If you are in the 1st year of high school and you are considering studying a year abroad the next course, do not worry, it is not impossible! Although the majority of students who choose to study for one year in another country, want to do it in lower grades. You have to know the unique characteristics of this course, where it is possible to do it and what it takes to study it outside. And it may even have some advantages!

Answering the first question we will say yes, it is possible to take the equivalent of the 2nd year of Baccalaureate abroad, but not all education systems allow incorporation in this last course. The British, Irish, French and International Bachelors systems have a baccalaureate designed as a two-year block during which the student prepares for a final exam or revalidation that will be the note of the complete block at the end of these two years.

Thus, in the United Kingdom, students prepare during these last two courses to pass the examinations of the so-called A-level courses that constitute 3 or 4 subjects oriented to the career that the student wants to study later. Likewise, with some other issues, the students from Ireland prepare, also during those two years, for the final baccalaureate test called Leaving Certificate. In the international baccalaureate, there are six subjects that the student will prepare, three at a standard level and three at a higher level, in addition to other works and contents of the program that are also valuable in this system.

The common denominator of these systems is a preparation of contents for two years and a final examination that will be evaluated by an organization outside the study center, where the same yardstick will measure international students as a native student. This means that the majority of schools in these systems do not admit registrations for this last year of high school and, when they do, it can be dangerous to play the whole year’s grade to a final exam knowing in advance that part of the contents has been prepared in the previous year.

On the other hand, the American (also called American) and Canada study overseas make up the last two as two independent courses where the student can take 2nd Baccalaureate, obtain their grades through evaluations throughout the year, as in Spain, and then validate that course once back in our country.

And how is access to the university?

However, if you are thinking about later accessing universities in UK, you should check with the host university what the admission requirements are. And here comes the answer to the second question with which we started this post: “What happens with the selectivity?” Some private universities have their entrance exams and do not require students to take the selectivity tests. However, others, among which are the majority of public universities and some private ones, also have this test among their admission requirements.