How does the US school system work?

How does the American high school system work?

• I want to write a story about a 16 yr old who moves form England to America, and im not 100% sure how the system works. could you please tell me... 1) Are there any compulsory subjects? 2) Can you choose from a variety of subjects to study at high school? 3) If you can choose different subjects, what age do/can you start studying them from? 4) How many subjects do you study in general? 5) What is a typical day at school like (i.e tutorial sessions, lunch, recess or breaktime) 6) Is there anything else i should know that could help me to write my book that would be useful to know about the high school system

• Answer:

  ) Are there any compulsory subjects? Yes, we have to take math, english, some kind of history/geography, science, and usually a language. you also take gym if you don't have a sport 2) Can you choose from a variety of subjects to study at high school? Let's use science as an example: You can choose between, say, biology honors and biology regular, but you can't really choose just anything. Most schools require you to take a certain number of "lab sciences" but you also need a year of georgraphy or earth science. You can chooose electives, like a language (spanish, french, latin, and german are the choices at my school) or take auto shop or art or photography. most states reqiure a year of VPA (Visual and Performing arts) 3) If you can choose different subjects, what age do/can you start studying them from? 4) How many subjects do you study in general? Most schools you have six-seven: math, science, english, history, gym, and 1-2 electives 5) What is a typical day at school like (i.e tutorial sessions, lunch, recess or breaktime) At my school, we start at 8, have two classes, then have a fifteen min break at ten. then we have 2 more classes until a thirty minute lunch at 12. (Note: At many schools, seniors and sometimes juniors can leave campus for lunch) 6) Is there anything else i should know that could help me to write my book that would be useful to know about the high school system? Well, as far as sports go, some students (like yours truly) take one of them instead of pe. We might practice from 2pm-4pm instead of having a sixth period. Some states require four years of pe, others require two. You could email me if you have any more questions, i guess. also, you could probably go on line and search an american high schoool's website to see thier scedules and class lists. It depends on what grade they are in. A typical scedule for a smart 11th grader might look like this in CA, where I live: US History AP Pre-Calculus (or Statistics) Chemistry (or Biology 2) English 3 Honors Spanish 4 Honors Varsity Lacrosse a sophmores (10th) cedule might look like this: Biology 1 English 2 Honors French 3 Algebra 2 World History Junior Varsity Swim team