've taught me Spanish in that time. It's not really a regret, though, since I had no choice in the matter.

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                  #9
                  My best mate's dad was a high ranking cop who offered to get me on the force when I was 18. I'd have been retired on full pension about 6 years ago. And I'd have probably enjoyed the work well enough. But honestly, I wish I'd learned a trade, like carpenter or cabinet maker, and worked mostly for myself.

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                    #10
                    Latin. If I had I reckon I would be presenting a BBC Four documentary on the Roman Republic by now, possibly as the discerning housewife's choice.

                    On the other hand, choosing German instead led to me getting my first girlfriend (friend of a friend from the girls' school we went on the exchange trip with), so there's that.

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                      #11
                      I wish I'd studied history. Never even took at at "O" level. Although I'm most interested nowadays in the history of places other than Britain that I've learnt about while travelling - stuff like the hundred year's war, the Romans, how world war two panned out on the eastern front, that kind of stuff. As history taught in our schools is apparently very British based (and I suspect with a judderingly red rosy view of things like the slave trade, the Irish famine, the end of empire, etc) I don't know if I would have ended up being given the chance to study the stuff that interests me now.
                      Last edited by Rogin the Armchair fan; 28-11-2018, 14:02.

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                        #12
                        I wish I'd done Physics rather than Art at GCSE. I really had no talent for the latter.

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                          #13
                          I wanted to study Art, but had to do Physics...

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                            #14
                            Thing is, you can spend the last thirty years of your life happily doing Art. More difficult to spend it doing Physics.

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                              #15
                              For me, Languages. I still don't have a GCSE in Maths, something I only recently admitted to my kids.

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                                #16
                                Guitar and piano

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                                  #17
                                  Wish I’d majored in Maths, and taken languages further. I’ve always been very interested in the Humanities and Social Sciences, but Maths was the thing I excelled at, and I liked the fact that you were (mostly) either right or wrong, so a teacher couldn’t mark subjectively. Also, there’s a buzz from working out a Maths problem. My brain isn’t agile enough now to be really good at it, but when I retire I’d like to do some Maths for fun (not degree level, though, probably just revisit A Level).

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                                    #18
                                    But there's loads of stuff I wish I knew that I don't necessarily want to have studied instead of something I did study — several languages, history, geology/paleontology, computer science.
                                    This. Well, not that exact set of subjects, but the general point that I would love to have studied lots of things on top of what I did study, but have no regrets about my university subject choices (German, Russian and linguistics first time round then a maths degree course recently by way of mid-life crisis). The only subject I would substitute like a shot was at O-level, namely Religious Studies (or Scripture, can't remember the exact title), which was a compulsory O-level course at my Catholic school. I hated it, and would love to have done history instead, even if the amount of history I'd have learnt in a few years on an O-level course at school would have been tiny compared to what I learn just from general reading as an adult.

                                    Unlike posters above who eschewed physics due to issues with maths, maths is absolutely my thing, and I gave sciences a miss at A-level because I'm rubbish at experiments. I would dearly love to know a lot more physics (and chemistry, and biology....)

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                                      #19
                                      When applying for 6th Form, one of my 4 choices was German as I had done it through secondary school and quite liked it.

                                      As I was the only person in the my whole year group to put German though, my school informed me that I couldn't and I never did. I wish I'd bothered elsewhere, but I simply never got around to it.

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                                        #20
                                        At GCSE options time only myself and one other in the school wanted to do German, so they made us do French. I've since been to Germany over 20 times (I've lost count, but definitely more than 20) and France (excluding very short stays) twice.

                                        Though I seem to be going against the grain on History - I had no use for it in what I was planning to do in life, but took it at GCSE and A-level, just because I enjoyed it. And still do - like Mr Christ I've got more books on history than al other genres put together.

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                                          #21
                                          when I retire I’d like to do some Maths for fun (not degree level, though, probably just revisit A Level).
                                          A-level Further Maths is interesting, A-level Maths (single A-level) rather less so, especially these days. I think from memories of attending my elder daughters' parents evenings recently that the Maths A-level doesn't include anything on complex numbers, which I thought was shocking.

                                          I would like to have time and go back and do all the topics from my recent maths degree course that I wasn't able to keep up with in real time. In particular, i want to do Galois theory properly and actually understand the full sequence of theorems which builds up to the proof of the insolubility by algebraic methods of the general quintic equation.

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                                            #22
                                            I started doing Maths at A-Level - I had to take two subjects. Pure Maths (so algebra) and a choice of Statistics, Decision Maths or Maths Mechanics.

                                            I have no idea what Decision Maths is, and Maths Mechanics was linked to Physics which I definitely wasn't doing. That left me with Statistics. I stuck it out for a month but got so bored I quit the subject altogether. They wouldn't let me just do Pure Maths, and Decision Maths clashed with English Literature (which at the time was my favourite subject) which meant that I was left doing 3 subjects at A-Level. That was probably just as well because I was dreadful in all 3 subjects - Ds in Media Studies and English Lit, a U in IT.

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                                              #23
                                              Originally posted by JVL View Post
                                              Same here. Was never able to wrap my brain around algebra at school, hence my grade C in GCSE Maths and just scraping through Physics as part of Combined Science. Couldn't give up those two subjects quick enough, a situation not helped by my Physics teacher being an extremely rum cove indeed: he insisted on referring to everyone as 'boy' and often responded to questions with comments like "Who is that coming in my rear?" before turning round from the blackboard and often refusing to help, just like he flat-out told me to 'go away and think harder' when I approached him for assistance during one lunch break. Well, fuck you, I'll just stop trying entirely now.
                                              I was pretty okay at maths but like you found the algebra beyond me. Unlike you I failed physics and always told myself that it would never be useful for me, which is many ways is how things turned out. I regret not having studied or put my mind to French a bit more but to be fair to my teenage self the old-fashioned ways of teaching at the time must have turned me off no end.

                                              Teachers do make a difference and if the French ones I had (many of whom didn't really master the language, I'm sure) had been as enthusiastic as my English, History and Geography ones then maybe my education would have been subtly altered.

                                              I would have liked to do Domestic Science aka cookery but that was reserved for girls and I had to put up with woodwork and metalwork, both of which I loathed and to this day any mention of DIY has me running for the hills..or the pub.

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                                                #24
                                                Statistics is/are great!

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                                                  #25
                                                  Because of staff shortages I wasn't allowed to do my chosen leaving cert subjects i.e history, geography and French and was given my first morning in 5th year to decide which to drop.
                                                  Reluctantly I ditched history and took biology (about which I knew little and cared less), I managed to get a scrappy pass in biology rather than the honour I'm sure I'd have got in history, to add to the ones I got in the aforementioned two as well as English.
                                                  Not that it really matters, I got a job two months after leaving school, stayed there for 4 years and moved to my current job where I've been for 33 years and not one person has ever asked me about my qualifications.

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