Baccalauréat
From Freepedia
- In Canada, the term baccalauréat refers to a bachelor's degree in francophone universities.
The baccalauréat (IPA: /bækæloreɑ/), often known in France familiarly as the bac, is a diploma which French students sit for at the end of the lycée (secondary school).
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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.
The word bac is also used to refer to 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 than the one administered to secondary-school students.
Baccalauréat général streams
Students who sit for the baccalauréat général choose one of three streams in the penultimate lycée year (première):
| Streams | S scientifique (natural sciences) | ES économique et sociale (economics and social sciences) | L littéraire (litterature) |
| Description | 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. Students must sit for exams in one to three modern languages and also have the option of sitting for Latin, ancient Greek or both. |
The baccalauréat permits students to choose to sit for exams in over forty world languages or French minority languages (such as Basque, Basque, 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 and grading
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.
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 SATs, the French baccalauréat is not a standardized test. Since most answers -- even for biology questions -- are given in an essay-form there is a lot of 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.
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 three 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).
Honours are crucial for students wishing to enter the classes préparatoires, before going to a grande école.
It is important to understand that 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 formula1 to convert a French grade (<math>x</math>) to an equivalent percentage grade (<math>y</math>):
For example, a grade of 13 over 20 is comparable to 82%.
Supplemental examination
If a student averages an 8, 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 sit for the entire examination once again in September. If in September, the student fails, he or she may choose to repeat the final year of lycée (terminale).
See also
Notes
- 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. The formula should be used for comparison only.
