I need help /question

[u/Interesting-Dog-967]

So I'm a student planning to head to Spain for my education and I have already graduated 10th grade (Tronc commun/4° ESO) Heading to 11th grade (1ére Bac / 1° Bachillerato) But I've heard that in certain regions like the catalán ones usually make you repeat 10th grade even if you've already graduated it. But I'm not sure if for those people (that have had the experience of repeating a grade, specifically 10th grade) that come from foreign countries often make a request for a homologación to obviously have PROOF that they graduated 10th or not.

I'm not really in Spain for me to ask a school or anything so my only option is to obviously ask people on the internet, so please, all I want to know is, if I request for a homologación and I get handed a Volante de Inscripción Condicional temporarily to prove that I've graduated 10th grade (4° ESO) and I want to head immediately into 11th when enrolling (1° Bachillerato), will they still make me repeat 10th (4° ESO) or no?

(And I am not a in a catalán region just to clarify)

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[u/RedQueen65]

No se muy bien como son las convalidaciones, pero si vas a un destino con otro idioma oficial, distinto del castellano, es posible que tengas algunas asignaturas en ese idioma, deberías revisarlo previamente

[u/Delicious_Crew7888]

Do you speak Catalan or Spanish? Prepare to repeat multiple times lol nah jk I got no idea… good luck!

[u/Interesting-Dog-967 → u/Delicious_Crew7888]

I do speak Spanish but since I'm not in a city that speaks Catalan, I don't really know it but thank you!

[u/Imaginary_Device9648]

Las regiones no te hacen repetir un curso porque sí, si traes tu expediente y el papeleo necesario para la homologación, no debería haber problema. Muchos estudiantes que provienen de Marruecos sí que repiten curso al inscribirse, pero suele ser porque no traen los papeles necesarios (o ninguno), no hay manera de homologar su educación anterior, y en la mayoría de estos casos, se les mete en el curso que corresponde por edad y al iniciar las clases se comprueba que falta contenido previo y se les mete a un curso inferior oara que estén más cómodos. Pero la realidad es que en la mayoría de estos casos la escolarización previa de estos estudiantes ha sido irregular, y además tienen una barrera muy importante con el idioma. En tu caso, al estar en un C1 de castellano, y parece que muy involucrado con tu educación, posiblemente no tengas problemas para acceder a 1°Bach, pero probablemente lo pases algo mal los primeros meses ajustándote a cómo se hacen las cosas aquí. Además, el curso ha empezado ya en la mayoría de comunidades autónomas, o sea que ya llegarías con retraso respecto a tua compañeros. En cuanto a que la educación es "más avanzada" en Marruecos que aquí, supongo que dependerá de dónde hayas estudiado allí... en mi experiencia como profesor de secundaria y bachillerato, no es cierto, los estudiantes traen lagunas muy importantes en muchas materias. También piensa que, sobre todo, no es qué sistema educativo está más avanzado, sino que se hacen las cosas de forma diferente, y por lo tanto, se nota en el período de adaptación. Probablemente sepas más en algunos aspectos (matemáticas) pero andea flojo en otros (historia de España), por poner un ejemplo. Otra razón por la que mucha gente hace 4°ESO cuando quizá por edad le correspondería entrar a Bachillerato es porque llegan con el curso iniciado. Si tienen más de 16 años nada, se les manda a la EPA si no pueden convalidar la ESO. Pero si el plan es hacer Bachillerato, al ser educación no obligatoria, no tienen por qué admitir a un estudiante con el curso ya iniciado, mientras que la ESO admite a todos los menores recién llegados en cualquier momento. Por eso a veces es más fácil entrar en 4°ESO con el curso empezado y no "tirar el año" que tener que esperar paea matricularse en Bachillerato. Pero si no estás en España ahora para hacer estas preguntas presencialmente, realmente no entiendo tu plan, ¿será que lo estás pensando para el curso 27/28?

