Litteraire or SES?

[kiwigirl]

Bonjour!

I'm going on an exchange next year to France. I've been asked to choose which filliere I will do. I'm going to be in the last half of premiere. Currently I take french, history, classical studies, english and economics. I've heard that litteraire is easier than SES and so the L students have more of a social life than the SES students. But there are too many students taking L at the school, and so my host mother has said that it's going to be harder for me. I don't really understand why it would be harder- does the education system work like that?

Which do you think is the best for an exchange student? I pick up things quickly  and I want to challenge myself- but I also want to have fun.

[Mistral]

I wouldn't worry about it too much. I'm not sure that ES is particularly harder than L. I think this is more linked to the French mentality that L must be easy because it's "fuzzy subjects". Most French people consider that an intelligent pupil should automatically do S even if they prefer arts subjects. Legend says that S students put their heads down in 2nde and come up for breath after the bac. All my old pupils seem to have a social life regerdless of which filiere they are doing (except around bac time)

As a professeur principal in 3eme, I tell pupils who are definately science, arts or economy minded to take the logical filiere. For those who aren't too sure or who don't have a particular "strong side", I usually suggest ES. In S and L, the subjects are more uneven (things like 5 hours of maths and only 2 hours of language) In ES, apart from obviously having a lot of hours of economy, every subject is taught for about the same amount of hours. Looking at your list of subjects, I would say that ES is probably the most logical choice for you.

To be perfectly honest, unless your french is nearly fluent, you're not going to follow much in any of the filieres at first. I would use the time to concentrate on improving my French if I were you (and that definately includes having a social life)

This is my point of view from doing the orientation advice in collège. Other people here can tell you as parents who have seen their kids going through the different filieres  or even from the point of view of lycée teachers

[Tourangelle]

I suppose as ES has more maths and so on, you don't need the French so much.  There is lots of reading for the L, not so much for ES, so I suppose in that respect it could be harder for you in L.  There's more history in ES, too.  I agree with Mistral, though, if you are just coming for a few terms, it doesn't really matter, do what you think you'll enjoy most. 

[kiwigirl]

Thanks for your replies

I think I will take SES, it's probably fits me the best. My main goal is to be fluent in French and also to have fun and make friends. I can do that in either anyway, so might as well go for the SES.

Merci!