|
On November 10 2012 22:01 thuracine wrote: I am curios is the U.S the only country to call first year kindergarten?
Edit:
Elemtrary school - K through 6th grade ( 7 years )
Middle school - 2 years
High school - 4 years
mmh no idea about the Kindergarten but in Germany school and Kindergarten are two very much different things. At least where I'm from Kindergarten is nothing like school and it's a physically different building, so you really differentiate between school and Kindergarten a lot in Germany.
That being said, in Germany it's: Anything before 6 years is somewhat up to you I guess. There's "Kita" which is an abbreviation for something along the lines of "Children day care center", which is for kids from 0 to 3 years I guess? Kita isn't mandatory. From something like 3 to 6 there's Kindergarten. No idea if it's mandatory.
Actual school starts when you're 6 years old: Grundschule (elemtary school). 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade, so 4 years in total. Once you're done with those 4 years you have to decide what kind of school you want to apply for. There's 3 different ones: Hauptschule (9 years in total), Realschule (10 years in total), Gymnasium (12 or 13 years in total). Those numbers include the years you're already done with. So your first year in the new school will be 5th grade.
Hauptschule is really basic education that generally speaking got a really bad reputation. Not so much the "level" of education but rather the environment you're going to get into. Realschule is supposed to be the "normal" one. Gymnasium is the one you want if you want to get higher education like a Bachelor at an university. Finishing Gymnasium has been mandatory to be allowed to apply for an university for the last bunch of years. Recently it's changed in 2 Bundesländer/states if I'm not mistaken but generally speaking you really need that if you want to go to an university. ///Oh and in 11th grade (that is if you're in Gymnasium) you've got to pick 2 subjects as "Leistungskurse" which is some kind of specialization. Your grades in those 2 subjects are rated doubled or three times in comparison to all the other ones and you'll have more hours / week on those 2 subjects. Naturally it's going to be more "stuff" you're going to cover and it's going to be more in dephth.///
You can change schools later on as well. So for example if you're in your 10th year of Realschule and you're done with school you can opt to go to Gymnasium and do the last 2 or 3 years over there as well if you want to. Though I've heard that's a bit tough because those 3 kind of schools have different standards.
Once you've got that done you're either going for a "Fachhochschule" or University. Fachhochschule is higher education with a more practical approach whereas university is for the more scientific approach. I'm obviously generalising a bit but it's already a wall of text.
///Edit:///
On November 10 2012 23:11 Lucumo wrote: Can't wait for someone from Germany to post here since it's totally fucked up. Elementary school can either be 6-10 or 6-12. Then there are Realschule, Gesamtschule, Hauptschule, Oberschule, Gymnasium, Oberstufenzentrum and berufliches Gymnasium + Hochschule and Fachhochschule. Not everything is available everywhere, it depends in which region you live. :p Gesamtschule [literal = overall school?] is a school that has all 3 different kinds of schools available within one school / building. That is Hauptschule, Realschule and Gymnasium. So it's basicly one big ass school. Oberschule or Oberstufe is mearly a term for those additional years you're doing in Gymnasium. As mentioned. Realschule is 10 years, Gymnasium is either 12 or 13. Oberschule / Oberstufe would be year 11, 12 and 13. No idea what Oberstufenzentrum is. Btw Mittelstufe would be the term for the years you're doing up until grade 10 if I'm not mistaken. I think it's something like "Unterstufe" = grade 5-7, "Mittelstufe" = grade 8 -10, "Oberstufe" = 11 - 12/13. But people rarely use those terms because once you're in grade 5 it's looked at as one big block of school because when you're in Gymnasium you won't stop after year 10... you're there to get the 12/13 grade done :p
Oh yeah and I forgot about berufliches Gymnasium. Basicly the same thing as University vs Fachhochschule. Berufliches Gymnasium is a more business orientated approach. You've got 12 years instead of 13 (?) but 1 year of work is mandatory to get your graduation.
|
Brunei Darussalam622 Posts
A gymnasium is the physical building where we U.S.A.ers play basketball and have P.E. and shit like that, lol. It's strange for me to see people referring to it like they have in this thread.
