SATs, A-Leves, Baccalaureat etc

[Adrien C]

I've just finished my baccalaureat in France. It lasted a hall week, 27 hours of examination. Now, I was casualy interested to see what kind of tests the rest of the world's students took so I went to check out Wikipedia.

I can't believe how easy the American SATs look, maybe I'm not getting the picture, so please prove me wrong, are they that easy ?

I mean, most of the tests are multiple choise questions, and a brief essay of 25 minutes wich no particular essay structure is required and only the wrighting and not the content is taken into consideration...

Is it true that you have to fill in blanks for the English test ?

Let me explain how it goes in France. Taking my example I choosed to studie Economics and Social Sciences, I had 10 exams : Litterature, French, Oral French, English, Spanish, Maths, History, Economics, Science, and Oral Spanish

Every exam (exept Maths and English) lasts 4 hours ( some even last 5 hours) and we don't have multiple choice questions or "fill in the gap" ones.

Example in economics : How does innovation affect competitiveness ?
One question 4 documents ( mostly stats) and 4 hours to wright an essay.

History : Cold war -1947-1991 ( no docs)


So I'd like some Americans to explain to me how it goes back in the States please.

 

[Laivasse]

I don't know a hell of a lot about this, but my understanding is that SAT's are not quite an equivalent to the Bacc/A level etc. SAT's are explicitly easier, but this is supposedly balanced up by the fact that the screening process before university is sometimes stricter, and then the continued education which occurs in uni includes a lot of stuff which us Europeans would consider to be standard as part of an A level/Bacc course...

...? That's my muddled understanding.

 

[Jerry_111]

SAT's are not the equivalent of A levels or baccalaureats.

I think AP (advanced placement tests) are much closer to what you are describing. For example, last year I took AP Biology, AP English Composition, and AP US History. Each test is 2-4 hours long, with fullblown essays and multiple choice questions.

SATs are a separate "general" test that also happens to be used in the university admittance process.

 

[DEATHMASTER]

The SAT does look easy doesn't it?

 

[TimoJay]

We here America don't have to do no fancy pantsy essay test to be successfuls!!. I remember taking them SATs. It was just a bit of multi-choice. Most of em I just put down B, cuz every1 knows the answer is B. I barely passed

So after that I went to this here ooniversity and got graduated after 6 years with a2.4 GPA(lots of drinking and partying). I graduated w/o any loans too (you'd be suprised out how many people will just give ya moneys). Now I makes about $30/hr to sit on my ass and browse this here internets while my boss aint lookin.

ain't life grand?

 

[tschumann]

in Australia, I think the country is divided.
in Queensland everyone does the QCS test (basically an intelligence test).
it involves multiple choice x2, short responses and a written component.
the rest of the country does the HSC which I think is based on the subjects you study.

 

[FishBulb]

Wow, multiple choice. None of my HSC subjects had multiple choice.

And yeah, HSC is based on the subjects you choose. The harder the subject, the more your marks are scaled.

 

[tschumann]

do you get HSC training at school so you can be better prepared for the test?

 

[Moto]

Yeah, us here Amerrcans are really stoopid and we takes really easy tests soz we can go to collige and get a deegree to make more moneys.

There's no question that the SAT is a flawed exam, but it's the accepted litmus test for admission to universities. I don't know why, but it is. Alternatively, American kids can take the ACT. The SAT gives you a very short amount of time to answer some questions that are difficult and some questions that aren't. I guess it tests your knowledge while also testing your ability to work under pressure.

Don't jump on the "American people are idiots" bandwagon because of it, though. The SAT probably serves a different purpose than your tests do. Also, it's not like American kids have a choice. This is what our colleges and universities want, so it's what we take. If they wanted something else, we'd take that instead.

 

[dfc05]

Yeah, I'd say AP's are more like what you had. I think I took at least 10 of them in high school. Hard to remember, too long ago. Students here can also opt to do the IB program, although no one actually cares about that so it is kind of a waste of time.

I'd say that SAT's mostly test your test-taking skills, and also some vocabulary. I was pretty good at taking tests so I did well on the SAT.

Now I'm going to take the GRE for grad school. As far as I can tell, it's pretty much like the SAT in format and skill level (seriously, it's like high school level), except this time around it actually seems harder because I haven't taken an English class in four years so I can't remember any of these obscure vocab words.

 

[Vigilante]

The SAT's look easy, but gah I did bad on them. I'm in a good University in my third year of working toward a civil engineering degree. Standardized tests really are a stupid way of judging intelligence. I believe California doesn't even looking at SAT scores anymore when reviewing students applying for schools.

But generally it goes.

Take SATs, finish High School, apply to colleges, get accepted, go to college.