Challenges
❗️At first, the hardest part was the language. I had to keep my brain switched on all the time. Another tricky thing is that we have the same classes every day📚, which means homework📝 comes in very short breaks between lessons (though, honestly, I’d still do it last minute anyway🤗).
❗️The grading system is also different: there aren’t really “grades” like back home. We just get points, and everything is in percentages🔣 (basically, a 100-point system). That makes it harder to “recover” from bad grades — you have to keep working all the time, not just at the end of the term😊.
Perks
The good part is that teachers are super understanding👩🏼🏫👨🏻🏫. In the beginning, they let me use a translator, and now, if I don’t understand something, they explain it in English. Homework isn’t that much either — I usually finish it at school🎒. Plus, there are some really fun things:
Out of 7 periods a day, only 6 are required. You can take a study hall (a free period) to do homework or just chill. I found that too boring, so I took an extra class😊.
Almost every assignment comes with the chance for extra credit✏️. For example, in Spanish I currently have 103%😂. The extra credit questions can be totally random — sometimes related to the topic, sometimes not🤷🏼♀️. One time the teacher asked, “What’s Trump’s middle name?” I didn’t know, so I wrote: “Taylor, in honor of our great government teacher Mr. Topinka.”😂 The teacher said, “Wrong answer, but I liked it. +0.5 points.”👌🏼
Other cool stuff🥊: in Spanish we made Mexican sugar skulls💀 for points; in English, besides points, you get stickers🤡; in science class, if you solve riddles, you can win candy🍫, pencils✏️, or even a pass to skip a homework assignment📕.
Everything is super organized! Every teacher has the weekly lesson plan written on the board🗓 so you always know when the next test is✔️
Try it yourself — studying in the USA might surprise you with how fun and different it can be!