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Zarshal wrote: "Thank you Ramla! Good luck to her too. I’m sure she’ll do great. (:"

Ameen. Thank you :-)

µþ²¹³Ù´Ç´Ç±ôâœ� wrote: "Assalamualaikum, I think we should start our Christmas buddy read + why in the world you all are disappeared?"

i think they all are busy in enjoying winter season

Good luck to y'all @Zarshall and @Ramla.
InshAllah you'll get it.

In my case I'm bogged down by applications. Converting A levels to F.sc is a really tedious process. :P

I've been doing other stuff in the background tho , no point in getting Complacent. Just not alot of reading. Soon tho , InshAllah

@Waqas
Winter does have it's appeal :) and that's high praise coming from an asthmatic

Thanks @Uzair Good luck to you too. Hope everything works out well for you :-)

Good day to everyone! Been a really really long time.
I just read Small Things Like These . It's short, fiction, lil woke. Probably a suggestion for any next buddy read we have XD

@Abdullah, good day to you too. I would’ve loved reading, but I’m so busy this semester. It’s like a whirlwind, and I’m being violently spinned around. ._.

@zarshall
Didn't think the university experience could be summed up so eloquently xD

@Zarshall
Violently spinned around is right 😭, I haven't even got a foot in the door and I'm already holding all for dear life

@Hifza, you just wait until someone asks me that question in finals. You’ll find out MANY other words I sum that up in xD

@Uzair, ugh. Medical sucks just as much as engineering if not more (for me). But I’m glad you got in, congratulations!
You just hold on tight. It’ll get worse 😂 (sorry, not trying to scare you, I have a lot of doc friends :P)

@Uzair did you get into medical college on merit or private?

Sorry to disappoint guys but I'm not in .

Might or might not.
Hinges on a decision above my power so . It iz what it iz.the violent spinning I was referring to was the process of trying to get in.

@uzair hang in there :(

@Uzair, then I’m even happier for you xD
Now you can do something that won’t make you want to kill yourself in the process :P

Pakistan's educational system is shite

Well, that’s a whole other debate. But whatever happens, I hope it’s good for you @Uzair.
But I do have a question, (one that I usually ask everyone) is Medicine a field of your own choosing?

Don't worry @Uzair. We can only try our best and pray. The rest is up to Allah. I'm sure He has something good in store for you. (Ameen).

@Zarshal Lol. Good point!

@Adam.ant

Well, I'm not a fan of German school system either to be honest. For example: at the end of 4th grade, the kids are streamed into three types of secondary schools: Gymnasium, Realschule, or Hauptschule.

After two years, at the end of 6th grade, they further evaluate the Gymnasium students and decide which of them get to stay there and demote the rest to Real or Haupt.

Only the kids who graduate from Gymnasium and pass their Abitur can go into universities and take up professions like doctors, engineers, teachers, lawyers, scientists, etc. This consist of about 30% of the population.

The kids who graduate from Realachule can go to technical colleges and can get jobs in lower to middle level positions of certain type of companies.

The kids who graduate from Hauptschule end up with blue collar jobs.

In other words, the children's career path is pretty much decided when they're only ten or eleven years old and there's very little they can do to change it.

So you can imagine the tremendous pressure the kids face. They're graded on academic subjects plus on Music, Arts, and Sports. They're also evaluated on class participation, confidence level, social skills, teamwork, how organised they are, how good their handwriting is, how regularly they do their homework and so on. If they lag behind even in one area, they get demoted to Real or Haupt. So the kids in Gymnasium are in constant pressure and the kids who don't manage to go there or get kicked out from there can suffer from low self-esteem. NOT a good system in my opinion.

@Ramla, that’s so weird and hard. I never knew. It’s kind of really unfair too.
Is there any way they can switch schools after say 10th grade or sth? If they’re doing well?

@Zarshal

Theoretically you can upgrade from Realschule to Gymnasium but in reality it rarely happens. It's so hard to enter Gymnasium as a 5th grader and to keep your place there over the years, imagine how hard it would be to upgrade to Gymnasium.