|
On November 10 2012 22:28 Dienosore wrote:Show nested quote +On November 10 2012 22:21 Hider wrote:On November 10 2012 22:13 Dienosore wrote: In USA, it goes like this:
age 1-3: nothing age 4: Preschool (not mandatory), or you can test into early kindergarten age 5: Kindergarten (not always mandatory, depends on state legislation) age 6-11: 1st grade - 6 grade, aka elementary school age 12-13: 7th grade - 8th grade, aka middle school age 14-17: 9th grade - 12th grade, aka high school
Kids are tested every three years. If they do well or poorly, then they can skip a grade or be held back, depending on teacher evaluation. Once you turn 16, however, you can elect to not finish high school and drop out of the school system entirely. (a surprisingly high number do this, something like 8% of all high school students)
After high school, about 60% of kids join the general workforce doing whatever. The other 40% go on to college (university) where they will spend the next four years getting their bachelors degree in whatever subject they want. After that, they can continue their education in graduate school (another 4 years), and then even further for their masters degree (another 4 years), and then EVEN FURTHER for their doctorate (another 4 years).
College is open for everyone as long as you have the money to pay tuition. Grad school and beyond is rather selective. wait? Grad school + masters = 8 years? yeah, higher education takes foreverrrr I've got a friend chasing his doctorate now. He hasn't wasted any time between levels, and is 26 with still a few more years left
It varies by degree.
I'm getting my masters in four semesters. Typical would be masters 2-4 years, doctorate 4-8, but it often goes on for a while due to various factors.
|
On November 10 2012 21:12 GreenAndOrangeTurtle wrote: In Australia, you have 6 years of primary school followed by 4-6 years high school after which you can either go to university or get a trade. Almost everyone goes for the full 6 years of high school because most employers prefer this even for trades. In the final two years, you can choose what subjects to study and whether you want to work towards university entrance exams of whether you would prefer to start to learn a trade and participate in work experience programs. You generally finish high school when you're 18 if you complete the full 12 years.
On November 10 2012 21:25 Martyrc wrote: So you start primary school at age 6? Interesting, I know that in Scandinavia they start out late too. This is kinda weird because, in France for example, some children go to primary as early as 3 years old.
To expand on this a bit, we do actually start younger in most cases.
1-2 = Nothing 3 = Pre kindergarten (This is rare, just starting to pop up in some of the specialist private schools) 4-10 = Primary school (7 "Years", or grades) 11-17 = High school (5 more years, but the count continues, so typically, starts at year 8, and goes up to year 12.)
Some schools (private ones mostly) break the grades into smaller subsections, junior, middle and then senior school, which basically changes nothing, just groups the year groups under a title.
Junior school = year 3-6 Middle school = year 7-9 Senior school = year 10-12
As I've somewhat eluded to above, we have 2 different types of schools in Australia - Public and Private.
Public schools are fully government funded, and the cost of sending your children to school there is very low, fees are mostly volunteering, as is book purchases etc. Costs to send your child to a public school are around $100-200 a year, which is a voluntary payment.
Private schools have some government funding, but also charge very significant fees to the parents. They typically offer a "better" education (I say this loosely because some public schools have very good teachers, and the motivation of the student is a big part to how well educated they become. Private schools tend to be better at motivating students rather than just having better teachers) Teachers working at private schools are payed more, and tend to be more involved with students. Class sizes tend to be smaller.
The major difference usually comes down to how the year groups are broken up. In a public school system, primary school is a different school to high school. In most privates schools, the school takes every grade of children, from as early as pre kindergarten to year 12.
The cost of private schools can be extreme (40k+ for a year for a student staying as a boarder)
As for university entrance, the final 2 years of high school, if you wish to go to university, you take a specific set of subjects loosely based around what you hope to do at university (For example, someone wanting to do Engineering would focus on maths and physics, where as someone hoping to study business would do economics and maths) At the end of year 12, there are exams for each of these subjects, and students then receive a ranking in comparison to other students who sat exams in their year. Each student will receive an ATAR (Australian Tertiary Admission Rank) and each university will accept applicants with a certain ATAR set as the minimum for that course of study.
