Too big for Dear ____, and I don't even know what I'm gonna write exactly, so, bleh.

To give anyone reading this an understanding of the situation, I go to an english school in Spain. The curriculum we use are A-levels (during your last two years at school). A-levels are basically in depth subjects, and because they're in depth, people normally do 4. An example of a typical student would be:

John wants to be a scientist or whatever. He's studying Chemistry, Biology, Physics and Maths. At the end of his year before last at school, he takes his AS's. Now, AS's are half of the A-level course, meaning that what you get is essentially half of your A-level mark. Now, John did his exams and got, let's say, BBBB *a B in each subject), which is fairly good. Now, John has 3 options (these are the options most people use):

1. Continue all of his AS's to A-level, which is harder.
2. Drop one A-level, so his final mark in that subject is his AS mark (A B in A-level is worth 100 UCAS points, in AS, it's 50, UCAS points are what some English unis use in applications)
3. Drop on subject, and take up another AS.

As I've said, most people do this. Unis tend to ask for just 3 A-levels (so Oxford asks for AAA in Alevel as a minimum requisite) or a UCAS tariff, which could be anything between 120 to 400 (that's the range I've seen).

Ok, now, here's MY situation:

Last year I did 5 AS's. I wanted to do more, I didn't feel stressed, but because of many factors, it didn't happen, although I did start preparing for an extra AS I'd be doing the following year. To be clear, 5 AS's is quite a lot. I know only 2 more people who did that, and one of them is a genius.

So I get my results and I'm not happy, I got ABBCC, which is 240 UCAS tariff points. Now, I'm not happy because I want to study in a good English Uni, and what they ask is for 3 A's at A-level, so I'm not a very competitive applicant at the moment. However, I live in Spain. In Spain, they transform the tariff points into a Spanish equivalent, and right now, my spanish equivalent is a 6/10 (which is quite good, many people get less than that, after their final year. I have it with a year to go.)

Basically, Spain functions on quantity, England on quality. To illustrate my point, my friend got 4 A's, which is fantastic. She'd get an offer from more Unis in England than myself, however, in Spain, our result is the same. Too bad I want to study in England.

So, I go to school, and I want to repeat some modules in my two C's, so I can push the AS's up to B's, so when I complete the A-level course, I could get an A, which would be very hard with a C in AS. But, for some reason, I'm still doing 5 A-levels. Yes, I'm not dropping any. Why? Because one exam is in November, and is considered easy. And my results are apparently inexplicable to the teachers, who believe I can and should get an A in the A-level. Fair enough.

So, to summarise, I'm doing 5 A-levels, plus repeating what is, together, worth an AS (including 3 production I have to act in, and read like 10 books, and blah blah blah), plus doing that AS I was preparing for. Fair enough, it's a fairly easy AS, I think I can cope if I put more work in.

Now, here's the problem. The school offers two subjects, General Studies and Thinking Skills, which are also supposedly very easy. The purpose is that these are so easy, they will push everyone's grades up, which is fine in Spain, but in England, most Uni's don't include those subjects in their offers, so they're useless to me, because I don't need extra credit (I'm already doing a lot) and I wanna go to England, and they will distract me. After all, easy or not, it's still a full course.

So I tell some people in charge that I don't wanna do it, and say why, and they say, Yes, that's logical, we'll talk to the headmistress about it. I go to school, look at my timetable and see those subjects on it, and I'm told I should talk to her, to sort it out, I need her permission to not do the course. Ok, I go and talk to her and she refuses. Yes, she refuses. She is forcing me to do these courses, meaning that I'm doing 5 A-levels, 3 AS's, and the worth of another AS. I'm basically doing more than most people do in two years, in one.

And when I try to argue this, this is her arguements:

-Everyone is doing a lot (true, but I'm still doing more)
- I'm lucky, because the current y12 (yuear beneath mine) have to do 8 Alevels, plus 4AS's (WTF? That's insane, no one has ever done that, how is an entire course going to do it? And even if they are, good for them, I'm still doing too much, and so are they, it seems)
- It will help me to improve my essay skills (fair point, only my essay skills are fine, according to teachers, and this improvement won't make up for how my results could suffer)
- It will help me improve my english.

Now, I had a big beef with her once because she thought my english was subpar. This going against all of my teachers (who claim my english is far better than 90% of the school). To prove to her that that's not true, I offered to write her an essay, simply to illustrate that my english was good. She agreed, after reading it, that my english was great.

One year later, she has forgotten that. Apparently now I don't have those english colloquialisms which native speakers have... Just, WTF? A, not sure if that's true, B, WE'VE GONE OVER THIS!!!!

Why must she be so ridiculous? The craziest thing is that when I said I was disappointed with my results, she said she was content. Right, so, basically, she thinks I'm reaching my potential, even though I know I'm not... ok, so, why overload me with stuff to do?

Ugh, and the list of crazy shit she does just continues endlessly: 'Advising' students to take courses they don't wish to take, which they then failed, force students to take the A-level of a course they failed the AS in and will fail again, even the teacher knows this, overload some student6s, while others don't have the minimum requisite to enter Unis (in England anyway), whilst others are doing courses which basically assure the fact that they won't get into Uni, etc.

This woman is crazy, and I hope to God someone helps me straighten this out or I will mess up my already slimmed hopes of going to the Uni I want to go to.

/rant

That was the most confusing thing I've read in... several months. o_O

Still. Would you like me to come hurt her for you squishysquish?

I, personally, am against this overloading of students, as every year schooling gets harder and harder, and dumping so many subjects, and often useless subjects, on the students does not help them, but hinders them from stress / lack of motivation because they know these courses will do nothing for them.

