<p>I'm currently doing the IGCSE(a modified, more challenging version of the British curriculum GCSE) and might be moving to America. Does anyone here know how hard the curriculum is in American high schools compared to the British system? Exactly how hard is it for a 4.0 GPA to be achieved? Do many students achieve a 4.0?</p>
<p>Also, typically, how many subjects does an American sophomore take in school?</p>
<p>Here, I've chosen 10 IGCSEs.</p>
<p>English Language
English Literature
Maths
Mandarin Chinese
Geography
History
Biology
Physics
Chemistry
Graphic Design</p>
<p>It really varies from school to school and from class to class and from teacher to teacher.</p>
<p>There are a lot of variables that go into American education. The only standardized things you’ll be taking will be AP’s and SAT’s… which you can study on your own if your teacher doesn’t adequately prepare you for the exams.</p>
<p>But in my experience, public school is 100x easier than private school… and it also depends on the level of classes you take. If you take any regular/basic classes… those are going to be really easy, while the honors/AP classes <em>should</em> be relatively challenging.</p>
<p>^^ Our scores are massively brought down by the fact that we require ALL students to go to school and test, even if they’re extremely dumb, unlike other countries. And let’s be honest, our scores are enormously brought down due to inner city minorities and rural whites. If we took the top students from any country and compared them to our country we’d probably neck and neck. @OP- I’m assuming you’re at least moderately intelligent if you’re posting here, so this what I would rate American schools for you.</p>
<p>Regular Classes- Unbelievably easy and dull (as in, chemistry classes revolve around cutesy group projects about elements and advertising them to the class) that are taught to the lowest common denominator so everyone can pass.</p>
<p>Honors Classes- Relatively challenging but nothing impossible, they mostly exist as de facto pre-AP classes, and to group the smart kids together.</p>
<p>AP Classes- Difficult, and are basically the final boss of high school. All the smart and/or hardworking kids in these classes, and success isn’t looked down upon like it is in the regular classes, due to the high motivation of most of the students. If you want any kind of a decent secondary education in the U.S., you MUST MUST MUST take at least several AP’s.</p>
<p>It varies incredibly based on students location, socio-economic status, parents priorities, parents education. Environment in general.</p>
<p>You will not get a good answer on here.</p>
<p>IN MY EXPERIENCE I’ve found AP classes to be very easy (good grades in class, nothing less than 5s-- the highest possible score, usually ~13% of those who take the AP test get a 5, varies with the test). I’m a senior who is taking classes at a university and find those classes to be about as easy as AP classes. You can message me if you’re interested in which university and what courses-- it might be a good comparison.
In my opinion, achieving a perfect 4.0 is easy as hell. Not that many students do, but most that do are of average intelligence. You don’t have to be a genius. However, I would be very surprised if there weren’t many kids even just in my own school who disagree with me. This is subjective as hell.</p>
<p>And as for your final question, I’ve moved a lot, and I typically took/take 8-10 subjects in school. I think this is average. Depends on where you go.</p>
<p>Oh yeah… And subjects you’ll take as a sophomore:</p>
<p>English 2 or English 10.
A math: Algebra II, Geometry, or Pre-Calculus depending on what you’ve already taken
History: AP World History maybe… or US or European History. Depends on the school.
Science: Biology or Chemistry typically… sometimes Physics as well. Depends on what you’ve taken.
Foreign Language: French/Spanish/German/etc. 1, 2, or 3, depending on where you are.
Art or Band or some other elective</p>
<p>Do you know where you’ll be going to school in the US? Each state has its own rules for graduation for public schools and private schools each have their own requirements.</p>
<p>Most high school students take between 6 and 8 subjects a year. Most public schools are on a block schedule (4 classes per semester), however many private schools and some public schools are on a traditional schedule (7 classes a year).</p>
<p>^ Places like China don’t have universal, compulsory education. Which gives a false impression that, due to the fact that we are MUCH more diverse than China which leads to less intelligent and motivated Americans testing, the equivalent of which probably wouldn’t be in school if they lived somewhere like China.</p>
<p>I happen to be living in China at the moment(expat), and actually 9-years of education up to 18 is very much compulsory here. Just thought I’d chime in, being a resident for the past 4 years. Even in Britain education is compulsory only up to 16, and the Chinese are miles ahead of them in terms of education. Some of my math-savvy friends were in a math competition against the locals, and got their arses handed to them. And the Chinese that beat them were about 1-2 years younger. So yeah…in terms of the average curriculum, the Chinese have the most rigorous. The smartest people in my school switch out of British Math into the Chinese Math system, and they’re already doing linear algebra or something like that.</p>
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<p>Um, well. At the moment I’m in standard Maths and we’re already covering things like differentiation, which I understand is part of calculus. We’ve already covered circular geometry and trig functions and trig rules. Should I still take Pre-Calc next year in America? What do said courses cover? Or would I be able to do the calculus courses in America. I was rather underachieving in back in Singapore when it came to math…so I really don’t know what I should be taking. Is there a type of entrance exam to American schools that will place me in the right classes?</p>
<p>Are English courses in America split into Lang and Lit, Or are they combined into one course? Also, why would I not be able to do AP English courses? Is it uncommon or just not allowed? </p>
<p>And how difficult are the actual AP World History exams compared to the ones on the AP website? I’ve done the free response questions and marked them, and I seem quite competent in that respect. </p>
<p>And could I choose something else other than “Band” for an elective? Can I choose an additional humanity like Geography?</p>
<p>Can I take 3 languages? I’m a fluent speaker of Mandarin, so would I be able to be in AP Mandarin? I’ve also done Spanish alternating years for the past 4 years and achieved quite reasonable grades in it, so would I also be able to do Spanish as well?</p>
<p>I would be going to California. I’d still likely be going to a private school, but how are the public school standards in places like Silicon Valley?</p>
<p>Also, if anybody knows…how do British A-Levels compare to AP classes? As I understand they both cover university material.</p>
<p>Thanks in advance everybody! Sorry for all the questions! The decisions I make now will probably impact be quite a bit in the future…I just hope I don’t bite off more than I can chew!</p>
<p>A 4.0 UW is probably achievable at all high schools in America, especially if you take easy classes that hand out A’s by the dozens. However, if you load yourself up with rigorous classes, then yes, it’s quite difficult. (The A-'s in particular tend to pull you down.)</p>
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<p>I think that you should take AP Calc. We never even covered differentiation in my pre-calc class back in high school. (Or at least, it made so little impact on me that I can’t remember it.) If you feel up to it, take AP Calc BC. If not, you can try AP Calc AB, which covers less material than BC, but is challenging all the same for the not-so-math-savvy students. You can find a list of the topics the exams cover on their Wikipedia pages.</p>
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<p>Very roughly, how my school organized the English courses:</p>
<p>9th: English 9, Honors English 9
10th: English 10, Honors English 10
11th: AP Lang, Honors English 11, English 11, etc.
