/sci/ - Science & Math

imperial system isnt taught in UK/AUS anymore afaik

The UK does not use the imperial system anymore; excepting mph and distances on roads.

As the older generations die off, metric becomes more predominant.

Imperial is *never* used in science.

A British college is a place a Briton attends between 16-18 years old (if their 'highschool' does not have one built-in). A university (never called a 'college' unless you attend Oxbridge) is from 18 years old usually.

Highschool (called Secondary School here) --> College (or 'Sixth Form' if imbedded into a Secondary school) --> University. For medical school it's 7+ years at university/hospital.

UK doesn't have anything to do with US shit tier organisation of education. We use the motherfucking metric system. We call universities what they are fucking supposed to be called. College in the UK is the step between high school and university. It occurs at age 16-18.

America is our worthless cunt of a failed abortion and we have no affiliations with their education structure.

Where are all the Americunts?

Americunt here. We are taught both the imperial system and the metric system. All of our science is done with the metric system. The imperial system is pretty much limited to colloquial and conversational topics.

>>3799016

What the fuck is a college? And you need to go to one before starting with Higher education?

You can't go from High School to Medical School before this thing called college, right? What is it?

Amerifag here. I've always used SI in all my chemistry, physics, etc. classes. For everyday use, of course, we use imperial, but it's always SI in science classes.
College is sometimes used instead of university. Strictly speaking, and I'm not sure about this, I think that a college only offers undergrad degrees, while universities offer graduate degrees. Again, I'm not sure there. We usually just refer to all universities as "college".

>>3799016

Also, in the U.S. you go to high school from ages 15-18, then enter college/university (the terms are conversationally interchangeable; technically, "university" means the institution is made up of several "colleges"). After university, there's the option of attending graduate school, which varies from 2-5+ years depending on what kind of degree you're pursuing.

>>3799030

What if you want to become a chemical enginner? Do you go to college before studying chemical engineering?

>>3799036

it's pretty simple in the US. high school takes you until you are 18. then you go to college to get a 4-year bachelors degree, and if you so choose, masters -> phd.

in the US 'college' and 'university' are used interchangeably in conversation.

UK Here
(Scotland to be specific, so slightly different than the posters above)

Scottish Children have Primary School from 4 till 12 (Primary 1-7)
High School 1st Year - 4th Year
3rd and 4th year are "Standard Grades" usually 8 subjects, at the end of 4th year exams to can leave at 16years old, or go on to...
5th year usually 5 Highers, after this you can go to university either at 17/18, or stay on 6th year and do advanced highers and go straight into 2nd year Uni

College is for lower courses and rejects who didnt get highers first time round

University is FOUR years, compared to 3 in england

Loled at this picture

How are the things in Australia? I'm goin there in November and was thinking I would maybe go to some university there aswell if it can be arranged somehow. Read about some student visa. Would I have to do some tests there in order to get in or are the high school exams I did here enough?

Also, I'm from Estonia.

uk uses metric system, but use imperial for things such as buying bananass

In the USA, the Imperial (a.k.a. "Standard" here) is used in what would be considered "everyday" usage...except for automobile oil and soft-drinks/cola/soda. These are the only two things in the USA regularly measured in the metric system.

However, in all technical fields, except perhaps construction and some instances in engineering, everything is in the metric system.

Highschool = secondary school
College (in common useage) = a general term for any post-secondary education
University = terms used for the well-known public and private post-secondary education systems.
College (in a technical sense) = a sub-section of a university. Example: University of California: Los Angeles, College of Engineering.

Additionally,
Community College = A form of post-secondary education institution which grants two years of education comparable to the two years of education at a traditional university. These are called "community colleges" because they are relatively small and serve two general populations in the local area. 1) post-secondary students who are unwilling to make the large financial leap of paying for university courses which the community college provides at both a cheaper cost and (on average) smaller class sizes. 2) post-secondary students who do not wish to transfer to a university, but still either want more formal education or who career plan requires education which is covered by the community college.

>>3799057
In the north of England, just to be confusing, uses the Scottish system of schools. So the north has Highschools, etc.

Most 'harder' subjects, like science, are 4-year courses in England too.

>>3799063
Britain is legally obliged to sell everything using the metric system.
Imperial weights, etc. on packaging is optional (for the old people).

>>3799057

Think you missed a year or something.

4-12 is 8 years and you have it as P1-P7.

At least in N.Ireland, we have;
Primary 1 to Primary 7
Year 8 - Year 12 (Year 12 being the end of GCSE)
Year 13 - Year 14 (A-levels)

A-Levels are the qualifications you use to enter into university.

We don't have seperate colleges for year 13/14. Most schools do A-Level as well as GCSE, but we have a few that only do up to GCSE. None that only do A-level.

College is generally reserved for private schools, or historically named schools.

Victoria College
Campbell College
Methodist College
All years 8 to 14
etc

>>3799073
do they still have 6th form colleges?

we dont do any of that shit, you just stay in school from 1st to 6th year, most people leave after 5th year

>>3799036
No. You go to a university, which has several "colleges", like a college of arts and sciences, a college of business, a college of engineering, etc.

They're not really separate schools. Like, my school is a university, and the separate colleges are really just a way of managing different areas of study. I'm studying computer science, which is offered through the college of engineering, and mathematics, which is offered through the college of arts and sciences.

Still, all I do is sign up for classes through the university. Some of them are held in engineering buildings, some are held in the arts and sciences buildings, and some are even held in library classrooms, or classrooms in the college of business.

