The baccalauréat (French pronunciation: ​[bakaloʁea]), often known in France colloquially as bac, is an academic qualification that French students are required to take to graduate high school. Introduced by Napoleon I in 1808, it is the main diploma that is required to pursue university studies.

Similar university entrance qualifications exist elsewhere in Europe, variously known as baccalaureat in Germany and maturità in Italy, bachillerato in Spain, Mexico and South America as well as baccalaureus in the Netherlands and Sweden.

There is also the European Baccalaureate, which students take at the end of the European School education. It confirms a rounded secondary education and gives access to a wide range of university education. It differs from British A levels and Scottish Highers but is similar to a US two-year college diploma in that it is earned comprehensively and can be obtained in streams requiring a high level in a number of different subjects, depending on the stream.

In France there are three main types of baccalauréat : the baccalauréat général (general baccalaureate); the baccalauréat technologique (technological baccalaureate); and the baccalauréat professionnel (professional baccalaureate).

Much like British A levels or European Matura, the baccalauréat allows French and international students to obtain a standardised qualification, typically at the age of 18. It qualifies holders to work in certain areas, go on to tertiary education, or acquire some other professional qualification or training.

Although it is not legally required, the vast majority of students in their final year of secondary school take a final exam. Unlike some US high school diplomas, this exam is not for lycée completion but university entrance.

The word bac is also used to refer to one of the end-of-year exams that students must pass to get their baccalauréat diploma: le bac de philo, for example, is the philosophy exam, which all students must take, regardless of their field of study.

Within France, there are three main types of baccalauréat:

For entrance to regular universities within France, however, there are some restrictions as to the type of baccalauréat that can be presented. In some cases, it may be possible to enter a French university without the bac by taking a special exam, the diploma for entrance to higher education.

Though most students take the bac at the end of secondary school, it is also possible to enter as a candidat libre (literally, "free candidate") without affiliation to a school. Students who did not take the bac upon completion of secondary school (or did not manage to pass it) and would like to attend university, or feel that the bac would help them accomplish professional aspirations, may exercise that option. The exam is the same as the one administered to secondary-school students except that free candidates are tested in Physical Education, but students' Physical Education grade is calculated based on evaluation throughout the year.

The students who sit for the baccalauréat général choose one of three streams (termed séries) in the penultimate lycée year. Each stream results in a specialization and carries different weights (coefficients) associated with each subject. Another terminology is sometimes used, which existed before 1994 and further divided the different séries. Until then, it was possible to sit for a bac C or D (which is now S), B (now ES), or A1, A2, A3 (now L). People who passed the baccalauréat before the reform still use that terminology in referring their diploma. In 2021, the S, ES and L streams of the general baccalaureate are to be deleted; instead the students will choose thematic subjects of their choice. However, until then, the current streams for the baccalauréat général are now as follows:

The baccalauréat permits students to choose to sit for exams in over forty world languages or French regional languages (such as Alsatian, Breton, Catalan or Norman).

The S stream prepares students for work in scientific fields such as medicine, engineering and the natural sciences. Natural sciences students must specialise in either Mathematics, Physics & Chemistry, Computer science or Earth & Life Sciences.

Students of the ES stream prepare for careers in the social sciences, in Philosophy (and other human sciences) in management and business administration, and in economics. The subject Economics & Social Sciences is the most heavily weighed and is only offered in this stream. History & Geography and Mathematics are also important subjects in ES.

Students in the L stream prepare for careers in the humanities such as education, linguistics, literature, law, history (and the other social sciences) and public service. They also have interests in the arts. The most important subjects in the literary stream are Philosophy and French language and literature and other languages, usually English, German and Spanish.

The majority of the baccalauréat examination takes place in a week in June. For lycée students, that is the end of the last year, terminale.

Most examinations are given in essay-form. The student is given a substantial block of time (depending on the exam, that is from two to five hours) to complete a multiple-page, well-argued paper. The number of pages varies from exam to exam but is usually substantial considering all answers have to be written down, explained and justified. Mathematics and science exams are problem sets but some science questions also require an essay-type answer. Foreign-language exams often have a short translation section, as well. In the S stream, the Mathematics and the Earth & Life Sciences examinations may occasionally contain some multiple-choice questions (choix multiples), but this is rare and when it occurs, it does not constitute the majority of the exam.

