Final Exams! Grades?

[Monarch]

I'll do my best to explain it.

NOTE: This is the school system for England and Wales. Scotland has a different system.

School starts when a child is 4 or 5. First there is primary school:

Reception (4-5) [not much teaching, it's just getting the child used to school]
Year 1 (5-6)
Year 2 (6-7)
Year 3 (7-8)
Year 4 (8-9)
Year 5 (9-10)
Year 6 (10-11)

At the end of year 6 and I think also 2 (the year 2 exam may have been abolished, I can't remember), there are SATs (Standard Assessment Tests, pronounced 'sats', not 'S-A-Ts'). These are for English, maths and science only and the results are in a level system. They are very unimportant.

Then secondary school starts:

Year 7 (11-12)
Year 8 (12-13)
Year 9 (13-14)
Year 10 (14-15)
Year 11 (15-16)

At the end of year 9, there is another set of SATs. In years 10 and 11, students study for GCSEs (General Certificate in Secondary Education), where the number of subjects they study is reduced (maths, English and science are compulsory). GCSE marks range from A* to G or thereabouts.

---End of compulsory education---

Then the student moves into the sixth form. Often this will be in the same school, but sometimes in a separate sixth form college.

Year 12 (16-17) [lower sixth]
Year 13 (17-18) [upper sixth]

In year 12 students study for AS (Advanced Subsidiary) exams, taking either 4 or 5 subjects of their choice. They take the exam at the end of the year, and the highest grade possible is 'A'. In year 13, subjects are studied for A-level (Advanced level) exams at the end of the year, graded like ASs. AS marks form half of the final A-level mark in the subjects. Often a subject is dropped between years 12 and 13

Then a student can leave to study at university.

See, that wasn't too complicated, was it

Just for fun Leicester County Schools are different to most other people, Leicester City Schools take the normal route you described though. I'm in county so I go...

Primary School

4+
Year 1
Year 2 (I took SATs here, do they still do that?)
Year 3
Year 4
Year 5

New School - 'High School'

Year 6 (SATs in English, Maths and Science)
Year 7
Year 8
Year 9 (SATs in English, Maths and Science)

New School - 'College'

Year 10 (No exams, but GCSE coursework is done in many subjects)
Year 11 (GCSE's, the final year of compulsary schooling.)
Year 12 (AS Level exams taken)
Year 13/Sixth Form (A2 Level Exams taken)

University

Actually it's quite similar to yours. It's just compulsary schooling is done accross 3 schools not 2. I like it because Year 7s mixed with the same school as Year 13s must be intimidatin since they'd be like half the size of them lol.

[BDC]

Actually it's quite similar to yours. It's just compulsary schooling is done accross 3 schools not 2. I like it because Year 7s mixed with the same school as Year 13s must be intimidatin since they'd be like half the size of them lol.

Yes, and years 7 - 9 don't actually do anything. And lots of people get stuck in this mindset, and don't do anything for years 10 and 11 either. Then they fail. Same probably happens with the middle school system, just the clean break might make the difference.

[ah_dut]

tell me about it...when I was in year 7 I was getting slaughtered by the year 13s in the corridors

[Monarch]

Yes, and years 7 - 9 don't actually do anything. And lots of people get stuck in this mindset, and don't do anything for years 10 and 11 either. Then they fail. Same probably happens with the middle school system, just the clean break might make the difference.

Actually I am probably guilty of that, primary school I was considered you know clever and such, now obviously less competition as the primary school i attended was tiny, but still. This continued into year six with the 'new school, must try' syndrome but then everything goes stale. I managed to scrape an adequet 6,7,7 in my year 9 sats after trying a little more in year 9. But yeah, it is true theres just something about those years that just...