High school students under pressure: Wednesday January 15, Terminale high school students can begin to express their wishes on Parcoursup. But there is no hurry, this phase lasts until March 13. However, Lucile, who is only in first grade, already admits to being particularly stressed about her Parcoursup file. “We can't miss a test. We have the impression, almost every day, with each big test with a significant coefficient, that we pass a piece of the baccalaureate”slips the young girl.
Each check, each grade represents a challenge for continuous assessment, since the final baccalaureate exams take place in June, once the Parcoursup procedure has been completed. Higher education courses therefore rely heavily on the year's grades to select candidates.
And it's sometimes difficult to live with: “I find it quite anxiety-inducingtestifies Manon who is aiming to study law. Sespecially when you get bad grades…”
“Recently, I got an 8 in my philosophy baccalaureate and that was a direct blow to my morale. I told myself that I was perhaps not going to waste my life, but to miss opportunities because of certain notes.”
Manon, final year studentat franceinfo
“It stressed me out a lotcontinues Manon. I had trouble going to school, it put a lot of pressure on my shoulders.”. A stress that goes back to the parents, like Odette. “We’re not yet at the baccalaureate, but it’s progressing very quickly”she fears.
Pressure on students but also pressure on teachers, when certain families criticize an assessment that is too harsh which would penalize their child for the future. Result: a tendency to generously mark the papers.
Some higher education courses even denounce an “inflation” of grades which makes the selection of candidates more difficult. “From one year to the next, the averages of the disciplines increase”, notes this prep class teacher. Before, 12-13 in math was good. Now, we are with averages of 15… It’s going up, it’s going up.” Elle “hope” that there is no loss of meaning in these notations but doubts it.
“It becomes difficult to select. We risk making mistakes, taking profiles that are not suited to what we are going to ask of them.”
A prep teacherat franceinfo
Faced with this situation, some major schools therefore decide to change their selection method. This is the case of Sciences Po Paris, which this year takes less continuous assessment into account, but more the French baccalaureate, passed first, considered more objective. “We have placed a strong emphasis on written French because we consider that it is the grade which does not depend on the high school since the corrections are anonymous”justifies Pauline Bensoussan, the director of admissions at Sciences Po Paris. A reflection on the selection criteria which will continue, at Sciences Po as in other schools.
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