Let me just explain something that is really annoying me. (This is aimed at Americans) - Comments

@ Immoderate;;
Our school ran out of money and shoved an extra grade level into our High School. It's a bloody mess.

@ Looking at Stars
:o that sounds difficult. I realised how hard things are going to be this year, like with course work and stuff.

Lol yeah I'm sort of the same. All of my friends are "bad" and they hang around on the streets at night smoking and drinking. I'd rather be in my damn bed warm and stuff haha.

@ The Doctor
I'd much prefer to hear "class" then school! Yeah I agree, it does sound childish and I'm sure 12 year olds don't do damn degrees.

@ gatsby;
Oh gosh yeah I get that. I have to know what I want to do within two months or my life is just going to be on a hold. I don't get how they expect us to know at this age to be honest. Yeah like how are they actually making 18/19 year olds go to the same schools as 13 year olds? How on earth does that actually make any sense?!

Haha well you're welcome and thank you! You too. :)

@ PoeticMess.
No. You are obviously educated there but it's not academic, it's more vocational.

Isn't college a type of school..?

Sounds so much better than American schools. From the time we're about 12 we're hammered with "You must know what you're doing with your life. You must be ready for college/university". Like... We've barely/haven't even touched puberty yet and we've got to know our lives? Also the separation of ages sounds amazing... As 18/19 year olds go to the same school as 13 year olds. That's a recipe for disaster.

Anyways, thanks for explaining this. I'd hate to sound uneducated if it ever came up. Good luck darling!

Where I live, we don't call it school. We don't go "how was school?" We call everything 'class'. I had class today. How was class? Etc. School does sound a bit childish. I'm not going to school anymore. I am going to different classes that are hand-selected for my degree.

@ Immoderate;;
My friends did Alevel Maths. They hated it. I had one friend that did Maths, Further Maths and Physics. Mental. I did English Lit, Philosophy, Geography and an AS in Psychology. Geography was a bitch, I had to jump in rivers and measure rocks.

I haven't spoken to hardly any of my old school friends because they turned into chavs.

@ Looking at Stars
I now what you mean, it does sound American-y. I am in fact in sixth form but when i say sixth form to Americans they go "what's that?" and I just end up like " " so I say college so that they know what I mean lol.

Yeah you have to stay until your 18 and college is more vocational. I started Sixth form the other day and I'm going A-Level Maths. Someone needs to push me off a cliff to be honest, its horrible!

I noticed that when I left school. All those promises "yeah we'll keep in touch, I'll call you often" are lies. I am no longer in contact with my school friends either since I am at a different sixth form to them all. What?

I don't like it being called High School. Makes it too American-y. It's Secondary School. I think kids have to stay until they're 18 now, and they can do whatever they want in the way of college/sixthform as long as they're doing something.

Also, I'd say that sixthform is classed as schoolling too, especially if it's the last two years of a secondary school. Years 12 and 13. Unless it's one of those schools that end in year 11.

College is different to sixthform though, right? Sixthform do more academic courses, whereas colleges tend to do more vocational things like beauty and sport sciences. Unless it's a sixthform college, where they do Alevels. Either way, Alevels were a fucking bitch.

I could be wrong. I left school two years ago and I'm completely out of touch with what the kids get up to these days, but I can say that University is just an accepted term for an alcohol problem.

@ dru vs. slut shaming
A-Levels are higher advanced and they are very difficult in my opinion.

@ Immoderate;;
Not sure. AP classes here are advanced placement and you can take them in high school if you test high enough/get high enough grades. You take the class as a normal high school class and if you want to pay an extra 100-150 you can take a test to have it count as a college class.

In college we take a few years of gen eds, general education requirements. Is it more like that? Taking some math and some science (about 2 years) and then uni is 2 years of more specialized degree based classes? In a four year degree, about half of your classes match your degree and half are gen eds. (Maybe more like one and two thirds. I'm not sure.)

@ ladyschrei
Nope nope nope I'm not smart enough to write an article.

@ dru vs. slut shaming
A-Level are AP for you lot I think, I don't know.

@ Immoderate;;
Ah, we do that in high school and then go to university or college. And I'm assuming A-Levels are similar to our SAT/ACT system.

Ah okay I understand better now lol. I know you posted this as a blog but maybe you could turn it into an article and submit it to be on the homepage for Mibba. It would help more people learn lol.

@ Sorceress:.
I personally think it's pretty cool lol.

@ dru vs. slut shaming
College is where you study A-Levels/AS-Levels or even BTEC in order to be accepted for university. Like when you go to high school, you need certain grades to get into college. Is the same for college and university. When you're in college it's about focusing on achieving grades you don't have making them better or starting to direct yourself into what you want to do when you're older. Whereas university is a subject you pick that you definitely want to do. I hope this makes sense. I don't think it's confusing at all.

@ ladyschrei
I'm perfectly aware that you don't learn about it. I'm not saying it's annoying to answer those questions, I'm saying it's annoying when I have to answer them repeatedly. Yeah I understand, just gets on my nerves lol.

I'm from the US and I had NO idea that's how it's done over there. That's actually really cool.

In America, college is just not a nicer university. University costs A LOT and colleges are usually cheaper and smaller.

I found out the difference a few years ago, but your distiniction between the two is probably what causes it to be confusing.

What /is/ the difference between college and uni, btw?

I know it was said before, but here in America any type of education is considered school. Also, I can see how being asked certain things (like having to explain the difference between college and university) can be annoying, but you have to understand that we don't learn about how schools in other countries work. We aren't taught that other countries go to university and college, here it's normally you go to one or the other. I hope this makes sense lol. So it's not anyone trying to offend or make you seem like a child, it's just that we really don't understand lol.

@ swell
Haha well it's not the same thing in the UK. They're completely different things. Oh gosh, I'd hate that. Like no people. I'm Australian okay.

Oooh this makes much more sense. I didn't know about the college/uni thing either, I thought they were the same thing we refer to it as the same thing here, although no one really says college and if we do, people think we're American or something ~