Wow. Our GCSEs seem simple by comparison now...we have:

Exams in all subjects. And that's it. Around 20% of the final mark is coursework done over the 2 year period, but it's generally quite simple stuff. And you just get nice, simple grades from A* to G. Nothing weird.

What LS is not telling you is that now Aus. schools have the HSC (High School Certificate (I think)) and that the primary assessment is based upon exams called "Outcomes". Why they only have exams is anyone's guess *shakes head*. Once, back in my day, we had the VCE (Victorian Certificate of Education), and students had both exams and assignments called CATs (Common Assessment Tasks). Ah, those were the days..

Godlike Entity~ No, I stated it correctly. I know that the tests are out of 5, but you can get up to a 5.0 in your class. Its called a weighted GPA, however Colleges will often ask for both weighted and unweighted.

It is weighted because they recognize that the class is harder and should be creditid for more. That way one who takes all of these easy classes and gets a 4.0 doesn't beat someone who is getting the same grades in AP, since it is 1.0 higher.

We still have CATs, esky, but they're called SACs now, (School Assesed Cousework) and as i said, they are a major part of most subjects and count for a fair bit of the stduy score.

oh and the LS, shark will do fine.

Whatever you say "Shark", however SACs are not the same as CATs. Yeah, yeah I know I'm being pedantic .