I really can't understand why Americans have such a poor grasp of geography.
I've always known North American geography pretty well. I knew roughly where all the states were, and I knew that Canada was in the North, Mexico was in the South, and Europe was to the East, across the Atlantic. I kind of assumed most Americans knew this, because I've known it since age 7.
I've also known Western European geography for a while, though most Americans I know, don't know that. Part of the reason I know it well, is because I took a class called "AP European History" in High School. It was an advanced, optional course that I took my Senior year in order to see if I could handle an AP class. Even before that, I knew where England, Germany, Spain, and France were on a map of Europe, though.
My own experiences do confirm that college-level can in fact (I imagine it depends on the institution with the most expensive/prestigious colleges being very different from...other ones) there's no other way to put it, easier than over here. From what I've heard, I think that goes for all levels of education - there's just a different focus, extracurricular and social stuff seems to be way more important in the US - and I don't think that (in general, on average of course) you guys ever really catch up in certain areas.
I do have to say that I feel like I had trouble understanding how things were done here, though, and I didn't focus on extracurricular or social stuff at all, and I feel like I've been penalized for it because it turns out it was expected. I was always a more focused individual, just wanted to learn. But to be fair, I think our schools are that way because social skills and having passions are extremely important to getting a job or functioning here. People don't respect you if you just want to "get a job to survive," your job is supposed to be the focus of your life, no matter how mundane it is.