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Any students here who took ESO instead of GCSE's?

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Reply 40
Well, University usually asks for 3 A's, right? It seems easier to concentrate in those subjects and to obtain 3 A's than to get a media of 8 out of 10 in 10 subjects (for example) ^^

About your experience, there are good shools and bad schools. Shame you ended up in a crappy one. But I don't think Spanish education is that bad.

Don't take this wrong cause I don't know how bad was the situation in that school, but you may want to stop your surrondings affecting you that much when it comes to goals ^^

By the way, what's the name of the place you were in?
Reply 41
Original post by r4ndom
Well, University usually asks for 3 A's, right? It seems easier to concentrate in those subjects and to obtain 3 A's than to get a media of 8 out of 10 in 10 subjects (for example) ^^

About your experience, there are good shools and bad schools. Shame you ended up in a crappy one. But I don't think Spanish education is that bad.

Don't take this wrong cause I don't know how bad was the situation in that school, but you may want to stop your surrondings affecting you that much when it comes to goals ^^

By the way, what's the name of the place you were in?


I'm not quite sure what you mean here. The three A's are for A levels, which one takes after secondary school. You study eight to ten or twelve subjects in secondary school. A lot of universities also take these grades into account.

It's very easy for you to say that if you don't know what it's like to wake up in the morning thinking "will they still hate me? will they just forget about what happened yesterday? I don't want to go to school". I was only a teen, and **** like that can affect your life, sadly.

True, but the good schools tend to be the private ones I'd say. I attended an IES, not sure if I should say which one in case I get sued, like :cool:

do you not quote people btw?
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 42
oh, I was comparing the A levels to Bachiller and PAU, but it seems that I was mistaken ^^

I've heard all kind of thinks about the private schools here. Some are really good, and some of them will "pass" you if you pay your fees, despite your knowledge. Which is obiusly a bad thing xD

My school was a IES and it has a good reputation and ambiance (Is this the word? environement maybe?)

Excuse my english, I still have to improve :smile:

pd: Nop, I usually don't quote if I refer to the last post.
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 43
Original post by r4ndom
oh, I was comparing the A levels to Bachiller and PAU, but it seems that I was mistaken ^^

I've heard all kind of thinks about the private schools here. Some are really good, and some of them will "pass" you if you pay your fees, despite your knowledge. Which is obiusly a bad thing xD

My school was a IES and it has a good reputation and ambiance (Is this the word? environement maybe?)

Excuse my english, I still have to improve :smile:


a good environment i think is the word you're looking for. which one was it?

oh right i thought you were talking about GCSEs or ESO. Overall people seem to think the Batxiller system is better but then why do they need to have the so called "selectividad" afterwards to gain entrance into uni?
Reply 44
Well, selectividad is just an exam to "verify" your grades. For example to avoid what I said before. People in private schools who pay their fees and which grades are far higher than they should be.

Usually most people get similar grades in Bachiller and selectividad.
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 45
Original post by MrHappy_J
So with all the talk about GCSEs I'm feeling a bit left out because I was schooled in Spain and thus I only have an ESO certificate.

Is there anyone else here who did ESO instead of GCSEs? What did you get? Do you think ESO is an equivalent to the english system or is it better/worse?

Discuss.

Edit: my background: I came to England when I was 16 after ten years of living in Spain. I took my A levels at a sixth form college and now I'm at a uni here. I'm a British native but I moved to Spain when I was 5. When I applied to college and then to university I got a lot of stick for not having GCSEs. One of the requirements of my course at Kent uni, for example, was that I needed a C grade or above in GCSE level maths. I didnt think that I'd have to take a GCSE as well as my A levels, I assumed that my ESO qualification in maths would suffice, so when I got my grades I had to call Kent uni before they recognised that I had met the conditional offer. Also at Henrietta Barnet they were asking for 6 A*s at GCSE which I felt was absurd. Nobody gets that many A's in Spain and I had just spent the past three years at a rubbish state school where the more "insufficientes" (fails) you got, the more popular you were.



Hello! I am so glad that I found this. Currently I am struggling to finding the right pathway for me. The trouble comes with having done Spanish ESO and not GCSE's, the same problem with you.

