moving from america to finland?

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hannkastin
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Joined: Mon Jul 04, 2016 6:00 am

moving from america to finland?

Post by hannkastin » Mon Jul 04, 2016 6:08 am

hi, i'm new at this so i'm going to try my best.

so in a few months, i'm going to permanently move to Finland from the states. I have a list of questions i desperately need answered.

1. I'm guessing in Finland there's no middle/high schools but what's the terms for it?
2. what grade are 13 (turning 14) year olds placed in? I know it's 9th grade in the states but someone told me it's different in Finland.
3. what is an IB Program? Is it like AP program in american high schools?



moving from america to finland?

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Pursuivant
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Re: moving from america to finland?

Post by Pursuivant » Sat Jul 09, 2016 7:34 pm

Ok, so there its all explained in detail:
http://oph.fi/english/education_system

So, you start school at 7, so that's 1st grade. Generally 1-6 is "ala-aste"(lower grade) and stroppy teenagers are "yläaste" (upper grade) classes 7-9... A 13-14 year old would be on 7th going on 8th. School obligation ends when you are 16, but you probably want your report card & get onto some education so one tends to do something past 16th birthday. If you are under 25 without secondary education they tell you "go study" if you go for unemployment benefits.

Now if you were just giggling in the back and your numbers are bad, as some on the last report are from 7th or 8th you can do a grade 10 to up your grades to get to a "decent" high school. If you live in the boonies I guess the local takes anyone interested.

Of course theres a variety of vocational and trade schools, as well as dual-study and colleges, but lets stay on the academic path. The "high school" in Finland is a 3-4 year modular system teaching for the matriculation examination (not like SAT tickboxes but essays written in ink), which entitles you to apply to attend the university entrance examinations you need probably to sit a year on prep courses to get into...

IB is an equivalent programme but the study language is english. Theres a lot more knowlegeable people than me here that can tell you about it. However, if you say "permanently" then jumping off the deep end and learning Finnish at your age is still doable. If you think it is too hard, theres a number of refugees who need to learn how to read and write in the first place, let alone in a totally alien language, who have come in as older teenagers and been able to do it - and write top points in the matriculation, so it's definitely "possible".
"By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes."


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