Here are some of the best questions for a high school sophomore student survey about advanced coursework interest, plus practical tips to craft them. We use Specific to build these surveys in seconds—it's incredibly easy to generate a tailored conversation.
Best open-ended questions for high school sophomore student survey about advanced coursework interest
Open-ended questions are where you get the richest insights. Instead of limiting students to fixed responses, let them share what really drives or holds back their interest. This works best when you want authentic stories, detailed reasoning, or unexpected perspectives.
What motivates you to consider enrolling in advanced courses at school?
If you could design your ideal advanced course, what would it focus on and why?
Can you describe a time you felt challenged by your current coursework, and how you responded?
What are your main concerns about taking advanced classes next year?
What would make advanced coursework more appealing or accessible to you?
How do your experiences in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) classes affect your interest in advanced courses?
Are there any barriers (academic, personal, logistical) that discourage you from advanced coursework?
What support do you think would help more students succeed in advanced classes?
In your opinion, how do advanced classes benefit students—now and in the future?
What advice would you give to other sophomores who are undecided about advanced coursework?
Open-ended questions like these are especially valuable now that 73% of public high schools offer advanced coursework options, yet student participation rates differ widely by school size and resources [5]. This approach uncovers what’s actually driving—or blocking—interest among sophomores.
Best single-select multiple-choice questions for high school sophomore student survey about advanced coursework interest
Single-select multiple-choice questions work well when you need structured, quantifiable data or want to give a gentle nudge for those who might struggle to put their thoughts into words. These make it easier to spot trends—for example, knowing that only 31% of high school graduates completed a full college preparatory curriculum as of 2024 [3] is a vital context for improvement efforts.
Question: What is your main reason for considering advanced coursework next year?
To prepare for college
To be challenged intellectually
To improve my GPA or class rank
My friends are taking advanced classes
Other
Question: Which subject are you most interested in taking advanced courses in?
Math
Science
English/Language Arts
Social Studies
Other
Question: What is your biggest concern if you enroll in advanced classes?
Workload will be too high
I might not do well
I won’t have enough support
Conflicts with sports or extracurriculars
When to follow up with "why?" Whenever a student picks a broad or popular answer (“I might not do well”), ask “Can you share why you feel that way?” or “What specific challenges do you expect?” These follow-ups spark conversation and help you capture what’s really behind the choice.
When and why to add the "Other" choice? If you can’t exhaustively predict what students might say (e.g., favorite subjects, motivations), always add an “Other” option. The follow-up (“Please specify...”) often uncovers unique or emerging trends you might have missed before.
NPS question for high school sophomore student surveys
The Net Promoter Score (NPS) isn’t just for businesses—it's a smart way to gauge overall sentiment among sophomores about advanced coursework. By asking, “How likely are you to recommend taking advanced courses to a friend?” on a 0–10 scale, you get a clear read on advocacy, enthusiasm, or hesitancy. NPS benchmarks also let you track improvement over time, or compare schools and programs. Try creating an NPS survey for high school sophomores with just one click.
The power of follow-up questions
Automatic, contextual follow-up questions unlock much deeper understanding—which is what sets Specific apart in conversational AI survey design. When a student gives an unclear or incomplete answer, the AI can nudge them to clarify, explain, or dig deeper. This totally changes the quality of your data. For more on how automated followup questions work, read our feature guide.
Student: “I’m not sure if I want to take advanced math.”
AI follow-up: “What makes you hesitate about advanced math? Is it the workload, difficulty, or something else?”
How many followups to ask? For most surveys, 2–3 automated follow-ups are ideal. That’s long enough to gather context but not so long as to feel repetitive or tiring. With Specific, you can set follow-up depth and allow the AI to move on once you’ve gotten the clarity you need.
This makes it a conversational survey—not just a list of questions, but a real back-and-forth that adapts to each student’s responses in the moment.
AI survey response analysis is simple even with lots of unstructured answers. Thanks to AI, you can automatically summarize and analyze everything at scale. Check our guide to analyzing survey responses for a walkthrough.
Automated follow-ups are a new superpower in survey design. If you haven’t experienced a truly interactive survey, generate one and try it out—you’ll immediately see how much more you learn.
How to prompt GPT and other AI to create questions
You don’t have to be an expert to brainstorm great survey questions for high school sophomores. Just use AI or ChatGPT and give it the right prompts:
Start with the basics:
Suggest 10 open-ended questions for High School Sophomore Student survey about Advanced Coursework Interest.
But AI works much better if you add details about your context, your goal, or the students. For example:
We are a high school in a diverse district, trying to better understand what motivates—or holds back—sophomores from enrolling in advanced or AP courses. Our goal is to increase equity and participation. Generate 10 open-ended questions to explore students’ attitudes, motivations, and barriers, plus follow-up ideas for each.
If you have a list of candidate questions already, get AI to help you group and refine:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Once you see the categories—maybe “Barriers,” “Motivations,” “Subject Preferences”—ask for targeted ideas:
Generate 10 questions for categories Barriers, Motivations, Subject Preferences.
What is a conversational survey?
Conversational surveys feel less like a test and more like a friendly, guided chat. Instead of requiring students to fill in a dry web form, the survey adapts to them—asking follow-ups when responses are unclear, using friendly language, and probing like a smart interviewer.
AI survey creation is different. With an AI survey generator, you can interactively brief the AI with your prompt and get an intelligent, customized survey in seconds. This beats the manual process, where you’d need to brainstorm every question, edit options, write follow-ups, and manually structure logic.
Manual Survey Creation | AI-Generated Conversational Survey |
|---|---|
Brainstorm and write every question from scratch | Describe your goals and audience; AI generates tailored questions instantly |
No real-time probing or follow-up | AI automatically asks clarifying follow-ups based on student's answers |
Analysis is manual or requires additional tools | AI summarizes, themes, and lets you “chat” about your data |
Static experience, often fatiguing for students | Feels like a natural, low-pressure conversation |
Why use AI for high school sophomore student surveys? High school sophomores’ academic interests are evolving, and most students are interested in more than one subject or major [4]. Conversational AI surveys surface this nuance, probing beyond one-word answers and helping you build a direct connection with students. When 78% of students are exploring multiple options, generic forms just don’t cut it anymore.
If you want genuinely actionable student feedback and the smoothest experience, Specific leads the way in conversational AI survey technology. The feedback process is seamless for both you and the respondents—far beyond anything a static form can deliver. Curious how to build something like this? See our step-by-step guide to creating a high school sophomore survey about advanced coursework interest.
See this advanced coursework interest survey example now
Try a survey that adapts to every student, asks smart follow-ups, and reveals the real drivers of advanced coursework enrollment—get deeper feedback and clearer insights, instantly.