By Sophia Gerl
I am an exchange student in America, and since I’ve been here, I have experienced many differences between Germany and America.
Today I’ll focus on the education system of Germany because I realized that it is extremely different compared to America, and I guess you’ll be shocked about a few things.
Let’s start with the classes. In America, it’s normal in high school that you have to choose your classes, mostly 4-6. You have a few requirements, but you can choose a few classes on your own. In Germany, we don’t have the chance to do that. We have to take between 14 and 20 classes. From the 11th grade on, you can decide about some courses by yourself, but you are extremely limited and have a lot of requirements. Also, in this grade, you have to take between 11 and 14 classes.
The variety of subjects in Germany is so much more diverse. In the first 10 years of school, the following are regular classes we have to take: German, English, Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Art, PE, Politics, History, Ethics, Geography, Math, Music, and a 3rd language. Most of the languages the students are learning are English, Spanish, French, Latin, and Italian. You have to learn at least one foreign language to graduate.
The grading system in Germany is similar to that in America. You write tests and finals. Participation and homework hold significant importance, however. Instead of letters, we have a number system. For example, A = 1, B = 2, C = 3, etc. But there’s a huge difference in the ease of gaining certain grades.
Tests are not as easy as in America. We don’t have multiple-choice tests or simple vocabulary queries. We have to be prepared for every single class to write a test where we really have to answer the questions with sentences. Something you should never do is to write with pencils in class or even on tests. Answers could be falsified too easily.
It’s also a lot harder in Germany because we have more different classes we have to study for and mostly the teachers don’t inform you about an upcoming test. So you have to study every day for every single class.
There it’s also common to have different classes every day. For example, German, English, Physics, French, Biology, Math, Politics, and Art on one day and History, PE, Latin, Music, Chemistry, Ethnicity, and Geography the next day.
I personally think that it is better to have more variety every day than having the same exact classes every day, but it’s so much more stressful because you have to study more.
In America, you usually have to switch classrooms after every class. In Germany, that is not the case. Until 11th grade, we stayed in the same room for the whole day, and the teachers switched rooms.
Unfortunately, the school spirit that one experiences in American high schools cannot be found in Germany. In German schools, it is really all about learning and going to school. We are also poorly interested in sports, so there are no sports events after school. Football is also not practiced anywhere in Germany.
Something that isn’t really a part of the education system is the relationship between the students and the teachers. In my home country, it’s very normal not to talk with your teachers about topics that aren’t related to school. However, this is mostly the case in America.
It’s really fascinating for an exchange student to see what school is like in another country or even on another continent. And maybe it was also interesting for you to see a different education system on the other end of the world.
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