Students take Brevet exam

NEARLY 800,000 collège students will be sitting down across France today for the written exam for the Diplôme National du Brevet (DNB), their first, and possibly last, formal achievement in schooling.

The morning for the 797,429 taking part starts with their French exam followed by mathematics in the afternoon and an oral exam on art history. They finish tomorrow morning with history, geography and civic education.

This will be the last exam in this format as it will change to take account of the way teaching has evolved since 2008.

The new exam will include more dictation - increasing from 600 characters to 800 - to check spelling, more mathematics and no opting out of history or geography.

Sat around the age of 15 in troisième at the end of collège, the exam and the continuous assessment throughout the year marks the end of compulsory schooling and tests what they have learned.

Once completed, pass or fail, students go on to lycée or into work.

Last year 83.4% of students passed and the results should be known by around July 11 or 12.
Photo: Pixsooz - Fotolia.com