A brief explanation of the French National Education system, its exams, and our own school profile to help your university understand our candidates’ applications

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 scores are multiplied by 9, Philosophy scores by 7 and science scores only 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 add extra hours and work. 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, analysis and synthesis ability, reasoning, organisation, quantity and quality of homework, and writing skills. Indeed, with school from 8 to 6 four days a week and half days on Wednesdays and Saturdays with several hours of homework every night, students who manage to do the work well deserve enormous credit. The material is studied here in greater depth, much more like the work of university students. As a consequence, much of course work itself can be considered as honors in every year and AP quality in the junior year. Academically-oriented courses in the final year are all AP level or higher.

Our school profile

Our school is designed for students who are bilingual, college-bound students (over 98% go on to university), often from families that come from abroad or have lived abroad. Language ability and a desire to prepare for the general BAC described above (that opens the door to university) are the only criteria for entry, but it requires substantial extra time and effort to succeed here, which discourages many candidates. Students take all the usual required classes in French (see the list above) but also take extra History/Geography and Language/ Literature classes in one of six languages we run here (English, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Arabic). This adds an additional 4 hours in 9th grade (year 10 UK) which goes up to an additional 6 hours of class in 10th grade (year 11 UK), with AP level work in 11th and 12th grades (years 12 and 13 UK), including 3 extra in language and literature and 2-3 in history. Students who additionally choose to take other options can end up with 36 to 42 hours of class a week. Our students take British exams at the end of the year to validate their level and do better than the British national average on the tests.

International Exams

The "Option Internationale Baccalaureat" or International High School Graduation Exams (OIB exams) take place in May each year. The OIB was created by the French Ministry of Education in collaboration with Cambridge Assessment of Cambridge University (Admissions Testing Service) for bilingual high school students like those in our school. It aims at building a rich curriculum through teaching different languages and cultures within the context of the academic program of the French BAC. Variants of the OIB exist in a variety of languages. (N.B. There is no connection between the OIB and the IB or International Baccalaureat. The latter is overseen by the BAC of Geneva and, unlike the OIB, does not test a fully bilingual culture.)

Characteristics of the OIB

1. The OIB is an option and not a branch of study and is therefore open to students enrolled in the three branches of the general BAC. It means preparing for these exams in addition to all the general BAC exams.

2. The OIB option is an especially challenging diploma which requires two years of intense preparation. Students must follow the OIB courses in Première and Terminale (11th and 12th grades, years 12 and 13) to gain eligibility to present the international option at the BAC. Doing the OIB means adding 6 hours to the weekly schedules of the students described in the previous section (see school profile above.)

3. The OIB test is comprised of English, plus History and Geography combined. The History/Geography syllabus, however, is that of the French national curriculum, taught in both English and French, with a special British emphasis on themes and subject areas. The Tests themselves are genuine British A level exams.

4. The OIB is equivalent to choosing three A levels in the British educational system in English literature, history and geography in addition to the A levels for the bac branch chosen. (see note below*)

This corresponds to an AP level or higher in these subjects. Only students with an excellent level in English (oral and written) are encouraged to present this option at the BAC, yet all of the students in our English section do so. OUr success rate is generally 100%. The OIB is heavily weighted (coefficient 9 in English and 7-9 in History/Geography), which contributes to the overall result of a student’s BAC.

5. The written OIB examination lasts four hours for English and four more for History/Geography. There is also an oral examination in each of the two subjects. The choice of essay and oral questions, and the correction of these examinations, are overseen by Cambridge Assessment (Admissions Testing Service) in affiliation with the French Ministry of Education.

*(Normal A level equivalent subjects of a Scientific bac include Mathematics, Life Science, Physics/Chemistry; for a Literary bac these A level equivalents include Philosophy, French Literature and a foreign language;for an Economics and Social Sciences bac the A level equivalents are in Economics and Social Science and Mathematics.)

Grading

It is difficult to translate the French grading system into the American or British systems. First, a grade in a vocational-technical program or a general BAC program does not at all mean the same thing. Second, a student studying the literary branch (chosen in 11th grade) has a much easier mathematics program to learn than one in social sciences whose math program is a bit easier than the scientific branch, while the French literature program for the literary branch is far heavier than that faced by students in the scientific branch. So, a student who gets quite a good grade in math or literature in a branch where that is not emphasized still may know far less about the subject than one whose grade was much lower but who has studied in a branch where the subject is developed more fully. Third, the higher general level of difficulty in classes, though substantiated by general statistics, is variable according to the subjects involved, and manifests itself differently depending on the quality of particular schools and the severity of particular teachers.

Students doing the challenging OIB program(International Option of the French Baccalaureat, which has nothing to do with the much less demanding IB cannot be graded on the same scale as other students as their exams tests true bilingual and bicultural students with a much heavier class schedule (6 hours more a week) and large amounts of homework above and beyond all the normal bac subjects which they ALSO take exams for.

Having a team which has worked in  the U.S., U.K. and  French systems, we want to fairly represent our students, neither under or overplaying their abilities, and have tried to take numerous statistics into account in the calculations mentioned below: average performance by our students who have gone abroad and returned or vice versa, SAT scores correlated to class grades and percentiles, French general Bac scores and percentages of students they represent, etc.

In grading, the French use a 20 point system where the top five points are given only to the exceptionally talented students (top 6 points in OIB) , except in more subjective artistic disciplines. The bottom 4 points are usually given only to students who have done almost no work or are, unhappily, quite lost. Let it be clear that in the charts at the bottom of this article, we are referring to: a. general BAC students and b. a composite, average grade that might be awarded across the whole spectrum of subjects and branches, knowing that in one branch and subject area a "10", for example, might represent a higher standard of achievement than it would in another branch and subject area. Finally, let it be said that, regarding the U.S., a 15 and above average is really A+ work in the general bac without OIB and 14 and above is A+ work for the OIB, while a 14 in the OIB is an A in the British system with A* beginning at 15.  The documents attached give more precise conversion information for conversions to the U.S. and U.K. system for both OIB and non-OIB students.

Class Ranking

In explanation of the percentiles used above, I should explain that the French system doesn’t run comparative statistics for class ranking for some of the same reasons it is hard to translate French grades into the U.S. system. One can only compare a student to the 30 (or possibly if there are two classes in the same branch, taking the same OIB, 60) or so other students who take exactly the same program, not all those who are seniors in the same high school, and statistically, such a group is too small to make ranking very meaningful.

Nevertheless, it is clear that:

General BAC branches already exclude all the students who chose vocational-technical-professional BAC options and don’t intend to pursue their education further after high school.

Among students who chose a general BAC, students with an overall weighted average (considering the higher coefficients applied to subjects that are emphasized in each branch) of over 16 (who get a citation for "with highest distinction" or "très bien") would comprise about 4% of their class without OIB or 1.6% of their class with OIB, . but in fact, compared with all high school seniors in the U.S. or UK year 13 students this means they represent only 1% without OIB or 0.4% with OIB: above 99.5%ile. Adjusted this way, those getting from 14 -16 (with a citation of "with great distinction" or "bien") make up only about 7% in non-OIB or 3.35% in OIB (above 96.65.%ile ), and those receiving 12-14 (with the citation "honorable mention" or "assez bien") compose 15% in non OIB and only 10% in OIB (above 90%ile).

For detailed equivalencies between France and Britain or the U.S. and France, see attached documents.

In Conclusion

We hope these explanations will help you interpret the performance of our students fairly. We remain at your disposal for any additional information you might wish to have.

English Section Counseling Team for University Applications Abroad