School systems

Introduce us to the school systems in your countries, tell us how effective you think they are etc.

Well, here in the U.S. it goes like this:

• 4 years of Elementary school - 1st grade to 4th grade
  
• 4 years of Middle School - 5th grade to 8th grade
  
• 4 years of High School - 9th grade to 12th grade
  
• 2-4 years of College depending on what degree (Associate's is 2, Bachelor's is 4)
  
• X years of Graduate School depending on degree (Master's, PhD, etc.)

I think it is effective because it honestly prepares you as you keep advancing. Although it might seem useless when you reach High School, haha, it truly helps. It just keeps getting harder and harder of course, but I think this kind of system is effective. It does seem like a looooot of school, trust me im exhausted of studying haha, but I like how it works out!

*****I really hope this is what you meant by school systems because if not, i did NOT write this, it was someone posing as me! Hahahahha

Yes, that's exactly what I meant! :D

Here in Montenegro (and The Balkans in general, well, mostly) it's like this:

* Elementary school - 1st to 9th grade (it used to be "only" 8 years, but they changed it to 9)
*I went to elementary school for 8 years, j-man is still in elementary school and it lasts 9 years for her, she has 2 more years left
* High school - lasts for 4 years (or 3, I'm still not sure if they changed that, I went to hs for 4 years)
* College - lasts for 3 years + Master's, PhD etc which is around 2 years I guess

It's ok I guess. We learn way too many things that no one needs but it's nice to be ~educated. The only thing is that we don't have the variety of subjects, only the classic subjects that are mandatory. I wish we had a variety of languages and disciplines we could study.

wait elementary is to 9th grade???? haha countries are soo different in so many ways!! how would u refer to the grades in high school?

but yeah in high school we had Spanish only because it's a bilingual school. i would have loved to be introduced to a different one in high school and i would have continued it in college!!

what are the classic subjects? we have math, science, history, language (Spanish), gym, and i know there's more but i can't remember haha

The grading system is almost the same as yours only that we don't refer to grades as A, B, C etc, but 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 (1 is the failing grade) lols (in Germany 5, 6 is a failing grade, people here always find it so confusing lmao)
Although, the grading system for college/university is different here. We have 10, 9, 8, 7 and 6 (which they changed into A, B, C, D, E and F, F being the failing grade)

Classic subjects in elementary and high school are maths, Serbian/Montenegrin, history, biology, geography, chemistry, physics, P.E., and 2 or 3 additional foreign languages such as English (mandatory), Russian or Italian. There might be more but they're elective so yeah

that sounds so cool and interesting!! yet, a bit confusing yes haha

I like that you have several languages you can learn from. lucky hahaha

I love learning about school systems lol, I always loved how it works in America. But that's only because I'm such a wannabe :D

hahaha it's just always interesting to learn different things! i LOVE learning how other countries do their things different from us!

but you should definitely study abroad!!

I know! If only we learned things like these in school. There should be also fun subjects that kinds would love to study /lives in a perfect world

Yeah, it's one of my main goals in life tbh, because I believe that education is the only way to get myself out of here. I guess I believe in education in general even though I hate studying and I rarely do it. XD

hahahaha i totally agree!!

hahaha definitely try it!! I want to do it but i just don't know why i haven't..... :S but yeah i hate studying although i love learning! i'm very curious so i love finding out things!

Aren't we all, the thing is, in school we're pressured to learn stuff, so it's our inner rebel who doesn't let us study. :D

exactly! i know for a fact that if i wasn't obligated to learn certain things, it would be easier for me to learn them. for example, when they have me read a book for school, it could be the best book but the fact that it's for school makes it horrible! hahaha!

and yes that's true! i should use that as an excuse hahaha

I know! I rarely read any books in high school we were required to, and when I graduated, I started reading all those books. I guess it was my inner rebel. XD

hahahaha exactly!!! maybe we should be able to chose our own books and that way they KNOW we'll read them hahaha

but your inner rebel is taking control!!! hahaha

In Brazil it's kinda different:

- 4 years of elementary (1st grade to 4th grade)
- 4 years of middle school (5th to 8th)
- 3 years of high school (1st to 3th of High School)
- 3 to 6 years of College depending on which course you want to take
- ? years of graduate depending on degree

As we have summer on december/january, our school starts on February and ends in November/beginnig of December and we have 2 weeks of vacations in July... Each year you take an grade.
To get into college you have to do an exam, at the end of the last year of High School, that's called ENEM (in english it would be something like NEHS - national exam of high school), because you have to test if you learned enough to get in college. This exam is very hard and we have to study a LOT for it... I'm going to do it next year so, wish me luck!

