<p>...or, should I ask how easy it is? I never had the pleasure of attending high school in the U.S., but I can tell you that my high school in Europe was not easy. For example, I took 4 years of Chem, bio, and physics. Exams were mostly oral, where you would be tested in front of the class, one-by-one (except for written exams). </p>
<p>To me, it seems that high school in the U.S. is easy. Maybe that has something to do with schools here being designed for the worst students, so they'd be able to pass and not drop. No wonder students have the free time to do tons of EC's, and socialize as much as they do.</p>
<p>Is this the reason why colleges require AP subjects, etc?</p>
<p>I can't speak for all high schools, but I know mine is easy. I have taken the most rigorous courses possible, and I've gotten the highest grades in all of them. I could probably skip class every other day and do just as well. The biggest challenges I've faced in high school are a) developing social relationships after a rough time in middle school, and b) time management. School has not really challenged me much at all.</p>
<p>I think most public schools are designed to have the majority of the students to graduate. And as you said, that's probably why there are AP classes and colleges want to see them. I know my school's regular classes are very easy, and yet there are still people struggling to just to pass. </p>
<p>So you took 4 years of bio, 4 years of chem, and 4 years of physics? Wow.</p>
<p>It largely depends on where your high school is. If your high school gets very little funding, expect a crappy education. If you live in <em>too</em> wealthy of an area, there won't be much incentive to push the students to work hard (after all, their parents are already rich).</p>
<p>It also depends on how hard you make it. Some students (like my brother), take no honors or AP classes. Personally, I took six honors courses and eight AP courses, as well as extra classes during the summer (to get ahead, not because I failed those classes during the school year).</p>
<p>Threadstarter, I'm not sure if you mean you took four years of bio, 4 years of chem, and 4 years of physics, but the standard of the "high achievers" at my school is to take one science class each year (two semesters long), with the fourth year being an AP version of one of them.</p>
<p>That's not to say there weren't complete idiots at my school. Basically, what I'm saying is that it varies across the country, and it varies across the student body within each school.</p>
<p>That's the way European high schools work. As I understand it, rather than just taking a bunch of random courses, Europeans have areas of concentration. If science is the area of concentration, then the students will take more science courses than humanities courses. </p>
<p>The European school systems also place value on foreign languages. US schools do not. Most US schools only offer introductory language courses at the high school level, and most students are far from fluent by the time they graduate. I'm really trying hard to not sound arrogant here, but it's not working. I am considered one of the best Spanish students in my school. The teacher has given me an award every year, and last year, the award was "Best Spanish Student Overall." Even as such, I scored only a 640 on the Subject Test without Listening, and I cannot fully comprehend anything I read or hear on TV in Spanish. Further, I cannot have a conversation with a native speaker.</p>
<p>Yawn: Yeah, 4 years of each science. The last two years of chem were organic chemistry. I knew what aldehydes and ketones were even back then.</p>
<p>JB: Yes, we took 4 years of English and 4 years of French. One year of latin.</p>
<p>I was in a general high school with a concentration in science. However, there are other different high schools, too. For example, electro technical high school, mechanical high school, economics high school, even medical high school.</p>
<p>I go to a Canadian school, and one of my friends here moved to the U.S. last year. His GPA at my school was 80%; his GPA at his new school is 96%. Courses where he received 70s in he all of a sudden got high 90s, and some of his marks are even above 100% (I'm aware that's not too uncommon in the US, but it's impossible in Canada).</p>
<p>Maybe it's just a coincidence, or my school is too grade-deflated, or that his new school is just too easy, but it's pretty interesting to see the grade difference attending a certain school makes.</p>
<p>The U.S. public education system is definitely in need of major reform. Unfortunately, a large part of the American population is trying to "Christianize" schools, either by developing a Christianity-oriented alternative education system, or by implementing Christian ideals (such as Creationism) into the mainstream public education. I hate to say it, but the U.S. is really two different countries geographically molded into one.</p>
<p>where exactly are u from? in ukraine it is the same - 4 years of sciences, oral exams... but a good us school isn't much easier(well, mine isn't)</p>
<p>Eh. It really does depend on the school. Sure, it's easy to be an average student and just goof around and do well enough, but for my friends and I within the top 20 of the class of 2010.. school is nasty man.</p>
<p>We get so much more homework than everybody else on CC say that they get.. and with 7 AP this year for me, gross.</p>
<p>^ We are what we are now only because of our predecessors. If we don't pick up the pace, we'll easily fall behind. China currently has more honors students than we have students.</p>
<p>The China of the 90s was much different than the China of today. And if you're referring to the 70s/80s Japan panic, Japan has an aging population (and thus a diminishing population) and doesn't have nearly the amount of land or resources to have a legitimate chance of supplanting the US. But China is roughly the same size as the U.S., with over three times the population. Not to mention, India has more PhD's than Canada has people. And by 2010 (if not sooner), China will produce more science and engineering PhD's than the US.</p>
<p>Science and engineering are the future, so I think the implications here are clear. :)</p>
<p>I have no idea about asian schools.... but compared to my aussie school the school I was going to in the US was ridiculously easy.... but I wasn't taking APs... just honors (was only there for four months) but I was getting over 100% in most of my classes except french 4 (but I was a sophmore and I should have been actually somewhere between French 3 and French 4) but I go to a ridiculously hard high school in aus so thats not really saying anything.
I actually liked the whole grade thing being based on everything, not just four sets of assesments.</p>