Education, Study and Exams
Schools, subjects, qualifications and exam vocabulary — including the false friends that make CVs go wrong.
Education vocabulary is high-stakes: it appears on your CV, in interviews and in every conversation about your background. It also contains several genuine false friends.
The system
primary school (about 5-11) → secondary school (11-18) → university / college
Careful: in British English, college usually means further education for 16-18s, while in American English it usually means university. On a CV, say what you mean explicitly.
People
pupil (school) · student (university, and increasingly school) · teacher · lecturer · professor · tutor · headteacher · classmate
Professor is not a general word for teacher in British English — it is a senior academic rank. Calling your school teacher a professor is a common and noticeable error.
Subjects
maths (US: math) · physics · chemistry · biology · history · geography · literature · languages · IT / computer science · economics · PE
Note: maths is singular — maths is my favourite subject.
Qualifications
degree · bachelor's · master's · PhD · diploma · certificate
I have a degree in economics. (not of economics) I graduated from Warsaw University in 2019. I'm studying for a master's.
Graduate from a place, graduate in a subject. I graduated the university is a very common error.
Exams
- take / sit an exam (British: sit)
- pass an exam = succeed · fail = not succeed
- Do not confuse: pass is the result, take is the act. I took the exam but I didn't pass it.
- revise for an exam (British) = study for (American)
- resit = take it again
- a mark / a grade · a pass mark
❌ I passed three hours in the exam. (pass does not mean spend time) ✅ I spent three hours in the exam.
Talking about your studies
- I'm doing a course in data analysis.
- I majored in history. (American)
- My dissertation was on urban planning.
- I'm self-taught.
Test yourself
The quiz below includes the false friends.