Curriculum
The school combines both German and Turkish curricula. Mathematics, geometry, chemistry, physics, biology, computer science and German classes are instructed in German, while history, geography, civic education, military sciences, religion, philosophy, literature, physical education, art and music are taught in Turkish. Textbooks, curricula and standards are under the permanent supervision of the German government. German and English are the compulsory foreign languages taught at İstanbul Lisesi.
Since 1999 İstanbul Lisesi has been a 5-year school. All students are required to spend their first year learning to master the German language, taking twenty-three hours of instruction in their first year and eighteen hours in their second year. Science, mathematics and English courses also start in the preparatory class. Biology is the first science class followed by physics and chemistry in the ninth and tenth grades (second and third years, respectively).
In the eleventh grade the students choose between two majors: Mathematics and Sciences (FEN), or Turkish and Mathematics (TM). Students who aim to pursue careers in engineering, sciences or medicine, major in FEN, concentrating on science and mathematics courses. TM major is dominated by courses in social sciences and mathematics and is for students who want to study humanities, business, economics or social sciences.
The academic standards are demanding, and the grading system is strict. As the school follows both German and Turkish curricula, two evaluation scales are used. The grade equivalents in the Turkish evaluation are:
| 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| A | B | C | D | E | F |
| 100-85 | 84-70 | 69-55 | 54-45 | 44-25 | 24-0 |
A GPA of 2.0 is a passing grade, 3.5 is honors, 4.5 is high honors. In the German Department student grades are evaluated on a 15 scale:
| 15 | 14 | 13 | 12 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | |
| % | 94 | 89 | 84 | 79 | 74 | 69 | 64 | 59 | 54 | 49 | 44 | 39 | 34 | 27 | 19 | 0 |
Both systems do not use weighted grades as the U.S. system does. The weight of the grade of a subject depends on the hours of classes the subject is taught per week.
Read more about this topic: Istanbul High School
Famous quotes containing the word curriculum:
“If we focus exclusively on teaching our children to read, write, spell, and count in their first years of life, we turn our homes into extensions of school and turn bringing up a child into an exercise in curriculum development. We should be parents first and teachers of academic skills second.”
—Neil Kurshan (20th century)