Selectivity returns to normal in Catalonia. After two years with the University Access Tests, known as PAU, altered due to the pandemic, the appointment of pre-university youth recovers the three-day calendar. The tests, which will be held between June 14 and 16, expect 40,557 students, about 800 more than a year ago.
In previous years, the exams were extended for four days so that capacity control and prevention measures could be fulfilled with more guarantees, something that is no longer necessary this year due to the increase in immunization and the drop in Covid infections. . For this same reason, the use of the mask will no longer be mandatory, although the Ministry of Research and Universities of the Generalitat recommends that students wear it during the tests, since they are held in closed spaces and with a concentration of people.
Another novelty of this PAU is that applicants will say in writing, for the first time, in which language they want to receive the exams. The Interuniversity Council of Catalonia, which depends on the Department of Research and Universities, has ordered that young people be asked this way. A year ago, they had to answer by a show of hands and before they were previously asked one by one before entering the classroom.
The PAUs are divided into two phases: the general phase, which is compulsory, and consists of five exams -Catalan language and literature, Spanish language and literature, foreign language, history and a common Baccalaureate option subject-, and the specific phase , where students can take exams in up to three subjects.
The Baccalaureate grade has a value of 60% while the general phase has a value of 40%, provided that the student obtains a minimum grade of 4 in the average of five exams that make up the general phase.
Catalan students are distributed in about sixty towns with a total of 207 tribunals (almost all of them located on campuses of the main Catalan universities but also in some secondary schools), and the results of the tests will be available from 29 June in the Portal d'Accés a la Universitat.
Of the total number of students enrolled, 32,172 are students who have finished their Baccalaureate this year; 4,612 are free-enrolment (or Baccalaureate from other years, or who want to improve grades or who are only examined in the specific phase) and 3,773 are from higher-level training cycles.