Outside of that, "going to college" means "going to university". The two mean the same thing in common usage. However, there are 2-year post-high-school schools that are referred to as "community colleges". Generally, people go there for two years to save money or because they failed to get accepted into a university, then they transfer to a university during their third year to finish their 4-year degree.

Also, a "course" is the same thing as a "class". We use the terms interchangeably, so calculus I is a course/class, composition I is a course/class, etc.

>>3799073
>Most 'harder' subjects, like science, are 4-year courses in England too.

Only for a masters degree or including a foundation year for mature students, bachelors is 3

>>3799086

its probably 4-11ish then, we dont have a "reception year" like they do in england. Most kids go to university a year early because Highers only take a year to do.

so its

Primary 1-7
High School
1st Year - 2nd Year
3rd and 4th Year - Standard Grades (GCSE equivalent) You can leave after this

5th Year - Highers (A levels) you usually do 5 subjects, get into university

6th Year - Advanced Highers or any Highers you failed Your about 18 at this point

>>3799096

how the hell can a bachelors be 3 years? is that including honours year?

we do 3 years then an Honours year

>>3799086
>None that only do A-level.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixth_form_college

>>3799062
Ausfag here. Not too sure on the details but you would have to check with which university you apply for, qualification requirements vary. They'll probably make you sit a simple standardised test or some shit. Then again don't worry about it too much, the foreign student section is pretty big over here.

Also as for OP:
>know you use the imperial system with pounds and inches. But do you use the metric system like kg and meter in sceince?
Metric metric metric. Only time I've used pounds or inches is on the internet.

>What exactly is a college? I believe it's like something between the Univeristy and High School

We finish highschool from ages 16~18 depending on when you actually started schooling and depending on what state you live in, (personally finished at 16) and then you apply for university the following year if you so choose.

There -are- things like medical academies and such, but they're essentially highschool with focus on a topic. Had a few mates who went to a medical specialised one back then.

we also never say "school" when we refer to university

school is for children. Uni is for older people

FUCK metric and imperial

Science uses S.I

>>3799110
No, most degrees are honours, those that aren't still take 3 years but the work is easier

>>3799096
> Only for a masters degree or including a foundation year for mature students, bachelors is 3

My degree was four years, but Year 3 was a work placement at a pharmaceutical company. Work experience, I suppose.

But 4 years in total.

>>3799114

>At least in N.Ireland, we have;

We do have technical colleges or "Techs" that offer A-level, but that route is really not all that common. Most people that go to tech have failed their A-levels or are middle aged looking to learn a bit more.

Here is an illustration, because I bored.

>>3799122
>FUCK metric
>Science uses S.I

>mfw

>>3799124

That's a Sandwich course, 3+1 it is normally referred to in prospectus'.

>>3799147
yup

sandwhich course in scotland is 5 years

Britfag here
Just to clarify how our system works
Between the ages of 11 and 16 you attend a secondary school. At secondary school there is a fixed curriculum of knowledge that everyone has to obtain, for the last two years this becomes much smaller with a choice of optional courses filling the extra timetable space.
you gradutate from secondary school with GCSEs in various subjects, having more than 5 graded A*-C is the target and the usually the minimum to attend college.

between the ages of 16 and 18 you attend College or an equivilent, some secondary schools have attached colleges called sixthforms. There is no set ciriculem that every college student has to study, the most common option is A-levels, a nationally standardised set of qualifications in a wide range of subjects which you would generally pick 4 of to study, for example "Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Chemistry" or "Early Modern History, Politics, Drama and Philosophy"
After your first year at college you get "As levels" in all your subjects which are used to tell how well you are doing and to apply to university, and which do contribute to your final "A level" result. After looking at your As's, a personal statement and in some cases a face to face interview, universities will make you aZn offer, pretty much saying if you get XYZ in your "A-levels" we'll let you in. You sit your A levels get your results, and if you met your offer your in, if not you mill around madly.

The standard degree course in England is 3 years long which you leave with a Bachelors. Increasingly Science and engineering departments are offering the choice to go straight into a 4 year course which leads straight to a Masters, some other specific subjects also have different lengths. After this you can do further post-grad courses.

>>3799118
To add to this, imperial's used for things like screen sizes (although metric equivalent's usually provided) as well as older machinery.

High school is effectively 6 years, with the final 2 years being effectively "preparation" for uni, as well as being basically a uni entrance course.

Technical/Community colleges (closest comparison I can come up with anyway) exist and work in largely the same way as in America, just not necessarily resulting as a replacement for the first 2 years of uni.

Trade-off is that applicants with qualifications from these colleges heading to uni can use these as an alternate entry point (ie if you fucked up your results from final 2 years of highschool). Also, job applicants with both a degree and college qualifications tend to be looked upon more favourably due to the more practical slant of college education.

Uni degrees start from at least 3 years for undergrads, average being 4 years. Engineering, Law and Medicine (may be more, I don't know) go for at least 5 years (with Engineering, it depends, more seem to be taking on a mandatory internship component for at least a year, unis without it go for roughly 4 years), can speed it up with summer/winter classes, since semesters run predominantly in autumn/spring.

>>3799072
I was going to mention something along these lines.

In the US, engineering classes are conducted in imperial and metric (usually). In my reactor engineering class, we actually even intermix them (the most common I've seen is kW/ft as a linear heat rate across reactor cores). The reasoning is that firms/companies/governmental organizations in the US will still use imperial (or sometimes metric). Honestly, I think it's a lot more flexible than using one system over the other.

>>3799725
>To add to this, imperial's used for things like screen sizes (although metric equivalent's usually provided) as well as older machinery.

Huh, I actually completely forgot about that.