Hehee, Vulpes is in the same time zone as me ^ ^. Alida, you're one hour behind~ We are in the future =D
I had never heard of "Kobato" until now. I'll make sure to check it out after posting this. While still on the anime/manga note, are you two following "Kuroshitsuji"? Tomorrow will be the last episode of the "third" (actually second) season.
When it comes to the signature, I used to have an account at a site called "avviesig" or something like that, but I lost my password and there's no way to get it back. Not to mention that their uploading process was slightly bothersome with the three at a time method. I'm currently using a rotator from "sig.grumpybumpers" and have a total of 124 gifs running in the rotator XD
Vulpes said
About the school system of Oblak City, is it based on any real school system? What kind of a grading scale is used? How long is compulsory education and in which age it starts? What is the school system like in general? How hard it is to get into different schools? And I don't even know yet if I'm about to make a student character or not. :D
For my own personal convenience, because your western systems ofttimes confuse me, and due to the fact that Oblak City was built on what was originally Russian ground and the leading shareholder is Russia, the schools have a five-point grading system. In attempts to make it different than the Russian grading system, which is from 1 to 5, students get their results with a system from 2 to 6.
6 - Excellent
5 - Very Good
4 - Good
3 - Middle
2 - Low
Children enter grade 1 at the age of seven years. In their last year, grade 12, they are either eighteen or nineteen, which highly depend on the birthday date. My character Amaya is a fairly standard student who started at age seven and is at age sixteen in tenth grade.
Elementary-school ranges from the 1st to the 5th grade. Middle-school ranges from 6th to 9th. High-school ranges from 10th to 12th.
Both middle- and high-school together form what is known as middle education. Middle education is the lowest requirement for a worker and those, who only have a diploma for middle education, are part of the poorer classes and have simpler low-ranking jobs in the majority of cases.
Higher education are the years spent in university. After grade 12 all students need to pass a compulsory written exam in English and Literature (one exam altogether) and one compulsory exam in a subject of the student's choice. There is also an option for a third exam, but that entirely depends on whether a student wants to or not.
Universities differ in their requirements. Depending on the specialization, some take students with their grades in specific subjects and with a compulsory exam, or they take the student's grades in specific subjects and make them take a written exam in one or two subjects specifically for their university.
It should be noted that the compulsory exam that is in a subject by the student's choice is rather easy when compared with a written exam enforced by the university. The first is, in most cases, a simple test with one or two correct answers for each questions. The latter, however, may involve a small test with open questions whose answers are long, a test
with "closed questions" (a, b, c, etc.) and "open questions" (yet with small answers), or might give the students a theme on which to write on.
The sum of the grades is then divided by the number of grades taken.
For example, a student wants to enter a university with medicine as their specialization, in order to become a doctor. The grades that will be required are those in Biology and Chemistry. However, that university enforces a written exam by their rules. Thus the student must go to the university at a specific date, sit down and take an exam. The exam is then graded on the scale from 2 to 6 ( .25, .50 and .75 are allowed) by the teachers. The three grades are then summed up and divided by 3. The higher score you have, the better your chances of getting into the university. Depending on how many people want to enter the university, how well they perform on the exams and how many places there are for the specialization in the university, the amount needed to be accepted differs. If a university has plenty of spaces, you can easily be accepted. If in your year fewer children were born in comparison to other years, that means less participants and a higher chance for you to be accepted.
However, you might ask yourself "But why 3 numbers when the classes are from 1 to 12?". Allow me to explain by taking that student that wants to study medicine as an example.
The student has studied Biology and Chemistry at school. At the end of each year they receive a final grade in every subject. These final grades are then summed up and divided by the number of grades taken at the end of the grade 12. The result is the grade the student walks out with from school. While at the end of every year the students receive such final grades, only those from high-school ( grades 10, 11 and 12) are summed up to form that truly final grade, which is taken by the universities.
But how is a final year grade formed, you may ask?
The school year is divided in two terms and at the end of each there is an exam in every subject. The form of the exam entirely depends on the teacher, but usually it's a test with "closed questions", with the exception of Literature, where you will be told to sit down and write an essay or interpretation on a theme given by the teacher. The grades a student receives are important and, while the first term's exams only include what has been learned during the first term, the second term's exams usually include everything that has been learned during the entire year. However, these two grades from the end of the two terms are not the only ones that make out the student's final year grade.
