Think Ahead, time to think about the future

By Stuart Porter

High School Principal



Think Ahead is the time of year when 10th graders, with the help of some school activities, staff and their families, choose their IB Diploma subjects that they will take in their 11th and 12th grade. Think Ahead is all about taking the time to really think about the future, before you take a really important decision, because their choice will naturally have an impact on their options when applying to a university.


Our students need to choose their IB Diploma subjects in combinations that make sense for future university studies either in Mexico or in different countries. Generally, they fell into four areas: 


1. Physics, Math & Engineering

2. Life & Health Sciences

3. Economics and Business Administration

4. Arts, Humanities or Flexible


In order to help students make this decision, the teachers made a website full of information about each subject, which was launched six weeks before the decisions were made. Then, around a month before the decision days, I visited each 10th grade classroom to explain to students what they needed to do, and they reflected on what they might want to study. I also invited all 10th grade parents to a conference either in person or online, to explain the situation and choices to them. A week later, all 10th grade students were invited to the Think Ahead Subject Fair, where they could hear from current DP students about the benefits of studying each class, as well as examples of work. They asked a lot of questions! 


Then, after thinking about their choices over the Easter break, we invited them to give us their final choices. We were really happy to report that almost all of the students came to their appointment very sure about what they wanted, having given it a lot of thought. Every single student was able to get their first choice combination of subjects, which was excellent, and the distribution was as follows: 


1. Physics, Math & Engineering - 26%

2. Life & Health Sciences - 22%

3. Economics and Business Administration - 36%

4. Arts, Humanities or Flexible - 16%


It was a great success and I'm very happy for the students!






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