Moving to france!

Im terrified!!! Do you think they'll put me back a year so i can catch up? I don't mind really, if it means I have the baccalaureate in my pocket to use.

Na Assas is very overrated, it lets in very mediocre students then gets rid of 70% of them after the first year.

Its only saving grace is that you could call it Bashar al-Assas

But yes, UK universities are far better.

Wallah fite me

Well yeah, of course since you just have to get your baccalaureate that is to say 10/20. That's also why most students fail. But every university does that it's the law, they have to. Thank god they started selecting applicants for postgrad at least.

They might, actually. When I got to the UK, I was too young for year 12 even though I had just finished the equivalent of year 11 in Romania (albeit I did start school a year early, hence why I was too young), so I did year 11 again, despite my good grades. I would have been a 17 years old university student if that did not happen.

Also, keep in mind UK students start school at a very young age in comparison to others. As such, you may be too young for year 12 in France. That will only matter if they are as strict with school age as the UK (a.k.a. if the French high school will not let you go straight on to year 12 like the UK college did in my case), which I honestly doubt. If they are not, that will not matter at all. (Any further input is welcome as I only have a vague idea of how France itself is like. I am basing this on observations and similarities.)

Another reason why you may be held back is the language. If you have difficulty understanding it, they may choose to hold you back a year so you can learn French (which is what happened to a Chinese ex-classmate who moved to the UK; she should have been in year 12, but was held back in year 11 since she did not know much English).

That being said, I cannot tell what will happen for sure. You will have to see if you need to equate your UK studies to the French equivalents before high school and if they are as strict with school age as the UK (which I doubt). Just call or email a high school and explain your situation; they will tell you if you need to do that and/or if you have to be held back a year.

No need to be terrified! I am sure you will be fine. Right now, I have to catch up on three years' worth of material for the Baccalaureate, if that helps, so catching up on a single year is deinitely possible. I think you will most likely be allowed to go straight on to year 12, but I had to mention the other possibilities so you can prepare for them if this conclusion is incorrect.

I don't know when you guys start school but we start at 3 here. I even started at 2. Also, I was 15 when i started Première which is year 12. But quite a lot of students have skipped a class so age will not be an issue AT ALL don't worry

As for whether they'll ask you to do year 11 i honestly don't have a clue. We have a lot of essay based classes so that might be an issue. And you won't really have to catch up that much i think. For exemple, in history, geography, french.. we are not asked about what we did in previous years.

French universities have arguably an even worse reputation for postgrad degrees (in law, at least)...

Good job! Good to know France is so lax about school age. (I am so happy to see one of you Frenchies in this thread. Help me with French, please? Just kidding )

Out of curiosity, what would be a typical range of time in which students in a year would be born? Is it like the UK's (e.g. September 1998-August 1999), like Japan's (e.g. April 1998-March 1999), etc?

Indeed, I imagine there will not be much catching up to do. Maybe in a subject or two, I imagine, but not otherwise.

The language is still going to be a bit of a problem, I assume.

Well, about the language, people will be very nice if you try to make an effort, even if it's not flawless.

For exemple in my class we are 30, some were born in January 99, some in May 2000. But most of the time it's january 99-december 99 in my year.

And if you ever need help with French ofc, don't hesitate

I'm French so feel free to ask me more questions. We only have three years of high school yes. I work toward a french baccalaureate and not a levels so i can't really compare but i think it's harder in France. You have a LOT of subjects (French, English, PET, Spanish or German, science, philosophy...) so it's really challenging. Do you know which "filiere" you're going to choose yet? Also, each high school is different. Some are excellent and some are pretty terrible. It depends. To study law after the bac, it's very different from the UK, there are no selections for regular courses at uni so a lot of people dropout because they can't cope with the workload. So in a sense there is a selection. Natural selection. Some univeristies are really good for law that being said. La Sorbonne, Assas, Bordeaux, Aix-Marseilles...

I am studying French in school right now (I did not choose it ), but I do not know any French, so I am failing.

I love you so much right now Thank you!



My God, I was right! Romania DID copy France's educational system!

Source: Romanian here, France's educational system is almost exactly the same as ours, down to the 'filieres' (we call them profiles and specialisations, though), the subjects studied, having a Baccalaureate...

Let me guess, your Baccalaureate is on three 'filiere'-specific subjects with English thrown in if you do not have a CAE? E.g. French for all and History for the humanities or Mathematics for the sciences. Then you have a chosen third subject of your choice. For humanities subjects, it would be a humanities or social science subject (geography, philosophy, psychology, etc) and for science students, a science subject (computer science, physics, etc). Did you also have to study about nineteen subjects in tenth grade too? (In tenth grade, I studied Romanian, English, Additional English, French, Latin, History, Geography, Psychology, ICT, PE, Art, Music, Religious Studies, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Entrepreneurship, and Behaviour -not actually a class but we got a grade for it anyway-.)

