Yes, I agree with you completely about the one shot/cram school thing.
The Irish system is like the UK one, except that students study 6 subjects, so they aren't as specialized as their counterparts in the UK. The Bac is somewhat more diversified, but has three basic tracks (science, social science & economics, and what we'd probably call humanities). The Swiss universities used to let anyone who passed the exam enroll in any course of study (well, I'm pretty sure you had to have taken tests in the required subject areas).
Switzerland can be libertarian in some ways, and this was one of them. The idea was, "You can enroll in medical school if you want to, but you have to pass to continue." So their various university courses would lose a lot of people after first year, but you could try if you wanted to. I like that system. I'm not sure if they still operate that way. Increasing population may have forced them to have entry requirements, but either way, it's all based on exam results.
