26 May 2023

The teachers, after supervising the specialty tests, order the pages of the copies.  At the Victor-Louis high school, in Talence (Gironde), on March 20, 2023.

In front of the high schools at the exit of the examination rooms, the final year students who had just been released from the two baccalaureate specialty tests they took from Monday March 20 to Wednesday March 22 shared their impressions, exchanged their drafts, checked the validity of their responses. They also apprehensively compared the statements of “day 1” and “day 2”, anxious to know if they had been advantaged or penalized by a more or less difficult subject than their peers in the same discipline.

Because this is one of the changes brought about from last year by the new version of the baccalaureate, the flagship specialty tests of which took place this year for the first time in March: in the general stream, all candidates from the same material do not pass the same test at the same time. The final year students following about fifteen different combinations, the fruit of the choice left to them between twelve specialties, it was indeed impossible to hold this part of the exam over three days without planning two subjects over two days in the eight specialties. the most requested.

Among the pupils, the feeling of inequity was not long in emerging, all the more acute since the marks resulting from these tests will weigh for 32% of the final mark of the baccalaureate and, for the first time, will appear in the files Parcoursup. “When we passed the SVT (Life and earth sciences) the first day and math or physics the second, we got screwed, right? »reacted several candidates on Tuesday evening, when others summoned in the opposite configuration showed on the contrary their relief.

Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers Bac 2023: the great premiere of the specialty tests in March

Inevitable deviations

In each discipline, the correctors agree that the two subjects were not of equal difficulty; and that they couldn’t be anyway. “There are parts of the program that are more or less difficult than others, more or less classic subjects, more or less reassuring ways of formulating statements… The subjects are unique and when there are two, there is necessarily biasesexplains Marie-Thérèse Lehoucq, professor of physics and chemistry.

Inevitable differences which were however sometimes considered too important and caused the incomprehension of the pupils and the disarray of the teachers. This is particularly the case in the SVT specialty, passed by nearly 93,000 candidates. ” The difference was stark! gets carried away David Boudeau, professor in this matter and president of the disciplinary association. The subject of the first day was very confusing, even tricky, while that of the second day was much more classic. » His students dialed on “day 1” and several came out “very destabilized”including good students, reports the teacher. “More than the baccalaureate, it is the fairness of the files in Parcoursup that is at stake for them, because recruiters will only see a mark”recalls Mr. Boudeau.

You have 56.74% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *