Compensation for dyslexia in gymnasium

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61
Neither do most folk on this thread. It is not a barrier to success or a marker of poor intelligence.

62
I guess what she's aiming at is that in the UK you can focus on your 4(3) strong subjects, you can pick what you like and in all likelihood are already strong. In CH OTOH you have to pass all relevant subjects, with little choice, even including what you may outright hate.

If(!) the academic test levels of the 4(3) on the one hand and of the 12 (or however many they are nowadays in CH) on the other are comparable, having to pass in thrice as many is clearly much more difficult. Of course, if.

63
Again, you totally misread me. Neither do I, at all. One reason I loved to teach in the UK, and don't think I would so much here (where I was taught myself up to age 19).

64
Are you saying all 12 subjects are taught to the same level as the 3/4 at A level, sounds unlikely, unless its the case it's not clear it's 'much more difficult' just different. Jack of all trades & master on none comes to mind.

65
I'm not sure his long the Gymni Maturiti (sp, sorry? ) takes but yes. I can say that if one Swiss subject at that level does indeed have the same amount of content and high level of skill as one A level then, to be blunt, if multiplied by twelve there wouldn't also be time to eat and sleep.

UK kids do everything up until 16, then they can specialise.

66
Of course they’re not. Some subjects have far more hours if teaching than others and it depends which ‘options’ are chosen, some kids choose a more science based curriculum and others arts/languages.

67
@FMF

I never knew you did sarcasm!

If only you made it more clear.

In all likelihood they're not, the number of lessons varies by subject and school year (at least it did 30 years ago, and I can't see how it would be doable if it didn't).

Still, the secondary subjects take away time and effort from the core subjects. Having, say, 3 subjects under GCSE must differ a lot from having 4 or 5 main subjects and 5 supplementary ones in the last two years when doing the gymi/Mittelschule (I'm making the details up here as it's almost 30 years since I left school, but the principle still applies).

[sidenote]

Based on Latin and at least somewhat "correct" usage (whatever that means), the following applies:

- Matura is the diploma.

- Maturand is the pupil/student about to try to get the diploma, usually during their last school year but often later on, too. In Latin "maturand" is the active "Partizip Präsens" (present participle?) of the verb "maturare", which means "to mature", "to ripen", according to our Latin teacher "about to reach adulthood", too.

- Maturi are those who attained the Matura, have reached adulthood if you will

Unfortunately nobody ever calls the students Maturi after passing the exam nowadays, they keep being called Maturand/Maturanden (sing/pl) for some time until nobody cares any more (which is pretty soon).

Sigh, that's all I got out of 7 years of Latin lessons. Brutes! Brutes I tell ya !!!

[/sidenote]

68
9 or 10 GCSEs.

4 A Levels

But I see what you're saying. Ta for clarification.

69
I don't know about all 11 subjects, but the academic level required to pass the matura on the common european framework is B2, which is the same as for A Levels. 2 foreign languages are compulsory for the matura, a third can be taken as an option.

If a brilliant dyslexic mathematician/physicist has difficulties with languages, he/she might struggle to get the matura in Switzerland, as happened to the Nobel prize winning Swiss scientist Jacques Duboche.

However unlike in the UK there is no pressure to get top grades to get a university place and you can fail up to 3 matura subjects if you can keep your average up in your stronger subjects.