12th: AP Lit, College English, World Literature, etc.</p>
<p>AP Lang required junior status while AP Lit required senior status. We did not have the option to take them as underclassmen.</p>
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<p>It varies from year to year. Remember that for the AP exams, you’re competing with everyone else to try to get in the top so-and-so percent of students who will receive a 5. So, basically, you can bomb the exam, but so long as everyone fails worse than you, you’ll get a 5. (This is why “easy exams” are usually not a good thing.)</p>
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<p>Depends on the school and how your schedule works out. (i.e. What credits you need to graduate, and how much space you have on your schedule.) My school allowed it. One of my friends took ceramics her senior year, and I opted out of a math class and instead took AP European History.</p>
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<p>As I said, as long as the schedule works out … yes, you can take three languages. I’ll go ahead and advise you to stick to two languages at a time, though. Any more than that, and people tend to do worse at all the languages they’re taking, even if they’re not at all related. Depth over breadth!</p>
<p>I know next to nothing about British A-levels and as for Silicon Valley … I came from a top public high school located on the east coast, so I’m of no use there. I’ve heard that top UK universities only expect students to have taken 4-5 A-levels, though? If that’s true, then consider that many of the top students in the US load themselves up with 7+ APs. I myself took 11 APs, and the work was completely manageable, even on top of numerous time-consuming extracurriculars.</p>
It really depends on the school. It sounds like you’d be at Calculus level, if you’d be up for taking it… but keep in mind that most American high schools don’t offer beyond AP Calc BC, so you might have to go to a community college for math your senior year or take AP Stats or something.</p>
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Depends on the school. But seeing as how there are only two AP English exams, most schools only allow you to take the AP English courses junior and senior year. Typically language and then literature. My school doesn’t even offer AP English Lang, so I’ve only taken English literature throughout high school and am taking AP English Lit this year.
Most high schools just offer English 1 or English 2 and don’t divide it up into separate courses.
Depends on the exam given in May. But I tend to think that the practice MC is easy, but the actual MC can be tricky, especially with there being a time crunch and 80 questions. The DBQ’s are time consuming and are basically a formula that you have to master and can be tricky and the essays can be on anything. The MC is the easiest part in my opinion, and it should be even easier now that there isn’t a guessing penalty. But you’re not looking at the difficulty. You should be looking at how well you do in comparison to others. The AP is graded on a bell curve.
Yes. But it really depends on what your school offers. If you go to a small private school, you may not have many electives. Then again, you might. It really depends on what school you go to and what it offers. Courses are in no way standardized, especially at private schools.</p>
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Your school may not even offer Mandarin. Most don’t. Your school might not even offer three languages. They might, but they might not. It really depends on your school. If they offer three languages that you can/want to study AND it fits into your schedule, then you can… but that’s a lot of ifs.
The location doesn’t matter so much if you go to a private school. But anyways, I don’t know anything about public school in California. I’m all the way on the other side of the country in South Carolina.</p>
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The thing that I think you should keep in mind is how much variability there is in an American education. AP exams are standardized exams, but the actual courses that students take for those exams are all over the place. Each teacher has his or her own requirements. An AP Calculus AB course could be really easy at school A, but insanely difficult at school B. You’re basically expected to know certain topics by the end of the year for the exams in May… how your teachers get you there (if you take a course at all) is really up to them. They do have to turn in a syllabus to the College Board (the people who administer APs), but that doesn’t guarantee anything. Trust me.</p>
<p>As for non-AP classes… if you’re going to a private school… you really will be learning at what is at the teacher’s whim.</p>
<p>And keep this in mind… A typical high school student will have all of the following by the time they graduate:
English 4
Math 4
History 3-4
Science 3-4
Foreign Language 2-4
Electives</p>
<p>You can always pace yourself to meet those requirements. Even within one school, student A’s schedule will differ greatly from student B’s due to different interests and aptitudes. For example, I took Chemistry and Physics sophomore year, but many of my friends didn’t take Physics until junior or senior year. We’ll all be graduating with around the same number of science credits, but we didn’t take the same classes during the same years at all.</p>