Scotland is highly similar, I believe I'm sitting a similar level to you as I think Highers are equivalent to AS levels?
I honestly have no clue, however I'm in my second last year of school life.
Good luck doing A2, my crappy 'academy' makes us start our gcse courses early. Even though i'll only be 15, i'll be doing the foundation maths paper a year and a week from now, and then the higher tier paper in the summer a year later if i dont fail horribly.
Trust me you won't fail maths horribly, last year you needed to get lower than 30% in higher not to get a C or something like that. The boundaries were ridiculously low. (EDIT: At least they were for the OCR examination board)
Because American education sucks?
Why are you upset you get a better education
Stop whining
Longer education does not necessarily mean better education.