Hi, I’m going to talk about all the differences that there are between a Spanish High School and the Academic Magnet High School. And I can tell you, they are so different!!

How is a day in a Spanish High School?

Well, I think I should start saying that we start school in middle of September. During the year, mostly of the schools start at 8:30 and they  finish at 14:30; we have six subjects every day, but they only last 45 minutes and we always have the same classes each day of the week.

We also have one break of 30 minutes between third and fourth period in which we basically study for the exams or we do the homework due on this day. Some people use that time to play soccer and we usually have different  sports  competitions between the people of the school.

When  school finishes, you normally have to run  if you don’t want to miss the bus and walk to your house ( we can’t drive until 18!!!). When you arrive home you have lunch and take a long nap.

But this isn’t all;  there are many more differences:

• One of the most popular themes for students: The Dress Code.

While at AMHS you have to take care about what you are wearing eachevery day, in Spain you can wear whatever you want, I have even gone to the school wearing a bikini once for a summer party!! Here every morning I look at my clothes and think: is this good for the school or not; most of my clothes aren’t.

• Subjects, homework and exams.

This can seem not so different, but it is. We don’t have many subjects to choose from. We always have to take some like Math, Spanish, History and English, for us languages are really important and most of the people take French or German as a third language too. We can choose between some subjects that will determine  your focus in pre-college courses. These subjects usually are Chemistry and Physics, Biology, Latin and Economics. We also have to choose two more subjects between Art, Music, Mythology, Dance…Finally we all have to take P.E! I don’t know if I have to be happy for not having it this year or if I should be worried about how I’m going to die next year when the teacher makes me run for almost an hour.

Another thing I want to talk about is homework and exams. Why do you have so much homework?! I mean we also have homework and work to do but we can do them in ten minutes. Ok maybe we need to do more work, but we only have major assignments three or four times in each subject more or less. And homework isn’t something important in class. Most of the time it’s voluntary and you only have to do it to practice or to improve your grades.

Our exams are quite different too. Most of the time we only do two or three exams at the end of each trimester, and sometimes only one final.  Here I have to be studying almost everyday for a quiz or a test I have the next day; the only good thing it’s that they usually are multiple choice ones. In Spain our exams are always long answer questions and maybe one essay, and if we have a multiple choice test each wrong answer takes away two points; if you aren’t sure sometimes it’s better not answer them.

• Teachers

I can swear to you that I love teachers here, the ones I have met.They are friendly and if you have a question they don’t have any problem in answering it. In Spain maybe it’s better for your grade to search for the answer on the internet than ask the teacher about something he has already explained. Here they also are, in my opinion, really good at explaining the things and their ways of teaching sometimes are even fun.