Subject Choice

Everyone has to make choices at different stages in their life. Some of the most crucial relate to their education, in particular what combination of subjects they decide to take for higher- level study. 

For most young people such choices take place between the ages of 14 and 18. In England they are likely to be asked to make selections at 14, when they decide which GCSE courses they are to pursue, at 16 when they select their post-16 studies and then at 18 in deciding on higher or further education programmes or their chosen area of employment.

Helping young people to make the most appropriate subject choices is therefore crucial, both to ensure that the country has the skills its needs for the economy and to enable young people to make the best choices to meet their own future needs and aspirations.

The factors that have been considered to influence subject choice are listed below - but, with the exception of gender, ethnicity and ability, each factor was only investigated in one study and/or in lower-quality studies:

• gender 

• ethnicity 

• ability 

• socioeconomic status 

• school/college size 

• school type (comprehensive/grammar/etc.) 

• school type (with sixth-form/without sixth-form) 

• school type (single-sex/co-educational) 

• school type (independent/local authority) 

• school type (religious denomination) 

• grouping practices (i.e. setting by ability) 

• geographical setting 

• subjects taken at GCSE 

• qualifications of teaching staff 

• performance of school/college 

• school status (degree of autonomy of school management) 

• gender ratio of staff 

• urbanicity.

Girls were more likely than boys to refer to interest and enjoyment as a reason, while boys were more likely than girls to talk about how easy they considered the subject to be.

With all of these influences and factors it is very difficult even with in-depth research investigation to know what the proper subject to choose may be.

It is a know factor that aptitude indications and psychometrics help with counselling and consultation to bridge the gap and bring us closer to getting that choice right.

Precision Timing is crucial to success.  

Make your Choices count......

Psychometric Testing

 Helps to achieve "CLARITY"

What is Psychometric testing?   

The word Psychometric comes from the Greek psycho- ‘of the mind’ and metric meaning ‘measuring’.

Psychometrics is the field of study concerned with the theory and technique of psychological measurement, which includes the measurement of knowledge, abilities, attitudes, personality traits, and educational measurement. The field is primarily concerned with the construction and validation of measurement instruments such as questionnaires, tests, and personality assessments.
                                                                                                                         Wikipedia 


Psychometric tests are scientifically designed to add dimensions about your interests, feelings and choice preferences.

Interests – if you can pursue a real interest or passion then you are far more likely to enjoy your work and succeed.

Personality – How do you normally respond and behave? What is the right kind of role and environment for you to be working in? What do you want? What are your goals and dreams?

Aptitudes –These are looking at various types of reasoning. What are you good at? What are your strengths? What are you not so strong at? Where do you believe your talents lie, is that a realistic outlook?

Afraid to make the wrong choice?

Don't know what I want to do!


Well this will give you direction in conjunction of course with counselling and consultation.

Psychometric testing helps to create a picture, put some dots on the page so to speak that later can be joined together to create an image, giving you the anchoring strengths, affirming your strengths and giving you belief that this is what you are capable of, giving you the direction and the clarity in what you want to do.

For more information and consultation 

Simply leave a comment and we will get back to you, E-mail address would be helpful.

Kind Regards

Apollo Timing (precision timing is key to success)

Counselling, Client-centred Model

The emergence of client-centered therapy in the 1950’s was part of a broader movement in American psychology to create a humanistic alternative to the two theories which at the time dominated the field: Psychoanalysis and Behaviorism (represented by the relative idea’s of Freud and Skinner).  This emerging therapy was to become know as Person-centered counselling or as it has been often referred to as “Rogerian” psychology because so much was pioneered and originated from the work of Carl Rodgers (Mearns & Thorne, 2008). 

Apart from Rogers other central figures in early humanistic psychology deeply influenced person-centered counselling included Abraham Maslow (a massive contributor to humanistic psychology and his inter-relating principles on self-actualisation), Charlotte Buhler (central for her existential-humanistic contributions) and Sydney Jourard (who pioneered the fields of self-disclosure).  These writers shared a vision of psychology that would have a place for the human capacity for creativity, growth and choice and who were influenced by the European tradition of existentialism and phenomenological philosophy, as well as by Eastern Religions such as Buddhism (McLeod, 2009). 

Person-Centered Counselling is based on the main premise of humanistic theory that people have the natural tendency towards growth and development (an actualizing tendency) and will themselves seek to resolve problems in their lives, rather than succumbing to them.  The therapy itself is akin to psychodynamic theory of delving into deeper emotions, focusing on the present not the past as it is in the now that a person is grappling with problems.  It is the recognition and value that an individual places on their own lives to direct their own life.  Rogers starting point is “the tendency of the organism to maintain itself - to assimilate food, to behave defensively in the face of threat, to achieve the goal of self-maintenance even when the usual pathway to that goal is blocked.  We are speaking of the tendency of the organism to move in the direction of maturation as maturation is defined for each species” (Rogers, 1951:488). Rogers believed that for this to occur therapy needs the right climate, which rests not on techniques but on the relationship between the therapist and the client.  

In his personality theory the actualising tendency was Rogers’ only motivational concept.  It described a human being’s basic drive to maintain, develop and enhance their functionality.  In a sense it is a fundamental “life force” that does not abate but constantly urges the person towards development.  The actualising tendency drives the person to make the best they can of their circumstances (Mearns & Thorne, 2008).  As Rogers (1959) put it “when they can accept themselves, they can grow psychologically”.

"If I am truly open to the way life is experienced by another person...if I can take his or her world into mine, then I risk seeing life in his or her way...and of being changed myself, and we all resist change. Since we all resist change, we tend to view the other person's world only in our terms, not in his or hers. Then we analyse and evaluate it.  We do not understand their world. But, when the therapist does understand how it truly feels to be in another person's world, without wanting or trying to analyse or judge it, then the therapist and the client can truly blossom and grow in that climate."

Rogers (1959)