Schooling can vary based on district here in the USA as well. For example, I started out with one year of "preschool" at a private school. There are no public forms of this around here. I then attended "elementary" school for grades kindergarten through 6th grade. The class structure here was one teacher for everything except a few things like gym, music, art, and for those selected for it, GT or "Gifted and Talented". GT students were usually selected by a test used by the district. This is where I first got my hands on computers and programming, the courses weren't standard for all students yet. Grades were assigned for a particular subject and determined what a student needed help on.

I then moved on to junior high school, and when I started it was grades 7 to 9. This introduced the credit system to some extent, but it wasn't a huge part. Each year, students pick their own classes. There are requirements like one English class, one math class, then there are other credits used on wood shop, or other practical application classes. Each class is taught by a different teacher, and is usually the same amount of time. Some schools did a block schedule where a class was longer, but was only attended every other day, while others did a shorter class that was attended every day. This seemed to vary based on school, and wasn't a standard across the district. When I moved to 8th grade, I found myself at the top of the school, as it was now called middle school where 6th to 8th attended. When I was there, 6th graders basically did the same thing I did. But later it changed into a mixture of the two.

9th through 12th grade is high school. 9th grade for me was the first year of actually having credits matter to graduate. I picked classes again just as the last few years, but this time I had more freedom. From here until 12th grade, I needed x amount of credits in different areas to get my diploma. Credits are not standard between districts, and transferring can be a pain. Also students who did poorly but did want to continue usually has a 5th year of high school where they attended half the day. Credits were the deciding factor of advancement. if you didn't have x amount of credits, you were considered to be in the same grade the next year. Based on what you wanted to do, Advanced Placement classes could be taken. These classes taught content intended for post high school education. And most of the time students had to take a test at the end to determine their final grade, and the amount of credit they obtained to then apply towards higher education. I was always good with math, so I have a credit for Calculus I, usable at most colleges here.

The ACT is what I took (since I am on the western side of the east/west divider for schools). There are 4 different sections with scores from 1-18. Then a final number between 1 and 36 is generated as your final score. The colleges I looked at had a guide indicating if you could easily enroll. It was based off your ACT score and your grade point average (GPA) from high school. The higher the score, the less they cared about grades.

Around here, 16 was also the age you could decide to no longer attend school, though you got nothing for your credits. The GED can be taken for the equivalent of a high school diploma, but some places of employment will deny GED applicants. I know a few people with one, but have never asked much about it. I know they attended some night classes at the high school before taking a test to get the diploma.

Most private schools follow a similar model to this to help with transfers into or out of the public system.