Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related Grade eleven

In the US, is grade eleven a person's junior year of high school?

ML

Yes, that's right.

Yes, but we call it "eleventh grade" -- doing it the other way round is a Canadianism. And nobody down here has heard of grade thirteen

PJ

Is there really such a thing as grade 13?

Yep, we have grade 13 in some provinces in Canada. Thankfully for me, not here.

Okay, Ontario was the only province with a grade 13, and it's been abolished a few years ago, so now there are only 12 grades everywhere in Canada (high school is 4 years now, whereas before it was 5). Both grade 12 and 13 level courses were considered senior level - universities here usually only look at senior level courses for admissions.

Just to clarify, this doesn't mean people were required to take more courses than they are now. The Ontario high school diploma requires 30 high schools credits completed (a course passed is one credit). In most schools, this means 8 possibly earned credits per year. Students could take 6 courses per year and have 2 "spares" - free periods to use for study hall (so they hope we do, anyway <g>). Now they're only given 2 spares overall, usually only usable in grades 11 and 12.

I'm not sure how it works in the rest of Canada, but in Ontario, public schools allow students to stay behind even after graduation, which a lot of people do (stay in high school for one more year to figure out what to do in university, improve their marks if they weren't good enough... just for fun... whatever <g>). But there is definitely no official grade 13 anymore.

Julie

Thanks, guys.

ML

Interesting, Pam, because in northwestern PA where I grew up, we often talked about high school freshman, high school sophomores, high school juniors, and high school seniors! I'd say that those terms were just just as often (if not slightly more) than saying "my son is in 11th grade this year.)

What to call a high school student is probably a regional thing. We tend to have more of those than we realize! Don't get me started on soda and subs vs pop and hoagies!

Jackie

Quebec has or had it too. Not sure on where they stand now.

Jacalynsue said:

Until this very moment, I had no idea those two were one and the same. Wow. I love learning these random tidbits of information.

They don't actually call it that, but I tell people I'm in 13th grade. As a freshman in college, that would be the numerical equivalent. I think I thought of it from remembering "assessment" tests like ITBS or ITED. They would say you've tested at the 10th grade level or the 13th grade level. my sister had one that said 16th grade level. so I picked that quirky habit up.

Well, I've been known to use either phrase, although since I am Canadian maybe that's not surprising. But I'm pretty sure I've heard people here in California say it both ways.

Even way back when Ontario still had Grade 13 - and I admit, I don't think anyone ever referred to it as "thirteenth grade" - high school was as frequently four years as it was five. It depended on whether or not Grade 9 was included in the junior high system. For mine it was, and all of the high schools in my region of Toronto had four years (Grades 10-13).

It's been a lot of years since high school for me, so I haven't a clue how many credits were required. I do know that you could just finish Grade 12 and receive a high school diploma. That would be enough for you to study at most universities in the country, except for Ontario (and probably Quebec). If you wanted to study at a university in Ontario, most required a certain number of Grade 13 credits from Ontario high school students. My best friend's family moved to British Columbia right after she finished Grade 12, so she was able to start university that fall, whereas I had another year of high school to go...

I don't know what Quebec's system is now. At one point they had 13 years of pre-university education, but it wasn't referred to as Grade 13. When we lived in Montreal, high school went through til Grade 11, then a student would attend two years of CEGEP, which I think in some ways was similar to community college, but at a lower level. Certainly to attend a university in Quebec, such as McGill (which is where I was working), a student had to have both years of CEGEP before they could enter as an undergraduate.

And based on what I've typed in this post, Pam, it's obvious that I say "Grade XX" far more often than I say "XXth grade". I guess it's the Canadian in me. I'll have to listen more to people around me down here.

Kathy

Just a clarification here, Julie. Up to the mid 80s a high school diploma in Ontario was 30 credits (up to grade 12) and then if you wanted to go to university, you had to have an additional 6 grade 13 credits. Only after a major change in government and in educational reform (sic!) the total number of credits was changed to 30. Many students still stuck around to do the courses in 5 years. Then the government said, "Do it in 4 years." And it was done!

gerry (mother of Princess of Power and retired high school teacher)

Ah, okay, thanks for the additional clarifications. I admit I only know what I've been told, since I entered high school only when the 13th grade was abolished.

Kathy, what I meant by 5 years is that credits from grade 9 counted towards the diploma. I was in a junior high school in grade 9, but my high school has a grade 9 program too (and always did, I believe). So yeah, you're right too. And CEGEP soudns a lot like the A-levels in the UK - if I understand their system correctly.

Julie

Really? Well, I suppose I knew that at the time, but as you can see I certainly had forgotten that by now. Thanks. Since they've abolished Grade 13, are they planning to move all the Grade 9 students to the high school, so that they will spend 4 years there?

We're currently filling out my son's high school registration papers. There are 8 periods each day, but they recommend that freshmen only take 7 subjects so they can become acclimatised to the environment without being overwhelmed. The high school system here only requires the equivalent of 22(!) credits for graduation - far less than the 30 in Ontario. Granted, if you are going on to university you'll need more than 22, but it's still a HUGE difference. I've now told my son to stop complaining and think about his poor cousins in Toronto!

Kathy

That's pretty much what's been done, I think - I went to a junior high school, but anyone else I know, including my brother (who is in 6th grade now), went to a "middle school", which goes up to grade 8 and then sends you to high school. My high school, and, I'm sure, most high schools in Toronto, start from grade 9.

I'm guessing your son is not in a semestered system? My school has 4 periods in day, 4 courses per semester. So eight per year. Definitely makes it easier. Not all schools here do that, but I think a lot of them do. Frehsmen and grade 10 students have to take full courseloads - 8 a year. Still, makes it so much easier to study for exams when you only have half the amount! <g> 3 years ago, the freshmen at my school had to take year-long courses while the grade 10-12 students were semestered, but the 7-exam load (7 because one of the compulsory courses is PE) was one of the reasons they changed it.

So if his cousins in Toronto are in a semestered school, I'd say they're doing fine as well (besides, we have snow! <G>).

Julie

You're right, he won't be on a semestered system. My exposure is limited, but I haven't seen very many high schools down here that do that.

My high school started doing that when I was in Grade 11, so I had 3 years of that. It worked very well for me. I was able to take 8 Grade 13 courses and still have 3 spare periods in my last year, which was great because I was a prospective music major and welcomed the extra practise time.

Believe me, that's not something I miss!

Kathy