Norwegian School: Winter Edition

February 04, 2018

Norwegian School: Winter Edition

Another relatively normal week with little excitement has come and gone and I thought that it would be a good time for a second update on school and, more specifically, the differences between Norwegian and American school. As I have now made it through the first semester and with that a handful of tests and assignments as well as the midterm exams, I have had time to notice some of the more nuanced differences between the school systems. This post will also cover some pretty obvious differences that I managed to miss last time! The first version of this post is my second-most viewed post so it seems like this might be an interesting topic for people! If there are any other aspects of society that you would like me to cover in more detail with respect to the differences between Norway and the US, leave a comment or let me know some other way! Just as a little disclosure, as I have only attended one school, I really only have one point of view to write this post from. I have no way of knowing if all of these things that I have noticed are the same across the country, and some of these may be specific to my school. I'll try to include a note if I think one of the things is a Katta-special, but I can't promise that I'm right! Remember that in any country there can be a wide range of school environments and that it's almost impossible to say any one statement is true for all schools in that country!! With that in mind, here are some more differences between American and Norwegian school!

The amount of time spent in each class is not equal. For example, I have 5 hours of math each week, but only 2 of geography. At my school in the US I spend the same amount of time in each class each day, about an hour and a half. Each day I also have a mix of single classes that last 45/50 minutes and double classes that last about 95 minutes, whereas in the US my classes all last around 90 minutes.
Here I have different classes each day in addition to different amounts of time in each class, but the same classes all year. In the US I have the same 4 classes each day and those classes last either one quarter of the year, a semester, or three-quarters of the year. I haven't had one class last all year since 8th grade, so it's a little weird for me to still have the same classes I had in August. I'm sure these first two points vary throughout Norway; I know at least that different schools in the US have different schedule set-ups!
Classrooms do not have pencil sharpeners. This one is realllyyyy random hahaha but I noticed pretty quickly. If people need to sharpen a pencil they use their own small one that they have taken with them themselves, but for the most part it seems that people use pen.
The Norwegian government is a little more involved in education here it seems. Although the individual states are the ones that run and coordinate education in the US, it kind of feels like it's up to each individual school to decide how the curriculum will be. Here in Norway, the curriculum is very similar over the entire country and exams, for example, are from the state.
Schools here (at least Katta) care a lot more about the mental health of students and try to keep the education challenging without overly stressing out students. At Katta there is a rule that you can only have 1 test or assignment due per day and no more than 3 per week. While it's definitely nice to not have too much going on per week, sometimes if means that it's really hard to find a date for a test or due date, especially with the classes I only have once or twice a week.
The number of graded assignments is wayyyyyy lower. The only things here that are graded are tests and papers; no homework or in-school stuff gets a grade. I'm actually not a huge fan of this because suddenly each test is worth a ton (especially when you only have 4 in a year) and everyone freaks out about individual assignments. While it's not always fun to constantly have graded assignments, I feel more motivated to do hard work consistently throughout the year, and don't have to stress about one sub-par grade.
The grade system here is completely different. Instead of having letter grades, Norwegians use the numbers 1 through 6, 1 being the worst and 6 the best. On assignments you can get + or - (for example 4+ or 4-), in addition to grades like 5/6 which means it's between a 5 and a 6. On the report cards, however, it only shows the number grade without any pluses or minuses.
Yet another about grading-- effort is not calculated into your grade. At least at my school in the US effort can either be the death of you or help you a ton. If you never participate but do well on assignments, the effort grade can bring your overall grade down. However, if you're really active in class but don't always do that well on tests, your grade can go up quite a bit. I have to say it's been okay for me to not have my effort graded because although I'm usually the one that talks the most back home, I speak very rarely in class here, mostly because of the language barrier.
These past few weeks I've had quite a few classes that got "canceled" so I didn't have to show up, something that I don't think has ever happened in the US. A few times it's been because the teacher was sick and there wasn't a substitute so we could just "work other places" (code for stay home haha), but we've also been having group presentations/discussions in Norwegian class and when your group isn't the one presenting, you don't have to be at school. Pretty nice!
We have several days set off each year for talking to teachers about how you're doing, any issues you're having, and your grade. In the US (and here as well) you really just have to set aside time after school or during breaks if you want to talk about something, but having time already set off is nice because you don't have to worry about not being able to find time or taking extra time out of your day.
Here in Norway there are different "lines" you can choose from. My school just has a general studies line where you can focus on math and science or humanities the second and third year, but other schools have more specific lines like media technology and music. It's sort of like American college in that you can choose which type of classes you want to take so you don't have to take extra biology classes if you're not going to go into a field that requires lots of biology knowledge. While I can choose electives in the US (like art, music, or more specific academic subjects like journalism and oceanography), I take general classes like math, science, English, and social studies pretty much each year of high school and begin getting more specific in college.
All the classes here are the same level. In stead of choosing an honors level class or college prep, for example, you choose a school (if you're in a city with several schools) that has the line you want and then everyone is just grouped together, not dependent on any level. Since Katta is pretty much known for being a nerd school (it's a compliment, I promise), I haven't really felt like any classes have had to be "dumbed down" in any way but I am grateful to be able to choose to challenge myself with honors and AP classes in the US where students of all different levels and interests go to the same school.

Those were the parts of Norwegian school that I could think of this time that are different from American school! I feel like I've covered quite a bit over the two volumes of this series, so I hope there's enough material left in the spring for a third and final post about Norwegian school! It's crazy to think that I've been here long enough to have two seasons worth of knowledge about school here; time only moves faster and faster! As for this week, I really just went to school and did my normal activities, but on Friday afternoon I went out with some friends and ended up finding a candy store that reunited me with some of my favorite American candy. York Peppermint Patties and Reece's Cups never tasted so good!!!!

Word of the Post:
en vikar = a substitute teacher

Very few pictures again... a little sad :P