Baccalauréat

The baccalauréat (IPA: ), often known in France familiarly as the bac, is an academic degree which French students sit for at the end of the lycée (secondary school).

Overview

Much like British A-Levels or American high school diplomas, the baccalauréat allows French students to go on to tertiary education or to obtain a professional qualification that will enable them to get a job in a particular field upon completion of high school. Howewer, it's legally an academic degree, which means the examination must be headed by a university professor. The students in lycée could choose not to sit for the baccalauréat at the end of the lycée, as it is in law more an exam for entrance into university than a lycée completion exam.

The word bac is also used to refer to one of the end-of-year exams that students must pass in order to get their baccalauréat diploma: le bac de philo, for example, is the philosophy exam (which all students must take, regardless of their field of study).

There are three main types of baccalauréat degrees:

the baccalauréat général (general baccalaureate);
the baccalauréat professionnel (professional baccalaureate);
the baccalauréat technologique (technological baccalaureate).

Each of these categories encompasses several somewhat specialized curricula. For entrance to regular universities, however, there are no real restrictions as to the type of baccalauréat that was achieved (with a few exceptions of course). Furthermore, it is also possible to enter a university without the bac by taking a special exam, the diploma for entrance to higher education.

Though most students take the bac at the end of secondary school, it is also possible to enter as a candidat libre (literally, "free candidate") without affiliation to a school. Students who did not take the bac upon completion of secondary school and would like to attend university, or feel that the bac would help them accomplish professional aspirations may exercise this option. The exam is no different from the one administered to secondary-school students.

Baccalauréat général streams

Students who sit for the baccalauréat général choose one of three streams (termed séries) in the penultimate lycée year. Each stream results in a specialization and carries different weights (coefficients) associated with each subject. The streams for the baccalauréat général are as follows:

S scientifique (sciences)	ES économique et sociale (economics and social sciences)	L littéraire (literature)
The natural sciences stream requires a high level in mathematics (which is very heavily weighed), physics & chemistry, and biology.	The bac ES is balanced between literary and scientific courses of studies, and students must take an economics and social sciences exam.	The bac L weighs French language, history & geography, and foreign languages heavily. It also includes a literature section.

The baccalauréat permits students to choose to sit for exams in over forty world languages or French minority languages (such as Basque, Breton, Corsican, and Occitan). A majority of French students choose to take the bac S as it is said to open more doors, for a greater range of post-graduation opportunities. This bias is inherent to the French educational system but is more and more contested, especially by teachers from the other two general streams of study.

Content

Série scientifique (S)

The S stream prepares students for work in scientific fields such as medicine, engineering and the natural sciences. Natural sciences students must specialize in either Mathematics, Physics & Chemistry or Earth & Life Sciences. Mathematics is the most heavily weighed subject for all S students.

²Added to general subject above.
³Only points above 10 out of 20 (50%) are taken into consideration.
⁴Two-subject maximum.

Subjects	Weight	Format of exam	Duration
Anticipated subjects¹
French Language	2	Written	4 hours
French Language	2	Oral	20 minutes
Terminale subjects
Mathematics	7	Written	4 hours
Physics & Chemistry	6	Written and Laboratory	3 ½ hours plus ½-hour
Earth & Life Sciences	6	Written and Laboratory	3 ½ hours plus ½-hour
History & Geography	3	Written	4 hours
First Foreign Language (LV1)	3	Written	3 hours
Second Foreign Language (LV2) or Regional Language (LVR)	2	Written	2 hours
Philosophy	3	Written	4 hours
Physical Education	2	Year-end Average
Specializations
Mathematics or Physics & Chemistry or Earth & Life Sciences	2²	Oral or Laboratory (except for Mathematics)	½-hour
Supplementary Physical Education	2	Year-end Average
Travaux personnels encadrés (TPE)	2³	Oral	½-hour
Optional Subjects⁴
Foreign Language	2³	Oral or Written (depending on the language)	20 minutes or 2 hours
Regional Language		Oral	20 minutes
Latin		Oral	15 minutes
Ancient Greek		Oral	15 minutes
Physical Education		Year-end Average or Examination
Arts		Oral	30-40 minutes
¹Exam at the end of première. French is replaced by Philosophy in terminale.

