In American schools we what we call 'algebra' is just doing basic symbolic computation, like solving very simple equations. The kind of algebra you're describi

In American schools we what we call 'algebra' is just doing basic symbolic computation, like solving very simple equations. The kind of algebra you're describing was called 'abstract algebra' at my university, and was an advanced pair of courses for math majors. The first semester covered group theory and the second semester covered ring theory.