<p>Well, in that case, this serves as another argument. US high schools are very uneven. Some areas have really good high schools, while others have crappy ones. Most of them are crappy.</p>
<p>Mine is supposed to be really good [for a public school, so lololololl] [good, as in... hard/challenging/whatever] but I consider it quite easy and, in that, ridiculous.</p>
<p>The average amount of work for the college-credited track at our school stays around 4 to 6 hours of homework / studying a day. But on the other hand, the kids in all regular classes can go out whenever they want during the week.</p>
<p>So if your entire courseload consists of college-credited courses, you're working 24/7. If you take non-challenging courses, you have an hour of homework at most.</p>
<p>One's assessment of the difficulty level of a given HS really depends on the one doing the assessing, lol. My friends and I have all concluded that our courseloads are incredibly easy despite being "the most challenging available to us," and very rarely do any of us have HW, though tons of people are apparently swamped with HW nightly and frequently have to pull "all-nighters" in order to finish everything.</p>
<p>I think it's because we're just a wee bit faster in completing our work than everyone else, or maybe it's grounded in that we took interest in a few of the most difficult subjects available (we're all science nerds). For example, the typical physics HW set (about 60 free response questions) takes me about half an hour to an hour to complete, but for the average student in my physics class it take about 4-5 hours. Maybe it's just time management? I dunno...</p>
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So if your entire courseload consists of college-credited courses, you're working 24/7. If you take non-challenging courses, you have an hour of homework at most.
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<p>It's the opposite at my school. At my school, the regular classes have way more hw than the AP/honors classes. In AP classes, we don't have any hw grades and the teacher gives a worksheet once in a while that no one even look at. In non-challenging courses, the students have pages of hw every night. I guess in AP classes, the school and the teachers just expect us to learn most stuff on ourselves.</p>
<p>A more realistic measure of studying is by testing. Completing problem sets and fill-in-the-blank questions probably aren't a good measure of a student's abilities.</p>
<p>The classes at my school are pretty rigorous, but I know for sure that the educational systems in other countries are a lot more competitive between students.</p>
<p>In Korea, from what I've heard from friends, etc., the actual high school curriculum is really easy, but if you want to go to a good college (where you pretty much HAVE to go if you want to get a job with decent pay), you pretty much have to attend after school classes at for-profit institutions to have a much better chance of acing the college entrance exams (you can apply to only one school at a time). It's unfair though, for the students who can't afford it. And if you attend those after-school programs, you don't get back until after midnight usually - that's not including homework from school.</p>
<p>The South Korean school system is hell. Nothing to be jealous of.</p>
<p>In my country Middle School and High School are given on different levels. At the end of primary school all kids take a test, your score divides you in the different groups
(which is quite harsh). I go to the hardest available school (virtually a hundred percent of the students go to university afterwards), which is much harder than a regular US High School (although its a public school); ALL the courses are pretty much on AP level, and we take an average of 10 courses a year (for six years)!
That's why US colleges dont expect perfect grades (not at all, when someone here graduates with perfect testscores, they'll make the news!). Although your really good private schools (say Exeter, Andover) are probably on a higher level. </p>
<p>You guys have more time and opportunities for EC's and more in-depth study though, which I consider a big plus!</p>
<p>Non AP/honors classes are a joke. They are taught to the lowest common denominator so that even the dull, nonmotivated kids can get passing marks. Do the work with some level of competence and you'll get an A. Even most honors and AP classes are reasonably easy to get As in if you're decently smart/hardworking. The material at this level simply isn't very hard. However every school has a few "landmine" classes with teachers who assign obscene amounts of work, have evil grading schemes, or go way beyond the basic requirements and these classes are known to torpedo people's grades and soak up so much time as to hurt a person's performance in other classes. At my school these classes were APUSH, AP English, and foreign language APs. So long as you avoid the landmines getting straight As isn't very tough at all. </p>
<p>As a disclaimer my hs was one of the top twenty in California, not some inner-city ghetto school.</p>
<p>Eh, it's really not that hard. I mean, I'm in IB, and they give a bunch of work, but it's mostly busy work. I just do the busy work mindlessly, pay moderate amounts of attention in class, and put thought in where it's necessary. I spend a few hours on homework a night, but I like to go out on school nights sometimes too. And it's just not that hard to maintain social life with work.</p>
<p>compared to other foreign schools, i'd say US high school tops most.
Asian schools (specifically china and japan) are probably more challenging and produces smarter kids.
xD</p>
<p>My prep school is okay, mostly easy but some AP classes are hard.
But, it's nothing compared to my previous school in Asia. Nothing.</p>
<p>yea i agree.</p>
<p>eh it depends... I mean if you go to Jericho District Schools then you're not going to learn anything. The classes there are so dumbed down because of NCLB... </p>
<p>At specialized/mega selective schools, they're uber hardcore and er.. people occasionally transfer out. For ex: girl who was asked to leave (because I think by law they can't expell you cuz your grades suck) from Bronx Sci went to like Port Washington School in LI? or something and they thought she was a genius... er... it totally depends on what school.</p>