School and the new system

I know I'm posting alot now, but eventaully I'll settle on the right frequency.

So I'll talk about our school and it's new system, but first I'll run you the basic school system in Saudia Arabia then talk about more detailed things.

School starts at 6 o'clock in the morning, we have 30 minutes to freshen up and shake off sleep, then we line up in the yard to do some exercises and hear the Cast and updates on things happening in the school, usually finishing sevenish. (The cast is a daily event, where students from a class chosen by the cast scheduel go up to a microphone and they read some poetry, words of wisdome, science facts, advice... and really good stuff, most people hate it, I hate it too when it becomes repeative, but mostly it's not, so I enjoy it)

The day is devided into 8 studying periods, each is 45 minutes, and we have them all in the same class, we don't change classes, teachers come to us.
We have a 20 minute snack break after the third period, and a 20 minute prayer break after the sixth period (Might sound wierd to most people, but this country IS 100% muslims, so for us, it's wierd not to have it), and we get out at 1:30pm.

The subjects.. you can't choose to study some and leave the other, all subjects are mandatory, but when going to 11th grade from the 10th grade, you get to choose between a few courses, the most common 2 is scientific and artistic, scientific takes advanced chemistry, physics, biology, geology, mathimatics, english language, and computer, with what's left over of religion subjects, and arabic language from past years.
I don't really know what the artistic course includes, but I know it highlights arabic language, history, poetry, religion and psychology, while little to no mention of the scientific subjects.

There's schools for boys and there's schools for girls, public or private, schools never contain students of both genders unless it's kindergarden, and although each and every boy (I don't know about girls) makes fun and says: "Oh god!, why do we need to be separated" or something along those lines, each one of us knows it's for the best, because it makes not having pre-marital sexual contact hard if possible, and all the things these guys want to do other people's daughters and sisters they don't approve of being done to their own daughter or sister or mother, so I'd say the people that actually want it to be mixed is 1%, and those are the guys who have no heat in their blood, and don't mind of dishonoring things being done to the females in their families, but more on that another day ;D.

We study 5 days a week, study days are Saturday through Wedensday, and weekend is Thursday and Friday.

A year is devided to 2 terms, separated by a 2-4 weeks vacation, and each two study years are separated by 10-14 weeks of vacation.

So to the grades system, each subject has 50 grades a term, 5 in the hands of the teacher, 15 on the mid-term test, 30 on the end of the term's test, but some simpler and verbal subjects have all 50 grades in the teacher's hand, but these are usually the ones you don't need to worry about.

Most subjects have 4 exams a year, a mid-term exam and an end-term exam for each term.

But wait!, no they don't!, they changed the system!, now there's no 4 exams a year thing, there's exams all year long, the grades system have been reassigned, 10 to little pop quiz exams made all year, 10 to homework, and 30 to the end-term exam!.
But fear not!, there's more!, before, universities only looked at your last year's (12th grade's) grade, if it's good you get an interview and if it's bad you don't, completly disregarding all the previous years, so students kick back through 11th grade and work hard for the 12th, but GOD no!, we can't have a kickback year!, just as I reached the 11th grade they said the 12th grade's grade = 11th grade/2 + 12th grade/12 ...AND THAT SUCKS.. I didn't get my rightfully deserved kickback year, I'm an "A+" student, and I wanted to kick back, now I have to work hard to keep my grades.. T_T, that just hurts!.
And the grades for all subjects isn't 50 a term anymore, subjects' grades are now multiplied by how many periods a week you have of that subject, so we have 4 biology, chemistry, and physics preiods each weak, instead of 50, they get 200 grades a term each!, so the english teacher whom I don't go well along with (They teach us really boring english, the whole course should be revised) has 250 grades in his pocket! comparable only to math with 300 grades a term.. I mean, I sleep in english class and I play my NintendoDS and draw doodles on the back of the english's note book, now he has 250 grades?, that's just baad (with a double "a").

But the new system has some good stuff going for it, for starters 20 of 50 grades are controled by the teacher, and I 90% of the time have excellent relationships with my teachers, I talk with them about stuff, joke around and stuff like that, so I'm sure I'll get a little help here and there, on other side, now rude students have one big reason not to be rude with the teacher.
Before, we had only 4 tests a year, and to be honest, I only studied each subject 4 times a year, in the night before the test, although I'm an "A" student, that's due to my own intellegence, not to blow my own horn, but I make the most out of the periods I get in school, that I don't need to study it at home, and I can usually know what question to expect the test would include, but nevertheless, test nights were really stressfull, I studied like a maniac, how canI compress 3 months of study into one day?, but I managed, but now, with a lot of pop quiz tests.. I'm studying all the time, and when the end-term tests come, I would've studied all that stuff before, and I'll just have a good relaxing time before my vacation.
And although my kickback year was terminated, now I don't need to push myself too hard, I have 2 years to get great grades, before 12th grade was your one and only shot to a good university.

So anyway, that's what school is like at Saudia Arabia, and I explained the pros and cons of the new system, that's about it for today, now I'll get some sleep before my chemistry test tomorrow (it's 1am now, what the hell?).