Indian institutions have traditionally worked on the ‘academic session,’ with grading based on end-of-year examinations, unlike the North America end-of-semester examinations.
US education system works on continues evaluation of student via tests , grades , Assignments , quizzes ,Group Projects and Individual projects ,class participation etc .
In India, we have one final which varies from 80 – 100% of the total marks or grade, unlike the USA where there are two to four tests having weightage of 50 – 80% depending on the professor .
The catch is, you are forced to study all the semester because you have tests every 4 to 6 weeks and you do not lose all your points if you miss your final. Assignments are a big part of the US education.
Unlike in India, where you can get away by copying the assignment from friends , in US it is pretty strict and plagiarism is very serious ,you cannot copy so is your own work and in the process, your learning is more holistic.