MarylandNed

Better than what? It's apples and oranges. The 2 systems are different.

Kids in the UK specialize early. I did A levels in math & science subjects for my last 2 years of high school in the UK - that was all I did. US students are more rounded in that they are still taking English, Social Science, Math, Science and other classes all 4 years of high school. My daughter went through the US system and although she didn't reach the same level as I did in math & science in high school, she took more subjects and was more well-rounded than I was.

US students typically go through grades K-12 (13 years) before attending college for 4 years. I was at school in the UK (primary and secondary school) for 14 years (years 1-14) before attending university for a 3 year degree. The first year of college in the US is really the one that takes math/science students to the level I was at after A levels.

Sally Redux

They specialize a bit, not taking all classes for all 4 years.

Theoretically they should be more 'rounded' but mine don't come over that way. It could be more to do with generational differences.

steveq

Yes, but we also went to uni with a slew of O levels on all the other stuff as well. You had to have a certain number of O levels and grades on top of the specialisation to get on.

Steve

MarylandNed

Yes, I know that. I went through that system.

I was specifically talking about the last 2 years of high school. When taking A levels, you specialize in fewer subjects and therefore get further ahead in them. In the US, students are still taking subjects in more areas so don't get as far ahead in any of them. I might have been further ahead of my daughter in math and physics but she wasn't that far behind even though she took humanities as well and became quite good at Spanish. She took her math and physics to the next level in her first year of college (4 year degree for her; 3 year degree for me in the UK).

steveq

Sadly that's also exactly true of the first year of college in the UK now.