In recent years, a number of analyses assessments used in different countries have appeared. Analyses emerging from international comparisons such as Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) have focused on what might be termed "cross-sectional" comparisons; examining the differences between the assessments in different national systems for students of the same age. Other studies have focused on the study of systems of assessments within a single country, looking at the articulation between the various assessments taken by students at the same ages (another form of cross-sectional analysis within a single system), and by the sequence of assessments taken by an individual over the course of their schooling (a longitudinal focus within a single system). The purpose of this paper is to try to combine both approaches, through the comparison of assessment "systems". The authors' aim is to look at the differences in assessment systems in different countries in order to try to identify the critical design issues. In this context, design issues are not just the features that are designed into the system by its architects. Design issues also include those features of the system that emerge unplanned, but might have panned out differently if different decisions had been taken in the development of the system (good examples of this latter category are the issue of the rate of increase of spread of attainment in the cohort over time, or sex differences in performance). (Contains 4 figures and 4 footnotes.)