For those who do not wish to study at university and would instead prefer to focus in a trade, you can remain at highschool and complete year 12, with that in mind, and receive a certificate of education stating your completion of year 12. During your final 2 years, instead of preparing for university entrance, you begin to work on your chosen trade skills. The other option here is to take up the trade full time, after completing year 10 in school. Most people will choose to complete a year 12 education (now days, back 20-30 years ago, it was less common to finish high school) as it tends to be favourable for employment, as mentioned above.
You would typically finish your year 12 education at the age of 17, which was slightly mis-stated above.
Our university system is fairly typical, some universities vary slightly, but in general:
Bachelors = 3 years, 4 years with honours Masters = another 2 years, post graduate, for 5 years total study if completed straight after a bachelors degree PhD = varies vastly. Minimum time for completion is 2 years (I believe, it might be 3...) but it is normal to take 3.5 years, and potentially drag it out further depending on your field of study.
Some specific professions, like Engineering, Medicine and Law take different amounts of time, or the university may require a minimum of a masters level of qualification to be considered an Engineer/Doctor/Lawyer.
Hopefully that gives a good perspective of what our schooling is like!
|
Once you're done with vmbo: you get your MBO, if you do well, you can go on with an HBO, and if you do well there, you can even go to university. But this is exceedingly rare and takes extremely long.
*Blushes*
|
On November 10 2012 23:37 peacenl wrote:Show nested quote +Once you're done with vmbo: you get your MBO, if you do well, you can go on with an HBO, and if you do well there, you can even go to university. But this is exceedingly rare and takes extremely long. *Blushes*
Someone my dad works with did VMBO--MBO--HBO--University--Masters--PhD. :p
|
On November 10 2012 23:19 Toadesstern wrote:Show nested quote +On November 10 2012 22:01 thuracine wrote: I am curios is the U.S the only country to call first year kindergarten?
Edit:
Elemtrary school - K through 6th grade ( 7 years )
Middle school - 2 years
High school - 4 years
+ Show Spoiler [Lots of incorrect things] +mmh no idea about the Kindergarten but in Germany school and Kindergarten are two very much different things. At least where I'm from Kindergarten is nothing like school and it's a physically different building, so you really differentiate between school and Kindergarten a lot in Germany. That being said, in Germany it's:Anything before 6 years is somewhat up to you I guess. There's "Kita" which is an abbreviation for something along the lines of "Children day care center", which is for kids from 0 to 3 years I guess? Kita isn't mandatory. From something like 3 to 6 there's Kindergarten. No idea if it's mandatory. Actual school starts when you're 6 years old: Grundschule (elemtary school). 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade, so 4 years in total. Once you're done with those 4 years you have to decide what kind of school you want to apply for. There's 3 different ones: Hauptschule (9 years in total), Realschule (10 years in total), Gymnasium (12 or 13 years in total). Those numbers include the years you're already done with. So your first year in the new school will be 5th grade. Hauptschule is really basic education that generally speaking got a really bad reputation. Not so much the "level" of education but rather the environment you're going to get into. Realschule is supposed to be the "normal" one. Gymnasium is the one you want if you want to get higher education like a Bachelor at an university. Finishing Gymnasium has been mandatory to be allowed to apply for an university for the last bunch of years. Recently it's changed in 2 Bundesländer/states if I'm not mistaken but generally speaking you really need that if you want to go to an university. ///Oh and in 11th grade (that is if you're in Gymnasium) you've got to pick 2 subjects as "Leistungskurse" which is some kind of specialization. Your grades in those 2 subjects are rated doubled or three times in comparison to all the other ones and you'll have more hours / week on those 2 subjects. Naturally it's going to be more "stuff" you're going to cover and it's going to be more in dephth./// You can change schools later on as well. So for example if you're in your 10th year of Realschule and you're done with school you can opt to go to Gymnasium and do the last 2 or 3 years over there as well if you want to. Though I've heard that's a bit tough because those 3 kind of schools have different standards. Once you've got that done you're either going for a "Fachhochschule" or University. Fachhochschule is higher education with a more practical approach whereas university is for the more scientific approach. I'm obviously