Série économique et sociale (ES)

Students in the ES stream prepare for careers in the social sciences, in management and business administration, and in economics. The subject Economics & Social Sciences is the most heavily weighed and is only offered in this stream. History & Geography and Mathematics are also important subjects in ES.

²The exam is 5-hours long for students in this specialization.
³Added to general subject above.
⁴Only points above 10 out of 20 (50%) are taken into consideration.
⁵Two-subject maximum.

Subjects	Weight	Format of exam	Duration
Anticipated subjects¹
French Language	2	Written	4 hours
French Language	2	Oral	20 minutes
Natural Sciences	2	Written	1 ½ hours
Terminale subjects
History & Geography	5	Written	4 hours
Mathematics	5	Written	3 hours
Economics & Social Sciences	7	Written	4 hours²
First Foreign Language (LV1)	3	Written	3 hours
Second Foreign Language (LV2) or Regional Language (LVR)	2	Oral	20-30 minutes
Philosophy	4	Written	4 hours
Physical Education	2	Year-end Average
Specializations
Economics & Social Sciences or Mathematics or LV1/LVR	2³	Oral	20 minutes
Supplementary Physical Education	2	Year-end Average
Travaux personnels encadrés (TPE)	2⁴	Oral	½-hour
Optional Subjects⁵
Foreign Language	2⁴	Oral or Written (depending on the language)	20 minutes or 2 hours
Regional Language		Oral	20 minutes
Latin		Oral	15 minutes
Ancient Greek		Oral	15 minutes
Physical Education		Year-end Average or Examination
Arts		Oral	30-40 minutes
¹Exams at the end of première. French is replaced by Philosophy in terminale.

Série littéraire (L)

Students in the L stream prepare for carrers in the humanities such as education, linguistics, and public service. They also have interests in the arts. The most important subjects in the literary stream are Philosophy and French language & literature and another language usually English or German.

²Only points above 10 out of 20 (50%) are taken into consideration.
³Two-subject maximum.

Subjects	Weight	Format of exam	Duration
Anticipated subjects¹
French Language & Literature	3	Written	4 hours
French Language & Literature	2	Oral	20 minutes
Natural Sciences	2	Written	1 ½ hours
Mathematics & Computer Science	2	Written	1 ½ hours
Terminale subjects
Literature	4	Written	2 hours
History & Geography	4	Written	4 hours
First Foreign Language (LV1)	4	Written	3 hours
Second Foreign Language (LV2) or Regional Language (LVR)	4	Oral	20-30 minutes
Philosophy	7	Written	4 hours
Physical Education	2	Year-end Average
Specializations
Latin or Ancient Greek	4	Written	3 hours
Arts & Crafts or Cinema & Audiovisual Studies or Art History or Music or Theatre & Dramatic Expression or Dance	6	Written and Oral	3 ½ hours and ½-hour
Supplementary Physical Education	2	Year-end Average
Travaux personnels encadrés (TPE)	2²	Oral	½-hour
Optional Subjects³
Foreign Language	2²	Oral or Written (depending on the language)	20 minutes or 2 hours
Regional Language		Oral	20 minutes
Latin		Oral	15 minutes
Ancient Greek		Oral	15 minutes
Physical Education		Year-end Average or Examination
Arts		Oral	30-40 minutes
¹Exams at the end of première. French is replaced by Philosophy and Literature in terminale.

Note: The tables in this section were adapted from the French Ministry of Education website.

Format

The majority of the baccalauréat examination takes place in a week in June. For lycée students, this is the end of the last year, terminale. This is a very stressful period for students and preparation starts early in the school year, sometimes even a few years beforehand.

Most examinations are given in essay-form. The student is given a substantial block of time (depending on the exam, from two to four hours) to complete a multiple-page, well-argued paper. The number of pages filled-out varies from exam to exam but is usually substantial considering all answers have to be written down, explained and justified. Math and science exams are problem sets but some science questions also require an essay-type answer. All foreign language exams include a short translation section as well. Although multiple-choice exams (questionnaire à choix multiples) do exist in the French educational system, they do not appear for the baccalauréat (except in mathematics where they occasionally appear but often require justification).

Some students also have the opportunity to work on a research project called the travaux personnels encadrés or TPE. These are generally conducted in groups of 2 or 3 and focus on a subject determined by the students under supervision of a faculty member.

