Capitalizing school subjects / studies

[HaraKiriBlade]

Hi,

I thought I knew the rules regarding capitalization... well, maybe not down pat, but well enough to get by at least, but it seems that I was wrong.

To my knowledge, when it comes to capitalizing school subjects / studies, you don't unless they are languages or specific class names. However, the listening practice tests in Cambridge IELTS books have examples that contradict what I know. The scripts are as follows:

A: Well, now I work in the customer services department but I did my initial training in Finance. I stayed there for the first two years and then moved to where I am now.
B: That's the same department I'm applying for. Did you enjoy it?
A: I was pretty nervous to begin with. I didn't do well in my exams at school and I was really worried because I failed Maths. But it didn't actually matter because I did lots of courses on the job.

I know the first one is a department at a company, but as far as I know, the same rules apply there. The practice test would only accept the capitalized forms as answers. That's one book. Another book by the same company (Cambridge University Press / Cambridge English Language Assessment) has the following, which I think is how it should be.

A: Oh right. And what will you be studying?
B: I'm doing a course in nursing.

I do not know if this seeming discrepancy is simply a sloppy error by the Press or if I am missing something here. I teach English in Korea, but I am rather embarrassed that I can't be sure about something so simple. As always, thank you in advance for your help

 

[emsr2d2]

I'm not sure you'll get a straight answer with this one. When I'm talking about a subject in general, I don't capitalise it. For example, I would say "He's terrible at maths" when talking about someone's ability in that particular subject. However, when I talk about a specific class in which that subject is taught, I capitalise it. For example, I would say "We've got Maths before lunch and double Geography after lunch. I wish I could just go home at lunchtime!"

 

[jutfrank]

If I understand you correctly, you're asking why Maths is capitalised there.

Well, according to the rules you mention, it's because the speaker is thinking of it as the name of the class rather than as a general area of study. It's as simple as that.

The speaker could have used the uncapitalised common noun in that sentence, too, so if you're really saying that the Cambridge book accepts only the capitalised form as correct, that certainly seems very harsh. I'd have to see the precise wording of the questions that elicit those answers to judge properly.

 

[Tdol]

However, the listening practice tests in Cambridge IELTS books have examples that contradict what I know.

Things change. Certainties that I grew up with are no longer the case. Some of what I taught nearly forty years ago is no longer the case.

 

[bubbha]

The standard practice is to capitalize program names and course names, but not subject names.

"In the university's Mathematics program, I took the course Introduction to Calculus, in which we learned the basics of calculus. I enjoy studying mathematics."

 

[HaraKiriBlade]

I have realized what I was getting wrong, thanks to all of your helpful explanations. I guess knowing what the rules are and actually understanding them are two different ballgames. Thank you so much. Seeing many paraphrased versions of the same rule helps me to understand where I lacked in my understanding of it.