generalising a bit but it's already a wall of text. ///Edit:/// On November 10 2012 23:11 Lucumo wrote: Can't wait for someone from Germany to post here since it's totally fucked up. Elementary school can either be 6-10 or 6-12. Then there are Realschule, Gesamtschule, Hauptschule, Oberschule, Gymnasium, Oberstufenzentrum and berufliches Gymnasium + Hochschule and Fachhochschule. Not everything is available everywhere, it depends in which region you live. :p Gesamtschule [literal = overall school?] is a school that has all 3 different kinds of schools available within one school / building. That is Hauptschule, Realschule and Gymnasium. So it's basicly one big ass school. Oberschule or Oberstufe is mearly a term for those additional years you're doing in Gymnasium. As mentioned. Realschule is 10 years, Gymnasium is either 12 or 13. Oberschule / Oberstufe would be year 11, 12 and 13. No idea what Oberstufenzentrum is. Btw Mittelstufe would be the term for the years you're doing up until grade 10 if I'm not mistaken. I think it's something like "Unterstufe" = grade 5-7, "Mittelstufe" = grade 8 -10, "Oberstufe" = 11 - 12/13. But people rarely use those terms because once you're in grade 5 it's looked at as one big block of school because when you're in Gymnasium you won't stop after year 10... you're there to get the 12/13 grade done :p Oh yeah and I forgot about berufliches Gymnasium. Basicly the same thing as University vs Fachhochschule. Berufliches Gymnasium is a more business orientated approach. You've got 12 years instead of 13 (?) but 1 year of work is mandatory to get your graduation.
So many mistakes in there. For example, none of the 'durations' you give are correct. Gymnasium doesn't take 12-13 years, Gymnasium takes 8-9 years depending on whether you finish in GRADE 12 or 13. Moreover, Gesamtschule is NOT Hauptschule, Realschule and Gymnasium in one, it is a different didactic approach and is identical to Gymnasium with respect to what 'diplomas' you can get. You can NOT attend university with a Hauptschul-diploma and you can NOT attend university with a Realschul-diploma.
This is how the German system works (excuse the German text; forms of education graphed on a scale for age)+ Show Spoiler +
|
On November 10 2012 23:51 Dagobert wrote:Show nested quote +On November 10 2012 23:19 Toadesstern wrote:On November 10 2012 22:01 thuracine wrote: I am curios is the U.S the only country to call first year kindergarten?
Edit:
Elemtrary school - K through 6th grade ( 7 years )
Middle school - 2 years
High school - 4 years
+ Show Spoiler [Lots of incorrect things] +mmh no idea about the Kindergarten but in Germany school and Kindergarten are two very much different things. At least where I'm from Kindergarten is nothing like school and it's a physically different building, so you really differentiate between school and Kindergarten a lot in Germany. That being said, in Germany it's:Anything before 6 years is somewhat up to you I guess. There's "Kita" which is an abbreviation for something along the lines of "Children day care center", which is for kids from 0 to 3 years I guess? Kita isn't mandatory. From something like 3 to 6 there's Kindergarten. No idea if it's mandatory. Actual school starts when you're 6 years old: Grundschule (elemtary school). 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade, so 4 years in total. Once you're done with those 4 years you have to decide what kind of school you want to apply for. There's 3 different ones: Hauptschule (9 years in total), Realschule (10 years in total), Gymnasium (12 or 13 years in total). Those numbers include the years you're already done with. So your first year in the new school will be 5th grade. Hauptschule is really basic education that generally speaking got a really bad reputation. Not so much the "level" of education but rather the environment you're going to get into. Realschule is supposed to be the "normal" one. Gymnasium is the one you want if you want to get higher education like a Bachelor at an university. Finishing Gymnasium has been mandatory to be allowed to apply for an university for the last bunch of years. Recently it's changed in 2 Bundesländer/states if I'm not mistaken but generally speaking you really need that if you want to go to an university. ///Oh and in 11th grade (that is if you're in Gymnasium) you've got to pick 2 subjects as "Leistungskurse" which is some kind of specialization. Your grades in those 2 subjects are rated doubled or three times in comparison to all the other ones and you'll have more hours / week on those 2 subjects. Naturally it's going to be more "stuff" you're going to cover and it's going to be more in dephth./// You can change schools later on as well. So for example if you're in your 10th year of Realschule and you're done with school you can opt to go to Gymnasium and do the last 2 or 3 years over there as well if you want to. Though I've heard that's a bit tough because those 3 kind of schools have