@Anthurium I forgot to add this in but in my previous school, only the top 10 of all qualifiers (the ones who have 85+ grades) get recognition. And yeah, I suppose it does vary from school to school though I'm not really knowledgeable in terms of other schools. I've only been in two - my previous and my current.

@d_jinn wow its kind of fair in your school that everyone gets equal oppurtunities to be recognized but in our school only the students with 90 above average gets a medal and only from 1 - 3 and the rest are left(even if you have a 90 above average and youre in lower sec you wouldn't be recognized). I guess it works differently from school to school? I also heard that some schools arrange students alphabetically(surname).

Hi! I'm from the Philippines as well, and might I say that I'm quite shocked to hear this? Things work REALLY differently from my elementary to junior high years (prev. school). There's always this "cream" section where the top students are and then there's the rest in a jumbled mess. However, we still have equal opportunities to get recognized, so long as you don't get a grade lower than 85.

I'm in 12th grade right now and things work differently in my new school (it's actually exclusively for college but they opened up for SHS students). There are no "cream" sections or whatnot, just recognition every term if you get a term weighted average of at least 88. (A certain number of top students from each SHS strand gets a discount from next term's tuition.) Someone will be named as valedictorian and salutatorian for the entirety of the batch by the time we graduate though. Plus more recognition from those who got 88 and above in all six terms of senior high.

@Anthurium We start having given questions more when we get older, but in high school you don't have to do your homework if you don't want to because high school is optional tho if you never do you homework teacher might give you lower grade

Tho in high school most of my teachers don't even give homework, and those who do usually teach languages or math. Others don't care since if you studied you'll do well in your test and get a good grade and if you didn't study, too bad, you get a bad grade. They don't make you study, because you came to optional school they assume you'll study and they get the same pay no matter do you learn a thing so they usually lecture and want you to make essays and that's pretty much it.

Or well, I didn't do ANY homework last period, only essays I had to make and well I didn't do very well (but in philosophy I got the best grade because I answered all questions the teacher asked in the class and she liked my test answers that were like 90% what she said during the classes xDDD) and my mom keeps roasting me of my bad grades.

@-hyphen- THERE"S A LOT OF CHOICES I ENVY THAT XD and damn my home works are like research or we are given questions and we answer them at home also i heard that Finland has the top school system, some articles pop up about that. The first-aid course is pretty interesting and actually something useful wow

@Anthurium It was mostly because of schedules, since some students had like an hour to sit in the bus they didn't have very early or very late classes. And not many kids in elementary school copy homework since here in Finland they won't get that much homework before junior high and most of their homework is either memorizing things (mostly words in English for word tests) or reading certain pages for the class. I remember we also had pretty often interview someone, mostly parents or neighbors.

And 75 isn't that many, I'm having 38 next year xDDD And my total will be like 90. One course is only 36 hours and some courses can be done in less time such as art (next year I have one art class that is about movies and comics, so basically it's rating a comic and a movie by it's visual things so it's pretty fast to do, I'd say around 10) and some courses are outside from the school, such as first-aid. Also here the school year is devided into 5 different periods, and each period you can have 7 classes taught in school. You can also choose how long you'll be in the high school, 2-4 years, most people do 3 or 3.5 years.

@Anthurium When I graduated (though it was only considered a moving-up) from 10th Grade, the certificate given to us states that we are "Middle School Completers" so I guess that answers your question.

In Malaysia, kids are grouped into classes based on their academic performance. But this is only happens up until Form Three (15 years old) because by the next school session (year), the students are going to be separated according to courses, or rather, streams.

In Form Three, students are required to take a national exam known as PT3 (previously known as SRP and PMR). The result of the exam will determine the course of the students. Usually, students with more number of As are placed in the science stream. While students with lower numb of As are placed in the art stream. There are some cases when a student requests to be reassigned to a different stream, though. A student from a "higher" stream can transfer to a "lower" stream, but student from a "lower" stream cannot be transferred to a "higher" stream. Most students that achieve straight As in PT3 will be accepted into a residential/boarding school--this type of school is generally viewed as "the school for the brilliant kids". There are many cases where students turn down the offer due to certain difficulties.

From Form 4 until Form 5, students are going to focus on the subjects that are included in their streams. For example, a science stream student will be studying biology, chemistry, physics, and additional mathematics. There are "core" subjects that are required to be taken by every student regardless of which stream they're from. Those "core" subjects are malay language, english language, modern mathematics, history, and moral edu./islamic education.

In Form 5, around November, students will be taking SPM. The subjects that are being tested are based on the students' stream. Their SPM result will then be used to apply to public universities/polytechnics. Here, we have a website called UPU and it is used nationwide to apply for any public university and/or polytechnic. From what I remember from the year when I have applied using UPU, students are to fill-in 12 options of the uni of their choice in order of preference.

Some students that completed their SPM also choose to attend a foundation programme or Form 6. A foundation programme typically only takes a year while Form 6 takes 1.5 years.

There's a stigma against the weaker performing students academic wise, and it's really evident here in Malaysia. Even teachers compare the students from different classes ALL THE TIME. It's also not helping that the teachers are expecting a total devil from the "lower" classes and a total angel from the "higher" classes. Science stream students are also regarded VERY highly. They're usially the kids that contribute so much to the school's prestige and image.

