I got an email with a few questions and I thought that I might as well post them here too.
1. How long did you stay in school each day?
2. I’ve heard that you can choose your own schedule?
3. How is it with grades there and are there more tests and more studying involved?
4. Does it cost for the American students to go to that school or is it free like it is in Sweden?
5. Is it usual for exchange students to come to your school or was it rare when you arrived?
1. I had classes from 7.32 until 2.32 PM and then I had sports from 3 to about 5 or 6.
2. For me as an exchange student, I had to choose certain classes for freshman and sophomores (9th and 10th graders, I was a Senior, 12th grader) to be able to walk at graduation and to receive a High School Diploma. But I also had to have College leveled classes in Human Anatomy and English. College Comp was the hardest English class there and only people that had had “Honors English throughout their High School years with an A could choose that class. But I was an exception since I had always had an A in every English class I’d had and good grades in all of my other classes, and never had a C during my 10th and 11th year in Sweden.
The students at my school had the same schedule every day and first semester I had:
Health
American Government
Acting
Advanced Womens Choir
STAR (Where you studied or hung out with other seniors in the cafeteria)
College Human Anatomy
Lunch
College Composition (English)
Gaphour – Nothing.
Second semester I had the same schedule except for my first hour, I had Personal Finance instead of Health.
3. The grades went from A, B, C – F and so on. It could be hard to get good grades and I’ve never really been a person to study, I just got good grades anyway, don’t ask me why because I wouldn’t be able to tell you how. So I had to teach myself how to study to be able to reach the grades I wanted. I ended up with only A’s and B’s so I was fairly satisfied with my final grades.
You definitely have more tests and you really have to study more for every class in America than you have to in Sweden. But the tests are also easier since they often have multiple answers on their tests which means they have different alternatives with answers from A-D.
In my English class we pretty much had to write a new essay every other week that had to be 2-8 pages long on specific subjects and in a special format. It was really confusing and hard but so much fun at the same time. I might post some of my essays here for you to read as well if they’re interesting enough.
4. I went to a public school so it was free for everyone, if I would’ve gone to a private school people would have to pay to go there.
5. My school only took three exchange students every year and first semester there was me, and Italian girl and a guy from Czech republic. The Italian girl was so nice and sweet and unfortunately, she only stayed for six months. So the second semester a girl from Korea and one from Japan got the opportunity to go to my school because they didn’t like their former schools and/or family. So we were four foreign students at that time and it was so much fun!
If anybody has any questions, just ask. Don’t be shy.
Hannie
Post a Comment