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I attended a California high school in the 00's and most of the courses I took were prescribed; each year we got to take one "elective" course. Some students u

by Kuiper 13y ago

I attended a California high school in the 00's and most of the courses I took were prescribed; each year we got to take one "elective" course. Some students use these elective courses to take additional levels of courses that they are required. (For example, students are required to take one year of chemistry; some students such as myself opted to take a second year of chemistry. However, these students were a very small minority; I believe that only around 20 students of a graduating class of 1000 students opted to take more than one year of chemistry in high school. There were also only two tiers of each science course, meaning that you couldn't take a third year of a given science.) I lived in a county with a large Hispanic population (whites were a minority), so Spanish classes were offered and were a popular option for an elective course, with many students opting to spend multiple years in Spanish classes. Some of the elective courses were tied to non-athletic extra-curriculars, like band, orchestra, choir, and the speech & debate team. Other electives included various visual arts, creative writing, "agriculture" (learn how to maintain a garden, "computer skills" (learn how to use Word and Excel), welding, drafting, and cooking, as well as the yearbook committee.

arethuza 13y ago
Interesting, here in Scotland at year 3 of Secondary School (~14 years old) you choose 8 subjects from about ~40 available (this varies on the school). You have to take English, Maths a Science and a Social Science - but you have a reasonably choice. These are examined at age 15 in "Standard Grades". In 5th year (~16 years old) you usually do 5 subjects - not sure if any of these are compulsory (English used to be, but I don't think it is now) - these are examined in your "Highers" (Higher Grades). I did Maths, Chemistry, Physics, English and Engineering Drawing (this was before CS was available, it is now). Highers are used for University entrance and, in Scotland, depending on your birthday you can get your Highers and be off to University when you are 17. Sixth year at secondary school in Scotland is either used top up your exams if you didn't get enough to do the course you want, doing more advanced courses and/or going to parties... The downside of this approach is that you specialise very early - basically you choose at 14. Which is great if you know what you want to do and not so good if you don't. This is aggravated by UK Universities traditionally having very focused courses e.g. I did a CS course and all we had was 4 years of Computer Science and Maths classes with some Statistics for light relief. Again this is great if you pick the right course and dreadful if you make a mistake. [NB I have a 14 year old son and we've just been through the trauma of picking Standard Grade courses] FYI Here is a exam paper for an Advanced Higher in Computing, which I think is pretty good: http://www.sqa.org.uk/pastpapers/papers/papers/2012/AH_Computing_All_2012.pdf http://www.sqa.org.uk/pastpapers/papers/papers/2012/AH_Compu...

by Kuiper 13y ago

arethuza 13y ago

Interesting, here in Scotland at year 3 of Secondary School (~14 years old) you choose 8 subjects from about ~40 available (this varies on the school). You have to take English, Maths a Science and a Social Science - but you have a reasonably choice. These are examined at age 15 in "Standard Grades". In 5th year (~16 years old) you usually do 5 subjects - not sure if any of these are compulsory (English used to be, but I don't think it is now) - these are examined in your "Highers" (Higher Grades). I did Maths, Chemistry, Physics, English and Engineering Drawing (this was before CS was available, it is now). Highers are used for University entrance and, in Scotland, depending on your birthday you can get your Highers and be off to University when you are 17. Sixth year at secondary school in Scotland is either used top up your exams if you didn't get enough to do the course you want, doing more advanced courses and/or going to parties... The downside of this approach is that you specialise very early - basically you choose at 14. Which is great if you know what you want to do and not so good if you don't. This is aggravated by UK Universities traditionally having very focused courses e.g. I did a CS course and all we had was 4 years of Computer Science and Maths classes with some Statistics for light relief. Again this is great if you pick the right course and dreadful if you make a mistake. [NB I have a 14 year old son and we've just been through the trauma of picking Standard Grade courses] FYI Here is a exam paper for an Advanced Higher in Computing, which I think is pretty good: http://www.sqa.org.uk/pastpapers/papers/papers/2012/AH_Computing_All_2012.pdf http://www.sqa.org.uk/pastpapers/papers/papers/2012/AH_Compu...