Since we are piling anecdotes, I had an opposite experience -- I came to US after i had 9 grades of Soviet education in a middle-of-the-run school in a large ci

Since we are piling anecdotes, I had an opposite experience -- I came to US after i had 9 grades of Soviet education in a middle-of-the-run school in a large city in southern Ukraine. The mathematical and sciences background instilled in me in those 9 grades of Soviet school has allowed me to pretty much sail through High School(grades 10 through 12) and almost entire first year of college(as a CompSci Major at a University of California campus) without having to flex my math and science muscles.