TIMSS Advanced 2008 assessed advanced mathematics and physics students in the final year of secondary school. These same populations of students were first assessed in TIMSS 1995. The United States participated in TIMSS 1995 but not in TIMSS Advanced 2008. However, despite its nonparticipation, the United States and other countries can learn from the study and the experiences of those countries that did participate. How do mathematics and science standards and expectations in individual countries compare with the TIMSS Advanced 2008 framework? This symposium will provide an overview of TIMSS Advanced 2008, discuss some of the important results from the assessment, and offer insight into what two countries, Slovenia and Norway, have learned from their participation. It also will provide a forum for a mathematician and a physicist to discuss the publicly released mathematics and physics items in the context of the alignment of these items with preparation of students for continuing their studies in mathematics and physics at the college level.