Which do you think is the better system?
USA: study for the SAT test in junior year (yr 11) and then chill out for the senior year, go to parties, be awesome.
AUSTRALIA: study like crazy for 2 years, receive state rank.
You have got to be kidding me.............. you obviously haven't tried to apply for American colleges or even taken the time to do basic research as to how American colleges accept their students. SAT is only a PROPORTION of what determines your acceptance and , no it isn't even the dominant criteria! (GPA is much more important) There were people with CRAZY high sat SCORED AND DIDN'T GET INTO HARVARD..
The American college application system is so much better than the Australian college application system IMO because they take into account your grades from year 9 onwards , your extra curricular activities , your academic achievements outside of school , (i.e competitions) , personal essays etc..it's so much more competitive as you are competing against the entire nation for a spot in the top universities..
You obviously want us to pick HSC as the 'better' system because you're so quick to dismiss the USA system..
but HSC lets face is = study hard for ONE year (year 11 doesnt even count..)
whereas AMERICA is basically your entire highschool grades+ to stand out you really need to have extremely well rounded extra curricular activities THROUGHOUT highschool (so no you can not cram it all into senior year) , incredible academic achievements in nation state competitions + do well in the interviews +essays...
My friend applied after HSC and she said it was a pain in her butt because it's very stressful to just fill in the applications alone.. and then on top of that you need all these credentials. (for reference; she applied to Harvard , Yale ,UPENN , Columbia , Princeton)