Hi all,
while reading US books I often encounter names of courses in American schools/colleges such as "history 101", "sociology 415", etc. I've come to learn that 101 stands for "for beginners", so I imagine the courses starting with 300 or 400 will be for more advanced students, but nowhere can I find an explanation of that system. Could anybody explain it to me shortly or point me to a web page that describes how the system works, so I could know what number refers to what level more or less? This system seems absolutely strange for me, as in my country it's simply "levels" - beginners, preintermediate, intermediate etc., so all those complex numbers mean nothing to me - the only thing I've been able to figure out is the higher the number, the higher the level. But why on earth is it 101, 415 an so on instead of just 1, 2 etc.?
while reading US books I often encounter names of courses in American schools/colleges such as "history 101", "sociology 415", etc. I've come to learn that 101 stands for "for beginners", so I imagine the courses starting with 300 or 400 will be for more advanced students, but nowhere can I find an explanation of that system. Could anybody explain it to me shortly or point me to a web page that describes how the system works, so I could know what number refers to what level more or less? This system seems absolutely strange for me, as in my country it's simply "levels" - beginners, preintermediate, intermediate etc., so all those complex numbers mean nothing to me - the only thing I've been able to figure out is the higher the number, the higher the level. But why on earth is it 101, 415 an so on instead of just 1, 2 etc.?