Christmas Exams

The next major event in my life will be the Christmas exams next week. We will take a two hour test for each of the six core subjects, covering everything we have learned so far this year.

While reviewing for the exams, I discovered that the history test here will be very different from what I am used to (all the others are similar). On the ship, the final exam in history usually consists of several multiple choice, matching, or fill in the blank questions, a few short answer questions, and one longer essay question. Here, the entire test is one giant essay. We will be given a text about either Athenian democracy, Roman democracy, or immigration and the role of Europeans in the spread of people around the world. There will be a consigne (ex. after presenting the document, define the Athenien democracy as given by Aristotle and then explain his criticisms against this regime),  which we will have to respond to in essay form using quotes from the text and our understanding of our lessons. I'm fairly certain that this will be the most difficult history test I have ever taken!

In general, the French schooling system seems to be more rigorous than those of the U.S and Britain. For example, every student takes French, English, and at least one other language, the options being Spanish or German. Many students also take a third language, either Chinese or Latin. In the U.S, most people only take English and one other language. Also, at my school in France every Friday there is either a two hour long test on a certain subject or two one hour tests on two different subjects. On the ship, we only take two hour tests four weeks in the year for midterms and finals. School hours here are from 8:00 to 5:30, while on the ship they are from 8:00 to 3:20.

In France, you choose a track (ex. Physics and Biology, Literature and Languages, Economics and Social Sciences, etc.)  at age 15 or 16. In the first year of high school you receive a general education and in the second your classes are specific to your area of interest. The goal of school is to prepare students to succeed in scoring highly on their chosen Baccalaureate, a test which determines the person's level of mastery in their chosen area. Higher education institutions and employers choose whether or not to accept a person based on their Baccalaureate scores. In the U.S, you do not need to choose a major until you have completed two years of University. There are the SAT and ACT tests, but as far as I know they are not specialized and are much less important than the Bac.

This sums up what I have learned about the French education system so far. If you are American or British, be thankful that you don't have to learn a third language! If your country's education system is more similar than that of France, be thankful that you get to learn so much! :-)