A-Levels?

[-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]

OOC:

[q="Hsu"]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.[/q] 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]

OOC:

[q="Hsu"]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.[/q] 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.