Last year I came back to England having finished my Spanish ESO, I applied for English A Levels and they said everything was fine, later on in the year I came to enrol on them, to find they wouldn't accept my ESO, and that my grades weren't high enough, what suprised me that they wouldn't count my English ESO (which I got a 10) as an equivalent to the to English GCSE (which I found fair because well, it is my native language but I did only study it till the age of 9 and it was studied as a second language) but they did count my SPANISH CASTELLANO LITERATURA Y LENGUAJE as an GCSE equivalent because I only got a 5, to me, if they don't count my english to be equivalent, (even though I do speak it perfectly) nor should they count my Spanish GCSE to be equivalent to theirs. It was done as a first language and to a native spanish speakers level. So after all that they made me for the past year retake my English and maths GCSE. I found to level to be way below what the level is in Spain, (My IES was a quite high level compared to other IES that I had previously been to).

After having to retake these 2 subjects , now at 19, I am finding it hard to go to the next level. They are advising me to do my A levels, but the Spanish A level is way under my level of spanish, because I haven't got the knowledge proven and wrote down on paper then I can't get anywhere. I feel like doing my ESO in Spain has been a complete waste of time, I have been put down all the time and like punished even in the spanish schools, because I speak Spanish as a native Spanish person would do, and I speak English like a native English person would do, with this what occured at spanish school is I use to say in History class " I find it really hard to memorize because I am English" the answer I got was " But you were only born there, your language is Spanish" . What are my options? Why do I have to be put back in a Language where I speak it to perfection? I am multilingual and I want to use this talent and not to be put back.

Any help for me?

(I moved to Spain at the age of 9 from England and was put straight into a public Spanish school, having to learn two languages at once , as I went to Valencia and they teach Valenciano aswell)
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 46
Original post by MizzSaf
So after all that they made me for the past year retake my English and maths GCSE. I found to level to be way below what the level is in Spain

:cool:
_____________________


Now more seriusly... :rolleyes:

Let me see if I understood you well.
-They made you repeat 2 subjetcs.
-You did it and find it easy.
-Now they advise you to do the A-levels and the problem that you face it's that you find them too easy too???

Well, If I understood you right.. I don't see the problem ^^
Just do the A-level??
Reply 47
Original post by r4ndom
:cool:
_____________________


Now more seriusly... :rolleyes:

Let me see if I understood you well.
-They made you repeat 2 subjetcs.
-You did it and find it easy.
-Now they advise you to do the A-levels and the problem that you face it's that you find them too easy too???

Well, If I understood you right.. I don't see the problem ^^
Just do the A-level??



My argument is... why should I have to do 2 years of A Levels, just for spanish, when my level of spanish is way beyond the
A level? Why should I waste 2 years being bored in an A level Spanish class? And doing an access to higher education course doesn't offer me the language, so do they also make a native spanish person do an a level , when the level doesn't even reach that of an 8 year old?

All I want is to be a Spanish teacher and they are making it pretty impossible, it's going to take me years on end, I just don't want to be stuck doing spanish that doesn't even reach my level. What way around do I have?
Reply 48
Original post by MizzSaf
My argument is... why should I have to do 2 years of A Levels, just for spanish, when my level of spanish is way beyond the
A level? Why should I waste 2 years being bored in an A level Spanish class? And doing an access to higher education course doesn't offer me the language, so do they also make a native spanish person do an a level , when the level doesn't even reach that of an 8 year old?

All I want is to be a Spanish teacher and they are making it pretty impossible, it's going to take me years on end, I just don't want to be stuck doing spanish that doesn't even reach my level. What way around do I have?


I took Spanish A level too, not because i was forced to do it but because my father kept telling me that it was a guaranteed A, and he was right. I didnt even have to sit through lessons, I took it as an external candidate so I got private tuition that was a lot more tailored to my level. Perhaps you should consider doing the same? It´s hardly a big deal. I cant see why theyre making you take English and Maths A levels :s-smilie:

The only setbacks I got was that some schools were unwilling to translate my ESO grades into the English system. Then when I applied to Uni they sent me a conditional offer stating that I needed at least a C in Maths at GCSE level. Stupidly I assumed that my "Excellente" in Maths at ESO level would count, but when I got my A level grades and i met the requirements as far as they were concerned (AAB), the final offer wouldnt come through on Track :s-smilie: i had to make a phone call but it was all ok in the end.
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 49
Original post by MizzSaf
My argument is... why should I have to do 2 years of A Levels, just for spanish, when my level of spanish is way beyond the
A level? Why should I waste 2 years being bored in an A level Spanish class? And doing an access to higher education course doesn't offer me the language, so do they also make a native spanish person do an a level , when the level doesn't even reach that of an 8 year old?

All I want is to be a Spanish teacher and they are making it pretty impossible, it's going to take me years on end, I just don't want to be stuck doing spanish that doesn't even reach my level. What way around do I have?


I see now, didn't realize it was 2 years only for spanish...

I don't think it helps you but I'll tell you my story.