different standards. Once you've got that done you're either going for a "Fachhochschule" or University. Fachhochschule is higher education with a more practical approach whereas university is for the more scientific approach. I'm obviously generalising a bit but it's already a wall of text. ///Edit:/// On November 10 2012 23:11 Lucumo wrote: Can't wait for someone from Germany to post here since it's totally fucked up. Elementary school can either be 6-10 or 6-12. Then there are Realschule, Gesamtschule, Hauptschule, Oberschule, Gymnasium, Oberstufenzentrum and berufliches Gymnasium + Hochschule and Fachhochschule. Not everything is available everywhere, it depends in which region you live. :p Gesamtschule [literal = overall school?] is a school that has all 3 different kinds of schools available within one school / building. That is Hauptschule, Realschule and Gymnasium. So it's basicly one big ass school. Oberschule or Oberstufe is mearly a term for those additional years you're doing in Gymnasium. As mentioned. Realschule is 10 years, Gymnasium is either 12 or 13. Oberschule / Oberstufe would be year 11, 12 and 13. No idea what Oberstufenzentrum is. Btw Mittelstufe would be the term for the years you're doing up until grade 10 if I'm not mistaken. I think it's something like "Unterstufe" = grade 5-7, "Mittelstufe" = grade 8 -10, "Oberstufe" = 11 - 12/13. But people rarely use those terms because once you're in grade 5 it's looked at as one big block of school because when you're in Gymnasium you won't stop after year 10... you're there to get the 12/13 grade done :p Oh yeah and I forgot about berufliches Gymnasium. Basicly the same thing as University vs Fachhochschule. Berufliches Gymnasium is a more business orientated approach. You've got 12 years instead of 13 (?) but 1 year of work is mandatory to get your graduation. So many mistakes in there. For example, none of the 'durations' you give are correct. Gymnasium doesn't take 12-13 years, Gymnasium takes 8-9 years depending on whether you finish in GRADE 12 or 13. Moreover, Gesamtschule is NOT Hauptschule, Realschule and Gymnasium in one, it is a different didactic approach and is identical to Gymnasium with respect to what 'diplomas' you can get. You can NOT attend university with a Hauptschul-diploma and you can NOT attend university with a Realschul-diploma. This is how the German system works (excuse the German text; forms of education graphed on a scale for age) + Show Spoiler + you misunderstood what I wrote... I mentioned that when talking about the years it's already got the 4 years of elementary school included although they're not within "Gymnasium" or any of the other ones because you're starting in 5th grade. Figured 13-4 to get to 9 isn't that hard... As mentioned people rarely talk about those blocks as single thigns but rather talk about it as one big block, therefore you refer to the 13th grade of Gymnasium because you have those 3 big blocks pre-school, school, post-school
Don't know about the Gesamtschule part. I went to one and it was exactly what I described. So maybe that's different from location to location? ///Edit: Unless of course I described it badly again. When I said it's those 3 schools physiclly being in one big school / building I wasn't referring to them being one big mixed school. You still got the 3 schools seperated WITHIN that school and you don't share classes. But again, that's what it was for me, so maybe it's really different from place to place?///
And yeah as mentioned you need to graduate Gymnasium to go to university. That has changed lately as people with "only" Berufsschul-graduation are allowed to go to universities in some places now as well, instead of just being allowed to apply for a Fachhochschule.
|
On November 10 2012 22:33 Recognizable wrote:Show nested quote +On November 10 2012 22:13 Dienosore wrote: In USA, it goes like this:
age 1-3: nothing age 4: Preschool (not mandatory), or you can test into early kindergarten age 5: Kindergarten (not always mandatory, depends on state legislation) age 6-11: 1st grade - 6 grade, aka elementary school age 12-13: 7th grade - 8th grade, aka middle school age 14-17: 9th grade - 12th grade, aka high school
Kids are tested every three years. If they do well or poorly, then they can skip a grade or be held back, depending on teacher evaluation. Once you turn 16, however, you can elect to not finish high school and drop out of the school system entirely. (a surprisingly high number do this, something like 8% of all high school students)
After high school, about 60% of kids join the general workforce doing whatever. The other 40% go on to college (university) where they will spend the next four years getting their bachelors degree in whatever subject they want. After that, they can continue their education in graduate school (another 4 years), and then even further for their masters degree (another 4 years), and then EVEN FURTHER for their doctorate (another 4 years).
