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PAU Mathematics exam prompts a surge in appeals
The controversy surrounding the PAU Mathematics exam continues to grow in Barcelona and throughout Catalonia. The sharp drop in the average mark, from 6.12 to 4.18, has left thousands of students awaiting reviews and wondering whether they will be able to enter the degree course they had planned.
The dissatisfaction centres on an exam that many pupils felt was too long and demanding for the time available. The Govern has acknowledged problems with its duration and calculation load, although it maintains that the content did match the official curriculum.
The impact is already visible in the appeals. More than 2,000 students have asked for their Mathematics examination to be reviewed, nearly 10% of those who sat it. The figure represents an increase of 40% over the previous year and reflects the concern of pupils, families and teachers.
Concern is especially high among those seeking degrees with high entry grades. In these cases, a few tenths of a point can decide admission to Medicine, Engineering, Architecture, Economics or highly sought-after joint degrees, so the collapse in results is not seen as a simple setback.
The Minister for Research and Universities, Núria Montserrat, has said that improvements will be introduced to the examination design for the 2027 PAU. The Departament will analyse the assessments of the markers, who rated alignment with the curriculum at 8.19 out of 10, and will also draw on teachers from other autonomous communities and education experts.
The controversy has reached the Parliament, where solutions have been requested for pupils who may have been harmed. Meanwhile, families are waiting for the reviews to clarify whether there were marking errors or whether the problem lay in the overall design of the examination.
The debate has also opened a broader discussion about how Mathematics is taught and assessed. Montserrat has stated that the low performance points to a structural challenge, not just one particular exam, and has argued for reviewing the educational approach to this subject.
The university entrance examinations shape the immediate future of thousands of young people every year, but this time the tension has centred on one particular subject. The case is a warning for the Catalan education system: when a key exam does not properly measure time, difficulty and expectations, its effect does not remain in the classroom; it reaches families, universities and the life decisions of an entire generation.