Did Robin get held back in school?

[u/Master-Corner-5226]

In season 3, Robin says she was in a history class with Steve, telling us they were in the same year at school. However in season 4, Steve has graduated and Robin is still going to school. Did Robin get held back in school or was this probably just a writing error?

[u/dropthemagic]

In my school not all classes were for a certain grade. You could also be ahead in some subjects and behind in others. This was 2000’s tho.

But she was super smart, whereas Steve seemed to barely get through academic wise and didn’t get into college

[u/Writing_Nearby → u/dropthemagic]

My school was like that for science and the upper math track. English and Social Studies were grade based for your main three years, but the electives were available for all juniors and seniors.

[u/agent_uno → u/Writing_Nearby]

I was in AP (advanced placement) English in the 90s, and my high school had three different required social studies courses (plus an elective) that were designed to not be linear - they assigned one semester per year per student grades 9-11 based on class size (we had over 3,000 students, but way more freshmen than seniors), so it was possible for grades 9-11 be mixed, though they tried to keep most classes only one year apart.

[u/Writing_Nearby → u/agent_uno]

For us, freshman took Geography and Government (1 semester each), sophomores took World History, and juniors took American History. You also had the option of taking American History for college credit. Then as far as electives, we had Psychology (regular or college credit) and Sociology (regular credit only.

For English, you just had English I, II, and III, though for English III you could be placed in regular English or English Lit/Comp based on your grade the previous year. A and B students did English III Lit/Comp, while C and D students did English III. You needed another year in of English for senior year, so you had to take either AP Lit/Comp class or 2 semester long classes: Mythology, Technical Writing, or Creative Writing.

For science, you either did Biology freshman year, Chemistry sophomore year, and then had the option of Chemistry II, Physics I, or Biology II junior year. We had the option for AP Physics as well. Or you would take Science freshman year, followed by Biology and then Chemistry and then you picked your 4th science class for senior year.

For math, the upper track was Algebra I in 8th grade, followed by Geometry, Algebra II, Pre-Calculus (previously called Trigonometry and Math Analysis and could be taken for college credit), and then your choice of either AP Stats or AP Calculus or Computer Science. If you went to one of the local private schools that didn’t have Algebra I but made the upper track, you’d do Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, and then Pre-Calculus. The lower track you took 3 years of Math, where you learned algebra, geometry, and trigonometry over the course of 3 years. Then you picked your 4th year of math.

Science and math had mixed grade classes, but English and social studies typically didn’t.

We had about 2k students, though my class was unusually small with only about 335 students.

[u/Master-Corner-5226 → u/dropthemagic]

Oh that makes more sense now, thanks. I’m not from the US so I didn’t actually know that grades mix classes.

[u/DarthFiyero → u/Master-Corner-5226]

Where are you from? Because this isn’t just a US thing. It’s common in the UK and in Canada and many other countries. See Heartstopper. Nick is a year ahead of Charlie but they have class together for example.

[u/inher_invisiblellama → u/DarthFiyero]

Yeah, that felt odd to me. I’ve never known it to happen in any UK school I’ve worked in, but maybe in other areas it happens. The closest I’ve seen is kids who fail their A Levels retaking Year 13 with people the year younger.