College is open for everyone as long as you have the money to pay tuition. Grad school and beyond is rather selective. Wait what. To get your PhD it takes 16 years after you joined college? And similairly, 12 years to get your masters? Yeah, it is very, very difficult to get a Ph.D in America, Masters are also very difficult to attain. In other countries they are significantly easier to get, not because the actual material is easier, but because the journey is not nearly as long. That could be a pro or a con. I like to think of it as a pro since the world has a real innundation of people with titles like that, which makes them not only less rare but also less useful.
|
Beyonder
Netherlands15103 Posts
On November 10 2012 23:51 Recognizable wrote:Show nested quote +On November 10 2012 23:37 peacenl wrote:Once you're done with vmbo: you get your MBO, if you do well, you can go on with an HBO, and if you do well there, you can even go to university. But this is exceedingly rare and takes extremely long. *Blushes* Someone my dad works with did VMBO--MBO--HBO--University--Masters--PhD. :p Haha, wow. Mine is Drop out HAVO-MBO-HBO-UNI-PHD. But that one is prettier :D
Hopefully Ill round it out with prof though someday
|
On November 10 2012 22:13 Dienosore wrote: In USA, it goes like this:
age 1-3: nothing age 4: Preschool (not mandatory), or you can test into early kindergarten age 5: Kindergarten (not always mandatory, depends on state legislation) age 6-11: 1st grade - 6 grade, aka elementary school age 12-13: 7th grade - 8th grade, aka middle school age 14-17: 9th grade - 12th grade, aka high school
Kids are tested every three years. If they do well or poorly, then they can skip a grade or be held back, depending on teacher evaluation. Once you turn 16, however, you can elect to not finish high school and drop out of the school system entirely. (a surprisingly high number do this, something like 8% of all high school students)
After high school, about 60% of kids join the general workforce doing whatever. The other 40% go on to college (university) where they will spend the next four years getting their bachelors degree in whatever subject they want. After that, they can continue their education in graduate school (another 4 years), and then even further for their doctorate (another 4 years).
College is open for everyone as long as you have the money to pay tuition. Grad school and beyond is rather selective.
Adding on to this:
age 1-3: nothing age 4: Preschool (not mandatory), or you can test into early kindergarten age 5: Kindergarten (not always mandatory, depends on state legislation) age 6-11: 1st grade - 6 grade, aka elementary school age 12-13: 7th grade - 8th grade, aka middle school age 14-17: 9th grade - 12th grade, aka high school
----------------------------
age 18-21: College/University 4 years bachelors (typically) ----------------------------
Age 22-23: Masters 2-3 years typically
OR
Age 22-25: Ph.D 4-8+ish or so years depending on how fast you can get research done, motivation, etc.
OR
Professional schools (medicine, nursing, law, pharmacy, dentistry, social work, physical therapy, etc.) vary by length. Typically anywhere from 2-4+ years not including fellowships/residencies, etc.
IIRC the PhD + MD combined degree at most schools tends to take about 7-8 years or so.
|
On November 10 2012 23:51 Recognizable wrote:Show nested quote +On November 10 2012 23:37 peacenl wrote:Once you're done with vmbo: you get your MBO, if you do well, you can go on with an HBO, and if you do well there, you can even go to university. But this is exceedingly rare and takes extremely long. *Blushes* Someone my dad works with did VMBO--MBO--HBO--University--Masters--PhD. :p Well, I can imagine someone doing this if they did an Alpha course. If it's someone from Beta faculty, like me, but getting to his/her PhD.. very rare indeed, since we've missed out on a lot of crucial math and physics. It takes me 2 or 3 times longer to understand algorithms because of this.
|
On November 10 2012 22:29 Dienosore wrote:@neptunusfisk and Sweden: Must be nice getting free higher education from the government
Rather, it must be rather sad to not get it!
Honestly though, I can't imagine the purgatory students in countries such as USA and especially Germany must be going through with such complicated systems and all that.. stress.
|
May have already been posted but this is the system in the UK.
