<p>At least Sibal is trying to do something. Anyone else would just leave the system dormant like it has been for the past few decades.</p>
<p>And Physics was ok. It wasn’t a difficult paper by any means but I didn’t study much for it so I didn’t do as well as I could’ve done. I’ve been afflicted with ‘senioritis’, as the Americans say.</p>
<p>Barca rules… They are 
</p>
<p>No more discussing football, we’ll get this thread locked too! (look at The Indian Thread #20, the original one.</p>
<p>Ascaris</p>
<p>I’m not sure he’s done the right thing. Rather than changing the format every year, he should develop on his so called reforms of our education system, building on each step.</p>
<p>Btw, any Indian at Summer@Brown, I dont want to be alone there.</p>
<p>In my opinion, even half-hearted, incremental ‘progress’ isn’t going to cut it. What the system needs is a complete overhaul. Unfortunately, with the indomitable bureaucracies and the corruption that permeates the nation, it’s an impossible task.</p>
<p>There is no 10th grade exam in US schools since the schools go all the way to 12th and do not offer an alternative like intermediate.</p>
<p>For someone to say 9th and 10th are easy in US is not accurate. All grades after 8th are as easy or as hard as one chooses them to be. Most larger high schools (400-1000 students at each grade level) offer multiple paths to graduation and several offer at least 3 paths. One allows the content to be easy, one allows the content to be dual credit where the student gets high school credit for a course for graduation but also credits from a community college which can be used for faster graduation from college if allowed by the college. Most state colleges do accept community college credits for faster graduation.</p>
<p>The third and usually the hardest program available is AP or IB or both type of curriculum. In this type of curriculum, one can start taking AP exams starting in 9th based on the subjects they complete at each grade level (ambitious ones take the tests using self study) or IB courses for which exams can be taken in most schools only in 11th and 12th. It is typical that schools expect you to take Pre AP or Pre IB classes in 9th and 10th in sciences and Math while the social studies subjects are one year or one semester each allowing students to take the APs right away. So if one studies world history, US history, Civics, economics etc, they can take the AP test at the end of the year. People taking math typically go through algebra 1, geometry, algebra 2, precalc before they can take an AP exam. Sciences have pre AP physics, chemistry, biology etc before one can take AP level course which effectively makes them 2 year subjects. There are also rules that prevent students from taking Physics B before Algebra 2, Physics C before Precalc, Biology AP before PreAP chemistry etc which effectively force students to wait until 11th before they take a single sciences AP exam but they can finish 4 APs by end of 10th. It is not uncommon for very good students to have taken 10-16 APs by the time they graduate high school, giving them credit for that many classes by the time they enter college in most public colleges.</p>
<p>Thanks for elucidating on the US high school education system, texaspg. Though I am versed with the system, one thing still baffles me. Why is it that some students choose dual-enrollment in the local college to earn credits instead of taking AP exams or IB exams? I am sure that these exams are much more widely recognized and hence would facilitate transferring of credits much more smoothly. Is it simply because they want college credits but don’t want to take the high school classes?</p>
<p>Everyone else, I believe that we should see the point in texaspg’s post. Basically, after 9th grade, a student is given the option of how much course-load they intend to take.</p>
<p>However, I should also comment on one minor thing regarding the easiness of 10th grade. When I took Science in 11th grade, it was supposedly more difficult only because I wasn’t accustomed to working so many hours in a day. The introduction of CGPA further increases this gap only by encouraging students to work lesser hours a day. But I don’t think this should affect students much. Studies may get progressively difficult, but you’re not the only one who observed that ;)</p>
<p>I loathe Kapil Sibal for putting an end to the good old 10th boards. Speaking as a student of the first batch that experienced this change, I can account to the amount to which CCE sucks. It is not the widely publicized “holistic” approach towards education. Its simply not giving the students a chance to encounter a national level examination. FA’s and SA’s are just fancy names given to unit/terminal exams and half-yearly/final exams respectively.
