american school groupings

[Tash]

randomly, it confuses me. we have primary/junior (Kindergarten-yr6) and secondary/senior (yrs7-12) school, but americans have some weird thing going, and they have crazed names. like sophmore, or is that for uni, i dunno, i wanna know what it refers to! man i'm so bored right now...

[anekdote]

Kindergarten - 5 or 6 yrs. old. Literally it means "child garden" and is basically a form of schooling preparation.

Elementary school - 1-4th grades, age 6-9 yrs.

Middle school - 5-8th grades, age 10-13 yrs.

High school - 9th-12th grades, age 14-18 yrs.
   Freshman - 1st year highschooler (9th grader)
   Sophomore - 2nd year highschooler (10th grader)
   Junior - 3rd year highschooler (11th grader)
   Senior - 4th year highschooler (12th grader)

College is usually divided up like highschool is, from Freshman to Senior.

[steveie986]

American education in a nutshell:

Kindergarten: learn not to poop in your pants
Elementary school: if you can read Dr. Seuss by fourth grade, you're not considered "left behind." Doing math is optional, since math is "hard"
Middle school: learn to awkwardly romance the opposite sex at cheesy middle school dances
High school: You should have discovered weed, alcohol, sex by now. If not, you're a nerd and loser and promptly ostracized.

After which, if you have followed the education plan per above, you shouldn't be anywhere close to university, instead you should prepare to go to Baghdad courtesy of Uncle Bush. Yay.

[instromp]

Usually Kindergarten is grouped with with elementary school

Elementary
 pre-K(pre kindergarten) 3-4 yrs
 Kindergarten 5 yrs
(Usually promotion ceremony for them)
 1st grade 6 yrs
 2nd grade 7 yrs
 3rd grade 8 yrs
 4th grade 9 yrs
 5th grade 10 yrs Some elementary schools stop here but other continue to 6th grade
 6th grade 11 yrs
Usually breaks from here to go on to secondary or middle school with promotion ceremony

Secondary or Middle school
 6th grade 11 yrs
 7th grade 12 yrs
 8th grade 13 yrs
(Promotion ceremony)

Senior or High school
 9th 14 yrs Freshmen
 10th 15yrs sophomore
 11th 16yrs Junior
 12th 17 or 18 yrs depending on birth year
Graduation

Go to college and have a life or join the Army only options