Here are some of the best questions for a high school sophomore student survey about course selection preferences, along with practical tips to craft them effectively. You can build such a survey in seconds with Specific’s AI survey generator—no manual effort needed.
Best open-ended questions for high school sophomore student course selection surveys
Open-ended questions encourage students to express their unique ideas and preferences. These types of questions are powerful when you want richer, more nuanced data—they let students explain, share examples, and provide context. This is especially valuable when exploring why students lean toward certain courses or the challenges they expect to face. Open-ended questions reveal unexpected perspectives, giving us insights we never would have thought to ask about directly. Research shows that these questions help uncover context and develop a deeper understanding of students’ opinions, especially for qualitative research. [1][2]
What factors are most important to you when choosing your courses for next year?
Can you describe a class you’re excited to take and why?
If you could add any course to the curriculum, what would it be and why?
What challenges do you expect when making your course selections?
How do you usually gather information about different course options?
Describe a past experience that helped shape your course choices this year.
What advice would you give to classmates unsure about which electives to choose?
In what ways do your future goals influence your course preferences?
Are there resources or supports that would help you feel more confident in your selections?
How does input from teachers, counselors, or family affect your decisions on courses?
Allowing students to answer freely makes it possible to capture detailed, context-rich feedback that’s nearly impossible with closed questions. These open-ended responses are a goldmine for uncovering what really matters to students and what obstacles might stand in their way. [3][4]
Best single-select multiple-choice questions for course selection preferences
Single-select multiple-choice questions are perfect when you want to quantify student preferences or quickly start a conversation around a topic. They give respondents a simple, focused way to pick from clear options—which makes it less daunting than coming up with answers from scratch. If you want to collect structured data to gauge preferences at scale, multiple choice is the way to go. Once you see the trends, you can dig deeper with open-ended or follow-up questions.
Question: What is your main goal when selecting courses for next year?
Fulfilling graduation requirements
Exploring new topics
Improving college applications
Other
Question: Which subject area most interests you right now?
Math & Science
English & Humanities
Arts & Technology
Physical Education
Question: Who has the biggest influence on your course selection decisions?
Family
Teachers / Counselors
Friends
Myself
When to follow up with "why?" Always consider adding a “why?” follow-up after a selection, especially if you want to uncover motivations and get richer detail. For example, if a student selects “Improving college applications” as their main goal, a follow-up could ask, “Why is this important to you?” This gives clarity on their personal drivers.
When and why to add the "Other" choice? If you want true breadth of responses, always offer “Other” (with a text field). Some students’ motivations or interests might not fit the listed choices, and follow-up questions for “Other” often yield surprising insights you hadn’t anticipated.
NPS-style question for course selection preferences
Net Promoter Score (NPS) questions aren’t just for customer feedback—they work well for understanding how likely students are to recommend the course selection process at your school. If you want a quantitative pulse plus insight into what drives opinions, an NPS question is ideal. Ask something like, “On a scale from 0-10, how likely are you to recommend this school’s course selection process to a friend?” and follow up for elaboration. With Specific, you can generate an NPS survey for high school sophomore students about course selection preferences in just a few clicks.
NPS questions create an instant feedback baseline, making it easy to benchmark and track changes over time.
The power of follow-up questions
Follow-up questions are what take a simple survey and turn it into a truly conversational experience. Learn more about automated probing in our article on AI follow-up questions—it’s a must-read. At Specific, AI does the heavy lifting by generating smart, contextual follow-ups right when students respond, just like an expert interviewer. This live, real-time probing uncovers the full context behind each answer, saving you hours of back-and-forth emails or manual interviews. Thanks to these dynamic follow-ups, the survey quickly gets to the “why” and “how,” so nothing is left unclear or unspoken.
Student: “I want to take more science classes.”
AI follow-up: “What about science classes interests you most? Are you considering a science-related career?”
How many follow-ups to ask? Usually, 2–3 follow-ups are plenty—you want enough detail to clarify, but not so many that you tire the respondent. With Specific, you can set rules to allow skipping or moving to the next question once you have what you need.
This makes it a conversational survey: Instead of a static questionnaire, you’re having a live conversation—students feel more heard and responses are richer.
AI analysis, survey response themes, auto-summarization: Even with loads of unstructured responses, analyzing them is easier than ever with AI. Our platform lets you analyze all qualitative answers instantly, distilling complex data into clear themes and actionable insights for your team.
These automated follow-ups are a new approach—don’t take my word for it, try generating a survey to see how much smoother and more insightful your data collection can be.
How to compose a prompt for GPTs to generate survey questions
The right prompt brings the best survey questions. Try this as a starting point:
“Suggest 10 open-ended questions for high school sophomore student survey about course selection preferences.”
But giving more context yields better results. For example, mention your goal, the type of feedback you need, or challenges you face.
I’m organizing a survey for high school sophomore students to understand what drives their course selection preferences. Our goal is to improve academic counseling and curriculum planning. Suggest 10 open-ended questions that dig into their motivations, expectations, and challenges.
After getting an initial list, refine it with a categorization prompt:
Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.
Now, decide which themes you want to explore further. If "influence of peers" and "post-high school goals" stand out, focus your next prompt:
Generate 10 questions for categories “peer influence” and “future plans after high school.”
Stacking prompts like this will refine your question set and keep the survey laser-focused on your objectives.
What is a conversational survey?
A conversational survey is just what it sounds like—a survey that feels like a natural chat, not a cold form. It uses AI to talk to respondents in real-time, ask follow-up questions, and respond intelligently to answers. This makes the feedback process smooth, engaging, and often more honest.
With Specific’s AI survey generator, creating a conversational survey is instant: just describe your goal and let AI do the rest. Traditional/manual survey creation demands hand-crafting each question and logic, which is slow and often overwhelming. Our workflow lets anyone generate, edit, and launch thoughtful surveys—without ever touching a single static Google Form again.
Manual Surveys | AI-generated Surveys |
Static forms, fixed questions | Conversational, dynamic follow-up probing |
Time-consuming, repetitive setup | Minutes to build, focuses on intent |
Little context beyond initial answer | Gathers why/how/what-for in real-time |
Why use AI for high school sophomore student surveys? AI makes it incredibly easy to launch engaging, context-rich surveys—meeting students where they are, with zero manual overhead. It adapts on the fly, digs for details, and ensures you get nuanced responses for more effective decision-making. If you want to learn how to create a survey for high school sophomore students about course selection preferences, there’s a full guide based on proven methods.
Calling your survey an “AI survey example” or conversational survey isn’t just a buzzword: we believe it’s a new standard for educational research. Specific delivers the best-in-class user experience, so the feedback process is conversational, friendly, and actionable for you and your students.
See this course selection preferences survey example now
Ready to unlock richer insights from students? See how easily you can gather deep, actionable feedback—Specific’s conversational surveys give you fast, flexible, and truly engaging course selection data. Try it for your class or school today and experience the difference.