I was talking about grade inflation, not winner takes all. So getting straight As over there might be the equivalent of getting straight Bs over here. And this doesn't say anything about which place is harder to study or to get respectable results; obviously people's expectations rise with the inflation. But there is a downside to inflation though, namely that it is easier to get straight As, which means that you can't differentiate the academically gifted from the academically brilliant. Not unless you bring in other metrics, but I guess having other metrics is healthy according to some opinions.
Life is probably less winner takes all over here, but I don't think it has anything to do with grade inflation or lack thereof in high school or college.
For that matter; where you are accepted into higher education over here tends to be determined by a score which is your average grade plus some points for age (maybe for "life experience"?), and other things. Which ends up meaning that if you don't have near perfect grades out of "high school", you won't get into medical school (I guess this is the hardest one to get into). It is my impression that since the US has more privatization, you can at least find some university/college if you have money or connections even if you don't have stellar grades.
Med schools are a particular problem because the pipeline that starts with them is constricted by the number of residents the society/government is willing and able to support ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Residency_(medicine) ). So as long as it's an attractive field (getting much less so in the US) there will be significantly more med school applicants than slots.
Life is probably less winner takes all over here, but I don't think it has anything to do with grade inflation or lack thereof in high school or college.
For that matter; where you are accepted into higher education over here tends to be determined by a score which is your average grade plus some points for age (maybe for "life experience"?), and other things. Which ends up meaning that if you don't have near perfect grades out of "high school", you won't get into medical school (I guess this is the hardest one to get into). It is my impression that since the US has more privatization, you can at least find some university/college if you have money or connections even if you don't have stellar grades.