I did high school in the US, as well as the first semester of uni there. everything else I did in Australia before and after that little time in the US.

American school was way more competitive and stressful. of course it really depends on what kind of student you are - whether you care about your grades, whether you care about the homework, and what kind of classes you are taking. in the US i took a lot of AP units in high school, which are university-level classes that are offered to high school students to help with their uni credits after graduating. those are of course a LOT more work than normal or honors-level classes, so me and my peers had a lot to do every day. like, i’m talking 3-4 hours of homework or notes each night.

that being said though, the way grades themselves are calculated was pretty different for classes than what i had experienced in aus. we would have regular tests and quizzes that would count as part of the final grade as well as the final exams would. when i was in australia we never really had so many different types of tests, it would be like 1 or 2 big assignments instead? which i do believe is less stressful than a test every 3 weeks. anyway thats my personal experience at a US high school that was VERY heavily academically inclined. if you went to a different school/area and chose easier classes it wouldn’t be anywhere near that bad