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AUTOR:
After pre-school education (nursery school or kindergarten), a child enters elementary education at the age of 6 and finishes at the age of 12 or sometimes at the age of 14.
Education in the United States of America is compulsory up to the age of 16, but almost 80 percent of students stay on and try to graduate from school with a high school diploma at the age of 18.
The high school system is divided into two sections of three years each, the junior and the senior high school or sometimes they are combined into a junior-senior system. If students finished the elementary school at the age of 13, high school lasts for only four years.
Public high schools are "comprehensive schools", that is they provide education for all the children of a district. The students can choose between more practical-vocational or more academic instruction. American senior high school students can choose their subjects from the classes offered. If students want to go to a university, their choice is limited, because the universities have minimum subjects requirements for college admission. So they have to take some subjects such as U.S. Government, English, Advanced Mathematics, Laboratory Science, Foreign Languages, etc
American grading system: The teachers use a points system for a written test. The more points a student has, the better his "grades" are. The grades range from "A" for excellent down to "F" for failure.
Twice a year the students get report cards which show their "grad point averages" after the theses. The higher a student´s grade point average is, the better is his chances for being admitted to a "good" university. If a student fails a course or wants to get a better grade he can repeat it in summer.
Most students would not be satisfied with a "B", because they need an "A" for a good university.
Nicknames for pupils: 1. Freshman 2. Sophomore 3. Junior 4. Senior
The difference between the American schoolsystem and the Austrian schoolsystem is that in Austria education is compulsory up to the age of 15. Then the students can take an apprenticeship or they can go to the "Oberstufe". At the end they can make an exam called "Matura". The students have every year some subjects in the afternoon called "Wahlpflichtfach"and they have to choose 3 or 4 subjects for the exam. After the "Matura" the students can go to the university or take a short study, for example at an academy.
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