“Ihad completely forgotten about the philosophy test. It was a reminder on my phone that made me understand that it was in a week, ”admitted Zoélinh, in her final year in a Parisian high school, a few days from the philosophy baccalaureate, which is held on Wednesday June 14.
If the young girl has since opened a few notebooks, she indeed has reason to rest easy: thanks to the marks obtained during the continuous assessment and the specialty tests, organized this year for the first time in March, she is already certain of having the baccalaureate, obtained by 96% of general terminal students last year.
Spread over the year, the Blanquer version bac no longer has much to do with the intense week of tests experienced at the end of June by baccalaureate holders before 2020. If there is still the philosophy test to be taken this Wednesday, followed by the grand oral, between June 19 and 30, the anxiety is already far away for many high school students. They indeed know the majority of their marks and can play the strategists by indulging in scholarly calculations to predict their average.
“I’m more stressed by the highway code”
“We have already passed 80% of our baccalaureate, assesses Pierre, educated at the Charles-de-Gaulle high school in Poissy. The two events that remain don’t stress me out, I don’t think about them too much. I was more tense before the specialty tests, in March, because 30% of the baccalaureate was over two days. There, with the grade simulator, I saw that with 5/20 in philosophy I still had a very good mention, so I’m not going to give it my all. I’m more stressed by the highway code that I’m preparing and by the accommodation that I have to find for the start of the school year. Since March, the baccalaureate has practically been completed. »
An observation shared by many students across the country, and further reinforced by the assignments on Parcoursup, whose first salvo of results began to fall on 1er June, i.e. 15 days before the last baccalaureate exams. Based on the marks obtained in the first and second trimester and on those of the specialty tests, the results arrive even before the examination is completely finished.
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Zoélinh also thinks much more about the algorithm than about Kant or Spinoza: accepted in five of her wishes but still on the waiting list in the formations she prefers, she looks every day since the publication of the results l evolution of the classification which brings it closer to the licenses of its choice.
“I’m rather optimistic, I’m making good progress, I think I’ll get a place in my “top 3” within a week, explains the young girl. So the baccalaureate… I’m not officially on vacation, but I act as if, I go to class when I feel like it… Grades and honors won’t change anything. »
Zoélinh even went to the Cannes Film Festival in May, skipping class for a few days with her parents’ blessing. “They already knew that it didn’t change much anymore”, smiles the one who wants to integrate an audiovisual license. And she is not the only one: absences have multiplied in the classrooms once the specialty tests have passed. The students still present looked up, patiently waiting for classes to end in June.
Philosophy and the “Big O” remain important
Continuous control completed, average almost complete, registrations in higher education in progress… Difficult to blame them: the sacrosanct baccalaureate no longer exists. “As the vast majority of an age group now has the baccalaureate and we are not creating enough places in higher education to meet demand, the selection logic shifts the stakes to Parcoursup. This promotes an instrumental relationship to knowledge, which takes precedence over learning, observe Cédric Hugrée and Tristan Poullaouec, authors of The coming university. A new school selection system, published by Reasons for Action. One of the consequences is that the last tests in June have little stakes and that the school year has been shortened even though the program has not changed. »
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This is what Mathilde observes, admitted to a law degree in Paris. If this year has sometimes been tense, the pace slowed down considerably once the specialty tests were over. “The final year is an intense year until March, but then the pressure is released, she gauges. Afterwards, there’s almost nothing left, it becomes much lighter… I’m not very motivated to work anymore. »
The philosophy marks and that of the “Grand O” nevertheless retain their importance for those who have not been accepted into the training of their dreams and still need to prove themselves to go up on the Parcoursup waiting lists or prepare reorientation next year. This is the case of Maëlys, educated near Montpellier: her wishes refused, she is forced to join a private school at the start of the school year.
“I will try to return to the public next year and, at that time, all my marks for the baccalaureate and the third quarter will count on Parcoursup, she explains. For this year, it is of no use to me, it will not be enough to make me go up in the rankings, but I will do my best not to leave anything to chance for next year. »