[chupasaurus]

I've studied in not-so-elite math/physics/CS high school in Russia. It has a focus on full coverage of school program so alumni would crush the exams to get into universities they want. The entry exams were hard because in the first year they cover the entire program of specialties without cutting the corners (i.e. van der Waals equation, nearly all known to science properties of triangles and 4-side polygons, methods to ease brute force a polynom of Nth degree) with extensive homework. This is an impossible task for anyone who isn't already good because there's so much to learn and only 24 hours in a day.