A-Levels?

[Dr Unne]

Someone please explain the British school system to me, from the beginning when you're 5 years old up to when you graduate college or university or whatever you call it over there. And what are these A-Level things.

[Denmark]

I think at about the age of 15 or 16 they go into what they call "college" which is sorta like our high school. And then at around age 18 they go to "uni", better known as university. I think before that it's somewhat similar to the American school system.

[m4tt]

I was also wondering what these A-levels were.

[Cz]

Ages 5-11: Primary School. This is split into two Key Stages, Key Stage 1 (5-7) and Key Stage 2 (8-11). At the end of each, children take SAT tests, which aren't particularly important, but are a decent monitor of progress during the child's early years.

Ages 12-16: Secondary School. Again, this is split into Key Stage 3 (12-14) and Key Stage 4 (15-16). At the end of KS3, there are more unimportant SATs, but at the end of KS4, we take GCSE's. These cover a broad range of subjects (English, Maths etc. are compulsory, others are selected by the students themselves) and are the first important exams that a child will take. After that, they can either leave school and get a job, or move on to the Sixth Form/College.

Ages 17-18: Sixth Form/College. In the first year, we take 4 'AS-levels'. Then we drop one subject and do the all-important 'A-Levels' in the second year. At this stage, no subject is compulsory, so students are free to select whatever they wish, and can begin to specialize in certain fields. Afterwards, a student can either leave school or continue on to University.

18+: University. Here, students study a single subject. The length of the course will depend on the subject being studied. At the end of this, the student will emerge with a Degree. They can then go on to study other subjects if they wish, but only crzay people do that. :)

In summary:

Primary School, Ages 5-11. SAT tests
Secondary School, Ages 12-16. SAT tests and GCSE's
Sixth Form/College, Ages 17-18. AS-Levels and A-Levels
University, 18+, Degree.

There's also all sorts of other qualifications, such as GNVQ's, but they're not really a part of the school system, so I've left those out.

[Psychotic]

Ages 17-18: Sixth Form/College. In the first year, we take 4 'AS-levels'.

I got my results for these today, and got A, A, B and C. Which is WAYYYYYYYYYY above the national average. So w00t. :)

Also, AS Levels count towards half the mark of an A Level, the rest of which will be taken next year.

[crono_logical]

It varies from parts of the country too :p You start primary school at 4 here :p

Not to mention it changes too often too. I only took my A-Levels 3 years ago, and the system was completely different to today's A-Levels - people would normally only do 3 (I've got 5), with an optional 4th of being General Studies A Level or a GNVQ (I chose GNVQ). But even this was subject to which part of the country you were in :p

[Cloud_99]

Yeah I took my GCSE's about 2 months ago. I had to take about 20 exams :shoot:

I had to take 6 English exams but they were all easy so :D

anyway I've got the results in a weeks time and I think I'm one of the only people in the country who isn't worried about them. :p

[Dr Unne]

See, in the US, we start kindergarten when we're 5 or so, then we go to 1st grade, then we do 11 more grades until we hit 12th grade, then we graduate and get a high school diploma. And then you can optionally go to college, which is school at a university. If you don't finish up to 12th grade, you're considered a drop-out, and will have a hard time getting anything but the suckiest of jobs, if that.

There are no real standardized tests, and the grades are broken into elementary school, middle or junior high, and high school, but where you break them apart is different from school to school, even school districts from the same state. It might be 1-6, 7-9, 10-12, or it might be 1-5, 6-8, 9-12. It depends a lot on where they can physically fit kids into buildings I think. We have SAT tests which people take in 11th grade, but those are pretty much only to help you get into college.

[Sacred Phoenix]

In Canada it's even simpler grade 1-8 in elementary, 9-12 or OAC in high school. OAC is technically Grade 13, but it's only was in Ontario, but they phased that out in the last couple years. Basically you did grade 13 if you wanted to go to university. But if you only wanted to go to college you only had to go to grade 12. But now I think they have seperate "U" or "C" classes. So if you want to go to university, then you would take all "U" level courses and with College you would take "C" courses. (i think that's how it works, i dunno i was out of high school before they started skrewing aroung with everything.) :p Then you pick a University, College or work.

[Shoeberto]

There are no real standardized tests,
Actually, some states are starting to require passing of standardized tests in order to recieve a diploma, such as Ohio. We're just starting to require it for the class of 2007 and on, which, lucky me, is my year.

[Yamaneko]

All I know is that I'm getting one of the best paid educations without government help in the free first world countries.

[eestlinc]

that State of Georgia had graduation exams when I was in school (and still does, I am sure) but they were ridiculously easy and you took them a year before graduation so that if by some ridiculous chance you failed (as a few do) you could take them again and not delay graduation.

[Logan]

Actually, some states are starting to require passing of standardized tests in order to recieve a diploma, such as Ohio. We're just starting to require it for the class of 2007 and on, which, lucky me, is my year.
I'm pretty sure California is doing something like that too. Or we have to pass the "Exit Exam", which is pretty much a standardized test.

[escobert]

Yeah Vermont is doing that too. We had to takes tests for math/english in 10th grade science 11th.

