... 13? Hmm... That's... Hmm... Technically I was either meant to be in year 9, or had just started atheneum 3?
Yeah... Different countries have weird logic all of their own. I can't make heads nor tails of the American structure.
when I refer to 'year 9' that's in Australia. I was, technically 6 months ahead of the average, making me one of the youngest in the class, typically.
But you have to understand the Australian school system to make sense of that.
We start school at 5 or 6, depending on the state, then we change 'year' every year from then round about late january, early february, just after the summer holidays (southern hemisphere)
Primary school is years 1-7, High school is year 8-12.
There's no such thing as middle school, though in some states you do get a handful of 'senior colleges' which are years 11 and 12 only.
So year 9 is the second year of high school. Though I guess as far as I have any understanding of the US (I don't) that would be middle school. But... It's all lumped together there. so...
Atheneum 3. That takes a bit more explaining...
That's from the dutch school system (I moved a lot as a child).
School years start around july or august, (Northern hemisphere. - part of what contributed to me being younger than average in Australia by 6 months, rather than a whole year. )
The dutch system also starts around 5 or 6. You then have jaar 1 tot 8 (years 1 through 8), which are primary school.
I don't actually know if that means you're older at the end than you would be in Australia, but either way, the first 8 years are primary school.
After that... It gets complicated. See... The netherlands sorts students leaving primary school into different groups depending on their academic ability, intelligence, and what kind of careers they might be aiming for in the future.
Each of these groups then ends up going to an entirely different school.
These include - Gymnasium - The highest level academically, but dominated by people aiming to be doctors or lawyers. Teaching latin is a standard practice at Gymnasium.
Atheneum - This is where I ended up. This is almost as high up academically as Gymnasium, but tends to be more geared towards highly academic subjects such as science and mathematics, but also languages and such. It is worth noting that it is compulsory at Atheneum to study Dutch, English, French and German. (collectively the local language, and the language of every adjacent country). These aren't options at all, but indeed, compulsory subjects.
Havo, HBS (Hogere Beroeps opleiding). These are a slightly lower level, but not necessarily by much. It's kind of aimed at people who might work in offices, or have highly technical jobs like computer programming and engineering and stuff. (though it's equally probable to find such students in Atheneum instead). The names of these lower level things change a lot, so I'm not really sure about the exact names of them. At this level you only do one foreign language of your choice, unlike the higher level stuff.
Mavo, LTS (Lagere Technische school). These are the places for the people that aren't that academically minded, and tend to focus on more practical skills and trades. Having said that, they still cover a lot of the basic things you'd get at any school. Especially these days. The distinction was far more apparent in the past than it is now...
There may be more, and there may be different names for things, but that shows just how complicated it gets.
The core point is that while all of these qualify as 'high school', they aren't different streams within the same school, but actual, independent schools aimed at different kinds of students...
Honestly, you need a degree just to understand how that school system works... XD
Oh, and as should be fairly obvious, 'atheneum 3' is the third year of high school.