#29.07.19

Hi! I’m Lucy, and I go to school in Amsterdam. I was born in The Netherlands, so I know quite a bit about our school system. It’s a bit different than most others, so I’ll try my best to explain it!

Basic School

You start school at age 4/5, depending on when you were born. I started school when I was four years old.

Elementary school is literally translated as basic school here. Basic school has eight “groups” (again, literally translated). Group 1 and 2 are basically kindergarten, you don’t really do any actual school work but you learn how to play and socialize with other students.

Group 3 is when “true school” starts. Most kids are 6 going on 7 in group 3. You learn the very basics, like simple math and Dutch. You start learning English around group 7, but the schools want to start teaching English at an even younger age.

In group 8 you take a big test, called the CITO test. The CITO test isn’t a test you can fail, but it determines what kind of high school you’ll go to. Allow me to explain.

Types of High School

We have four (basic) different types/levels of high school. The reason for why is that you’ll get education at your level, so it isn’t too hard or too easy.  As I explain the different types it’s important to keep in mind that you shouldn’t judge anyone on their type of education. No level is better than another.

Praktijk is the most basic level. You could score a zero on the CITO and do Praktijk. Praktijk is very, well, practical. You learn how to cut bread, how to cook, how to garden, stuff like that. You don’t have a lot of technical subjects such as chemistry. The goal of Praktijk is to make people ready for a practical job, such as a cook or a gardener. Praktijk takes around  5 years to complete.  Most people who do praktijk have an IQ of around 65.

VMBO is the most common level. People doing VMBO have an IQ of around 100, so the average person. VMBO comes in a few different forms, such as: VMBO-B (which is a bit similar to Praktijk, but with some more technical subjects), VMBO-K (more subjects such as history and chemistry, but still at a pretty low “difficulty”), and VMBO-T (the most theoretic type, the T literally stands for “theoretisch” which is the Dutch word for theoretic. You also take end exams if you do VMBO-T, but more on that later.) At the end of your second year of VMBO, you choose your profile, which will dictate what level of VMBO you’ll do. Some are very practical, others more theoretical. VMBO takes four years to complete, and prepares people for MBO (higher education) or work.

HAVO is a bit more advanced than VMBO. HAVO focusses fully on preparing children for HBO (higher education). HAVO takes 5 years to complete. At the end of your third year you get to choose your profile, which are the subjects you’re going to take exams for. Some are more Beta related (math, chemistry, physics), some more Alpha related (history, art, geography). People doing HAVO have an IQ of around 110.

VWO is split up in Athenaeum (without the old languages of Greek and Latin), and Gymnasium (with Greek/Latin). VWO is the highest level of high school education. VWO takes six years to complete. Just like in HAVO and VMBO, there are different profiles you can choose at the end of your third year.  VWO is very theoretical and quite technical; math is a mandatory subject in all profiles. VWO prepares people for University. People doing VWO have an IQ of around 120 or higher.

So, to get back to the CITO test. At age 11/12 you take your CITO test, and it determines what level of high school you’ll do. You can score between 500 and 550. The higher you score, the higher your level will be. You’ll get tested on all kinds of things, reaching from language to math to history.

Basic Subjects

You go to a school of your level. There are a few subjects every student has to take. These are:

Math* (very very simple math, basically elementary school level math)

Dutch

Engllish

Some levels have other specific subjects you have to take, but these are the basics.

End Exams

As I already mentioned, some levels of school have to take something called an end exam. I will explain what this is, and why it’s such a big deal. But first, I’ll have to explain the Dutch grade system.

I don’t exactly know how some countries work with failing a year, but in The Netherlands you can fail a whole year if your grades are bad. Dutch grades work like this. It’s on a scale from 1-10, where 10 is the best grade and 1 the worst. If you score a 1-5,4 (on big tests and on your list of grades your grade gets rounded to a single number) you fail the test. If you score a 5,5-10 you pass. If you have more than two bad grades on your list of grades at the end of the year, you fail the year and have to do it over again. For example, at the end of the second year of high school HAVO I had four 2’s on my grade list, so I had to retake my entire second year of school.

You take end exams if you do VMBO-T, HAVO, or VWO. You take your end exams in the last year of high school, so year 4 if you do VMBO-T, year 5 if you do HAVO, and year 6 if you do VWO.  Your end exams are split up in two categories of tests; the school exams (SE’s) and the central exams (CE’s). As the name implies, you take your SE’s at school. You start taking SE’s in the second to last year of school, and all of them combined (you take about ~10 SE’s per subject) make up half of your final grade. CE’s are exams you take in May of your final year, and you take them at the same time as everyone nationally. CE’s also account for half your grade. CE’s are very big tests meant to test your entire knowledge on a subject, SE’s are more spread out.

Now what does this have to do with end exams? If you score three or more 5s on your end exam, you fail. If you score two or more 4s on your end exam, you fail. If you score even just a single 3 on your end exam, you fail. That’s why final exams are so nerve wrecking for people here. You have quite a lot of subjects, and all the CE’s are in a time period of just two weeks. If you fail you have to do the whole year over again.

I’m starting my final year of HAVO soon, and as you can imagine I’m quite nervous. I hope I explained everything well! If you have any questions, feel free to send an ask or message me!

Thanks for reading!