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Post by Tara on May 8, 2005 18:42:08 GMT -5
Anybody's school on the list? Mine isn't. I didn't expect it to either (hate the jerks over there). And what's funnier is that they boast like they're the best in education. Half of the students in each class makes honor roll. But then again, you can make honor roll and not know a single thing leaving that school.  click here to find out. There are multiple pages, so use your "find" feature on your browser for each page. That's how I found out. |
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Post by littlepea on May 8, 2005 19:02:58 GMT -5
the school i went to used to be the best school in scotland, except it started slipping down the league tables in my final years (maybe my insubordination was starting to spread by then ;D)
i wouldn't care if my school folded and shut down, to be honest. it would be a shame for the kids in their important final years but i would feel no personal sadness if it ceased to exist.
it got me good grades but nothing more ...
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Post by Amalcas on May 8, 2005 21:44:52 GMT -5
The school I am going to is ranked 154....and my other (possible) choice was ranked 11. However, Blair kicks butt. This year, we got four of the fifty Intel Awards (for innovative work in sciences by high school senior), and should have gotten five (one had to move up to Boston to finish, so they stole the credit). Richard Montgomery probably has high rankings because it is excellent all around. Blair, though, is just very good in language, history and fine arts. However, this is balanced by what could be the best Math and Science program in the country. Montgomery County (MD) is really lucky to have two high schools that good.  Oooooh yeah, am I gloating.  Did I mention colleges love students from Blair and Richard Montgomery? Cuz they do! ;D EDIT: Now I understand why Blair was so low -- its relative to total population. Blair contains 400 magnet students, relative to 3000 non-magnet students (and, without the magnet, Blair would be a terrible school). RM, however, is a good deal smaller (so the ratio is lower). |
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Post by littlepea on May 9, 2005 10:32:04 GMT -5
my school was ranked number 1 for a while but it was down to number 7 by the time i left ... i don't know what magnet and non-magnet means but we had about 1500 pupils in total.
number 7 in a small country like scotland would equate to roughly (5 million people in scotland, 250 million in the US) 350th place on that top 1000 table.
the league tables in scotland have been scrapped now, however, because they were only based on exam pass rates and it didn't accurately reflect how good a school was. the top school had a pass rate of 99%, and that was only because they didn't enter people into exams they thought they might fail. the reason they did this was so that they would be number 1 in the league table - not really fair on the pupils, is it? (to their credit my school didn't do this - every pupil deserves to at least sit the exam if she wants)
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Post by Amalcas on May 9, 2005 16:25:42 GMT -5
Magnet is one of several different accelerated learning programs offered in public schools. You'd probably be more familiar with the International Baccalaureate program.
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Post by littlepea on May 10, 2005 10:03:14 GMT -5
um, nope, not heard of that either  i didn't go to a state school, however, so i guess all of my learning was accelerated (to the extent that the final exams seemed very easy). if you still excelled then the teachers kept you to the same curriculum as the rest of the class unless you actually told them you wanted to do more. i excelled in a couple of subjects, but i wasn't too interested in doing extra work, i was happy enough just to be able to do my homework on the train on the way to and from school so i had more free time at home. in scotland if you excel in a state school then sometimes the headmaster will contact a number of private schools to see if they will offer you a scholarship - this happened to a couple of my friends from the primary school i went to who went to the local state school, they were offered scholarships in private schools (one even went to the same school that Tony Blair went to). |
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Post by Amalcas on May 10, 2005 14:36:55 GMT -5
Huh....I'd heard the IB was really popular in Europe (maybe not Scotland, then). The IB program gives you a diploma that complies to international high standars. In other words, colleges from out of your country can be assured you aren't stupid.  |
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Post by littlepea on May 11, 2005 12:00:06 GMT -5
maybe i would have been told about it if i planned to go to college outside of the UK then  |
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