I arrived here in August as an exchange student from Spain, and when I got here I found a lot of differences between the U.S. and my country: the food, the eating schedule, the people, etc. But I found even bigger differences on my first day of high school.

First of all, in Loy Norrix classes start earlier and finish later, so I spend more time in high school.

In Spain I started my classes at 8.30 A.M and finished at 2.00 P.M. My schedule was also so different: I had 12 subjects, and I had six classes every day with a break of half an hour between each class. We didn’t have lunch at school, we eat  when we go home.

My schedule was different everyday. I could have History on Monday at first hour and then have it again on Thursday at last hour. My classes were mandatory. In Spain students don’t really have a lot of choices until 11th grade, where you are allowed to choose between Science and Humanities, but you still have mandatory subjects like English, Spanish or History. Otherwise, you could chose between French or Technologies or between Religion or Seminar.

The best thing about American high schools is that you have a huge variety of subjects that you can choose, depending on your skills and interests. At the beginning I was surprised when I saw that Photography, Conditioning or Cooking could be subjects.

Another big difference can be found in the classes themselves. In Spain you stay in the same class with the same people the whole year. Students have the same subjects and teachers. There are usually three or four classes (A,B,C,D). So if you are a senior, you could be on 12A, 12B, 12C or 12D and share that year with the same people and teachers, who come to your class at the proper time.

Here, you are responsible for going to your next class and being on time. You share class through a lot of different people during the day and you have the same subjects at the same time all the trimester.

Moreover, exams are really different in my country. There are some teachers who can do test exams, but most of them want you to write a lot of pages about the theme, explain with all the details and do a lot of text comments. You don’t have as many opportunities as in the U.S. to pass your exams. Classes are usually more boring than here, but it all depends on the teacher you have.

In conclusion, both high schools are really different and both have positive and negative aspects.