In the USA, compulsory education begins at the age of six and then extends, depending on the state, to the age of 16 or 18. Elementary school, sometimes known as grade school, begins with the 1st grade at age 6–7 and continues to the 5th grade at 10–11. Between the ages of 11 and 14, pupils attend junior high school, taking them to the 8th grade, and then on to high school, where, in the 12th grade, they take their high school diploma. High schools can be extremely large, with up to 3,500 pupils. The majority of US students go to state schools: only about 10% attend fee-paying private schools, including boarding schools, and 2.2% are educated at home. There are some single-sex schools, and certain schools require pupils to wear uniforms. Both state and private schools teach the same core subjects: English, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, and Physical Education, in addition to ‘electives’ such as Visual Arts, Drama, Technology, Computer Science, Ecology, Creative Writing, and Foreign Languages. Pupils are mainstreamed, which means they go to the same school but attend different courses and levels of class. To go on to university, called ‘college’ in America, students must take the SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test). This is a multiple-choice test that takes about four hours and consists of verbal and mathematical parts. Also taken into account is pupils’ GPA (Grade Point Average), the average score taken from all the grades in their final four years of high school. Colleges also test candidates’ writing skills by setting them an essay on a given topic.