Passing My High School Finals Two Years Early

At the start of the school year I decided to do something dumb: take my high school finals two years early. In Hungary you can take certain subjects ahead of time if you meet the requirements. I signed up for English and Digital Culture. Digital Culture at the advanced level, because why not.

The real incentive was simple: pass these two exams and I never have to go to English or Digital Culture class again. No more sitting through lessons I do not need. That was enough motivation for me.

The qualification exams

Before you can take the actual finals, you have to pass qualification exams covering 10th, 11th, and 12th grade material. All of it in two days.

I did not study much for those either. The material overlapped enough with what we had already covered in class that I could get through it without cramming. Two days of exams back to back, then no more classes to attend for those subjects. That alone made it worth it.

English

English was the easy part. I already had a language exam certificate, so I knew the level I was at. I barely studied for the final. A quick review of the essay format and that was it.

The written exam went well. The essay topic was something I could work with, the reading comprehension had no tricks, and the language accuracy section was straightforward. The oral was a conversation about a topic I had prepared for in my language exam, so I just had to stay calm and talk.

I ended up with 98% on English. I was happy with that.

Digital Culture

This was the real challenge. Digital Culture at the advanced level covers Excel, Python, SQL, algorithms, and an oral component. I had about two weeks to get ready.

Excel was easy. I went through every practice exercise I could find and felt confident. Python was mostly fine too. I did all the tasks from previous years and understood the logic. The only problem was that the actual exam Python task turned out to be a physics problem disguised as code. I stared at it for a while, wrote what I could, and moved on. Not everything clicks in the moment.

SQL was where I started from zero. I had never written a query in my life. I watched tutorial videos, read through a book on SQL basics, and then just wrote queries over and over until the syntax stuck. SELECT, JOIN, GROUP BY, subqueries. By exam day I could write what they asked for.

The oral part was about presenting and defending my solutions. I had to explain my thinking process, justify my choices, and answer follow-up questions. That went fine.

Final result: 88%. Perfect Excel section and oral. The Python physics problem cost me a few points, but fair enough.

What I learned

Preparing in two weeks works when you know what to focus on. I identified SQL as the weak point early and spent most of my time there. Excel and Python were already solid so I did not waste time on them.

The qualification exams felt like more of a hurdle than the actual finals. Two days of testing across three years of material sounds worse than it is when you have been paying attention in class.

And the best part is I do not have to attend English or Digital Culture class for the rest of high school. Two subjects done, two periods freed up every week.

Overall

Two weeks of real work. Two exams passed. Two years early. I am happy with that.