Bac specialty tests: “I’m too scared but there is a serious way that I have the average”


At the Buffon high school in Paris, the high school students passed their first specialty test on Wednesday. While some say they are relieved and find the exam simpler than expected, others regret a new system with complex logistics.

There are the big worried ones who arrived an hour early, their eyes riveted on their review sheets streaked with highlighter. And those, more serene who tumble ten minutes before the bell. There is no doubt that the bac is well and truly back. “Since very young, we have been told about it, and this is now. It’s a bit surreal.” loose Alexandre, 18, who is about to take his plastic arts specialty test this Wednesday afternoon at the Buffon high school, in the 15th arrondissement of Paris. Taking into account a school career dented by two years of pandemic and a new wave of omicron without pity, the Ministry of National Education had, at the end of January, announced to postpone the specialty tests from mid-March to mid-May. With the great oral, they constitute the pillars of Jean-Michel Blanquer’s baccalaureate reform and are therefore inaugurated in this month of May 2022, after their cancellation last year.

“We are a bit of the test generation”

The kick-off was given this Wednesday for three days. This meeting is crucial for the 523,199 candidates in the general and technological streams, who will each have two tests. These subjects – chosen in number of three in première, two of which are retained in terminale – generally replace the old scientific, literary and economic streams. The coefficient of these writings rises to 16 for each test, or nearly a third of the final grade, almost as much as the 40% devoted to continuous assessment. Team “not ultra-stressed”, Alexandre considers himself lucky: “The new baccalaureate is simpler, we have fewer tests and fewer things to revise.”

Before rushing under the large wooden door of this 19th century establishment, the students debate the merits of the postponement but also of the new spread of the baccalaureate calendar. “For the plastic arts, I am ready because there is not much to revise but for the SES, it is more complicated. We finished the program before the Easter holidays,” unrolls Carolina, 17, adding that she would have “preferred to have the exams in June and three more weeks of revisions”. Her friend Clémence, 18, who chose a doublet humanities literature and philosophy-English literature, nuance: “It would have been all focused. I think that, in any case, we are never really ready. Arrived in the last in high school, Jovanny, 18, abounds: “Spending them in May allows you to breathe a little before the philosophy and the great oral in June.” On the program for him this Wednesday: history-geography, geopolitics and political science.

Particularity of this new bac Blanquer, the number of combinations of specialties being important, it is impossible to pass all the students at the same time. Each subject is therefore the subject of two test sessions. Enough to fuel the feeling of injustice. “Almost the whole school takes the SES test today, only five of us will take it tomorrow. It is not normal. They can have a super simple topic on economic growth and we can have a super tough topic on Europe tomorrow,” Carolina hammers. Before continuing: “It loses the national character of the events. Our parents, brothers and sisters, passed the same subject, returned their copies at the same time. Her friend Clémence wants to be reassuring: “I think they’re trying to make it equivalent subjects.” Even before the start of the tests, the comparisons had already begun. In “very stressful”, Marie, 18, who chose the SES-English specialties, regrets: “We are undergoing the reforms, we are a bit of the test generation.”

“The tests are too simple”

Two hours after the start of the event, Raphaël is among the first out. “It was okay, honestly. The math was not very complicated, especially since we had a MCQ among the exercises,” rejoices the 18-year-old high school student, less serene for the physics-chemistry writing that awaits him this Thursday. Leaving the room fairly quickly, Paul even regrets a lack “requirement for this math test”: “Our diploma no longer makes much sense, the tests are too simple and, in addition, we have continuous control.” For the voluble Elenore, all hopes are still allowed: “I’m too scared but there is a serious way that I have the average in maths. I never had the average of the year. Sitting on the steps of the school in a large denim overalls, Mathis launches on the fly: “How good that it happened!” This physics-chemistry paper that he dreaded the most “was finally simpler” than anticipated. The candidates were able to count for this first on an exceptional safety net “thanks” to the Covid: the possibility of choosing between two subjects or several exercises. “Being able to ignore a subject was very useful”, Mathis admits.

As the minutes pass, the forecourt regains its pre-event effervescence. The “so ?” fuse, the white sheets flutter alongside the colorful drafts. Carolina took all the time she had – 4 hours – and even ran out. “I did not expect that. It worries me even more for the SES on Thursday, especially since those who passed today had a very easy subject. In humanities, her friend Clémence also had to play against the clock. “The subjects were interesting but difficult compared to what we had prepared.” While the spirits are already turning to the second writing, Carolina projects further: “We have more than a month to wait before having the results. I know I’m not going to stop telling myself that I should have said this, this and this.”



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