Why is school so easy in Western countries like America and Canada?

When I was young I used to waste a lot of time on online chat forums. I recall speaking to a 16 year old Canadian once. We talked for a while and then he said he had a lot of work to do because he had his chemistry final exam in a couple of days' time. I asked him "What will they ask you? About Markovnikov principle and stuff?" "Is that Russian?" "Oh you know about how the halide electrophile goes to the secondary carbon..." "Nah, man. I'm not sure I know what you're talking about? What's a halide?"
This ACTUALLY happened. I'm not making this up.

Dabs
Rareflag?

Maybe he was talking about his high school exam? I didn't learn Markovnikov there either

I just said 16 years old.

well there you go

Can't speak at all for other Western countries, but here in Shart-in-martistan, our classes in high school are generally pretty easy because we just don't see the use in making every single student go through hell at such a young age. Of course, harder Honors and AP (Advanced Placement) classes do exist for smarter students, but these are nowhere near as tough as classes in India. Almost all of my classes were Honors/AP in high school and I still never had a test or exam I couldn't study for in one night (except for math in my Junior year, but that's only because my teacher was an asshole when it came to making tests and I'm just a brainlet when it comes to math). I think Americans just tend to see having a social and enjoying yourself as a teenager as valuable things, even almost as important as education.

But that's the point. We had Markovnikov/Kharash when we were 16 years old (11th grade).

*having a social life
I goofed

Standards are generally lowered so everyone who isn't literally retarded can pass. At least in Ontario once you reach high school you get split based on academic performance, so that means only a handful of kids actually do material comparable to places like India or China. Even then the local universities give preference to local students, so for the most part a Canadian going to a top university in Canada will probably be less knowledgeable than an international student.

Also, OP, I'm interested to hear what your experience in Indians schools was like. From what I've heard, Indian students have to study every single day for hours on end after school and only get a couple of hours of free time a day? Is this true?

Yeah, and you still fail at the end of that. But note that only 20 percent of families can afford to send their kids to high school (matriculate).

big fucking dealio
Markovnikov isn't even hard anyway

lol, what a shithole

Okay. But I still feel let down. I thought he'd at least know what a halide is.

I don't think that is universally true. I saw some NJ user say that he had things like continuity and differentiability in the 12th grade.

That isn't true OP you need 60% just to pass and jesus was it hard for me or maybe its just my Autism

The Canadian high school curriculum generally ends right after starting integrals so that doesn't seem too far off really. The stuff that surprises me is when the Indian international students tell me they already covered trig substitution and things like thevenin/norton in high school.

In my experience, only a select few top students take Calculus in high school. Out of the hundred or so students in my Senior class, only around 10 took Calculus (though that only might've been the case because the teacher of that class was notorious among students).

Asian education systems are overrated anyway, they promote only rote memorization and critical thinking/questioning of authority is discouraged.

But at least you guys can poo in loo.

>Questioning of authority

What is thevenin norton?

Oh that thing.