But I'm glad to America isn't the only country with stupid school officials. And I think you're English is amazing! Hard to remember that you aren't from here.

[SQUISH!] Hope it gets figured out.

Sorry if it was confusing, it's confusing because I tried to explain everything basically, which is... confusing.

But to sum up, I'm doing a lot more than I would be doing at 90% of schools.

You have parents, right? Get them to come down hard on this headmistress person. If that was me, I'd be getting both my parents to come in screaming (literally) until she gave me what I wanted.

I appear to be very spoilt, because I will bully adults into doing what I want if I know where I'm going. If I were you I'd do something to force that woman to see sense. If that's getting your parents to threaten to sue her, refusing to go to those classes, sitting outside her office every single day until she gives up or finding some authority for youth to attack her for unnecessarily stressing her out, do it!

Wow, I can't believe I read all that. :p I agree with Emma. Teachers are afraid of parents because they pay the bills (unless this is a government school). You can have them threaten to get other parents involved and I'm sure she'll cave. That said, I absolutely detest standardized tests of any sort. It's all just a money grab and universities' version of mine's bigger. :rawr:

That... sucks. I'm kind of happy I never had that much confusion with my credits. O_o I took a handful of advanced classes in High School, got As while slacking off (it was a mediocre public school – if you weren't stoned, you got at least a B), and still got into a top-tier college...

Oh, and as far as your English goes, you write ten times better than a lot of the native English speakers I know. I can't say much for how you talk, not hearing you, but I imagine this woman is insane. Are there any interviews at the universities you're looking at? Or can you get a teacher who isn't an airhead to write a letter to go with your application explaining how much work you've been doing compared to your peers? You seem like an extremely dedicated student, and someone any institution ought to consider themselves happy to have.

My mother did yell at my headmistress. In the middle of a parent teacher meeting, in front of half the staff and other parents. And the headmisstress quit the following year. Coincidence?

I don't get how she can decide what subjects you do. When I was in high school, the final decision lay with the student. I mean, it's your future.

This is the complete opposite of what happens in Australian schools. We have a ranking system in our subjects, so a 2 unit subject is easier than a 3 unit subject is easier than a 4 unit subject. When I was at school the only 4 unit subject was maths though. I think you can do 4 unit English now as well. Anyway, the point is, they'd get you to aim for the ones you were most likely to get a high pass in, because they didn't just want you to do well, they wanted the school to do well (that's got a bit to do with the marking system).

That was rambly. Bottom line: I don't see how she could possibly benefit from you doing more subjects.

I attend an American school; that is to say, I have very little to no idea what you just said. However, I do know that one thing all universities have in common.

The Registrar's a bitch.

Scheduling can be such a pain in the rear to get done, and when it's controlled by one person (or an entire school board) who decides you have to take a pointless class that will distract you from the important ones, it's sooooooo frustrating. I've dealt with something along those lines, and I'm so sorry!

Point being...I'd take you out for chocolate and coffee if I were anywhere nearby?

<3

Ok, part 2:

Apparently it is true that the AS kids are doing more, they're doing 8 AS's and 4 Alevels over two years. Reasoning: in Spain it's better to have 2 C's than one A, unlike England. Ok, that's fine, but I don't want to go to a Spanish Uni! So my tutor talked to her about my situation buit she is still adamant about me doing those extra subjects. Crazy. I've asked for a meeting with her, and I'm gonna ask her to just let me explain my perspectivfe entirely and then see if she changes her mind. she prolly won't. Now, I'll then try and get my parents involved. Thing is, it is her school. She owns and runs it. If I don't like anything she does, I'm welcome to leave, which is not a viable option. So if I push this too much (and getting other parents involved is meh because they're not going to join any motion that only benefits one student, who is not their son) I'm gonna get screwed. If she doesn't want to allow me to not do those subjects, which is unreasonable and ridiculous for many reasons, I'm gonna have to do it.

I told my tutor, who also teaches those courses that if I have to choose between studying one subject or theirs, I'm studying the other subject. He understood, and said he'd be comprehensive about the whole situation, so long as I don't run my mouth off to other students about them being lenient with me. So there's a silver lining.

Bleh.

Oh yet another development. The woman continues to not allowiung me to explain my situation, and will not point balnk, allow me to do so in the future. She has refused to see my parents and cuts me off whenever I speak, claiming things which are false or irrelevant. Basically, she said: You have to do this, if you've got a problem, go to another school.

And fighting this is now futile because not only will she not listen, but she is the one writing personal recomendations, and the more I fight, the more I dig myself into a hole. She still thinks my english is subpar and refuses to even let me defend against that.

Basically, I have to work my ass off and no matter what I do, I'm screwed, since going to another school is not an option. My last resort is going to the actual Unis and telling them a bit about the situation, and asking them whether I should not do G.S, and if they agree, then maybe she'll accept, probably not, and she might even get pissed and God knows what she'll do.

I've finally understood what helplessness means.

She's evil. Now you know what evil (aside from me) looks like. Poor thing.

I would suggest not going to the Uni's to explain the situation. Would probably make you look like a whiner. Never good.

You can tough it out! You're a good student.

-pet- That is a truly sad situation. It can prove how great you are when you survive, though. And you can always come and rant here very often.

Aye, it's always good to vent.

I made my letter sound like I was merely enquiring about which subjects they would rather see in an applicant, from the many I'm doing. I know one Uni got it and it has been forwarded to the right department, dunno about the other. I'll see.

Oh, my school sucks even more. Apparently, the drama course might be dropped becfause all but 2 of us might have to stop doing it because of some problems with spanish higher education regulation. And that's a course I actually like.

My teacher and I are unsure whether these 'bad tides' are a part of a tragedy or a comedy... Go Shakespeare.