No - and I'm guessing my misunderstanding is based on "not-being-American". I'm British and school (at least when I was there)'s purpose was passing a set of e

No - and I'm guessing my misunderstanding is based on "not-being-American". I'm British and school (at least when I was there)'s purpose was passing a set of exams when you're 16 and then another optionally at 18. There were informal exams throughout, to tack progress. Occasionally it was suggested a pupil was held back a year (if they were so far behind, they wouldn't benefit from the next year) - but that was pretty extreme. Normally pupils were just streamed, so they were put in a class of comparable ability the next year. If they did well they might go up, if they didn't they might go down. If you hit an exam in a low stream, you might get pushed towards an easier exam (with a lower maximum grade available) Basically you as a pupil, were never in any doubt as to your trajectory.