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I sat next to you in Chemistry for five years.

posted 9 years ago by IAmBillN
9 replies | jump to latest

Sean at the bowling alley claims he sat next to Nancy in Chemistry class for five years... not sure if there is some British phrasing I'm not understanding in that line or if the UK teaches five years of Chemistry in school... which one is it?

In the USA, Chemistry, as a dedicated course, is taken for a single year in high school (you learn entry level chemistry in general physical science classes earlier), then in the final year you can take a second year course (for college credit usually) in whatever physical science discipline you prefer to study. Is it different in the UK? When do you study Biology and Physics?

Just curious about this because the line kind of took me out of the story for a moment and I had to rewatch the scene because I wasn't paying attention the first time trying to wrap my head around that line.

P.S. Another thing that surprised me with that dialogue was that his shirt said "Sean" and not "Shaun" which I always thought was the more traditional spelling for the name in the UK. How often do you encounter people named "Sean" out there?

[–] misswaggy 9 years ago

In the UK we learn Chemistry, Physics and Biology for the whole 5 years of High School, (at least we did at my school) we don't get a choice.

And Sean is quite a popular spelling of the name here too.

[–] IAmBillN 9 years ago

Are they all taken daily? Does it amount to about 2.25 hours of physical science each day? Just trying to figure out what kind of schedule your typical secondary school day looks like... perhaps you do longer days or perhaps you do shorter class periods or perhaps you skip other courses that we take in the US. Everything I've found on UK curriculum on websites seem to suggest that they're all lumped together into one class. I'm not sure why that class would be called chemistry every year for five years.

Just curious.

P.S. As for Sean, I had looked up that it was originally an Irish spelling (that of John, as well... the more you know...). It kind of makes sense when I look at it, again. I always used to assume it was some weird bastardized American spelling.

[–] misswaggy 9 years ago

Not sure how many hours per day/week anymore, but they are definitely separate lessons for each of the sciences and not all lumped together into one class.
😃

[–] sairap 9 years ago

If I remember rightly, school used to run from 08.45am to 3.30pm. Each class would be around 1-1.5hrs. Chemistry was one hour per week with other more 'important' classes such as math, around 3 times a week.

[–] On_the_Webb 9 years ago

At my school lessons were 1 hour 10 mins, with 4 lessons per day (so 20 lessons per week). We would have 1 lesson of biology, 1 lesson of physics and 1 lesson of chemistry per week.

We would take more subjects for the first 3 years, before picking our "options" for the last 2 years that you would study in more depth and take formalised national examinations in. These GCSE subjects - typically 10, 11 or 12 of them - included the 3 sciences plus maths, English literature, Englush language and a foreign language as compulsory subjects, while the remaining we could pick from geography, history, P.E. Art, music, drama, several types of technology etc.

During these last 2 years we would take 2 lessons of each (including biology, chemistry and physics all separately) per week, except for English language and English literature as they were taken together within 2 lessons (not 4) per week, but led to separate exams and qualifications.

So for example the number of lessons I had:

First 3 years:
2 English
3 science
2 maths
2 French
2 history
2 geography
2 technology (4 different types that would rotate through the year)
1 drama or music (at different times of year)
2 PE
2 art

Last 2 years:
2 English (covering Literature and Language)
6 science
2 maths
2 French
2 geography
2 technology (I chose graphic design)
2 art
2 PE

There are lots of other subjects you can take for your GCSEs though, they don't have to be subjects you took for the first 3 years. It also varies greatly by school. For example my mum is a teacher and her school has 5 50 minute lessons in a day, so 25 lessons per week. However some of those lessons will be a "double" so a lesson in one subject will last 1 hour 40 minutes, meaning you could have 5 single lessons in a day or 3 singles and a double or 2 doubles and a single.

After those 5 years, you can take A-levels for 2 years - typically 3, 4 or 5 subjects.

I had 4 maths lessons, 4 physics lessons, 4 geography lessons and 4 art lessons per week with 4 free study periods.

So technically in the film, they could have said they sat next to each other in Chemistry for 7 years, not just 5!

[–] IAmBillN 9 years ago

Thanks for the detailed reply. The line makes sense knowing that you have weekly (or semi-weekly) lessons in particular disciplines. To be clear, in the USA, we would take a particular discipline such as Chemistry or Physics or Geometry or U.S. History five days a week for a full year at (usually) 45 minutes per day. So you'd take Chemistry 3 hours and 45 minutes each week for that year and then you wouldn't take it again. This happens in high school for most students and prior to that most of our classes are general physical science classes that touch on all physical science subjects.

It's pretty interesting how completely different the format is in the UK. It's also surprising that Geography and History aren't compulsory subjects. Makes me curious about other nations teaching formats.

Thanks again. Also, thank you Sairap for your reply.

[–] On_the_Webb 9 years ago

Might not be the same in all schools, but all the subjects I listed that I took for the first 3 years were compulsory. Sorry if that wasn't clear, but I had studied History for 3 years of secondary school before I stopped and continued only with Geography. Everyone had to chose 1 "humanities" subject to continue for the last 2 years, so you could either pick geography, history or both (if you did both, then you just wouldn't do Art/music/drama or a technology subject).

[–] IMDbeans 9 years ago

I did 6 years of chemistry at school, so I guess it is very different to the US system.

[–] Hopstimop 9 years ago

I went to school in eastern europe in the 80's and we learned chemistry from the 7th grade in the compulsory school and 4 years in the middle school (which is something like US high school).

Our classes lasted about 45-50 minutes and we had chemistry once or twice a week.

I am pretty sure that school systems are pretty similar in whole europe.