UK exams vs US exams - discussion thread

OP

Original post by CTLeafez

I've heard that US colleges give marks towards their module/class grades for "class-participation" e.g. raising hand and answering questions in class. If true, that's incredibly ridiculous... I've also heard the finals exams for Senior year of High School is Multiple Choice... Quite a different system to British A-Levels! :biggrin:

Basically I'm under the impression US high school/college exams are much easier than their British equivalents.

I'm under that impression as well, but I feel like it must be harder or crueller than ours if people find it difficult over there. I can't imagine any system crueller and more behind than ours, apart from Japan's, although at the very least Japan proves to have very high academic results at the cost of teenagers' mental health (as I've heard)

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 3

OP

Original post by raphaelnash

I'm under that impression as well, but I feel like it must be harder or crueller than ours if people find it difficult over there. I can't imagine any system crueller and more behind than ours, apart from Japan's, although at the very least Japan proves to have very high academic results at the cost of teenagers' mental health (as I've heard)

Should clarify - there are definitely harder systems than ours, but ours is quite cruelly designed to save a bit of cash compared to other countries which invest quite a lot in education. The Netherlands are doing better than us and without being as hard on children.

Reply 4

CTLeafez

22

Original post by raphaelnash

I'm under that impression as well, but I feel like it must be harder or crueler than ours if people find it difficult over there. I can't imagine any system crueler and more behind than ours, apart from Japan's, although at the very least Japan proves to have very high academic results at the cost of teenagers' mental health (as I've heard)

I've heard that US High School's Advanced Placement (APs) are about equivalent to our A-Levels. Sooo the classes they take to go to Ivy league colleges are the bare minimum qualification for a British student to go to Uni. :biggrin:

I will double check this though...

I remember reading on BBC News the other day about this end of school test South Koreans do, which essentially defines their futures. The parents would go pray at temples for their children and the majority of kids would have private tutoring/silent study for many hours after the usual school day.

We need to get a balance of qualifications which highlight the abilities of the student (not just essays and continuous prose writing) but also don't cause the kids to have mental breakdowns and put them into a state of mind to contemplate suicide.

Reply 5

OP

Original post by CTLeafez

I've heard that US High School's Advanced Placement (APs) are about equivalent to our A-Levels. Sooo the classes they take to go to Ivy league colleges are the bare minimum qualification for a British student to go to Uni. :biggrin:

I will double check this though...

I remember reading on BBC News the other day about this end of school test South Koreans do, which essentially defines their futures. The parents would go pray at temples for their children and the majority of kids would have private tutoring/silent study for many hours after the usual school day.

We need to get a balance of qualifications which highlight the abilities of the student (not just essays and continuous prose writing) but also don't cause the kids to have mental breakdowns and put them into a state of mind to contemplate suicide.

I regret having said that ours is that cruel, because evidently there are systems a thousand times crueller than ours.

Reply 6

i feeel like americas is easier, having heard their grade boundaries are 90% for an A. hard to get the grade, but id assume higher scores means its probably easier

Reply 7

OP

Original post by NetNeutrality

i feeel like americas is easier, having heard their grade boundaries are 90% for an A. hard to get the grade, but id assume higher scores means its probably easier

I agree, although because of the (fairly) frequent changing nature of the UK education sytsem, there are often cases where grade boundaries are lowered significantly to spare students some mercy after a large curriculum/system change. Not to say that the exams aren't incredibly difficult, because they are, hence the lowered boundaries.

Reply 8

Original post by raphaelnash

I agree, although because of the (fairly) frequent changing nature of the UK education sytsem, there are often cases where grade boundaries are lowered significantly to spare students some mercy after a large curriculum/system change. Not to say that the exams aren't incredibly difficult, because they are, hence the lowered boundaries.

yeah thats why its difficult to explain our grade boundaries to americans cus they fluctuate

Reply 9

Tolgash

21

Original post by CTLeafez

I remember reading on BBC News the other day about this end of school test South Koreans do, which essentially defines their futures. The parents would go pray at temples for their children and the majority of kids would have private tutoring/silent study for many hours after the usual school day.

