Off Topic Guide To Australia

[gymnastjess]

Hi just wanted to share about how AUS works. since Australia works different in the way we live from driving through to school i thought i would share how we 'run'. Aussies please add on.

for driving: At 16 yrs a child is able to go for their 'L's' this is a 'learner liscence' which means they have to have a parent/person with a full liscence in the car at all times. the speed limit is 80km p/h. the child must complete 120 hrs of driving before they are eligible to 'go' for their 'P's'. the 'L's' test is done by computer. they must have a yellow L plate on the back and front of the car at all times. all minutes and hours of driving are to be noted in a book based on the km's.

At 17 yrs after completing 120 hrs of driving the child can now go for their p's. these p's are a red plate that goes on the back and front of the car with a big red 'P' on it. P drivers can drive 90km p/h. from 11pm-7am the driver and 1 person under 21 is allowed in the car aka you can have as many people as you want but only one person can be under 21. a red P plater can drive bythemselves without a full liscence person being present. the child must complete a year of red P plate driving.

at 18 yrs- the child can now go for their green p's. they must have these for 2 yrs. the speed limit is 100kmp/h. the must have a green P plate on the front and back of the car at all times.

at 20 yrs after completing their L's, red P's and green P's the child may now go for their full liscence.

im not sure what the drinking limit is for green p platers.
all of this differs slightly from state to state some states don't have P plates some states are allowed to drive 110kmp/h as a green p plater. but this is based from my state of NSW.


School: Our school program is run like this:

we have primary school for ages 5-12 and secondary school aka high school for children aged 12-18.
it is as follows:
primary school:
kindergarten- aged 5 turning 6
year 1- aged 6 turning 7
year 2- aged 7 turning 8
year 3- aged 8 turning 9
year 4- aged 9 turning 10
year 5- aged 10 turning 11
year 6- aged 11 turning 12

now onto high school:
year 7- aged 12 turning 13
year 8- aged 13 turning 14
year 9- aged 14 turning 15
year 10- aged 15 turning 16
year 11 and 12 are not compulsory schooling but you must now be 17 or over to leave school.
year 11- aged 16 turning 17
year 12- aged 17 turning 18

say if a child was born on january 7th of 1997- she would be put in a class of students born from jan-dec of 1996 because her birthday lies before april of the next yr.
we do not have college in aus we have UNI aka university. before a child starts kindergarten they are able (not compulsory) to do day care and pre-school. day care is normally for children from 6 weeks old- 5 years old. pre school is for children 3-6, they must be toilet trained to attend pre-school.


One of our great aussie foods is Vegemite. heard of it? it is a spread which we use on sandwiches or toast it is rich in lots of vitamins and tastes amazing. To find more aussie foods go to www.ausbuy.com.au


Aussies please add on....
thanks

 

[gymgurl]

just thought i would say you can leave school at 16 not 17 and incase you are wondering we don't ride kangaroos to school (believe it or not my friend was asked that)

 

[gymnastjess]

oops i meant 16 haha :/ haha only the cool kids ride kanga's LOL

 

[gymnastjess]

mmm.... maybe this wasn't such a good idea i mean people can google this anyway haha

 

[coachmolly]

Interesting post, gymnastjess. I love to hear about how things work in other places. It doesn't sound too different from the US in the grand scheme of things, at least where I'm from. I think learning little bits about other places can be really helpful in developing a frame of reference, especially when reading posts from all of the Australians on the board.
I hope all of our Australian posters haven't been hit too hard by all of the flooding over there!

 

[gymgurl]

Interesting post, gymnastjess. I love to hear about how things work in other places. It doesn't sound too different from the US in the grand scheme of things, at least where I'm from. I think learning little bits about other places can be really helpful in developing a frame of reference, especially when reading posts from all of the Australians on the board.
I hope all of our Australian posters haven't been hit too hard by all of the flooding over there!

I know the flooding is bad! I am over in the US and it is different hearing it from another countries perspective, Apparently its going to cost the farmers $6 billion dollars and this is after 10 years of drought! they finally get some rain and then they go and get flooded!

