I intend to attend a UK boarding school in 2011, but I saw there were a few high school diplomas, and I don't really understand the difference.
Studying Abroad - 4 Answers
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1 :
The usual school leaving qualifications are GCSE and A-levels. GCSEs (General Certificate of Secondary Education) are taken at age 16, and A-levels (Advanced Levels) at age 18. If you are at high school/secondary school, you will study for your GCSEs between the ages of 14 and 16. And your A-levels after that from 16-18. High school in the UK is between the ages of 12 and 16. Then it is called sixth-form between the ages of 16-18. If you choose to stay at school, you can either go to a sixth-form college or stay on at the sixth-form department of your school.
2 :
sugar.kiss is right =) i'm just going to add - sixth form, i.e. education aged 16+, isn't compulsory. Any age under that is. How old are you? And do you know what school year you will be starting in 2011?
3 :
6th from isn't compulsory but a form of education until 18 is. Students take GCSEs, AS and A2s. If you want an alternative and want to risk it not being accepted at all universities (mostly top top ones don't like them, but thats something you could risk, i am :S) you can take NVQs, diplomas etc. They are alternatives which rely more on coursework than exams. For diplomas you can take the normal kind (don't know anything about that one though) or apprenticeship ones (or are they all apprenticeships? I'm taking business and admin apprenticeship one), which rely on you to get eg 50 days work placement and then you get your grades from the work and a few written 'exams'. Hope this helps.
4 :
Ignore Cherry x She obviously has no idea what she is talking about - the age for leaving full time education is going up, but currently it is still 16. We don't actually have hih school diplomas, the nearest thing to that would be IB but most places do GCSE's, these are exams in differnt subjects but the exams are the same taken in every school that uses one exam biard, There are about 5/6 exam boards, they st the exams, not the schools. So say you take Edexel maths GCSE, everyone else who takes that exam sits the same paper, regardless of which school they go to.