We need to get a balance of qualifications which highlight the abilities of the student (not just essays and continuous prose writing) but also don't cause the kids to have mental breakdowns and put them into a state of mind to contemplate suicide.

It sounds an awful lot like China's Gaokao or India's IIT JEE Advanced.

Your second point caught my attention. What do you mean by a qualification that highlights the abilities of the student (what do A-levels do)? I've only ever seen weak students have mental breakdowns (such as myself). The elite never really do and aren't fazed by the pressure as much. In meritocratic societies like that of East Asia, the elite thrives through their ability to solve immensely difficult problems and under intense pressure.

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 10

username4316350

i did an exchange in can so i suppose be similar to usa. i did first year classes. in my experience was just lectures no small group seminars. there is continuous assessments so like fortnightly tests, homework, in class exercises which hand in at end and get marked, have clickers and answer questions which go toward grades, mid terms etc. what i found is that it was fkn difficult. the hardest exams i took during my 4 year degree were the ones i did on exchange. and those were only intro classes. the reasons were everything is in the exam so u dont go in wondering what will come up cos it will all come up, longer exams - 3 hours. grade boundaries are so high. so to get anything good u gotta be hitting 80s. i think i am fairly intelligent lad but i was no where near cut out to study there. i think uk ppl who would go succeed i.e. go graduate with a 2:1 equivalent would be the A* a-level folk

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 11

Original post by SJW-

i did an exchange in can so i suppose be similar to usa. i did first year classes. in my experience was just lectures no small group seminars. there is continuous assessments so like fortnightly tests, homework, in class exercises which hand in at end and get marked, have clickers and answer questions which go toward grades, mid terms etc. what i found is that it was fkn difficult. the hardest exams i took during my 4 year degree were the ones i did on exchange. and those were only intro classes. the reasons were everything is in the exam so u dont go in wondering what will come up cos it will all come up, longer exams - 3 hours. grade boundaries are so high. so to get anything good u gotta be hitting 80s. i think i am fairly intelligent lad but i was no where near cut out to study there. i think uk ppl who would go succeed i.e. go graduate with a 2:1 equivalent would be the A* a-level folk

so you wouldnt recommend going to america undergrad?

Reply 12

username4316350

Original post by NetNeutrality

so you wouldnt recommend going to america undergrad?

if a uk student was consideirng studying in usa and canada id say go to a uk uni then do a study abroad over there

Reply 13

Original post by SJW-

if a uk student was consideirng studying in usa and canada id say go to a uk uni then do a study abroad over there

oh ok im still considering everything lol

Reply 14

vr518

Original post by CTLeafez

I've heard that US colleges give marks towards their module/class grades for "class-participation" e.g. raising hand and answering questions in class. If true, that's incredibly ridiculous... I've also heard the finals exams for Senior year of High School is Multiple Choice... Quite a different system to British A-Levels! :biggrin:

Basically I'm under the impression US high school/college exams are much easier than their British equivalents.

You weren't hearing properly. Grading for class participation is up to the teacher/professor. It's not a universal practice. I've had professor who graded us on participation and some who didn't. Multiple choice tests are only part of the exam. Math tests have word problems, true/false, proofs for geometry/trigonometry, and numericals. Science tests have essays, true/false, diagrams to label, and for chemistry/physics, numerical problems with no answer choices. The high school I attended did not allow multiple choice on English tests and foreign language exams did not have them, either. We had an oral exam and a written one for languages, with fill-in-the-blanks, short-answer questions, verb conjugating, labeling items in the target language, and translating. History and behavior sciences had multiple choice, but they also had essays as well.

Basically, your impression is wrong.