 

[gymnastjess]

yes, i live on a farm and a tiny bit of our crop was damaged from all the rain the rest we managed to sell still waiting back for the actual money though, nsw was flooded a tiny bit but not for long, OLD is the mass destruction though as of now 90% of queesnland is evactuated all their houses gone and 13m under water, yikes :/

 

[gymgurl]

crikey!! 13m underwater!! didn't realise it was that bad

 

[coachmolly]

Scary stuff. I'll be sure to keep all of you Aussies in my thought and prayers, hopefully you find some relief from the rain and flooding soon. I grew up on a farm and I know just how much little things can impact the business, I can't even imagine the impact something of this size has on farming. Stay safe!

 

[gymnastjess]

thankyou

 

[cadybearsmommy]

Thanks for the info!

Just curious...how does UNI differ from college? Does mostly everyone in Austrailia attend, or only a select few?

 

[gymnastjess]

sorry i don't know maybe aussie_coach or an older aussie can shed some light! alot/most attend uni hard to get a job without uni qualifications

 

[gymgurl]

Thanks for the info!

Just curious...how does UNI differ from college? Does mostly everyone in Austrailia attend, or only a select few?

College and University are essentially the same if you only look at the fact they are tertiary education. Uni is a bit different in the fact that we don't stay on campus normally. If you stay on campus you stay in colleges. The major difference i see is that we want to go to the closest uni possible where as in america they are more likely to move states to go to Uni they are essentially different names for one and the same but slightly different on the attitude towards uni.

Most people will complete some form of tertiary education (generally university) Some people will leave school at the end of year 10 to go to tafe and study a trade - e.g. building, plumbing, hair dresser, beautician etc. Some people also go on to do tafe after completing year 10 (school certificate year - the school cert is so stupid they are not doing external exams this year i don't think). Uni is not compulsory but most jobs require some sort of degree.

Also our ATAR (i guess the equivalent to GPA) is our leaving school mark for university applications. The ATAR is not built up over many years it comes down to effectively 1 year (we have a important "practice" year prior) and 50% comes from assessments through the school and 50% from external exams. Because all subjects are electives except english some subjects scale better than others meaning they will if you do well get you a higher grade than doing well in a badly scaling subject. The well scaled subjects are typically the harder subjects (chemistry physics extension mathematics languages etc). Your ATAR is accumulated from at least 2 units of english and then your 8 best units. You must do 10 units but may do more. most people do 12 in year 11 those with extension will normally do 13. English is compulsory (to my disappointment). Your ATAR is a mark out of 99.95. An ATAR of 50 does not mean you have an average of 50 in your tests and assessments only you beat 50% of people in the state. How it works is based on scaling. Your 10 units that form your ATAR and you are given a mark out of 500 in total. You are then ranked according to your mark as ranking 99.95. about 40 - 50 people get that ATAR. You are also scaled by school. Say if i get an atar of 70 with no scaling what so ever at a fancy private/selective school you could get an ATAR of above 70, however if i go to a not so great public school i will get scaled down. However this is based on the fact that private/selective schools mark harder so a mark of 80 at a selective school could easily be a 90 at a bad public school (not all public schools are bad).

Uni courses have a cut off ATAR e.g. undergrad medicine is i think 99.8 or something ridiculous, Physiotherapy 99.7 i think and you can't get into these courses without it (however you can start a different course and transfer into it after 6 months if you don't make the cut

For NSW

year 10 - school certificate
year 12 - High school certificate - HSC

 

[Cynical-Chick]

TAFE has a crap-ton of options, gg.

And Victoria is flooded now, too.

 

[gymgurl]

TAFE has a crap-ton of options, gg.

And Victoria is flooded now, too.

TAFE is ridiculous!! you can do anything from plumbing and building to screen courses to beauty courses etc its ridiculous!! but i think (in my area anyway) more people go to university

 

[Aussie_coach]

Thanks for the info!

Just curious...how does UNI differ from college? Does mostly everyone in Austrailia attend, or only a select few?

Actually most do not attend University. Things in Australia are not really the way they have been stated in previous posts because every state has its own individual education system and laws. School systems, grades and driving laws vary greatly depending on where you live in Australia.

