Classroom work often means reciting and being tested in a written form or orally by the teacher and sometimes evaluated by the teacher in front of the class. Criticism by the teacher in front of the class is frequent and accepted.

Russian children go to school at the age between 6 and 7. They attend school for 10 years and then finish it at 16 (or17). If one does not perform properly during the acadenic year and one's grades are below satisfactory, he or she can be forced to study the failed year again ('to be left for the second year' as it is said here in Russia). They usually spend all the ten years in one buildingas all the three schools are in the same building.

School years are divided into 3 sub-schools: primary, secondary and high. Primary is 4 years, secondary is 5 and high is 2. School starts on September 1 and remains in session till the end of May, with June being the month of exams.

The school year is comprised of 4 terms with vacations in between: one week in November, two weeks in January, one week in the end of March and almost 3 months in summer (except for the time when students are busy with their exams).

Some subjects are a must, some are optional. This is list of the normal classes tought at Russian schools:

• Russian Literature
  
• Russian Langauge
  
• Mathematics
  
• Algebra and Geometry (mostly studied in senior classes),
  
• Physics
  
• Chemistry
  
• Russian History
  
• World History
  
• Geography
  
• Biology
  
• Foreign Languages (English, German, French, or Spanish), usually one at a time
  
• Physical Educaion
  
• Cooking, Arts and Crafts (for girls)
  
• Manual Work (for boys)
  
• Art of Drawing
  
• Music
  
• Astronomy
  

Some scools may devote more attention to certain subjects. Then it is a Spanish, Literature or Math school, whatever the area of the major school interest is.

The normal class size is 20-30 students.The students are together from the 1st till the last grade. The primary school pupils have one teacher for all the subjects tought (reading, writing, mathematics etc). As so children do not have to adjust to every new teacher of a differnt subject.

The school day normally starts at 8 o'clock in morning and finishes at 1 or 2 o'clock in the afternoon. Students come to school 5 days a week, some study on Saturdays.

The period lasts 40-45 minutes with a 5 or 15 minute break in between. Students have four classes a day in the primary school, five or six in the secondary, six or seven if it is the senior high school.

Students are normally graded on the scale from 2 to 5 , with "5" being the top grade. Each student has his or her personal book of records of academic achievments, or the "diary" (the word, a lot of students and teachers would call it), where the teacher would record the grades for the student after a test or an oral report.
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