Ages 3-4 - Nursery -You attend this you start school.
4-11 (Reception + Years 1-6) - Primary School - Reception is the year before year one, then you go up to year six. Years 4 - 6 (ages 8 - 11) are sometimes called junior school, but these years are usually in the same school as R + 1-3. SAT's (government tests) used to be at the end of this school in year 6 and also in year 2 (I think) but I think these have been scrapped now.
11-16 (Years 7 - 11) - Secondary School, this is where you do GCSE's, in years 10-11, your first real external examinations (SAT's didn't affect you in any way). SAT's used to be in year 9 but that has been scrapped. Compulsory education ends after this.
16-18 (Years 12-13 aka Lower 6th + Upper 6th) - College/6th Form - This is where you do your A - levels, AS in first year, A2 in second year. Some secondary schools have 6th forms or you can go to a college.
18+ - University - usually a 3-4 year course then you can go on to further education or get a job.
|
On November 10 2012 23:19 Toadesstern wrote:Show nested quote +On November 10 2012 22:01 thuracine wrote: I am curios is the U.S the only country to call first year kindergarten?
Edit:
Elemtrary school - K through 6th grade ( 7 years )
Middle school - 2 years
High school - 4 years
mmh no idea about the Kindergarten but in Germany school and Kindergarten are two very much different things. At least where I'm from Kindergarten is nothing like school and it's a physically different building, so you really differentiate between school and Kindergarten a lot in Germany. That being said, in Germany it's:Anything before 6 years is somewhat up to you I guess. There's "Kita" which is an abbreviation for something along the lines of "Children day care center", which is for kids from 0 to 3 years I guess? Kita isn't mandatory. From something like 3 to 6 there's Kindergarten. No idea if it's mandatory. Actual school starts when you're 6 years old: Grundschule (elemtary school). 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade, so 4 years in total. Once you're done with those 4 years you have to decide what kind of school you want to apply for. There's 3 different ones: Hauptschule (9 years in total), Realschule (10 years in total), Gymnasium (12 or 13 years in total). Those numbers include the years you're already done with. So your first year in the new school will be 5th grade. Hauptschule is really basic education that generally speaking got a really bad reputation. Not so much the "level" of education but rather the environment you're going to get into. Realschule is supposed to be the "normal" one. Gymnasium is the one you want if you want to get higher education like a Bachelor at an university. Finishing Gymnasium has been mandatory to be allowed to apply for an university for the last bunch of years. Recently it's changed in 2 Bundesländer/states if I'm not mistaken but generally speaking you really need that if you want to go to an university. ///Oh and in 11th grade (that is if you're in Gymnasium) you've got to pick 2 subjects as "Leistungskurse" which is some kind of specialization. Your grades in those 2 subjects are rated doubled or three times in comparison to all the other ones and you'll have more hours / week on those 2 subjects. Naturally it's going to be more "stuff" you're going to cover and it's going to be more in dephth./// You can change schools later on as well. So for example if you're in your 10th year of Realschule and you're done with school you can opt to go to Gymnasium and do the last 2 or 3 years over there as well if you want to. Though I've heard that's a bit tough because those 3 kind of schools have different standards. Once you've got that done you're either going for a "Fachhochschule" or University. Fachhochschule is higher education with a more practical approach whereas university is for the more scientific approach. I'm obviously generalising a bit but it's already a wall of text. ///Edit:/// Show nested quote +On November 10 2012 23:11 Lucumo wrote: Can't wait for someone from Germany to post here since it's totally fucked up. Elementary school can either be 6-10 or 6-12. Then there are Realschule, Gesamtschule, Hauptschule, Oberschule, Gymnasium, Oberstufenzentrum and berufliches Gymnasium + Hochschule and Fachhochschule. Not everything is available everywhere, it depends in which region you live. :p Gesamtschule [literal = overall school?] is a school that has all 3 different kinds of schools available within one school / building. That is Hauptschule, Realschule and Gymnasium. So it's basicly one big ass school. Oberschule or Oberstufe is mearly a term for those additional years you're doing in Gymnasium. As mentioned. Realschule is 10 years, Gymnasium is either 12 or 13. Oberschule / Oberstufe would be year 11, 12 and 13. No