In addition to the existing two-semester system, the option of a credit system was for the first time offered to the students of the secondary (high school) education program in Kuwait in 1978. Earlier attempts which aimed at the quantification of the academic effectiveness of the two programs of secondary education have shown contradictory and inconclusive results. This paper reports the findings of a funded research project undertaken to examine and evaluate the performance of student graduates of the two systems of secondary education. A profile--by gender--of the two high school education programs is presented. The records of 16,445 student graduates of the two programs are examined and their performances are compared. Students' percentile graduation rank and their scores in Kuwait University's English, math and chemistry admissions (aptitude) tests are included in these comparisons. Findings showed that while the performance of students of both programs in admissions tests was generally poor, those who graduated from the two-semester system performed better than their credit system counterparts in math and chemistry admissions tests. The credit system students, however, graduated from high schools with a higher percentile rank. In general, the academic effectiveness of both programs is in need of a major face-lift.