7 years after doing Bachiller I wanted to study a degree in French and German. But I didn't even take those subjects in Bachiller/Selectividad.

So what I did was to find Universities that would accept an "European Certificate" instead of the A-levels. In my case this was the DELF B2 in French, which is obvisuly a B2 level (Something like the First of Cambridge)

Most of the Universities told me that I needed the A-levels. Some of them even told me that the B2 was to low for their deegre. This made me a bit angry, as it sounds as if kids in the UK get out of school with a C1, basicaly bilingual (yeah, sure...)

So I don't know if you could get an European Certificate in Spanish, just one exam, instead of the 2 years of A-levels.


Original post by MrHappy_J
.

BTW I just saw you are living in Canterbury. Could you be studing at Kent?
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 50
Original post by r4ndom
I see now, didn't realize it was 2 years only for spanish...

I don't think it helps you but I'll tell you my story.

7 years after doing Bachiller I wanted to study a degree in French and German. But I didn't even take those subjects in Bachiller/Selectividad.

So what I did was to find Universities that would accept an "European Certificate" instead of the A-levels. In my case this was the DELF B2 in French, which is obvisuly a B2 level (Something like the First of Cambridge)

Most of the Universities told me that I needed the A-levels. Some of them even told me that the B2 was to low for their deegre. This made me a bit angry, as it sounds as if kids in the UK get out of school with a C1, basicaly bilingual (yeah, sure...)

So I don't know if you could get an European Certificate in Spanish, just one exam, instead of the 2 years of A-levels.



BTW I just saw you are living in Canterbury. Could you be studing at Kent?


yup I study at the University of Kent :wink:
Reply 51
Original post by MrHappy_J
yup I study at the University of Kent :wink:


I'm starting at Kent this September :biggrin:
Reply 52
Original post by r4ndom
I see now, didn't realize it was 2 years only for spanish...

I don't think it helps you but I'll tell you my story.

7 years after doing Bachiller I wanted to study a degree in French and German. But I didn't even take those subjects in Bachiller/Selectividad.

So what I did was to find Universities that would accept an "European Certificate" instead of the A-levels. In my case this was the DELF B2 in French, which is obvisuly a B2 level (Something like the First of Cambridge)

Most of the Universities told me that I needed the A-levels. Some of them even told me that the B2 was to low for their deegre. This made me a bit angry, as it sounds as if kids in the UK get out of school with a C1, basicaly bilingual (yeah, sure...)

So I don't know if you could get an European Certificate in Spanish, just one exam, instead of the 2 years of A-levels.


Well thank you very much for telling me this, I didn't know that the European Certificate in languages existed. I have looked into it and I have found the DELE which is the one for Spanish. I know and I am confident that my level is at C2 but I don't think they offer that one, but I will do the highest I can.

As I only have done my ESO and my English and Maths GCSE's I know I won't be able to get into University just with them, but it is so frustrating that they are only counting my Castellano: Lenguaje y literatura (Castilian (Spanish) : Language and literature) as an equivalent to their GCSE Level of Spanish, which I find very insulting. I don't want to waste 2 years of doing a Spanish A level which I wouldn't even have to think about what I am saying or writing, I have been through it before in Spain in the English class with a teacher who asked me how to say things and if they were spelling things right...

I have been to that many career advisers now who haven't given me anymore information than what I already know, that I am just stuck in a hole and their only solution is the easy one and probably the only one they know which is to do A levels or an access to Higher Education and that doesn't include languages, so I will be putting myself in the same position after doing that... that I don't have a Spanish A Level. Which is pathetic.

I totally understand how you feel about languages, that somebody fresh out of university with a language degree, probably doesn't scrape the talent and profiency that you have in another language.

Today I find that if it isn't on paper, they don't want to know. You are rated by the amount of papers and certificates you have and not by the quality of the knowledge.
Reply 53
Original post by MizzSaf
Well thank you very much for telling me this, I didn't know that the European Certificate in languages existed. I have looked into it and I have found the DELE which is the one for Spanish. I know and I am confident that my level is at C2 but I don't think they offer that one, but I will do the highest I can.

As I only have done my ESO and my English and Maths GCSE's I know I won't be able to get into University just with them, but it is so frustrating that they are only counting my Castellano: Lenguaje y literatura (Castilian (Spanish) : Language and literature) as an equivalent to their GCSE Level of Spanish, which I find very insulting. I don't want to waste 2 years of doing a Spanish A level which I wouldn't even have to think about what I am saying or writing, I have been through it before in Spain in the English class with a teacher who asked me how to say things and if they were spelling things right...

