School in France

Hello!  This week I had another Bac Blanc.  It went pretty good, or at least I think so.  We'll see what the teachers think!  Today in English the test was 3 hours long and I was done after about 1.  I didn't think about doing it in French until after I had already started, and I hadn't talked to the teacher about it so.. I did it in English.  Really easy, except for the translation part!  In history/geography it went pretty good-it's the main thing I have to study for.  This time we didn't have to learn the maps, just 7 or 8 different chapters that we would have to write an essay about.  The choice ended up being between 'Russia, a State in Recomposition', and 'The Mediteranean, an interface between the north and south?' I took that one.  In Philo my essay question was.. I don't remember, which is sad since I spent 4 hours writing about it. 

Anyway here's some pictures of my French school work, and I figured now's a good time to tell about school in France!


Philosophy notes about Culture



School in France requires spending hours after hours listening to the teacher, writing down every word that he or she says. Well, not every word, but the written down things are dictated-no notes just as summaries!  Basically, it's like everyone writes their own textbook with the teachers' words.  Nice long phrases in nice long paragraphs.

The 4 books we studied in Litterature

Since I'm in Terminale L, I have 4 hours of lit. class per week. Throughout the year we study 4 books, that every TL in the country has to read.  I'll admit-I didn't read the Oddysey in French, I read the abridged version.  It was at the very beginning though!  I've read the other ones, but I'm not done with the Memoires of Charles de Gaulle.  They're really really long and boring at times, but I don't complain about them as much as many French people I know since I don't have the pressure of possibly having to write 2 essays in 2 hours on the subject.

One of the dozen maps: this one's the Mediteranean zone

In Geography, we learn things and then we make maps about them.  We've covered the US, Brasil, Russia, Japan, Asia, Europe, the Mediteranean, and globalisation.  For the test, they have to do the whole legend and then fill in the map, from memory, being given just the title of the map.

More philo notes

Homework in France consists mostly of studying the notes we took, and doing some essays.  In my class we almost never have homework to do for the next day, except when the philo teacher tells us to read something for example.  Most of the time we get essay subjects at least 2 weeks in advance.  Everything's really planned out and structured-no 5 paragraph essays here!  In philo, there's usually a thesis/anti-thesis.  In history and litterature, there's a structure of big parts and sub-parts, usually 3 of each (3 big parts and 3 sub each). 
Tests are either maps (in geo) or essays to do in class-never multiple choice questions.  Once we had a test with actual questions in litterature-once in 8 months!  French people mock our American True/False and multiple choice questions.  Secretly, they might just be jealous.

On that happy note, happy Easter!