The Exam with No Pass Mark, Only a Rank — Epoche B1
Lyon, 4 February Dear Emma, You asked why my brother Lucas, who had the best bac results in his school, is "still at high school" at nineteen. It is a fair question. Nobody believes the answer the first time, so here it is slowly. In France, the most selective education does not run through the university. After the bac, the strongest students apply not to a university but to a classe préparatoire — two years of preparatory class held inside a lycée, an ordinary school building with bells and a canteen. Lucas is in the scientific track: everyone calls the first year maths sup and the second maths spé. He has classes most of the day, and the evenings are for the problem sheets. Once a week he has what they call a colle: an hour at the blackboard in a group of three, solving problems out loud while a teacher questions them in turn. Not an essay handed in quietly — performed thinking, graded every single week for two years. All of it aims at one spring. The concours are national competitive exams for the grandes écoles — engineering schools like Polytechnique and Centrale, the École Normale Supérieure, the top business schools. There is no pass mark. Every candidate in the country is ranked, first to last, and each school takes names from the top of the list until its seats are full. Your rank is the result. Meanwhile his friends took their bac to the university the same September and are already studying law and biology. Both paths are normal here; they simply never touch. Come at Easter — though Lucas, of course, will be revising. Love, Claire References Krashen, S. D. (1985). The Input Hypothesis: Issues and Implications. Longman.