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Comment by choult | Hacker News Reader

For the non-Brits, "sixth-form" means years 12 and 13 of school - equivalent to junior and senior years of high school in the US. The first and second yearsof sixth form are referred to as "lower sixth" and "upper sixth" respectively.

It's a hold-over term from when secondary education (ages 11 and up) started in "first form" and worked up.

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Thanks for the explanation but it shattered the narrative by mind was building about an alien intelligence that slipped up and posted about its memories of its sixth physical form, the result of its fifth metamorphosis.

I was thinking the poster was a JRPG boss

Op is a Pak Protector

Is that like a pocket protector or a trapper keeper?

This is pretty much exactly what was going through my mind as well. I was excited the aliens had started reading HN. Now I'm just sad.

Yeah, like in Zelazny's Lord of Light xD

Interestingly enough, the French do it the other way around, and start counting from the final year (they also start at 0 so it's offset by one).

That's arguably a better system since you can keep adding earlier and earlier years (mandatory school starting age has drifted from 11 to 6 to 3 over the years) while keeping everything consistent.

Unfortunately they messed it up in 1959 by renaming 12th to 7th and giving matching names to the new 13th/14th.

Actually, it's more complex than this in France. There is 5 systems:

- depending of the Ministry of Eduction :

   - for toddlers : maternelle (3-6 yo)

   - Primary : CP (6 yo, primary), CE1 (elementary 1), CE2, CM1 (middle 1), CM2

   - Secondary :

       - College (not the US one!) : 6th (~11 yo), 5th, 4th, 3th (with exam at the end)

       - Lycée : 2nd (~15 yo), 1st, Terminal (with 'Baccalauréat' exam at the end)

then depending of Ministry of Research : University or Post BAC schools

However, I think that in some other french-talking countries (Belgium, Swissland) they did it simpler

Maternelle years also have names: PSM, MSM, GSM.

GSM, PS, CE1, CE2, CM1, CM2 used to be called 12th to 7th, as I said.

Your primary classification is incorrect -- maternelle is part of primary. Non-maternelle primary is called elementary.

That's for classic education (General, when you want to make longer studies), there are also professional or technical Lycée)

The P in CP doesn't stand for "primary" but for "preparatory"

Nothing compared to the order I went through in Germany: 1, 2, 3, 4 (elementary school until here), then VI (read in Latin, sexta), V (quinta), IV (quarta), lower III (tertia), upper III, lower II (secunda), 11, 1st semester, 2nd semester, 3rd semester, 4th semester.

Does anyone still use these Latin terms? When I went to school in the 90s and early 00s we just counted from 1st to 12 and university just was it's own thing and how many semesters you were in didn't matter that much because there was no class structure.

French and Brits do a lot of things the other way around, like imperial system, ATON/NATO, driving on the other side of the road.

Just mentioned the age bracket. Kids who are younger or older are outliers.

The French for NATO is completely reversed: OTAN

What do you mean "hold-over"? In NI we still say "first year" through "fifth year". Is that not done in Britain?

Typically no. In secondary school its just said as "Year 7", "Year 8" etc to 11, then Sixth Form.

I'm also from NI, our school officially used year 8 to year 14, but everyone knew both ways around and just switched between them.

Edit: I should clarify I'm currently in uni so this was fairly recent.

In the US, for schools that use this form of grading, it means your senior year; 3rd form is freshman year and so on.

We tend not to have a 13th grade, and when that does exist, a PG (post grad) is generally there because they excel at a particular sport.

In Britain the first high school graduation happens after 11th grade; attending sixth form is optional and is primarily done by students intending to study at University. In these years you specialise in a couple of subjects relevant to your intended course of study, and for university you apply and are accepted for and study exclusively one subject from day 1.

So arguably the US equalivalent is the freshman year of college.

Just to clarify this as well, while sixth form (17~18 years old) is optional in the UK, education is still compulsory until you're 18. you have the option to do this at an apprenticeship or skills based school but lots of people do just default to a levels.

> in the UK, education is still compulsory until you're 18

I've just looked it up because I hadn't heard this - it was only compulsory until 16 "in my day"! Turns out it still is, here in Wales, and also Scotland and NI. Only England changed it to 18. Our devolved governments love to make things confusing.

https://www.gov.uk/know-when-you-can-leave-school https://wcpp.org.uk/publication/raising-the-age-of-participa...

I guess some people in the US call someone beyond their 12th grade in high school, or fourth year in an undergraduate program a "super senior."

I've literally never heard or read that. So I would say no.

I'm American and I have heard "super senior" and seen it used in print. Go figure.

It's certainly a real term. The context is often student athletes that intentionally didn't play their sport for a season (called redshirting) to maintain their 4-year eligibility so that they can stay for a fifth year and compete in their sport.

I'm a college prof in the US and know that term.

Sixth form is hardly the oddest name for a year, though. Shell, remove, fifth, 6b, 6a at my school, and quite a few others.

And should be noted that 25 years ago, was still optional.

Form of what?

Am educational form, an antiquated word for a bench.

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