In addition, I agree. The UK's educational system is easier than other countries' eduational systems (that is literally what everyone who has studied in the UK and in another country says, as far as I know).

I am studying French in school right now (I did not choose it ), but I do not know any French, so I am failing.

I love you so much right now Thank you!



My God, I was right! Romania DID copy France's educational system!

Source: Romanian here, France's educational system is almost exactly the same as ours, down to the 'filieres' (we call them profiles and specialisations, though), the subjects studied, having a Baccalaureate...

Let me guess, your Baccalaureate is on three 'filiere'-specific subjects with English thrown in if you do not have a CAE? E.g. French for all and History for the humanities or Mathematics for the sciences. Then you have a chosen third subject of your choice. For humanities subjects, it would be a humanities or social science subject (geography, philosophy, psychology, etc) and for science students, a science subject (computer science, physics, etc). Did you also have to study about nineteen subjects in tenth grade too? (In tenth grade, I studied Romanian, English, Additional English, French, Latin, History, Geography, Psychology, ICT, PE, Art, Music, Religious Studies, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Entrepreneurship, and Behaviour -not actually a class but we got a grade for it anyway-.)

In addition, I agree. The UK's educational system is easier than other countries' edcuational systems (that is literally what everyone who has studied in the UK and in another country says, as far as I know).

I'm 16 and moving to france in March. I have no idea what I'm going to do about high school as it's completely different there? Their high school is only 3/4 years long and they work towards a baccalaureate. Ive always wanted to be a lawyer and i have no idea how its going to pan out. Can someone let me know if french high schools are ok? I'm terrified. I'd like some to tell me about the unis out there too?? I've tried the websites but my french is god awful.


stay groovy, Chloe marie x

Teach me french too, I've studied it for three years in high school and can only say "Croissant".

Well i don't want to study in France but it's such a progress for universities to select applicants. It's going to improve the quality of teaching i think. And i wasn't really talking about law anymore, but more about unis in general. Some subjects are really well taught (science related stuff for exemple, the rest.... meh tbh i agree)!

Goddamn man, how you guys have time to do anything else? I've studied in Portugal. We have four pathways to choose from. It's economics, science, humanities or arts. If you choose science like I did you get the core subjects that are: advance math, biology and geology (as one class), physics and chemistry(as one class)
, physical education and portuguese, then you have subjects that are taught only in the first two years, like english(or german, french, spanish, you can choose but most of the time is english), philosofy then you have biology and geology that you have to choose between biology or geology in the last year, same with physics and chemistry. Since we get these subjects that are only two years, in the final year we have a lot of free time, that's how I got my driving license.

Hum in Troisième so year 10 (I think?) i had French, maths, physics, biology, chem, Spanish, English, geography, history, technology, PE, art, music and i had dropped out latin and ancien greek the year before because i didn't have enough time so a little bit less subjects than you but still a lot 😂 it's so cool you had things like psychology i would've LOOOVED it

We do have three filières but they are "general". Otherwise we have strange things like STMG, STI2D, ST2S... CAE is an option but english is not, even if you have it. In S they focus about science and math but they still study history, philosophy... And in L we study sciences ES is in the middle. Btw, we have 8 hours of philosophy in L and I HATE IT

French unis still cannot select their students.

For Master 2 they do now. But it's very new

I bet you say "cwoissant".

Romania is a magical place

(Serious side note: I have no idea, maybe because we BS our way through every single school subject and only study a few in depth. Or we make it through just because this is Ro-f***king-mania since I have no other explanation other than it being Ro-f***king-mania. )

Interesting OwO I would have chosen humanities by far



Troisième is equivalent to the UK year 9.

Psychology was mandatory (There is no such thng as chosen subjects; everything is mandatory. Only one's specialisation and school can affect what subjects the person will study in high school and they are 99% the same everywhere.) That being said, it was full of pseudo-psychological things like the four humours, sadly. (My psychology GCSE and AS-level were awesome, though.)

8 hours of philosophy for the science filière? Are you kidding me? My specialisation is philology (a specialisation under the humanities profile in which we focus on languages, history, geography, and social sciences) and I only have 2 hours of philosophy a week...

Does the government not think that, uh, maybe, just maybe, those philosophy hours could be spent on more relevant subjects like mathematics, biology, chemistry, physics, and computer science?

So S is science and maths.
L is science.
ES is in the middle (both humanities and science).

Is that it?