Oh, also, a fun fact about the education system in my province (Alberta). Our High School 'Diploma' exams for our grade 12 courses are worth 50% of our final grade. As a result our averages are ~10% lower than those of students in Ontario (as well as other provinces, but I don't know the exact figures), yet we receive no consideration for this when we go to apply for post-secondary... it's absurd, we're put at a huge disadvantage.
Thankfully, my grades were plenty high enough, but still, the system needs changing.
Also, as far as honour classes and such go, we didn't have the AP program at my school, but instead had the International Baccalaureate (IB) program, which I understand to be a bit more intense. Never did go into that. A friend of mine, and fellow high achiever (we were rather competitive in 9th grade), promised each other that neither of us would do that. My father, who's a high school physics teacher, also assured me that it's a rather pointless program, and the benefits don't really outweigh the work load.
So glad I didn't, what with taking all three sciences, french, and being in two bands I was busy enough as it was, and probably would've driven myself mad had I gone into IB. Plus, since I'm cheap and plan on going to the U of C (Calgary) and living at home for the first few years of my Bachelor of Science (majoring in astrophysics), I didn't really need IB for getting into universities outside of Canada.
Wow, that's enough about me already... back to calculus!
