This is such a standard reply but Canada is a massive country . Its population is small but it ' s spread out . To top it off , education is the sole jurisdiction of the provinces , which means that every province will handle education differently . There are , obviously , certain standards you can expect but it would be impossible to talk about what someone ' s experience was like in Alberta if I ' m from Ontario . Quebec is its own unique kettle of fish . Even within the provinces , education is handled uniquely by the school board of the area where you live . So what was done in the Toronto District School Board might not be done in the HamiltonWentworth District School Board , though they try to follow standards set out by the province . So this is my experience in Southern Ontario 1 There is no testing involved with going to secondary school . You usually fall into a catchment area and end up going to a specific school because it ' s closer to you than another . If there are too many students in one school , you ' ll be sent to a nearby school . You can opt to go through public school board system or the Catholic school board system . There isn ' t much of a difference , as I understand , just that the Catholic system involves praying . I do recall that we had to select for two variant paths in high school academic or applied . Academic classes were classes you chose if you were planning to go to university . If you weren ' t sure where you wanted to go keep in mind we chose this in grade 8 , you tended to choose academic courses . Applied was for people planning to go into a trade or go to college . We were warned that if you chose academic it would be easier to switch to applied than it would be to switch from applied to academic . Applied was often chosen by students who struggled more with schooling . 2 It ' s been too long since I was in high school , I don ' t remember much . 3 I recall my timetable was something like starting the day at 815 AM and ending it around 245 PM . Grades 9 and 10 had a lunch hour that was an hour earlier than grades 11 and 12 . 4 We chose some of our courses , others are mandatory . Math , French , English , Gym , Health , Science , are all mandatory in grade 9 . We then had a few optional classes we could take , I chose drama for instance . In grade 10 our mandatory classes become fewer , like French is most frequently dropped by students around this time , and you ' re free to choose more independent classes though some are still mandatory . I think science was mandatory ? But you could choose between biology , chemistry , and physics ? It ' s been too long . 5 French Math Science English Technology , like shop for cars or woodworking , computers , etc . Gym Civics , where they theoretically teach you about how the government works Geography History Yearbook was a class , it was a grade 12 course where we learnt to make a year book , hired a company to publish , secured the rights for using IP we wanted to do a gamesthemed yearbook , etc . 6 Teachers are teachers , I can ' t say what they ' re like without knowing what other country ' s teachers are like . Not sure what you mean by focusing on social skills . 7 I would have no idea what a year of secondary education costs , it ' s all included in our taxes . Private schools do exist but I ' m not aware of their price scheme . 8 This wildly differs depending on your school , your programme within that school , and the year you ' re in . It actually gets more expensive depending on the level of course you ' re taking . I ' m sure someone out there has computated the averages , google around for it .