Continental European education system

Sorry Iron Chef, but Non-British European secondary school (highschool) exchange students who go and study to the States to learn English, as did lot's of my friends (I went to Australia and Germany) all say that an American 12th grade student learn the same as most European 9th graders, especially in maths or sciences. I would actually divide Continental European education system and Emglish-speaking ones. The former includes France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Benelux, Switzerland, Austria Scandinavia and maybe other countries too. It seems that in Britain, the US or Australia, students have to choose subjects, while others (like English) are compulsory. In Cont. Europe everybody must learn all primary subjects (their native language, maths, sciences, history, geography, physical edducation...) and usually several foreign languages. In my school, everybody had to choose between 2 and 4 languages among 6 (incl. Latin and Ancient Greek). I had 3, because I had also a lot of sciences and maths and couldn't take more. In my school at least, students could choose to add hours in mandatory subjects. There are lots of optional subjects such as economy, sociology, psychology, religion, etc.