A system that focuses on qualifications French high schools prepare students for a battery
of exams administered by the university system called the Baccalaureat or BAC. There are
several versions of these exams. Just under 80% of students who take the exams pass them,
but they represent only about 61% of their age group, because 39% have opted for lower
qualifications following orientation with a counsellor, or have attained no qualification.
Among the 61% who get a BAC, just under half (28.5% of the age group) have studied for
a degree which will allow them to enter professional life directly (vocational, technical and
professional BACs), most often because they are not university material. The other half of
these BAC recipients (32.4% of the age group) have obtained a general BAC, far more
difficult academically, in one of three branches: scientific, literary and economic/social
studies. Over 80% of those who take this exam pass it due to prior streaming and selection.
The exam includes separate tests, each several hours long, in every subject area studied
(please see “academic program” below). Scores are multiplied by coefficients, then added
and averaged to get the overall score which must be above 10 out of 20 to pass. (see
“grading system” below) (for example, on the literary Bac, French and Philosophy scores
are each multiplied by 7 while science scores are multiplied by 2. In contrast, on the
scientific Bac, Math scores are multiplied by 7, science scores by 6 and French by 4.)
A very heavy academic program
Whichever branch college-bound students opt for, all face a class schedule in high school
with 28 hours MINIMUM of obligatory classes weekly in French, Mathematics, Physics
and Chemistry, Earth and Life Science, History and Geography, Physical Education, one
foreign language, PLUS extra classes in Economics and Social Sciences, Extra math and
science, or extra foreign languages, depending on their branch, as well as optional classes
like music, dance, theatre, art, etc. exams (as opposed to vocational-technical high schools
that prepare students for easier exams). All students have at least 8 subjects a week; many
take options which never “lighten” ones class load, but only add to it. Some may thus have
as much as 36-42 hours of class a week (see next section). In their senior year, all students
are additionally required to take Philosophy. Compared with a general American high
school, these classes demand much more of these students in terms of memory work,