When taken in mainland France, the baccalauréat material is the same for all students in a given stream. Secrecy surrounding the material is very tight and the envelopes containing the exams are unsealed by a high-ranking school officer (usually a principal or vice-principal) in front of the examinees only a few minutes prior to the start of the examination. The procedure is the same for each subject, in each stream. Students usually have an identification number and an assigned seat. The number is written on all exam material and the name is hidden by folding the upper part of the examination sheet(s). In this fashion, anonymity is respected. The correcting staff is usually a member of the teaching staff in the same district or, at a larger scale, in the same académie. To avoid conflicts of interests, a teacher who has lectured to a student or group of students cannot grade their exam.

Unlike the British GCSEs or the American SAT, the French baccalauréat is not a standardized test. Since most answers — even for biology questions — are given in essay form, there is considerable room for subjectivity in grading by the examiner. This is especially true in subjects such as philosophy and French literature.

Students generally take the French language and literature exam at the end of première, due to the fact that this subject is not taught in terminale (where it is replaced with a philosophy course). It also has an oral examination component, along with the written part. The oral exam covers works studied throughout première.

Weight system

Each baccalauréat stream has its own set of subjects that each carry a different weight (coefficient). This allows some subjects to be more important than others. For example, in the ES stream Economics & Social Science carry more weight than the Natural Sciences. Therefore the former is more important than the latter. Students usually study more for exams that carry heavier weights since the grade they obtain in these exams may have a bigger impact on their mean grade. It is in the calculation of this mean that passing the bac and eventual honours are determined.

Passing & honours

The passing mark is 10 out of 20. The 2004-2005 success rate for the baccalauréat in mainland France was 79.7%.

For the baccalauréat four levels of honours are given:

A mark of 12 will earn a student a mention assez bien (honours);
A mark of 14 will earn a mention bien (high honours);
A mark of 16 will earn a mention of très bien (highest honours).
A mark of 18 can be rewarded by the félicitations du jury (jury's congratulations).

Honours are crucial for students wishing to enter the classes préparatoires (or Preparatory classes), before going to a grande école.

French educators seldom use the entire grading scale. The same applies when marking the baccalauréat. Therefore it is practically impossible to get a perfect score of 20 out of 20. It is also very rare to see scores lower than 3 (which is much less than required for a supplemental examination anyway). In the 2004-2005 school year, according to official statistics, 38.6% of successful examinees were awarded honours. This shows that more than 60% of all passing students finished with a grade between 10 and 12 over 20.

Here is a useful formula² to convert a French grade ( $x$ ) to an equivalent percentage grade ( $y$ ):

y = x \cdot 4 + 30

For example, a grade of 13 over 20 is comparable to 82%.

Supplemental examination

If a student averages between 8 and 10, he or she is permitted to sit for the épreuve de rattrapage (also called the second groupe), a supplemental oral exam given in two subjects of the student's choice. If the student does well enough in these orals to raise the overall, weighed grade to a 10, then he or she receives his or her baccalauréat. If the student does poorly in the orals and receives below an 8, he or she may choose to repeat the final year of lycée (terminale). (He or she cannot choose to sit for the entire examination once again in September, as the September exams may only be taken by those who have not been able to take the June exams : illness or other serious reasons)

Receiving the Baccalauréat in the United States

There are a small number of schools which prepare students for the Baccalauréat. It can, of course, only be taken after completion of the necessary coursework, which is entirely in French. Upon receiving the Baccalauréat, students wishing to pursue post-secondary studies in the United States generally will present their degrees to the university's chancellor, or head of registrar. If it is decided that the coursework merits credits, they will generally be assigned according to what stream the student has taken.

Note

The formula was taken from the Lycée Claudel website, a French lycée in Ottawa, Canada and might only be accurate for Canadian -- and even Ontarian -- percentage grades. In Ontario an 80% grade is an "A" on the American Scale and the student is awarded an Ontario Scholar Diploma. A 90% grade is an A+ on the American Scale is is considered a grade with honours and automatically qualifies the student for government funded scholarships and bursuries. The formula should be used for comparison only.

External link

Grid for Conversion of French Grades to U.S. System

Education in France

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