The reform brought to the AIEEE/JEE, however, may yield positive results. It is not curbing the original exam altogether but bringing in a number of other elements to keep the emphasis on the test alone getting too much, which it has in the previous years. Speaking solely from what I have experienced, the absolute frenzy of getting a top rank in the JEE has taken the focus away from regular school. Most of the prominent coaching centers, Bansal, FIITJEE, Allen, to name a few, encourage their students to enroll in “dummy” schools where, with a few extra bucks, they exempt you from coming to school regularly. At least with the 12th boards being given 40% influence the students will not take school lightly.</p>
<p>iDream, I can understand what you are trying to say, since my S was also part of the first batch to have CCE. The way I look at it … your batch was given an excellent opportunity to show how prospective applicants cope up with sudden and fundamental challenges thrown at them. The ones who made use of this opportunity will be able to add another USP in their application ;)</p>
<p>I really don’t want to add to the coaching centers/JEE/IITs conversation. We’ve come here to talk about US college admissions :eek:</p>
<p>Wow, that is an amazing way to look at it. Thanks Tizil. :)</p>
<p>P.S. When I read “my S”, for a moment I was like ‘woah there, your SON?!’, but then my senses caught up with me and I realized you were talking about your sister. :P</p>
<p>I dont think that the colleges will consider a whole new system as a challenge, or will they??
They might have a negitive impact as they will not know anything beforehand or they might think it as a challenge posed at us.
Before ur comment Tizil, I did not consider the other approach towards CCE.
It may favour us or go against us…Would welcome the thoughts of 16 and 17ers as well.</p>
<p>Of course it’s a challenge. For some of you, all while you’ve been growing up, any academic conversation was eventually directed towards the boards. In 9th grade, you were preparing yourselves mentally for the inevitable “next year” where you knew that school grades didn’t matter - only the boards matter. As soon as March crept by, BOOM! new system. Suddenly, school grades matter. Class behaviour(?) matters. Student-Teacher relations matter. Ergo, everything’s out of the expected place.</p>
<p>'17ers, be sure to address this change in your counsellor’s letter. You may do it yourself in the “Additional Information” section of most applications, but when your counsellor says the same thing, it becomes [mostly] indisputable.</p>
<p>iDream … my “S” lol 
Long time before that happens. Plus, I’d rather want to say “D” if anything :p</p>
<p>@Tizil
Why D lol?</p>
<p>Anyway I don’t understand why a shift to a much easier system would be seen as a challenge. I mean, you wouldn’t not study well in ninth anyway, would you?</p>
<p>^^ he just posted why it is a challenge. Mostly, near the boards, people stopped going to school to study and did not care about the teachers, but when CCE came, every single detail mattered.</p>
<p>@Tizil, thnx for that advice, will tell my principal to mention it in the rec and attach an additional sheet to explain the system and how I had a good relationship with my teachers
Cant be a bad thing, anything to out do the odds</p>
<p>lol, I am officially addicted to CC. I am taking breaks while solving K.C Sinha( got to finish the whole book of Calculus in 4 days) just to check out CC</p>
<p>But isn’t that what one should be doing in the first place? The new system rewards what should come natural to any well-rounded, decent person (classroom behavior, life science and sports?). I don’t see how colleges will believe that a person being given incentives to be decent is a challenge -.- most people studied year round for the boards anyway, so that that aspect of CCE has hardly changed. What could be a challenge is the disparity in the levels of toughness of 11th and 10th. I mean, now students are evaluated on 4 months portion in SAs? I probably worked my butt off for Hindi, but still got a A2 -.- (like a paper every morning for 10 days + writing every answer = worn out skin on little finger. The skin there is still thick there) I am sure much less effort is required in CCE.</p>
<p>Tizil you mentioned Carnegie Insitute of Technology, that is a school within CMU 
Secondly, Texaspg, you said high school isn’t easy in the US? To the contrary actually. While you can choose different tracks to graduate, I have friends here who took the hardest classes and multiple APs and found them barely challenging. The most rigorous APs you can take are actually extremely easy for anyone coming out of the Indian board which requires each and every student to have a level of proficiency in matter far beyond what is offered by even the most advanced APs.</p>
<p>^ I partly agree with that. I can say from experience that getting a 5 in AP Chem is extremely easy after studying the CBSE Chemistry course in 11th grade. I practically don’t pay attention in my AP Chem class. Shh. Don’t look at this colleges 
Seriously though, it isn’t as challenging.</p>
<p>Haha you noticed that. I did so because as far as I remember, the CMU supplement asked me identify the particular school I intended to join. :)</p>
<p>Very interesting discussions going on-But IMO it is not what you study that matters but what you "learn " that matters!!! Educational reforms in India a long way to go- Standardization of CBSE/State Boards-Improving the standard of teaching methods etc etc
But unfortunately my perspective is that the number of Engineers churned out from India is multiplying but the quality is pathetic!! Studying or Learning?? The former creates employees the latter innovators and possibly Nobel laureates !!!</p>