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High school entry - exams, points etc in Poland [7]
I realise that most people reading this forum don't have children (too much time with the computer!) but ...
My 15 year-old has just done his final year at middle school / junior high and is trying to get into a Warsaw high school / grammar school.
Impressions:
- the public exams at age 15/16 are chaotic
- the points system is chaotic and unfair
- fortunately, mistakes at age 15/16 are retrievable
Re. exams:
- one exam on humanities, a second on maths and sciences, a third on foreign languages
Humanities exam:
There's a long list of set reading, but this year no questions on ANY of the 20+ books they were forced to read. Weird. Even weirder, the questions were unclear to a great extent and the marks achieved were very low.
"Maths" exam
Less maths than usual and more chemistry than usual. The mean mark on a national level was appallingly low.
English/French/German as a foreign language
Straightforward, but the results count for nothing - disregarded in terms of high school entry. SO WHAT'S THE POINT??
Then, you get points towards high school entry based on your marks for your last semester. Schools are under pressure to perform, so the marks reflect to a certain extent parent and school management pressure. This is unfair on the teachers - and the meek!
The points achieved go towards a centralised system where you have 3 choices of school in descending order. Like university entry in the UK.
My lazy son awaits developments and I miss out on my holiday ...
The only good thing is that these public exams are not held against you, like poor GCSE/O level results are in England. 3 years to A level / Matura!