Reply 15

S osgood

That’s still a lot easier than the UK. At A Level no after the subject there is no fill in the blanks or multiple choice. Everything banks on the final exam. With A Levels you cannot re do them unlike with the SATs where you can do them as many times as you want. I’ve had friends who went to uni in America and they were able to skip the first year as there A levels had already taught them all the stuff Americans learn in the first year

Original post by vr518

You weren't hearing properly. Grading for class participation is up to the teacher/professor. It's not a universal practice. I've had professor who graded us on participation and some who didn't. Multiple choice tests are only part of the exam. Math tests have word problems, true/false, proofs for geometry/trigonometry, and numericals. Science tests have essays, true/false, diagrams to label, and for chemistry/physics, numerical problems with no answer choices. The high school I attended did not allow multiple choice on English tests and foreign language exams did not have them, either. We had an oral exam and a written one for languages, with fill-in-the-blanks, short-answer questions, verb conjugating, labeling items in the target language, and translating. History and behavior sciences had multiple choice, but they also had essays as well.

Basically, your impression is wrong.

Reply 16

CTLeafez

22

Original post by CTLeafez

Basically I'm under the impression US high school/college exams are much easier than their British equivalents.

Original post by vr518

You weren't hearing properly. Grading for class participation is up to the teacher/professor. It's not a universal practice. I've had professor who graded us on participation and some who didn't. Multiple choice tests are only part of the exam. Math tests have word problems, true/false, proofs for geometry/trigonometry, and numericals. Science tests have essays, true/false, diagrams to label, and for chemistry/physics, numerical problems with no answer choices. The high school I attended did not allow multiple choice on English tests and foreign language exams did not have them, either. We had an oral exam and a written one for languages, with fill-in-the-blanks, short-answer questions, verb conjugating, labeling items in the target language, and translating. History and behavior sciences had multiple choice, but they also had essays as well.

Basically, your impression is wrong.

You have MCQ, even if they are only a fraction of the whole exam. You have true/false questions and fill-in-the-blanks. British A-Level kids could only dream of having those sort of questions. We had to deal with continuous-prose style questions for at least all the A-level courses myself and friends completed back in 2013-16.

So my impression isn't wrong at all. I said my impression was US SATs are easier than A-Levels and from what you've just said yourself, that appears to still be true. We can agree to disagree if need be.

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 17

vr518

Original post by CTLeafez

You have MCQ, even if they are only a fraction of the whole exam. You have true/false questions and fill-in-the-blanks. British A-Level kids could only dream of having those sort of questions. We had to deal with continuous-prose style questions for at least all the A-level courses myself and friends completed back in 2013-16.

So my impression isn't wrong at all. I said my impression was US SATs are easier than A-Levels and from what you've just said yourself, that appears to still be true. We can agree to disagree if need be.

MCQ is not on every exam, and the U.S. doesn't follow a universal exam structure. Teachers and professors write their own, and when a test has 20 MCQs (T/F and fill-in-blanks are not all included on the same test) that are only 25% of the overall grade, plus short and long answer questions, an oral exam, and other written components that make up the remaining 75%, then it is not easier.

Reply 18

vr518

Original post by S osgood

That’s still a lot easier than the UK. At A Level no after the subject there is no fill in the blanks or multiple choice. Everything banks on the final exam. With A Levels you cannot re do them unlike with the SATs where you can do them as many times as you want. I’ve had friends who went to uni in America and they were able to skip the first year as there A levels had already taught them all the stuff Americans learn in the first year

SATs are just an exam, not a course taught in school. They are administered by a private organization unconnected to any school system or government. They are not based on a 2-year course like A-levels, so of course a person can take them over and over. English students only take -levels, while introductory courses at U.S. universities number 10-12, or 45-48 credits, so they did not place out of all general education requirements. A-levels are equivalent to AP courses in the U.S. AP courses are the equivalent of introductory-level college classes, so that is why A-level courses can place a student out of such courses at the college level.

I knew students from England who placed out freshman writing, math, science, and history because they took the A-levels that corresponded to those subjects, however, if they did not take a foreign language A-level, they had to take a foreign language in their first year. If they did not take a behavioral science A-level, they had to take a behavioral science course. One girl I knew did not take an A-level in math, so she had to take a math class.

(edited 6 years ago)

Reply 19

Isabel2575