Core classes are math, English, natural science, and social science courses that make up the majority of most academic curricula, particularly at the high school and university levels. Students are generally required to take classes in subjects such as the arts and foreign languages in addition to these classes. Physical education classes may also be required, depending on the academic institution.
While it is common for students to be required to take classes in core subjects, they often have a say in which classes they take within those subjects. Composition, speech, and even creative writing classes, for example, fall under the umbrella of English. In addition, the literature classes offered an English department usually change from semester to semester. As a result, a student might be able to choose between classes in Victorian literature, Romantic poets, the twentieth-century novel, and West Indian literature one semester and Shakespeare’s sonnets, feminist literature, post-colonial literature, and Asian literature the next semester. These options are sometimes only available after taking a prerequisite core class like freshman composition.
There is usually some variety in core classes that fall under the umbrella of math, natural science, and social science, but students can still choose from a number of options. Elective classes in these fields, like English core classes, are often only available after completing prerequisite courses, which are typically completed in the first year or first two years of the academic program. Geometry, algebra, statistics, trigonometry, and calculus are common math core classes. Physics, biology, chemistry, and earth science are common core classes in the natural sciences. History, sociology, anthropology, psychology, economics, geography, and political science are frequently grouped under the natural sciences umbrella.
More classes in one core field may be taken than in the other, depending on one’s academic focus or major. A student pursuing a major in psychology, for example, is likely to take far more social science classes than a student pursuing a major in physics. Furthermore, some students will enroll in core classes in a specific field in order to prepare for a second degree that they hope to obtain after completing the current one’s requirements. Students interested in becoming doctors, for example, will take many natural science courses such as biology and anatomy.