In this paper, the subject uptake of the pupils who took part in the 1984 Assessment of Performance Unit (APU) Age 15 Science Survey is described. More than 200 different subject names were listed by the pupils, but more than half were studied by just a handful of pupils. The most common subjects, in descending order of frequency, were English, mathematics, geography, history, art, French, physics, biology and chemistry. The sex‐related and ability‐related differences in uptake are described for the more common subjects and for some of the commonest combinations of subjects. Detailed accounts of the uptakes of science subjects and modern foreign languages are also gi