The German School System

In this article I will try to explain the German school system.
I will explain how the average school life looks like and how mine looked like.

First my story:
I started with Kindergarten when I was 3 years old. There I stayed till I was 7 years old. I got into primary school with that age and not with 6 (what was average), because I was not ready with 6. I think my parents decided well at that point :)
After 6 years of primary school I went to a Comprehensive school, because I thought I wouldn't be good enough for Grammar school. I also went to that school because I liked the system (what I will talk about later). On this middle school I had 4 years time to grow through my puberty.
After that I knew I would continue with school, but I during the last two years of middle school I started to think about an exchange year. So in the 11th grade I went to America to improve my english and to get to know the American culture.
After that exchange year I managed to continue with school and not being forced to retake 11th grade, what I was really happy about. So after two more years I was finally ready with school for the rest of my life. :)
My school life (just shorter):

1. Kindergarten (3-7 years)
2. Primary school (7-13 years)
3. Middle school (13-17 years)
4. High school (17-20 years)

How My school live would have looked like, if I would have been "normal" :D

1. Kindergarten (3-6 years)
2. Primary school (6-12 years)
3. Middle school (12-16 years)
4. High school (16-19 years)

I would have been out of school one year earlier!!!
19 is average, I would say. Though it has changed a lot in the past years.
Now a lot of kids get in school with 5.
And the whole school system has been changed, so I guess I have to make another threat about the new system. It changed a little bit. :)

Beneath is the standard German school system which I was the last age group in. It basically describes possible ways, how a school life could look like.

Advanced vocational training University Technical or Trade school Grade 13 Vocational qualification University qualification exam (Abitur) 13th grade and Abitur prep 12 11 Training and education at companies and part time vocational schools (Berufschule) Full-time vocational school (Berufsfacherschule) Vocational uppper secondary school (Fachober-schule) Continuation with Gymnasium or Gesamtschule 10 9 8 7 6 5 Secondary general school(Hauptschule) Intermediate school(Realschule) Grammer school(Gymnasium) Comprehensive school(Gesamt schule) 4 3 2 1 Primary School (Grundschule) Kindergarten

Graphic copied from library.thinkquest.org, but I have modified it a little bit.

I about myself

So now I want to share a little bit about me.

My name is Pitt Biebach. I am a young adult, born in Berlin.

I live with my family downtown, Berlin.

In my family we have my parents, my younger brother and my younger sister (I love them! :-).

My high school, that I am still attending for one more year is in Berlin Reinickendorf. I have Math & English as my A.P. classes. Which I don't regret yet ;)

Now I want to tell you something about my past life.

Early in my life I was in India with my mom and my dad. I can’t tell you anything about it, because I was only a small child. But I know that I celebrated my second birthday there in India. We stayed there for half a year.

When we came back, my time in play school started. I enjoyed the “Waldorf Kindergarden” a lot.

In the last year of kinder garden I remember going to a graduation trip, where I had to sleep with a girl in one tent -,- . The other tents were full. But as I can say that I still live, I can say nothing bad happened :D

After this time I had to go to my primary school, the “Papageno Grundschule”. There I stayed for 6 enjoyable years. Me and my classmates had a lot of fun together and it was heart breaking at the end of that time.

My middle school was the “Bettina-von-Arnim Oberschule”. I went to that school, because I liked the system. The main difference to other schools in Berlin is, that we had a course system all along. While all other middle schools had a class system, we were free to choose our classes. But its to difficult to explain. (Maybe in another post)

At the end of middle school everybody in Berlin has to pass a test that is the same in all of Berlin. It's called MSA. I remember being a little scared of these exams, because my middle school was not the best and I thought I wouldn't have learned the right things. (More about the school system in Germany is to come)

Additionaly to the exams everybody had to have a presentation. Mine was about the fall of the wall in Berlin. I managed to get the best grade possible with my classmate, a one!

That's it - the time till high school. :)