Dates (and times) of 2022 brevet school exams in France announced

France’s brevet exams for this academic year will take place on June 30 and July 1, 2022.

The Diplôme National du Brevet des Collèges – brevet for short – is a diploma given to pupils of the final year of collège, Troisième, (usually age 15, equating to Year 10 in the UK or 9th Grade in the US).

To be awarded with the qualification, students must demonstrate competency in core subject areas including mathematics and French.

Their grade – out of 800 – is partly determined by continuous assessment carried out during the year (400 points) and partly through a series of written and oral exams at the end of the year (400 points)

The timetable for next year’s exams is:

Thursday, June 30

French: Part 1 - This exam will take place from 09:00 until 10:30 and will test grammar, comprehension and interpretative skills.

French: Part 2 - This will involve a composition task to be completed between 10:45 and 12:15.

Mathematics: From 14:30 until 16:30

Friday, July 1

History, Geography and Ethics: Beginning at 09:00 and ending at 11:00

Science: From 13:30 until 14:30. Physics/Chemistry and/or Natural Sciences and/or Technology. Candidates choose two of the three options.

Students must also give an oral presentation on a subject of their choice before completing the other tests. For this, they must have completed a written project over the course of the year, which they then discuss with a panel of examiners.

Pupils can also choose to take a further exam in an additional subject such as Latin or a modern foreign language to boost their final score. This assessment will take place on July 1 between 15:00 and 16:30.

Next year, brevet results are expected between July 8 and 12, depending on the school.

To pass, a pupil must receive 400 out of the 800 points available.

Examiners can award a special “mention” if the student has performed particularly well and gained a high number of points.

These commendations range from “assez bien” (AB - honours) for more than 480 points, to “bien” (B - high honours) for more than 560 points, to “très bien” (TB - with highest honours) for more than 640 points.

Each year around 850,000 candidates enter brevet exams. Pupils who are not able to sit the exams in the summer will be able to take them on September 12 and 13, 2022.

In 2021, the brevet pass rate was 88%, with 25% of students receiving a mention très bien.

The proportion of pupils passing was lower than that of 2020 (90.5%), when all exams were replaced by continuous assessments because of the Covid pandemic.

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