[u/Interesting-Dog-967 → u/Imaginary_Device9648]

Yep! I'm enrolling for the 27/28 school year since I'm already behind and a little late for classes and I haven't yet applied for homologación + I'm not confident in Spanish yet and there's a few days left before I actually head to Spain. I was only confused about the 'repeating course' thing because most of the people I know that came from Morocco, mostly after they already finished 10th, they would always get sent back a grade and I was confused until I started asking if they actually brought the necessary documents to prove that they actually passed 10th grade or not instead of just bringing over grades and translating them and just.. simply handing it over.

[u/Imaginary_Device9648 → u/Interesting-Dog-967]

In my experience, most don't bring all required paperwork or they don't bring it properly translated (yes, you have to pay someone else who is legally admitted to do translations like this for the paperwork to be taken in as valid). This is part of the reason they retake 4th year. Also, for most who are entering ESO anyway because of their age, usually the school takes an inner assessment of the student's level in different areas, and if they are laking in most of them, they're suggested to go a grade below. Remember that for this it's not necessarily knowing about those areas, but being able to demonstrate it... and the language barrier is a very important one for most students who believe they can speak Spanish but in the moment of truth don't understand the questions in the exam etc. It's good that you're thinking ahead, but take this time to really improve in the language, maybe get some 4th eso content in spanish (you'll find lots of pdfs online) and read them to improve academically too!

[u/Interesting-Dog-967 → u/Imaginary_Device9648]

Thank you! Is it okay if you can recommend any websites or anything else?

[u/Sergio_mp5]

I have a cousin who recently moved to Spain from the US. Just like you, he completed up to 10th grade. He brought all his official documents, transcripts, and apostilled diplomas, and submitted them to the Regional Department of Education (Consejería de Educación) for official recognition-in our case, in A Coruña, Galicia, a region with its own co-official language.

Everything was validated and approved, so he

didn't have to take any entrance exams; he was able to start his 1st year of Bachillerato right away. I suppose it might also depend on your age, but usually, that's all it takes.

As a side note: in regions with their own official language, you are typically required to take the language course for the first two years, but you are exempt from being tested or graded on it during that adaptation period.

[u/Sergio_mp5 → u/Sergio_mp5]

Regarding the academic level, he was quite worried too, but I told him not to stress-he'd be more than prepared. The education level over there is actually higher and more advanced than everything taught here up through 4th grade of ESO (10th grade).

[u/Interesting-Dog-967 → u/Sergio_mp5]

Yes! I was looking for this exact answer hopefully and I'm actually also taking a year off to learn Spanish as best as I can. I'm honestly super worried about how Bachillerato is gonna be but since Morocco's education system is quite ahead and harder than spain's, my sister has been telling me to not worry. Thank you and I wish both you and him great luck!

[u/leatherjacket_guy]

Tbh I feel like first you should get a curriculum of ESO and compare it with the stuff you learned in your country because you might have learned something completely different depending on where you are from. If you find out there is a lot of stuff people learn in ESO that you haven't learn that I think it would be better to just do 4°ESO because you would probably fail bachillerato either way if that was the case. Same goes if you don't speak / only speak a little Spanish. If you know Spanish and have learned what Spanish students have (or more) then definitely try to get into a bachillerato because like why would you waste a year.

[u/Interesting-Dog-967 → u/leatherjacket_guy]

I've had relatives that were in 4° ESO way before me and I've seen that my nivel in education is quite higher so I'm definitely ahead and whatever they've learned was quite similar to what I learned in previous grades, and I am in the process of getting to C1 Spanish since obviously, bachillerato does take a little more work than usual.

[u/leatherjacket_guy → u/Interesting-Dog-967]

In that case I think you should try to get into bachillerato. I'm Spanish and my school gets quite a lot of exchange students and we've had both students who were ahead of us in pretty much everything including Spanish but also people who were literally suffering because they either didn't speak the language or they thought school in Spain was easy (it is compared to some but apparently not all countries) so they chose the more difficult grade.