Lycée Louis-le-Grand (on the right) in Paris is one of France's most famous lycées, with a rate of success to baccalauréat usually above 99%.

The baccalauréat (IPA: /bækæloreɑ/), often known in France familiarly as the bac, is a academic degree which French students sit for at the end of the lycée (secondary school). Download high resolution version (2108x1944, 599 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Download high resolution version (2108x1944, 599 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... The Lycée Louis-le-Grand, in Paris is one of the most famous lycées providing preparatory classes for grandes écoles. ... The International Phonetic Alphabet. ... In France, secondary education is divided into two schools: the collège (IPA: ) (somewhat comparable to U.S. junior high school) for the first four years directly following primary school; the lycée (IPA: ) (comparable to a U.S. high school) for the next three years. ...

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, wich means the examination must be headed by an 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. An A-level, short for Advanced Level, is a General Certificate of Education usually taken during Further Education and after GCSEs. ... Tertiary education, also referred to as third-stage or third level education, is the educational level following the completion of a school providing a secondary education such as a high school, secondary school, or gymnasium. ...

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. A university is an institution of higher education and of research, which grants academic degrees. ...

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. Secondary school may refer to Secondary school in the United Kingdom, is the general term for the schools for children between the ages of eleven and eighteen in most areas (a few areas have schools for 13-18 year olds instead, and these are called upper schools). ...

Baccalauréat général streams

Students who sit for the baccalauréat général choose one of three streams in the penultimate lycée year (première): In France, secondary education is divided into two schools: the collège (IPA: ) (somewhat comparable to U.S. junior high school) for the first four years directly following primary school; the lycée (IPA: ) (comparable to a U.S. high school) for the next three years. ...

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. Wikibooks Wikiversity has more about this subject: School of Mathematics Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Mathematics Look up Mathematics in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mathematics Inter. ... Since antiquity, people have tried to understand the behavior of matter: why unsupported objects drop to the ground, why different materials have different properties, and so forth. ... // Introduction The fundamental component of chemistry is that it involves matter in some way (this explains its broad reach). ... Main articles: Life The most salient example of biological universality is that all living things share a common carbon-based biochemistry and in particular pass on their characteristics via genetic material, which is based on nucleic acids such as DNA and which uses a common genetic code with only minor... U.S. Economic Calendar Economics at the Open Directory Project Economics textbooks on Wikibooks The Economists Economics A-Z Daily analysis of economics in the news (UK focus) Institutions and organizations Bureau of Labor Statistics - from the American Labor Department Center for Economic and Policy Research (USA) National Bureau... The social sciences are a group of academic disciplines that study the human aspects of the world. ... French (français, langue française) is one of the most important Romance languages, outnumbered in speakers only by Spanish and Portuguese. ... One of the most famous quotations about history and the value of studying history, by Spanish philosopher, George Santayana, reads: Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. ... A language is a system of symbols, generally known as lexemes and the rules by which they are manipulated. ... ... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... Ancient Greek refers to the stage in the history of the Greek language corresponding to Classical Antiquity, which normally applies on two ancient periods of Greek history: Archaic and Classic Greece. ... Basque (native name: Euskara) is the language spoken by the Basque people who inhabit the Pyrenees in North-Central Spain and the adjoining region of South-Western France. ... Breton (Brezhoneg) is a Celtic language spoken by some of the inhabitants of Brittany in France. ... Corsican (Corsu or Lingua Corsa) is a Romance language spoken on the island of Corsica (France), alongside French, which is the official language. ... Occitan, or langue doc is a Romance language, or a set of Romance languages, spoken mainly in southern France. ...

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. June is the sixth month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with a length of 30 days The month is named after the Roman goddess Juno, wife of Jupiter and equivalent to the Greek goddess Hera. ... In France, secondary education is divided into two schools: the collège (IPA: ) (somewhat comparable to U.S. junior high school) for the first four years directly following primary school; the lycée (IPA: ) (comparable to a U.S. high school) for the next three years. ...

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. An essay is a short work that treats a topic from an authors personal point of view, often taking into account subjective experiences and personal reflections upon them. ... Mathematics is the study of quantity, structure, space and change. ... // What is science? There are various understandings of the word science. According to empiricism, scientific theories are objective, empirically testable, and predictive — they predict empirical results that can be checked and possibly contradicted. ... A language is a system of symbols, generally known as lexemes and the rules by which they are manipulated. ... Translation is an activity comprising the interpretation of the meaning of a text in one language — the source text — and the production of a new, equivalent text in another language — called the target text, or the translation. ...

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. GCSE is an acronym that can refer to: General Certificate of Secondary Education global common subexpression elimination - an optimisation technique used by some compilers This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... The SATs (pronounced S-A-T, not the action sat), formerly called the Scholastic Aptitude Tests and Scholastic Assessment Tests, are standardized tests frequently used by colleges and universities in the United States to aid in the selection of incoming students. ... These five broad types of question are called analytical or logical, epistemological, ethical, metaphysical, and aesthetic respectively. ... French literature is, generally speaking, literature written in the French language, particularly by citizens of France; it may also refer to literature written by people living in France who speak other traditional non-French languages. ...

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. French (français, langue française) is one of the most important Romance languages, outnumbered in speakers only by Spanish and Portuguese. ...

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. The grandes écoles (French for great schools) of France are higher education establishments outside of the mainstream framework of the public universities. ...

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 (x) to an equivalent percentage grade (y):

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

• Education in France
• International Baccalaureate

The French educational system is highly centralized, organized, and ramified. ... The International Baccalaureate (IB) is a group of three educational programmes and their respective examinations, as established by the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO). ...

Notes

1. 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.