<p>depends - my base was tiny and quiet, the scariest thing there was the food (pukey food!!!)</p>
<p>I have exams all the way through july and then again in august, which aren’t over until the beginning of september. :(</p>
<p>What is the official school start date, anyway? I’ve seen sept. 2 and sept 15. or something, so which is right?</p>
<p>I can live with anything BUT bad/stale/cold/yukky food</p>
<p>What? So means no summer break? No fun in between school and college?</p>
<p>Nope. We have five weeks vacation in july/august where we’ll be studying our brains out for the second half of final exams 
</p>
<p>Can I get some pity here, please? ;-)</p>
<p>Ouch…that sucks
<em>looks at sev wit pity</em>
;)</p>
<p>We just have like two national exams in grade 10 and 12…kinda like the a and o levels…so only during those years we study our a*ses off in the summer otherwise its all cool :)</p>
<p>But…the course is terrifying…and in essence the only option you get is choosing the subject…so if you choose maths…you have no choice but to study calculus (integration, diff, diff eqns)
Even the chemistry is horrifying…i mean…i probably know more organic chem than college juniors (of course not chem engineers)</p>
<p>Ah, I’m jealous… If we slack for even a half a year we go on probation and generally get thrown out…</p>
<p><em>sighs</em> - c’est la vie, (et la vie est dure sans confiture :))</p>
<p>sev you got my pity, and I get you, we couldn’t slack off too because our final grades were the national exams grades combined with the school’s grades.</p>
<p>thank you both for the pity 
</p>
<p>I feel so much better now about not having a summer vacation, lol :)</p>
<p>I dont know french :(</p>
<p>I know sanskrit though :)</p>
<p>Actually…i dont know…our system is pretty much based on rote learning…you can be in the top 15 percent just be blindly learning all of it…except if you take physics and chemistry in the final two years…which is more application based</p>
<p>So yeah…i mean you can score mediocre grades and still not be studying at all…</p>
<p>School is anyways the best part of our lives here so :)</p>
<p>sev - I didn’t have a summer vacation after the 10th grade, I did a summer semester at a university and had to deal with course final exams and school at the same time for a month and a half (meaning going to school for a week and then moving to the university’s dorm for the next one)</p>
<p>Izzy1988 your four years older than me</p>
<p><em>gasps</em></p>
<p>;)</p>
<p>HEY! I feel old already AND my birthday is on Sunday…
and it’s not that I’m older - you’re just younger… :-)</p>
<p>Pity. I wonder what that would be like</p>
<p>^ what? school or age?</p>
<p>Ah! My birthday is on monday, Izzy! except I’m three years younger ;-)</p>
<p>school
age is totally not an issue, come on</p>
<p>well all I have to say is ARIES ROCK!!</p>
<p>^ bulldog - well at least if I get in I could buy alcohol legally…</p>
<p>Aries FTW!
April 2 :D</p>
<p>lol I just realized I know TONS of Aries… oh well! it balances all the Geminis in my family</p>
<p>Thank you for your pity :)</p>
<p>My family has a lot of airies
Pisces are rare ;)</p>