My school is really hard, and we learn a lot of stuff that we'll NEVER need to use. Also, the particular schools are better than the public ones and we don't have to save money (like I see in moveis, haha) to get in college because it's free, unless you want an particular one, but it's not THAT expensive.

I think this way is ok... but we surely could have less stuff to learn!

Good luck! :)

I think the Brazilian schools and teachers' skills are way worse than the system itself, which is ok for me.

aw good luck!!!! but wow that sounds like a very hard test!!! :S but it's all for the better!

lexcentralperk wrote:

Good luck! :)

I think the Brazilian schools and teachers' skills are way worse than the system itself, which is ok for me.

his_lobster wrote:

aw good luck!!!! but wow that sounds like a very hard test!!! :S but it's all for the better!

thanks guys!

lexcentralperk yeah, I think the same... but in some particular schools it's not like that

his_lobster yeah... it is... I guess it's 180 questions and the redaction O:

I love talking about this kinda stuff! In Australia it's:

Primary school: Kindergarten to year 6
High school: Year 7 to year 10
College: Year 11 to year 12
Uni: 3 years (unless you're doing some fancy degree lol)

We Maltese have a weird schooling system compared to yours.

- Kindergarten - 2 years (ages 3-5) | Kinder 1 & Kinder 2
- Primary school - 6 years (ages 5-11) | Years 1-6
- Secondary school/Junior Lyceum - 5 years (ages 11-16) | Forms 1-5
- Sixth Form/Junior College - 2 years (ages 16-18) | Lower 6th & Higher 6th (depending on the school)
- University - as many years as needed to complete courses and get degrees (ages 18+)

I'm in Form 4 right now of Junior Lyceum, so I'll soon be off to Sixth Form. It's an okay system, but I hate that we move up by age instead of by ability. I'm supposedly in the best class but they're still all stupid.

In England we have:
Primary school: reception to Year 6 ( sometimes these are split into infant school which is reception to year 2 and junior school which is year 3 to year 6)
Secondary school: (year 7 to year 11) this is where compulsory education finishes usually at age 16
College or sixth form: usually 2 years but can be more depending on course or if you fail
University: most courses are 3 years but for some like medicine it can be up to 6 years I think

i'mageller wrote:

In Brazil it's kinda different:

- 4 years of elementary (1st grade to 4th grade)
- 4 years of middle school (5th to 8th)
- 3 years of high school (1st to 3th of High School)
- 3 to 6 years of College depending on which course you want to take
- ? years of graduate depending on degree

As we have summer on december/january, our school starts on February and ends in November/beginnig of December and we have 2 weeks of vacations in July... Each year you take an grade.
To get into college you have to do an exam, at the end of the last year of High School, that's called ENEM (in english it would be something like NEHS - national exam of high school), because you have to test if you learned enough to get in college. This exam is very hard and we have to study a LOT for it... I'm going to do it next year so, wish me luck!

My school is really hard, and we learn a lot of stuff that we'll NEVER need to use. Also, the particular schools are better than the public ones and we don't have to save money (like I see in moveis, haha) to get in college because it's free, unless you want an particular one, but it's not THAT expensive.

I think this way is ok... but we surely could have less stuff to learn!

Actually, some years ago (2007) this change. I'm not sure the correct translation of some words to english, so its in quotes. Its:

- 9 years of elementary (1st grade to 9th grade)
- 3 years of middle school (1st grade to 3rd)
- 2 to 6 years for college where two years its for "technicians", 4 for "licensied" and 4 to 6 for "bachelor"
- X years for pos-graduation, master degree, etc.

Also, most schools in Brazil you can choose if you want to study on morning (~7h to 12h) or afternoon (~13h to 18), from Monday to Friday. In most of schools on the third year of Middle School (specially in the private ones) its review all subjects of the previous years besides the 3rd years subjects.

Enter in a public college its free, but not easy as explained before. ENEM is something recent, before that each university did their own test. Also, since ENEM came, every year something wrong happens and the results are delayed.

In public universities it is said the classes are usually good, but the structure is not, while in the private the structure is good but not the classes. In my experience in the public university I went, I have some good classes, some crapy classes and horrible structure (I had a bachelor degree in Computer Science and need to use a PC with windows 95 most of the time. I started in 2003). The sad thing is this course in my university is classified in the top 10 of the country, imagine the courses below. :S

About the stuff we learn that "we'll never need to use", I think the problem is not that, the problem is it is not explained how to use that stuff or where we will need it.

Well, for me:

There was 1 school for just Kindergarten and 1st Grade
Another for Elementary that was 2nd to 5th Grade
Middle School 6th-8th
High School 9th-12th

And College, you could go for 2 years or more. I really don't know. But I know some people go for 4 years.