Right thats it . .American people - read this post and help a po

Long title . . .

Aaaaaaanyway.

I'm fed up with people saying 'I was in 7th grade, or kindergarten . . or whatever it is you guys have. Can somebody please explain to me the american education system, exam names, order of years - ages in which years, age you start school etc etc.

Thankyou sooooooooo much. (I'm so confused :( )

Peace. [Sole]

Heh - thanks lol. What years do you have exams, and what are they called?

Peace. [Sole]

Yay thanks guys - I'm guessing a semester is a school year?

Peace. [Sole]

Ah - I must sound really stupid lol

Even in England - there are slight variations on the systems for areas not 10 miles apart! For example, I moved to secondary school in year 8 (age 11 - 12) But almost everywhere else in England you move to secondary school in year 7 (age 10 -11). Man - that confuses me in my own country! Education systems should just be the same everywhere in the world lol.

Peace. [Sole]

"they are called S.A.T.s...."

Wow we have S.A.T.S in year 2 (5-6 years old) and S.A.T.S in year 9 (13-14 years old) and GCSE's for college etc.

Also, don't know if this is involved in your question, but we have extra names for 9-12 grades (ages 14/15 to 18):
Ninth- freshmen
Tenth- sophomore
Eleventh- junior
Twelfth- senior
It's so messed up, in my opinion, that we don't just say "eleventh graders" instead of "juniors".

Well, we have

Reception which is ages 4-5
Then it goes through year 1,year 2, year 3 etc up to year 11. Once you get to yr11 you have to take GCSE's. They decide whether or not you have good enough grades to go to college, or '6th form' years 12 and 13 are optional, and people in these years are known as 6th formers. No idea why!! But, I wonder - what age does compulsory education finish in America? In england, it's 16.

Peace. [Sole]

According to "Time" magazine, 1 of 3 kids drop out before they're done with twelfth grade, but I think you need parental permission if you aren't sixteen.

Then again, I'm not quite sure what "compulsory education" means. Is it how long you have to stay before you drop out? (yeah, I get how ironic this is to post in an educational forum)

backporchpoet

Compulsory education . . . How long you have to go to school before it's legal to drop out. In England - it is illegal to drop school before you're 16 (In special cases, people are allowed home education - but they still have to have proof of schooling - and do the exams etc.)

Peace. [Sole]