This year, thousands of high school students face A historical selectivity. For the first time, the University Access Test (PAU) will have the same structure throughout the country, marking A before and after in the test Access.
These changes are generating a lot of expectation and anxiety among students, extending the opinion that changes They have increased difficulty With regard to previous calls, in a demanding evidence.
Uncertainty about How to develop The new structure of Pau is one of the main concerns among students, and the fear of the unknown has become the main protagonist of the classrooms a few days after the call.
Unification and fears of the new exam model
Pau 2025 is a change of structure in the access test that seeks Unify the exam model In all autonomous communities, with the objective of make more fair Access to the university, regardless of the community where the test is carried out.
According to Diana Morant, Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities “is more agile, modern and adapts to society with the maximum academic rigor and guaranteeing the equal opportunities of all students in Spain.”
Teachers have expressed concern that, although the exam format has been homogenized, the question of the question of the difficulty according to the community Autonomous, which could continue to generate inequalities.
“The competences are transferred to the autonomous communities, and each community fixes a part of its own agenda. This makes a unique model very difficult to implement. (…) The test is organized decentralized, while the admission is unique. Even if you have to ask for a place in each university district, your note serves to enter any university of Spain,” He pointed out Javier Oubiña, Student Vice Chancellor and Employability of the Autonomous University of Madrid.
However, one of the main fears of students is that this new format Increase the difficulty of the test and cause a generalized decrease in the notes. That could make access to races with the highest cut -off note and leave them in disadvantages with last year’s students.
“If the notes go down a lot, it can put us at a disadvantage to enter the most demanded careers, since it is likely that those who presented the previous years have higher notes than what we are going to have. That, and the increase in the difficulty of the questions, is what overwhelms us the people of my course I have around me,” assured to The country Julia, a high school that prepares for the PAU.
As He pointed out Carla Mora, 2nd high school student in Almería to Almería Diario “The changes should have already been made for students who are in 1st Baccalaureate this year and not for us that so far we have been working in a different way the test, that is, with the previous model. The novelties have been introduced to us suddenly.”
Main changes in Pau 2025
One of the main News of the PAU 2025 It is the disappearance of the possibility of choosing between several optional questions. Now, all the questions included in the test are mandatory, although it will be possible to choose some questions or sections within the exercise itself.
From the Ministry of Education it is warned that this “optionality will not imply being able to study less a agenda”, which forces students to prepare the complete content of each subject, and not to do without it as allowed the previous model.
Another of the novelties that are worrying students is the change in the format of the questions. The new exam will combine exercises with closed tests type test, semi -constructed questions (such as filling spaces) and, the most controversial, open answers in which the student must develop the resolution process.
In the latter it has been sought a more competence approach. That is, the student has understood the concept and not only memorized. They seek to evaluate creativity, critical thinking, reflection and maturity in resolution.
With the arrival of the open format of the questions, the correction criteria are also modified. In them, not only will the correction of the response be assessed, but also coherence, cohesion, grammatical, lexical and spelling correction, as well as the presentation. Spelling failures will mean a 10% penalty of the score, according to the new guidelines.
Both the fact of forcing students to prepare the entire age The most difficult in recent years.
What has not changed in the 2025 PAU
Despite the changes, some fundamental aspects of the PAU in 2025 remain the same as in previous calls. The test continues to be divided into two parts: a basic and mandatory, in which it is necessary to obtain at least 5 to access the university; and another volunteer, which allows you to add up to 4 additional points to try to improve the final grade.
According What is indicated by the Ministrythe subjects of the mandatory part They are Castilian and Literature II language, foreign language II, History of Spain or Philosophy (to choose), and Co -official Language and Literature II in communities with their own language.
The voluntary part includes at least two subjects of the Baccalaureate, History or Philosophy (the one that I did not choose for the mandatory phase), and a second foreign language (English, French, German, Italian or Portuguese).
The final grade calculation system has not changed: 60% of the final grade corresponds to the average high school grade and the remaining 40% is provided by the note obtained in the PAU. That is, if in Baccalaureate an average grade of 7.5 has been obtained and in the Pau an 8, the final access note will be a 7.7 (Baccalaureate note x 0.6 + Pau note x 0.4).
The time to perform each exam is maintained in 90 minutes, with 30 minutes of rest between tests. Students with educational support needs will have more time.
Image | Flickr (University of Seville)
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