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The Government approved on Tuesday the royal decree that will now regulate the University Entrance Examination (PAU), a new model that specifies the basic characteristics of the tests, regulates common parameters for evaluation and objective criteria for correction and grading.
In order to harmonise the exams , while respecting the educational competences that have been transferred to the communities, the new test has a structure and some "minimum common" correction criteria for the entire territory, according to the proposal of the Ministries of Education, Vocational Training and Sports and Science, Innovation and Universities, approved this Tuesday by the Council of Ministers.
In the royal decree the test is called PAU, but each autonomous community can then name it as it wishes, as is the case at present.
Next year, 2nd year Baccalaureate students who take this test will be examined in four subjects (Language and Literature II, Foreign Language II, the specific compulsory subject of the modality studied, and History of Spain or Philosophy), in the case of communities without a co-official language.
In autonomous regions with more than one official language, students will also take exams in Co-official Language and Literature II (five subjects in total).
Options to improve your grade
Those who wish to improve their admission grade may take up to three additional subjects of their choice, different from those in the entrance phase, which may be of a different type, taken or not, and the common subject not taken in the entrance phase (History of Spain or Philosophy). Those who have taken a second foreign language as an optional subject may also take an exam (in this case, therefore, they would take up to 4 exams).
Each exercise will last ninety minutes , with a minimum break of half an hour between consecutive exams. Students with specific educational support needs will be entitled to more time to complete each exercise, if their necessary adaptation so requires and without affecting the duration of their breaks.
As for the grades , there is no change. The test grade will be calculated by taking the arithmetic mean of each of the exercises. It will be a value between 0 and 10 points with three decimal places and the minimum grade is 4.
The university entrance grade is calculated by adding 60% of the average grade for high school and 40% of the entrance exam grade. It will also have a value from 0 to 10 with three decimal places and the minimum required will be 5. In the admission phase, the two best weighted grades of the subjects determined by each university will be added to this entrance grade.
Under current regulations, the autonomous communities will be responsible for implementing these exams in their territories.