Hannah's RYE year in Switzerland: School differences in Switzerland

My oldest host sister and some of my Swiss friends who are in the fourth/last year of College (which is basically high school, they just classify their school levels differently) are all busy studying for the exams coming up. I can’t imagine what it’s like having to study so much because unlike how we do it in Canada with an end of year exam every year, they have an exam at the end of the fourth year for all of the subjects they’ve learned throughout the four years. I have a hard enough time just studying for one subject that I’ve learned that same year. Some other things that I have noticed are different in school are that we have the same classes all year-round, and in Canada I have half of my classes in the first semester then I have an exam then I have the other half of my classes in the second semester. They also have set classes for example, I am in 2D2 (2nd year, Deutsch (german), class #2) so for all of my classes I have the same people in them, like in middle school. The lockers in my school in Canada are 4 times the size of the “lockers”, I would call them cubbyholes. There isn’t much space in these lockers so everyone carries their school bags around and hang our coats on hangers and we just put our books that we don't need for that class in the lockers cause thats all that really fits. It was different for me because in Canada we aren’t allowed to bring anything to class except for our books so I keep my bag and coat and books and everything in my locker. One other thing that I have notice that are different compared to my school in Canada is that when we are absent they don’t call our house to be excused but we have a paper that has to get filled out with the date, reason, number of lessons and tests missed and then signature from a parent. I find this better because I remember how annoying it was when I would be excused from school for going to a sport tournament or something but still get called for everyday that I missed.