I have been to that many career advisers now who haven't given me anymore information than what I already know, that I am just stuck in a hole and their only solution is the easy one and probably the only one they know which is to do A levels or an access to Higher Education and that doesn't include languages, so I will be putting myself in the same position after doing that... that I don't have a Spanish A Level. Which is pathetic.

I totally understand how you feel about languages, that somebody fresh out of university with a language degree, probably doesn't scrape the talent and profiency that you have in another language.

Today I find that if it isn't on paper, they don't want to know. You are rated by the amount of papers and certificates you have and not by the quality of the knowledge.


I think I'm missing some point.

So you have done the E.S.O. but you haven't done your A-levels and you haven't done Bachiller either?

Cause I guess they can not being leveling your Bachiller marks to GSCE marks.


And about the DELE (wich I think you missed the link in my last post hehehe) I would make sure that whoever is gonna employ you or take as student, accepts the DELE. Or it would be useless.
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 54
Original post by Gigaunit
And does any of you know how to convert ESO grades to GCSE grades?
And do they count the 4 years or only the final year?

10 A*
9 A
7-8 B
6 C
5 D

That's the rough conversion I've seen on some forums, but does anyone know the official and accepted conversion if there is one?


Not a clue :frown:
Reply 55
Original post by r4ndom
I'm starting at Kent this September :biggrin:


what are you stuyding?
Reply 56
Original post by MrHappy_J
what are you stuyding?


French & German
Reply 57
I have done my ESO in Catalonia and am currently studying el Bachillerato. I have applied to four different universities in the UK (Kent is one of them) and would love to know if they would accept my 9/10 in 4th ESO mathematics as a C in maths?
Extra info: I'm a British national who moved to Spain during year 8 (1 ESO), this mean my marks until 3rd ESO were not that great.
Are the marks from 4th what they would take into account? if not will my bachillerato title suffice?
Reply 58
Original post by MrHappy_J
So with all the talk about GCSEs I'm feeling a bit left out because I was schooled in Spain and thus I only have an ESO certificate.

Is there anyone else here who did ESO instead of GCSEs? What did you get? Do you think ESO is an equivalent to the english system or is it better/worse?

Discuss.

Edit: my background: I came to England when I was 16 after ten years of living in Spain. I took my A levels at a sixth form college and now I'm at a uni here. I'm a British native but I moved to Spain when I was 5. When I applied to college and then to university I got a lot of stick for not having GCSEs. One of the requirements of my course at Kent uni, for example, was that I needed a C grade or above in GCSE level maths. I didnt think that I'd have to take a GCSE as well as my A levels, I assumed that my ESO qualification in maths would suffice, so when I got my grades I had to call Kent uni before they recognised that I had met the conditional offer. Also at Henrietta Barnet they were asking for 6 A*s at GCSE which I felt was absurd. Nobody gets that many A's in Spain and I had just spent the past three years at a rubbish state school where the more "insufficientes" (fails) you got, the more popular you were.




Hi!
I'm Swedish but lived in Spain for a bunch of years and did all my under 18 education there.

I can tell you I got 8.9 in 4th ESO, working very hard, but also bullied by the atmosphere and those kids who never got more than a 6. Then I moved to another school to do social sciences bachillerato and I have recently graduated Cum Laude.

The thing is, while kids in the Uk or Sweden are aware of the necessity of getting good grades even when you are 14, in Spain nobody cares until they are in the two last weeks of the second year of bachillerato.

Personally, I think Spanish education itself is not as bad as many Europeans tend to adress, then if you strive hard and commit yourself you get a broad knowledge in the arts and sciences. For example, in bachillerato it is mandatory to read history, philosophy and Spanish language although you are doing straight sciences. I am positive certain that the problem lais within the fact that teachers are usually unmotivated and that students don't have the "pressure" that English or German people have to get a place at university.

As a consequence you can ask in the street a 16 year old which year was the French Revolution, and he most surely won't even know what you're talking about :biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin:


PD: Where in Spain did you live, if I might ask? :smile:
Reply 59
Original post by HarryRoper
I have done my ESO in Catalonia and am currently studying el Bachillerato. I have applied to four different universities in the UK (Kent is one of them) and would love to know if they would accept my 9/10 in 4th ESO mathematics as a C in maths?
Extra info: I'm a British national who moved to Spain during year 8 (1 ESO), this mean my marks until 3rd ESO were not that great.
Are the marks from 4th what they would take into account? if not will my bachillerato title suffice?


Don't be silly, 9 out of 10 is gorgeous :wink:
I only sent the grades of 4th ESO and those of bachillerato ^^

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