Ok, well let me start off by saying good luck on exams protonitron, and everyone else going through this.

I come from Canada, where you go through the 12 years of school, and a 13th if you can. Grade 1-8 mean nothing the highschool years, which are grades 9-12(13) matter. You then chose your highschool and you go.

Now in highschool you must take 5 mandatory courses, and then the last 3 are up to you. You must take English, Math, Science, etc. The mandatory courses fluctuate through out your highschool years. The 3 courses you chose can range from gym, foods, powerfit. Anything you want. So basically you you must take 5 courses and the other 3 are up to you. So a total of 8 courses per year.

The highschool you attend in Canada (or maybe just my area, unlikely.) is either semestered or unsemestered. I don't know if that is the proper spelling, but you get the idea. Now semestered schools have you taking 4 courses for half the year, then the exams. Then the other 4 the next half of the year, and then those exams. So you have 2 semesters. Makes sense? The problem with this system is that with only 4 classes a day, that's a long time to focus in one class. An hour and a half of one subject every single day after another for five months... Also if you miss a week, or even just a couple of days. You have missed a lot of work. As well as the homework situation. Now there are some positives to this system. Doing all the work in 5 months and then having the exam makes it easier to study since its all in a shorter time. So semestered is chopping the years courses in 2 and doing them separately.

And then there is unsemestered. Which is what my school does. And is the only school in my city, as well as the region that is unsemestered. This system works with having all the courses being taking through-out the year, and having every exam in the last week of school. So all 8 courses are taken, and then the ones that require summatives and exams are taken at the end of the year all together. This causes a lot more stress on students. An example would be my brother, who has an exam, then 2 the following day, then one the next day. With all the studying, you then have to worry about final projects too.

So there are the 2 ways my country does education. As I said earlier, I am not certain all of Canada does this. I spent FIVE HOURS studying for my math exam tomorrow. As I had to try and memorize and practice material I accomplished and did 10 months ago. If I could I would transfer to a semestered school. It just seems more practical and efficient.

Thank you for reading, any thought toward my post? And again, good luck guys. These test are what decides your future. Study hard.

Ah alright. Thank you very much.
I suppose I was just a victim to my teacher's glorification of the whole system.

Luckily I finished my exams today. It adds up to more than 30 hours of exam papers over about seven weeks (fortunately there was a two weeks half term break in the middle with no exams). Some kids ended up doing three exams in one day (this included the terrifying 3 hour long geography paper) and there was one week with two exams every day for three days. I kind of wish the exams could be more spread out since I find it hard to go straight from writing about how a tulip is metaphorical of society as a while to learning quadratic equations. That last sentence probably didn't make much sense...

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and I wish you luck in any upcoming exams you might have. I assure you it is worth it just for the sense of relief after your final exam regardless of how well you do.

Seems like it - apparently the school system over here in germany is regarded as very good, by many, many people.

Your teacher isn't the only one thinking like that.

School exams are mostly memorizing answers although a few do involve thinking and applying most of it is just copy and paste

All part of the system, designed to be a distraction from the things that are more important..... YOURSELF