During the entire year each and every student can be tested at any, and I do mean any, time. It depends on the teacher entirely. Being tested during the year means to be orally asked questions. Depending on how well a student answers these questions, the teacher scores the answers and writes down a grade in the class register. A teacher can also make students take written exams during the school year, which are also graded, but this practice isn't commonly used (they are flags for evil teachers XD). When being tested orally, a student may be made to stay in their seat, stand up or even go in front of the class by the black/white board and speak. A student may resign from being orally questioned, which has different results. Some teachers will only give a warning, but others will outright write down a 2 (lowest grade) in the student's row in the register.
Each class ( A, B, C, D, etc.) has their own class register. In there are written the full names of the students in an alphabetic order, the full name and phone number of one of the guardians of each student, the full address of each student, the full names of all the teachers teaching this class, the class' schedules and every student's grades and absences.
The first page is reserved for presentation, where the name of the class, the name of the homeroom teacher, the principle's name and seal all are.
The following pages are full of names and addresses.
After them are pages reserved for the class' schedule, remarks and absences.
On the page to the left are four columns: a small one to the left, an even smaller one and two larger ones next to it until the end of the page. There are, of course, horizontal lines, which divide these columns.
In the smaller one are written the subjects for the day in a chronological order. Students in grades 1 to 4 have five subjects a day, those from grades 5 to 8 have six subjects a day and those from grades 9 to 12 have seven hours a day. All of the subjects for one week are written on that one page, thicker lines dividing the last subject of the day from the first subject of the next.
The teachers have to write down their signatures by their subjects in the smallest column on the day.
In the larger columns, in the row of their subject, the teachers have to write down the numbers of the students that are absent. The first column are for those that remain absent for the first 15 minutes of class and the second is for those who make it to class within the first 15 minutes after the start. The first case scenario is regarded as a full absence, whilst the second is considered a "1/3 absence". An absence can be excused by the homeroom teacher by circling the student's number so long as the student has a note from their doctor or sometimes a note from their parent ( in other words, a believable excuse [a.k.a. can be fake]).
The week's number and dates and the numbers of the students who are on duty during that week are written on the top of the left page.
The page to the right is similar, with the rows from the other page continuing on it. There are a total of six columns on this page, a large one to the left and five very small ones to the right of the page.
The large column is where every teacher has the right to write down a negative remark about one or several students in their subject's row. Such negative remarks usually refer to a student's misbehavior during class, their unpreparedness for an oral testing or appearance. In some schools, teachers no longer bother writing these remarks.
From left to right, the five small columns are for: a student's number (explained below), a student's excused absences for the week, a student's unexcused absences for the week, the total amount of a student's excused absences and the total amount of a student's unexcused absences.
The total number of excused and unexcused absences is written down at the end of the year in every student's markbook.
After five unexcused absences a student will receive a warning and will not receive social funding for the duration of the term.
After ten unexcused absences a student will receive another warning and will be subjected to punishment.
After fifteen unexcused absences the school will have every right to expel the student.
It should be noted that the majority of schools don't enforce the last rule and a good portion of then don't insist on the second rule, either.
Afterwords, however, are the most important pages of a student's school life.
On the top of every page horizontally are written the names of the subjects, four subjects on every page.
Below the name of every subject there are six small squares placed next to each other in a horizontal line. Within the first is written II, in the following - III, then IV, then V, then VI and finally "Average".
Below them are a total of seven columns, one under each square and a free one to the far left. These columns also have horizontal lines running across them, thus creating a chequered pattern on the page. In each square of the last column mentioned is written an Arabic numeral, a number that represent a student. Every student has a number and is often referred to by their number, rather than by their name, by teachers. The number is decided by ordering the students' names in an alphabetic order. The roman numerals mentioned earlier symbolize the weeks. A student's grades are written in the row across their number. In the square under "Average" is written the final grade for the term.
All the subjects are written in this manner and are written twice for both terms in that one register. There is also a page for the final year grades.
All the grades the student receives should also be written in their makrbooks by their teachers.
I hope this helps answer your questions, Vulpis =3 When it comes to schools, elementary schools just depend on your timing, since parents just go and sign their kids up. First comes, first serves XD. Middle schools are pretty much the same. However, at the end of grade 7 all students must pass two exams: in English and Literature (combined) and in Mathematics. High school may start from grade 9, but the acceptance happens after grade 7, because high school buildings usually house students from grade 8 to 12. The administration is simply settled like this. The students with the best scores get a place.
If you are wondering about subjects, the lists are quite a few and, seeing as this post is long already, I would like you to ask me separately which grade and class you are interested in.