@Anthurium I think so, but we're far more limited than they are in e.g. USA. Yeah, we don't really call it elementary and middle school but rather primary and secondary and tertiary education. Primary education is grade 0-9 but when converted to more "international" standards would be elementary (grade 0-6) and middle (7-9). Secondary is what I call high school but it's built differently. We call it "gymnasium" and I've heard of people that equivalate that to college as well - although I don't think that is appropriate which is why I call it high school. ^^

@-hyphen- I can see the convenience of getting in class based by where you live. If you and your classmates homes are nearby you can just like go home together or even copy homeworks before getting to school. ALSO WOW 75 that many? but Gaaash i would really love to pick courses

@MissMinew That is really interesting...I didn't know some countries actually do that. Choosing your own course is a lot more common in other countries right? Here in the philippines we dont have middle school, so im confused. Is middle school after Grade 6 or??? In my country we only have elementary schools that consists of grade 1 - 6 and then highschool that consists of grade 7 - grade 12 (its 6 years uuuggh)

In Finland you get in a class by luck, in elementary school it was chosen by where you lived, so in one class there were students that went to the school by bus or taxi (some people live so far away they have to take a taxi since there's no buses going that way), in junior high we were sorter by what elementary school we came from, we got to choose a friend we wanted to have in our class and also the teachers who taught us in the elementary school got to tell who they'd like to keep in the same class. Usually we got like 1-2 friends to same class with us since the school was pretty small, but my elementary school teacher told the junior high principal that five girls wanted to be in one class and that's how we got 5 (tho like 2 weeks after that we had a huge fight and started to be enemies so...). Anyway, in junior high we had subjects we got to choose and based on what we chose we were devided in different groups (I had German, crafts and animal biology) for the lessons but we had most of our lessons with your class. In math we got to choose in three different levels what we wanted to take and the teacher told us what we should take. I took the highest level, but i know a guy who had the lowest level math (aka easiest) and now has advanced math in high school and I'm having the regular so it really doesn't matter.

In high school we have every class with different people. We get to choose all our classes, we need to take at least 75 courses to graduate and there are courses you need to pass if you want to graduate, but you get to choose a bit less than half. You can choose if you want advanced math or juts regular math and extra courses in art, acting, music, physical education, in some schools they have also crafting and cooking, foreign languages (in my school there's German, Russian, English and Swedish), science, history, social studies, philosophy, psychology, geography and health education. I've had classes of talking (they actually teach that, and it has been a real subject since ancient Greek!), acting and next year I'll have extra art, Russian and geography. In classes I need to take I have English and psychology for example, because I'm having matriculation exam about those subjects. We also get to choose what subjects we're going to do in the matriculation exam, the only subject everyone need to have is Finnish and you need to do at least 4, but you get to choose.

So yeah, you get to choose a lot in Finland.

I'm Danish and elementary and middle school are based on the year you enroll. You aren't really split into different classes in elementary and if there are too many children enrolled and they do split, it's just split down in the middle randomly or something. I've never heard of such a thing as choosing who gets to go in which class because they're all supposed to be equal. Middle school is often split - on the same basis, randomized selection of who goes in which class - because there are usually more children attending middle school. (This is because there are elementary schools that only has grade 0 - 6 and then you need to attend a larger school that has grade 7 - 9, often merging children from many elementary schools into one middle school.)

Our high school is a separate education and one can choose high school or not. In high school you choose what subjects you would like (to a certain degree) and are split in class depending on these courses. High school is 3 years. Grade 10 is a separate class and it's optional and often taken in boarding schools or overseas as exchange students.
Anyway, say you choose high-level Mathematics, medium-level Physics and medium-level Chemistry (high level = 3 years of education, medium level = 2 years of education, low level = 1 year of education) your class will consist of people who have chosen those courses as well. Every high school make combinations teenagers choose from so you can't combine your own courses freely. Grade means nothing really and neither does the time you enroll.

@Anthurium That way can be good too. At least you get an idea of what you like and dislike.

@KYX1994 Im currently in highschool - grade 9 and wow thats how italy do it?? wow thats amazing. i wish courses in high school could be implemented in my country, we only learn the basic subject like english,math, filipino but we also learn different stuff like economics, MAPEH, values but its not something we picked, we are forced to study the different stuffs but later on Grade 11 - 12 we do get to pick a course.

I'm not familiar with the "grade" system: are you in high school? Middle school?

In Italy classes are not divided by scores or sign up time, they are divided by courses.

In my middle school every class studied more or less the same contents. There was just a "special" class, a music one. It was particular because they studied musical instruments in the afternoon. There was a little exam that everyone could take to get there but you didn't actually need any previous music knowledge to get in (or so said my friends that went there).

High school is divided by "majors", as in University. Every high school has its subjects of focus, for example science, literature, art and so on. (But obviously you learn at least the basics of the most important subjects, like English,math, Italian, in every highschool).

Every high school has its own courses organization so I can just speak for mine (let's call it "human studies"): I was in the pedagogy course but at the time there were also the sociology and language courses.
(Now I dunno, they changed lots of things on my last year of high school and probably kept on changing after I graduate)

Also the classes were of 25 at most.

And also i feel like there's a stigma around students on lower sec? idk when teachers or students see some ruckus or students fighting or some trouble they assume they're from lower sect so i feel like they also assume students from lower sect are troublemakers or something