Australian university differs from the US college system a great deal. US colleges offer a more genera; education and most High school graduates feel compelled to attend. University in Australia does not offer any general education, only specific courses relating to specific careers. For example if you wanted to become a teacher, doctor, pharmacist, psychologist etc you would study a course specific to that particular career. There is not the sort of competition in universities either, most people will attend a local university in their own city and continue to live at home with their parents. For the most part they will continue the life they had in High school still living with parents, seeing that same friends and attending their regular gymnastics clubs.

The majority of people do not attend university. Around 40% of school leavers will attend university and only around half of these will graduate with a university degree. Also University in Australia is far less expensive than in the US. Parents do not save for a college education the way they do in the US. When an Australian talks of paying for their child's education they are referring for their Primary and High school education. 40% of Australian kids attend Private fee paying schools for Primary and secondary schools. But, university is different, there is not the same prestige applied and people usually go where ever the closest Uni is that offers the course they want.

Parents rarely pay the fee's even though they are low and most take out a HECs load (High education, contribution scheme). For this their university fees are paid for and they will slowly pay it back when they get a well paying job. They will have to earn over a certain amount before paying it back. If they never get a well paying job they never have to pay it back.

TAFE colleges are quite popular (Technical and Further education) they offer more general classes in anything from literacy and numeracy courses to qualifications in fields that require less study like child care.

Most jobs do not require a degree, a Grade 12 education is considered to be sufficient education for most jobs, unless they are specific study area careers.

Wages for more menial jobs are higher in Australia than they are in the US so its not really looked down upon to have a career where you don;t require a degree. Australia has a higher minimum wage, we don't have tips. When you go to a restaurant to go anywhere you don't pay tips, they just pay the employee's more.

 

[gymgurl]

Yea, what i know of the education system is from my area and just about everyone from our area and school goes on to uni i just know a lot about the HSC as i am about to begin it And that is definitely right about going to the closest uni

 

[gymnastjess]

Actually most do not attend University. Things in Australia are not really the way they have been stated in previous posts because every state has its own individual education system and laws. School systems, grades and driving laws vary greatly depending on where you live in Australia.

Australian university differs from the US college system a great deal. US colleges offer a more genera; education and most High school graduates feel compelled to attend. University in Australia does not offer any general education, only specific courses relating to specific careers. For example if you wanted to become a teacher, doctor, pharmacist, psychologist etc you would study a course specific to that particular career. There is not the sort of competition in universities either, most people will attend a local university in their own city and continue to live at home with their parents. For the most part they will continue the life they had in High school still living with parents, seeing that same friends and attending their regular gymnastics clubs.

The majority of people do not attend university. Around 40% of school leavers will attend university and only around half of these will graduate with a university degree. Also University in Australia is far less expensive than in the US. Parents do not save for a college education the way they do in the US. When an Australian talks of paying for their child's education they are referring for their Primary and High school education. 40% of Australian kids attend Private fee paying schools for Primary and secondary schools. But, university is different, there is not the same prestige applied and people usually go where ever the closest Uni is that offers the course they want.

Parents rarely pay the fee's even though they are low and most take out a HECs load (High education, contribution scheme). For this their university fees are paid for and they will slowly pay it back when they get a well paying job. They will have to earn over a certain amount before paying it back. If they never get a well paying job they never have to pay it back.

TAFE colleges are quite popular (Technical and Further education) they offer more general classes in anything from literacy and numeracy courses to qualifications in fields that require less study like child care.

Most jobs do not require a degree, a Grade 12 education is considered to be sufficient education for most jobs, unless they are specific study area careers.

Wages for more menial jobs are higher in Australia than they are in the US so its not really looked down upon to have a career where you don;t require a degree. Australia has a higher minimum wage, we don't have tips. When you go to a restaurant to go anywhere you don't pay tips, they just pay the employee's more.

i think i stated in my post but i'm not sure that i was talking for NSW schooling ect. :/

 

[gymgurl]

Yea i only know about the NSW schooling system aswell i know that victoria does a VCE and some select schools offer the IB - a program recognised internationally