> > In Finland, students aren’t subjected to standardized tests > This is incorrect Apparently there are national standardized tests every three years (near t

> > In Finland, students aren’t subjected to standardized tests > This is incorrect Apparently there are national standardized tests every three years (near the ends of 3rd, 6th, 9th grades). But their main purpose is for the government to collect statistics, the grades of individual students are still left for their teachers to decide, the grades do not mechanically follow from the performance in these tests. Then for the ca. 50% of population who go to gymnasium [1] ("high school"), at the end of 12th grade there are national standardized finals with nationally evaluated grades. Source: I'm Finnish, just googled these in Finnish. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gymnasium_%28school%29 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gymnasium_%28school%29