First of all, the textbooks are different for all the three types of schools. A Realschule student would study regular Maths and a Gymnasium student would study advanced Maths. So if you wish to reach Gymnasium standard, you'd need to excel in the regular Maths you're studying plus take extra tuition for advanced Maths the Gymnasium students are studying. Same for other subjects.

Also, in Realschule you learn German plus one foreign language. In Gymnasium, you learn German and two foreign languages. So you'd need to learn one more language on your own.

Plus you'd need to build on the other skills I mentioned necessary for Gymnasium.

Then you'd need to find a Gymnasium that has space for a new student and then go through the admission process there.

It's not impossible to upgrade, but the chances are extremely low.

If by some chance you do get in, you'd then need to compete with students who have been studying in Gymnasium for a lot longer than you.

That’s pretty rough. This means that the German students I’ve interacted with so far here are like the cream of Germany. No wonder they’re so smart. And really competitive. I’m usually quite interactive in classes I like and last semester we had this German student who’d try to answer every question before I did. It was fun, but I now realise why he was so eager to answer before me. They’re probably trained to prove themselves from the start.

Students who’ve studied in an American system are a different breed. They’re like: “We don’t care. Chemistry is so hard. How can you understand physics so easily?� When what we’re studying are electrons and electronic configuration. Or newton’s laws of motion. I mean come on, that’s basic stuff! But I guess that’s because schools are a walk in the park in the US.

Colleges are a whole different story though.

@Zarshal

Yes! Class participation—regularly raising hands to volunteer answers—is one of the many requirements for staying in Gymnasium. If you don't do this, the teachers assume you either don't know the answers or you're too shy to speak out in front of everyone. Both are grounds for getting kicked out of Gymnasium. I'm not surprised the German student in your class was so active in answering questions. It's an ingrained habit for a Gymnasium graduate. Lol.

Basically, a "Gymnasium" is comparable to a "British Grammar School" and a "Realshule" is comparable to an "American High School" in terms of the quality of education.

Interesting. Thanks @Ramla for sharing. It was quite informative.

You're welcome @Zarshal :-)

By the way, it's not necessary that all German students you're interacting with are from Gymnasium. One has to graduate from Gymnasium and pass Abitur to go to a university in Germany. But as far as I know that's not a requirement for universities in other countries. So it could be that some of the German students in your university did their schooling from Realschule.

University is literally for little babies. Not sure why you guys find it hard.

@thall because we're zygotesÛ”

@Thall well that's why none accepted you

Adam.ant wrote: "@Thall well that's why none accepted you"

Well, I guess they don't like their brightest alumnus then if they still don't accept me.

lol

Zarshal wrote: "@Ramla, that’s so weird and hard. I never knew. It’s kind of really unfair too."

I guess if you look at it from their perspective it kind of makes sense. They feel by the time kids are ten or eleven it's obvious which of them are interested in studying and which of them are not.

If kids are interested in studying then they should be placed in a competitive academic environment where they can thrive and be trained for university education. (Gymnasium).

Less interested kids shouldn't be pressured into studying and made to feel miserable. Instead they should study at a more relaxed pace and be trained for low stress nine to five jobs more suited for their personality. (Realschule).

If they're not at all interested then they should be taught only the most basic academic subjects plus trained in other type of skills like carpenting, hair cutting etc. (Hauptschule).

However, my point is that just because a child doesn't show interest in studies at ten or eleven doesn't mean he won't develop interest later on. To stream children into certain types of career paths at such a young age restricts their future opportunities. Which is unfair. Plus it could be damaging for their self-esteem and morale.

Maybe if they would stream at the end of say 10th grade then it wouldn't bother me so much.

If at that point someone decides that academic life isn't for him and he'd rather be trained to become a carpenter, an electrician, a florist, a nail artist, a hair dresser, a baker, or whatever then that should be his choice to make.

If someone decides to push himself to improve his academic performance because he thinks becoming a doctor, a scientist, or an engineer etc is worth the extra effort and stress then that's his prerogative.

anyone up for a buddy read for may?

yeah sure