idea what Oberstufenzentrum is. Btw Mittelstufe would be the term for the years you're doing up until grade 10 if I'm not mistaken. I think it's something like "Unterstufe" = grade 5-7, "Mittelstufe" = grade 8 -10, "Oberstufe" = 11 - 12/13. But people rarely use those terms because once you're in grade 5 it's looked at as one big block of school because when you're in Gymnasium you won't stop after year 10... you're there to get the 12/13 grade done :p Oh yeah and I forgot about berufliches Gymnasium. Basicly the same thing as University vs Fachhochschule. Berufliches Gymnasium is a more business orientated approach. You've got 12 years instead of 13 (?) but 1 year of work is mandatory to get your graduation. He he, here it was 6 years of Grundschule, followed by either Gymnasium, Realschule or Gesamtschule. Gesamtschule was the place where all the not-so-good kids went to(it was just 1 out of 24 in my class). Most went to Realschule and some to Gymnasium. So it's not some giant building in this region. Due to less and less kids, the Gesamtschule and Realschule eventually merged, becoming the Oberschule(still 7-10). For the students who wanted to continue, they had the choice between Gymnasium and Oberstufenzentrum. Here, Gymnasium was till 13 years but they changed it after I finished. Also, after the 10th year, some people went from Gymnasium to Oberstufenzentrum. We never had a Hauptschule and yeah, there is a Förderschule as well(all the really bad kids go there, usually duing elementary school). Though, I heard, they want to close these kinds of schools down.
|
On November 10 2012 22:29 Dienosore wrote:@neptunusfisk and Sweden: Must be nice getting free higher education from the government
If it is anything like Denmark, they might even get paid to get an education. I get approximately $470 a month for attending law school, while still living at my parents
|
On November 10 2012 22:13 Dienosore wrote: In USA, it goes like this:
age 1-3: nothing age 4: Preschool (not mandatory), or you can test into early kindergarten age 5: Kindergarten (not always mandatory, depends on state legislation) age 6-11: 1st grade - 6 grade, aka elementary school age 12-13: 7th grade - 8th grade, aka middle school age 14-17: 9th grade - 12th grade, aka high school
Kids are tested every three years. If they do well or poorly, then they can skip a grade or be held back, depending on teacher evaluation. Once you turn 16, however, you can elect to not finish high school and drop out of the school system entirely. (a surprisingly high number do this, something like 8% of all high school students)
After high school, about 60% of kids join the general workforce doing whatever. The other 40% go on to college (university) where they will spend the next four years getting their bachelors degree in whatever subject they want. After that, they can continue their education in graduate school (another 4 years), and then even further for their doctorate (another 4 years).
College is open for everyone as long as you have the money to pay tuition. Grad school and beyond is rather selective.
Almost right, but 6th grade is usually part of middle school, not elementary. At age 16 you can also test straight out of high school....which I only found out in my last two months of senior year (12th grade) lol.
|
On November 10 2012 22:23 DuBlooNz wrote: In the UK we have a system that goes like this:
from 3 or 4 (I cant remember) you go to nursery
At age 5 you begin primary school (Another name for elementary school) This is for 6 years then you go to secondary school
At secondary school you go for 6 years where you get your GCSE's but they are being replaced by something similar
After secondary school you can go to 6th form college or a career 6th form is where you get AS-levels which and A-levels. The AS-level is in the first year and the A-level is in the second
College is for more practical skills such as metal work and even more specialised such as plumbing which you can get a Btech in.
After that you can go to university. Typically only people with A-levels go to university because the Btech is seen as a "less academic" qualification. University in the UK cost around £9,000 a year (11,255 euro and $14,312). This makes it a very hard choice whether to go to university because it will put you in debt for a noticeable portion of your life.
Britain's schools change depending on the area you are in. My university classmates had a Primary/secondary education like you had, although the ages they changed from primary to secondary were different. My school system was different again.
I started playschool (pre-school) at 3 First school at 4-9 Middle school at 9-13 High school at 13-16 A-levels / College is 16-18 Most go to University at 18-21/22 (depending on 3 or 4 year degree)
|
|
|
|
|
|