<p>
</p>
<p>Schools in most countries do NOT focus on math alone, they also emphasize strong literacy (reading and writing), history, science, etc.</p>
<p>I think a major weakness in many US high schools is that you can get an A mostly by busy work and multiple choice tests.</p>
<p>When I was at high school, we had written exams (2 hour papers, no multiple choice, long essays in nearly all subjects) twice a year for each subject. All the little exercises, homework, quizzes, essays, etc. that we did during the year were graded (for feedback), but did not count for the twice-yearly grade or report.</p>
<p>There was plenty sport, plenty ECs, and I don’t think we suffered en masse from a lack of the ‘leadership’ and ‘creativity’ that apparently comes in the US if you don’t learn much basic math.</p>