American schoolchildren know how to finish school in order to enter university
No, of course, the exam result for those graduating from American schools is extremely important. The higher the SAT score, the greater the chances of getting into a good university or college. The SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) is a test of scholastic abilities that checks general knowledge of mathematics, English, and history. All graduates are required to take this test.
The exam is difficult, takes many hours, and it is extremely hard to pass it successfully on the first try; certain skills are required. Therefore, students can take it several times a year in 10th, 11th, and 12th grades, striving for ever better results. That is, there is no single day when all high school students in the country sit down and take exams that determine their future lives. Nor is there hysteria about this testing, reports from education authorities, and other such fluff.
Importantly, the exam is administered by an independent testing service; teachers do not become tutors and have nothing to do with the SAT. School lessons are in no way turned into prep courses for this exam. There are many special courses and textbooks that help prepare for the test, but schools are never involved in this process.
To get into a higher education institution, a SAT score alone is not enough. Whether a student is accepted into a desired college depends on many factors. For example, the graduate must show what their GPA (Grade Point Average) is, i.e., what grades they earned in school. In schools, final testing is done each quarter, exams every six months, and from all this the student's average academic score is derived.
The highest score is 4.00, the lowest is 0.00. Moreover, universities are interested not only in annual grades from the last years of school, they also look at quarterly grades in various subjects, as well as which specific subjects the student took. According to local rules, high school students can choose what they want to study (but there is a mandatory set of subjects). So, if you limit yourself to regular algebra, that's one thing. But if you also took, for example, an advanced math course, that's something else entirely.
Thus, colleges get an overall picture, a detailed portrait of the school graduate who wants to become their student. That is correct, because if a person studied extremely poorly for the last four years of school and then suddenly aced the final exams, that should at least raise suspicion.
By the way, another aspect of American school education is impressive. Here no one 'pulls' anyone along. If a student does not want to study, they won't be called to the teachers' council or the principal; by the time they graduate, they will have such a low GPA that no college will want to see them. Well, they'll go to work, everyone has their own path.
Exam results, current school grades... It would seem that this is quite enough to evaluate a future student. But no, American universities carefully analyze another aspect of a student's life – their participation in volunteer work. A school graduate will not sit at a university desk if they have not accumulated a certain number of hours of work in so-called community service during their high school years.
Participating in volunteer work means helping the poor, the homeless, caring for the sick in hospitals, entertaining children at public events, and providing assistance to the church. Every high school student must work at least 20 hours per year on such community service to have the 100 hours required for admission by graduation.
I anticipate skeptical remarks. However, knowing what it is – the inner world of 16-17-year-olds, I will say: working for the good of society is nothing but beneficial for them. They will think less that the world revolves only around them.
And finally, about sports. It's not surprising that with America's all-encompassing love of sports, and given that local schools in terms of facilities could be the envy of some Olympic training bases, a line such as 'sports achievements' in a student's resume is considered one of the main ones. And universities pay as close attention to these achievements as to participation in volunteer work. It is believed that if a student tried to achieve sports victories, they will behave the same way in life and career.
The final touch (and perhaps the first) to the portrait of a school graduate should be an essay written by themselves – about themselves, about why they chose this particular university, etc. Interestingly, it is often the essay that plays a key role in the university's decision to take this boy or that girl or not. The fact is that recently applicants demonstrate decent knowledge of mathematics, but it is becoming increasingly difficult for them to write a coherent composition. University instructors don't like this; it will be hard to establish contact with such a student, so the ability to express thoughts figuratively has become valued.
It must be said that if a student shows any interest at all in entering a higher education institution, they will get in. The whole question is where. In America, unlike many other countries, there are thousands of diverse colleges ready to accept students. But there is also a direct correlation between the status of the educational institution and the profession you will get, and then your salary and standard of living. So, while getting C's on quarterly exams somewhere in the 9th grade of high school, many students know what future they are now 'painting' for themselves.
Eleonora VASINA.
