@shiziani omg @-) it would drive me crazy to be sitting there with the invigilators for that long :-SS sometimes the clashes are astounding! last year Edexcel clashed my FP1 and S1 maths exams even though they were the same board =D>
@ibbi1824 Oh well done Edexcel! To be fair, AQA have done it this year. The MPC3 and FP1 exams are on the same morning. I absolutely hate the way the invigilators stare at you during the exam. haha We have this really stern and stoic invigilator who literally suspects everything you do during an exam and his phone went off during one of our exams and he couldn’t switch it off. I think his image was shattered for everyone present when Jessie J’s Domino blared through the speakers of his phone! I’ve never seen him show so much emotion! HAHAHA
Guys I’m so done with waiting. I’m pretty sure I won’t get in, which is ok, because my friends and I are planning to have a college pity party in a few weeks. It’s like a ‘say goodbye to your exes’ party, except with the colleges who didn’t deserve us anyway
What do you guys think is the average academic strength of the applicant pool. You think the average SAT of applicants is 2200 with 3.8 UW?
@medadvice honestly, I don’t think they care that much about grades. Harvard’s the type of school that expects you to have those stats, so having them is not necessarily that impressive. That being said, because they focus less on grades, they focus more on accomplishments, extracurriculars, and a more holistic look at the applicant. I wouldn’t be super nervous If you’re stats aren’t super high because, at this point, stats are not what get you into Harvard
@medadvice I’m not sure that there are such statistics recorded for the applicants, but for the class of 2018 yes, the average SAT score was in the 2200s and the average GPA was 3.9.
@shiziani @ibbi1824 How come you guys aren’t taking Cambridge’s A-Levels? I mean, they’re terrifying, sure, but literally so stale you won’t have a lot of trouble passing them with flying colors (the last two years past papers were almost identical). Anyhoo, good luck with your exams! Fill that certificate with A* 
And yes, the calculator thing was annoying when I was doing my IG’s. We also had to take all our drawing instruments out from their geometric boxes (how can anybody cheat off THOSE?) so don’t give it too much mind.
Now, if Harvard doesn’t take me, I plan on sending them a scan of my future-Nobel Prize with the caption “YOUR LOSS, SUCKERS”. Petty, I know, but I never said I was going to be the bigger person :stuckouttongue:. I will also send them a photocopy of my ass (kidding. My posterior is too good for them. Seeing it is a privilege :stuckouttonguewinkingeye: ).
6 more days folks, don’t lose hope!
@InfinityMan that’s the kind of attitude I like to see :stuckouttonguewinkingeye:
@shiziani hahahaha omg that’s hilarious! Our head of exams always wear heeled shoes (he’s a man) so they make annoying clicking noises in the exam hall and everyone’s like can you not?
@InfinityMan i’m not sure, i think cambridge a levels are mainly done by internationals (?) The rules are so ridic now!! I had a clear plastic water bottle with just a nike tick on it and it was taken away from me in the exam hall
haha I’m a US student and do APs. They seem sooo much easier. 
(at least as far as exam rules and restrictions are concerned)
The only experience with A Levels I have is through Inbetweeners when Simon Bird blows up his pants from energy drinks.
@ibbi1824 They do realize that water bottles are transparent, right? I think sometimes that the invigilators watch WAY too much T.V and think the cinematic methods of cheating in shows apply to real life lol
I was thinking about water bottles actually after the discussion about clear pencil cases and no lids for calculators and geometry boxes. I can’t see the point of having the plastic wrapper removed. Like the volume of calcium ions is going to inspire me so much in my maths exam! Sure. Although I haven’t had my water bottle taken away from me 
@InfinityMan I’m not sure out school got a choice. Each subject department just decides which specification they want to teach and we learn it… I hadn’t even considered an alternative.
@InfinityMan haha probably- all these restricions are over the top!
@cvisser96 hahaha that scene is hilarious! But seriously the first time I took the SAT i brought a clear plastic pencil case and everything and they didn’t care at all! B-)
@InfinityMan I’ve just read the rest if your post. hahahaha yes! Please do that! Maybe not a copy of your rear, but the rest of it
@ibbi1824 same here. Although I’m not sure why mechanical pencils aren’t allowed?
@cvisser96 hahaha that scene is funny. What do you do at the end of your year at high school? Do you have anything similar to A-Levels at all or are your exams specific to the school you go to?
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
I deleted a tr oll post and several responses to said post. Please do not continue to respond to the deleted post or make reference to its content.
and @shiziani sooo it depends. Personally-- and I think many Americans can relate to this-- it’s a mix.
The classes at my school must give an end of term exam each semester that reviews all the content learned, unless that particular class is required to take a state-wide subject exam at the end of the year (Virginia). The format of these class exams may be essay, short answer, or multiple choice (or true/false, but usually not). My teachers usually use a mix of all of those forms of testing.
In addition, my school offers a large variety of Advanced Placement courses, whose exams are written by university professors and professionals through the CollegeBoard. For these classes, we pay to take the AP exam, which is a comprehensive multiple choice and free response exam that is subject specific. AP and IB are the closest thing we have in the US to A-Level exams really.
SAT IIs aren’t really taken seriously, and they’re only used by a select amount of colleges to consider in addition to the ACT or SAT when determining admissions.
Yeah. Soooo that was ridiculously long. haha I’m really sorry! :’)
But now you get why the US college admissions system is so darn complicated. Each state, district and school have different policies concerning grading, curriculum and testing. It’s insane.
@cvisser96 Oh wow! That sounds so complicated. It’s really intriguing how different states have different sets of criteria they follow. Are the tests written by your teachers challenging? I’d imagine AP and IB to be, but I was wondering if a test paper had to meet a certain requirement in terms of difficulty at a school in order to be tested. My mind is kind of blown from just knowing that so much variation actually exists. Sorry for being a tourist hahaa
@shiziani not to butt in, but just thought I’d chime in. There’s SO much variation in the American system. I live in Ohio and go to a private school, so the only requirements we have are to take OGTs, which are standardized tests we have to take to graduate. They’re REALLY easy and designed so most people pass, at least at my school. AP classes are more standardized but not all students take them—it’s optional and the number of AP classes available varies by school. Though the end of the year AP exam in a certain subject is the same for everyone in the country, the class itself varies by school. Schools have to follow a general curriculum for AP classes so the difficulty can be similar to the college course in that subject , but it’s not heavily regulated
@eabs97 no no, thank you for chiming in!
@shiziani haha it’s no problem, it’s mind-boggling to everyone I think. Sooo the teachers usually have discretionary power as far as their own exams for their specific classes. But they don’t with the AP exams. In my opinion, the AP is great because it strives to bridge the complicated system. College Board releases a AP curriculum for a subject; then, individual school districts can piece their own curriculum around that to shape and highlight what they deem most important for their students to learn. At the end of the year though, there’s a standard set, so the CB sets the base line for what needs to be taught for the exam. The problem arises with what @eabs97 pointed out: not all schools have the resources or motivation to offer AP classes. It’s really complicated, but the main reasoning, which tends to be the main reasoning for everything in life, is money. The entire system of American education is driven by capitalistic greed.
That’s why college costs $50,000 a year. Is education that expensive in other countries? I feel like it isn’t, but I have nothing to base this feeling on