2007 / 2008

The Senior Years: Grades 10 to 12 or High School

Overview: students entering grade 10 at Korean International School are generally being prepared for tertiary study and subjects are selected that will build a background sufficient to meet a variety of career objectives. Key stage 4 curricula are followed using the prescriptions of Cambridge’s IGCSE course outlines as specified in the table below. The IGCSE syllabi are two-year programmes so grade 10 and 11 share some course descriptions in the table.

Students in the senior grade will either follow a continuation of the IGCSE using Cambridge’s Advanced Certificate of International Education [AICE] or a generic western program of studies using the course syllabi of SAT subjects. Both programs have wide acceptance by universities and students that show high levels of achievement will meet the entrance requirements of the most selective colleges and universities. The option selected will be determined by the overall student ability and plans of the class as a whole.

The table above shows the courses in each option. It should be noted that the two options are actually quite similar, and that it would be possible to follow both options concurrently given the generic nature of subjects like physics and mathematics and the flexibility of papers that can be entered in the AICE.

Though the two options bear real similarities, the differences in assessment are quite significant with the AS option evaluated using two or three papers requiring students to submit written work while the SAT subject tests are just one multiple choice paper each with a length of one hour. Where the AS option exams can be written in November or May, the SAT subject tests can be written at six different times in a year. Both options are very demanding and high grades are achieved by only a small percent of students. For this reason, good grades on either option is given recognition by selective universities in many different countries.

August 20 2007.