The Advantages of Taking the General Academic Strand

           Published by Editorial Team on                              November 24 2020

Reading Time: 3 minutes

It seems logical that every senior high pursuing the General Academic Strand (GAS) in senior high, here’s a rundown of what the most determined GAS students have to say about it. 

Today’s K-12 generation is offered three educational tracks when they reach senior high school. The Academic track comprises HUMMS that deals with Humanities and Social Sciences, ABM for Accounting, Business and Management; and GAS for General Academics. For students who enroll in GAS, most are looking to develop their skills in reading, writing, and speaking skills. In short, GAS students are being groomed as professionals who serve people through ideas and communication. These students may someday be lawyers, professors, psychologists, or theologians. 

We’ve asked a few senior students who are proud GAS enrollees and here are some of the things they have to say about the advantages of taking this particular strand.

GAS has class.

And by class, we don’t mean your actual class lectures but instead the great selection of subjects a student can take within the strand such as disaster preparedness, risk reduction, and organization management among others. Imagine learning how to deal with common and not-so-common problems that most adults face and being able to formulate solutions of your own. Now that’s something worth studying for. Most students find these topics interesting in how they are both necessary for any job and how they serve as concrete foundations to specific specializations when they enter college. This strand also offers flexibility for students who are still on the fence about what course to take in college as it gives them experiential education and previews of the other strands offered in senior high school.  

You can select a good mix of subjects.

GAS also offers a host of subjects from the other Senior High School strands namely HUMMS, ABM, and STEM. Students may choose to take these subjects simultaneously. Among better subjects to look into that are available in GAS are Philippine Politics and Governance, Community Engagement, Creative Writing, and Applied Economics among many others. These subjects give senior high school students general overviews on what they can learn about in college depending on their chosen courses. The most likely ones to take if you’re a GAS graduate are those that have to do with communication arts, education, journalism, philosophy, literature, and political science. However, GAS students may also choose other tertiary disciplines that are more inclined to the other strands because that’s just how versatile the general academics strand develops its students.  

Becoming a Jack of All Trades can give you an advantage for future endeavors.

GAS students are always prepared for college like scouts on a camping trip. That is if the student already knows what course he’ll be taking up upon graduating senior high. This is because GAS makes it more convenient for students to pick the subjects and strands they need to take in order to pursue higher education. Like any other senior high school strand, students will always encounter challenges but the trade-off is how they can discover their true disciplines and what college course they can excel the best. Your typical GAS class is usually composed of diverse individuals who are ready to share new discoveries with each other. If you love letters, you may eventually develop an interest in numbers from the next math genius sitting right beside you in class. That’s actually one of the best advantages a student can get when choosing GAS over the other Senior High School strands. It gives a student the leverage to find his own strengths, as well as fresh perspectives on the new things he learns from its wide range of subjects. This opportunity will definitely prepare a student for college well and soon after graduation, the real world.

Why we choose GAS ?

When we reach Senior High School, we must choose what strand we would be in, right? It’s either you choose academic or vocational. If you choose academics, you are left with several strands including HUMMS,STEM,ABM and GAS. Out of all these 4, why would you rather choose GAS ?

If you are into GAS and you want to improve your reading, writing, and speaking skills you have the right to choose GAS as your strand. Because as you haven’t noticed yet, people who choose this strand are aspiring to become members of the society who will be dealing with a lot of people. It’s either you want to be a teacher, psychologist, lawyer or etc. This subject focuses more on language and speech but it also involves Mathematics and Science but they are not too difficult since they do not belong on the specialization subjects.

Now, if you are thinking of choosing GAS or not, it’s up to you and if you think this subject is easier than the rest, then you’re wrong. Like any other strand, this strand will not be as difficult as it seems if you have passion and happiness for this kind of subject and for the people around you.

-CP