[aeris2001x2]

the one thing i really hate is the media is calling A-levels EASY again!

when i did them last year they were NOT easy, very difficult and worthy of being the GOLD standard of education.

it also really annoys me that its made out an A grade easy to get. i was really lazy in my A-levels so i,m happy with the BBC i got. but are they trying to make everyone who didnt get an A grade to feel as stuiped as ****? why is it considered a failure if u didnt get an A grade?

and even the ppl WITH A grades are being congratulated one sec, and being told they r worthless the next. will this madness end??? :mad2:

[-N-]

Someone please explain the British school system to me, from the beginning when you're 5 years old up to when you graduate college or university or whatever you call it over there. And what are these A-Level things.
Try to think of it as playing "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" except instead of money, it's grades. ;)

[Skogs]

In quite a few schools now, students can opt to do the International Baccalaureate during their final two years. It's a diploma that's accepted just about everywhere. For the IB, you take six subjects over two years - three at higher level (HL) and three at standard level (SL). You have to take a mother tongue language, a second language at any level, a maths subject (studies, methods or higher), a science subject, a humanities subject and then you have free choice of a sixth subject which can be an arts, humanities, science, further maths or a third language. In addition, you have to do a 4000 word extended essay on one of your subjects, a 'theory of knowledge' course and obtain 150 hours of 'creativity' (art), 'action' (sport) and 'service' (community service). Each subject counts for 7 marks and you get 3 bonus points from ToK and the Extended essay. The CAS hours are basically a pass/fail criteria. So you get a mark out of 45. Higher level subjects don't count for more, but you are expected to do better in them and are more likely to fail your degree if you a fail a HL subject than if you fail an SL subject. Universities usually ask for a certain score in your HL subjects and a minimum overall score. I did Biology, Chemistry and Maths at HL, and Economics, French B and English A1 at SL.

[eternalshiva]

o.O

Grade1-8 ? What school system were you in? In New Brunswick it's: Grade 1-5 is Elm, 6-8 Junior High, 9-12 High School. Garde 13 is Ontario only.

Quebec has a weird system. 1-6 Elemn, 'Secondaire 1-5' basically ends at Grade 11, Cegep [2 years] and then University.

[bennator]

Actually, some states are starting to require passing of standardized tests in order to recieve a diploma, such as Ohio. We're just starting to require it for the class of 2007 and on, which, lucky me, is my year.

Because I know how much we love Ohio Schools, we've always had to pass an exam for a diploma. Except, you used to take the exam <i>before</i> you started HS, and had until your senior year to pass it (no challenge at all, it's an 8th grade exam). Now, they are going to make the exam be during the 2nd year of HS, which doesn't really add all that much. Plus, they made the classes of '05 and '06 take the test to "calibrate" scores and whatnot, and I can assure you that it is quite easy.

[Shoeberto]

Actually, some states are starting to require passing of standardized tests in order to recieve a diploma, such as Ohio. We're just starting to require it for the class of 2007 and on, which, lucky me, is my year.

Because I know how much we love Ohio Schools, we've always had to pass an exam for a diploma. Except, you used to take the exam <i>before</i> you started HS, and had until your senior year to pass it (no challenge at all, it's an 8th grade exam). Now, they are going to make the exam be during the 2nd year of HS, which doesn't really add all that much. Plus, they made the classes of '05 and '06 take the test to "calibrate" scores and whatnot, and I can assure you that it is quite easy.
That is right. I forgot about the eighth grade proficiencies. I had to take them, but they didn't count for anything. I had to take a practice version of the new test this past year, and yeah, it wasn't very difficult.

[escobert]

o.O

Grade1-8 ? What school system were you in? In New Brunswick it's: Grade 1-5 is Elm, 6-8 Junior High, 9-12 High School. Garde 13 is Ontario only.

Quebec has a weird system. 1-6 Elemn, 'Secondaire 1-5' basically ends at Grade 11, Cegep [2 years] and then University.
In Vermont it goes k-6, 7/8, 9-12

[Del Murder]

Those fire wands in grade 1-4 kicked my ass.

[sephxangel]

Actually, some states are starting to require passing of standardized tests in order to recieve a diploma, such as Ohio. We're just starting to require it for the class of 2007 and on, which, lucky me, is my year.


yea it's becoming a lot more common now. when I was in high school, we had to take tests that determined whether we graduated or not. Everyone was talking about it like it was hard but I passed all of them on the first try.

[Shlup]

There are no real standardized tests,
In California we have to take one or two standardized tests every year through every grade. You don't have to do anything like that? We also have to pass three exams in high school (reading, writing, and arithmatic) before we can graduate.

SAT's and the like are optional though. I didn't take anything like that.

[Rye]

We have tests every few grades, like Shlup said. I live in New York though.

I remember the 4th and 8th grade tests especially. 8th grade was pretty tough, cause the whole thing was preparing for those tests that determine where you'll be for high school. In my school, for each subject you had to take those tough state tests. It was as numbers (4,3,2,1) 4 being the best, and 1 the worst. If you get a 2 or lower, you have to take a help class or something in that subject. I remember being so nervous about my math grade as I am not very good at it. I got a three 3. :)