The American system is so simple compared to this! It's like...
kindergarten: around age 5, usually 1/2 days
1st-6th grade: grade school or elementary school. You have a "home room" teacher, and then you usually have level groups for the main subjects like math, reading, and sciences. So your desk is in your home room and you take lunch with your home room class, and have subjects like social studies and geography and spelling with home room. And then you switch classes for reading, math, and science depending on your skill level.
7th-8th grade: Jr High. Sometimes this is 6-8 or 7-9 and sometimes it's called middle school. You still have a home room but you only go there once or twice a quarter/trimester for school-wide things like student council elections and grade cards. Everyone has to take the basic subjects (English, math, social studies, science) and then there are electives like art, music, home ec, shop, foreign languages and so on. Classes are determined by skill level. So when I was in 8th grade, I was taking algebra for my math, but some people will still in pre-algebra or fundamentals math.
9-12: high school. Pretty much the same as Jr High, with classes split by skill level, but with more options for electives and actual history classes instead of social studies (which is sort of like sociology/anthropology on a really low level.) We had core requirements like, everyone had to do 4 years of English and 2 years of foreign language and so on, but you could also take honors and AP classes, which were harder than normal classes but you could get higher grades in them. Technically my high school was on a 4-point grade scale (A = 4, B = 3, C=2, and so on) but you could get an H in an honors or AP (advanced placement) class, which was worth 5.
We did have some required tests, but that differs from state to state. In Ohio we had standardized tests in reading, math, science, writing, and citizenship that you had to pass before you could graduate. We started taking them in 8th grade and you just had to pass once each. There were standardized tests for college admissions, either the SAT or the ACT, depending on where you lived. ACT was mostly midwest. These are very general tests that are supposed to measure your verbal and analytical abilities as compared to the rest of the people who also took the test that year.
Colleges then looked at those tests scores, your grades, your recommendation letters from teachers, and your admissions essays to decide if they want to accept you. You could also take AP tests that were subject-specific, and sometimes colleges would give you class credit for a 4 or a 5 on AP tests (5 being the highest score, and then downwards from there).
Some colleges made kids apply directly to specific programs, which was so weird to me. I went to a liberal arts school. We weren't allowed to choose our concentrations until our 3rd year.
Public and private schools are exactly the same, except that private schools cost money :P All colleges and universities cost money here... and I am going to be paying off my student loans for the next 17 years, so I know way too much about that.
no subject
kindergarten: around age 5, usually 1/2 days
1st-6th grade: grade school or elementary school. You have a "home room" teacher, and then you usually have level groups for the main subjects like math, reading, and sciences. So your desk is in your home room and you take lunch with your home room class, and have subjects like social studies and geography and spelling with home room. And then you switch classes for reading, math, and science depending on your skill level.
7th-8th grade: Jr High. Sometimes this is 6-8 or 7-9 and sometimes it's called middle school. You still have a home room but you only go there once or twice a quarter/trimester for school-wide things like student council elections and grade cards. Everyone has to take the basic subjects (English, math, social studies, science) and then there are electives like art, music, home ec, shop, foreign languages and so on. Classes are determined by skill level. So when I was in 8th grade, I was taking algebra for my math, but some people will still in pre-algebra or fundamentals math.
9-12: high school. Pretty much the same as Jr High, with classes split by skill level, but with more options for electives and actual history classes instead of social studies (which is sort of like sociology/anthropology on a really low level.) We had core requirements like, everyone had to do 4 years of English and 2 years of foreign language and so on, but you could also take honors and AP classes, which were harder than normal classes but you could get higher grades in them. Technically my high school was on a 4-point grade scale (A = 4, B = 3, C=2, and so on) but you could get an H in an honors or AP (advanced placement) class, which was worth 5.
We did have some required tests, but that differs from state to state. In Ohio we had standardized tests in reading, math, science, writing, and citizenship that you had to pass before you could graduate. We started taking them in 8th grade and you just had to pass once each. There were standardized tests for college admissions, either the SAT or the ACT, depending on where you lived. ACT was mostly midwest. These are very general tests that are supposed to measure your verbal and analytical abilities as compared to the rest of the people who also took the test that year.
Colleges then looked at those tests scores, your grades, your recommendation letters from teachers, and your admissions essays to decide if they want to accept you. You could also take AP tests that were subject-specific, and sometimes colleges would give you class credit for a 4 or a 5 on AP tests (5 being the highest score, and then downwards from there).
Some colleges made kids apply directly to specific programs, which was so weird to me. I went to a liberal arts school. We weren't allowed to choose our concentrations until our 3rd year.
Public and private schools are exactly the same, except that private schools cost money :P All colleges and universities cost money here... and I am going to be paying off my student loans for the next 17 years, so I know way too much about that.