All students also have to work on a scientific research project (travaux personnels encadrés, or TPE). Those are generally conducted in groups of 2, 3 or 4 and focus on a subject determined by the students, under the supervision of a faculty member.

When taken in mainland France, the baccalauréat material is the same for all students in a given stream. The secrecy surrounding the material is very tight, and the envelopes containing the exams are unsealed by a high-ranking school officer (usually a principal or vice-principal) in front of the examinees only a few minutes prior to the start of the examination. The procedure is the same for each subject, in each stream. Students usually have an identification number and an assigned seat. The number is written on all exam material and the name is hidden by folding and sealing the upper right-hand corner of the examination sheet(s). That way, anonymity is respected. The correcting staff is usually a member of the teaching staff in the same district or, at a larger scale, in the same académie. To avoid conflicts of interests, a teacher who has lectured to a student or group of students cannot grade that exam. Also, to ensure greater objectivity on the part of the examiners, the test is anonymous. The grader sees only an exam paper with a serial number, with all personally identifying material stripped away and forbidden from appearing, thus curbing any favoritism based upon sex, religion, national origin, or ethnicity.

Unlike the English GCSEs, Scottish Standard Grades or the American SAT, the French baccalauréat is not a completely-standardised test. Since most answers, even for biology questions, are given in essay form, the grades may vary from grader to grader, especially in subjects like philosophy and French literature.

Students generally take the French language and literature exam at the end of première since that subject is not taught in terminale, where it is replaced with a philosophy course. It also has an oral examination component, along with the written part. The oral exam covers works studied throughout première.

Each baccalauréat stream has its own set of subjects that each carry a different weight (coefficient). That allows some subjects to be more important than others. For example, in the ES stream, Economics & Social Science carry more weight than the Natural Sciences and so the former is more important than the latter. Students usually study more for exams that carry heavier weights since the grade that they obtain in these exams have a bigger impact on their mean grade. Whether or not one passes the bac and/or receives eventual honours are determined in the calculation of that mean.

The general baccalauréat offers several additional variants. The best-known subset is the "option internationale du baccalauréat" (OIB). Sometimes confusingly translated as the "French international baccalaureat", it is, however, unrelated to the International Baccalaureate (IB).

The OIB adds further subjects to the French national exam. Students choose one of the L, ES or S streams. It differs, as students take a two-year syllabus in literature, history, and geography in a foreign language. That syllabus and the way that it is examined is modelled on the national exam of the target nation. For instance, the British Section (administered by the University of Cambridge) models the programmes on A-levels in English, History, and Geography. It is therefore necessary to be fully bilingual to complete this qualification. To date there are 15 different sections supporting 14 different languages. The list is as follows: American, Arabic, British, (mainland) Chinese, Danish, Dutch, German, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Swedish.^[1]

At the end of terminale, OIB students have extra exams in Literature and History/Geography. Those exams have a high weight in the final mark of the baccalaureate and do not give extra points to OIB students. Overall, these students work much more (up to an additional 10 hours per week of classes, with a significant amount of required reading and homework attached as well) than the other general baccalauréat students, and many of them tend to go to foreign universities. University admissions tutors often consider reducing the entrance requirements for students taking the OIB compared with those taking the standard French baccalaureate to reflect the additional demands of the OIB.^[2]

Since the students that attend these schools make up a fairly-small demographic, they tend to be spread over a far larger area than would traditionally be expected of a normal lycée or secondary school. As a consequence, many of these students must commute long distances, with one-hour trips each way being fairly common. The long commutes to the longer days and the increased workload that come with the OIB make the system be highly demanding of students, and many students cannot handle the workload and so transfer to schools teaching the standard French baccalaureate. Thus, many consider the OIB qualification to be highly challenging and a sign of not only academic prowess but also one of tenacity and hard work.

To test their foreign or regional language students can choose among these different languages (not at all schools): English, German, Arabic, Armenian, Cambodian, Chinese, Danish, Spanish, Finnish, Modern Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Dutch, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Turkish, Vietnamese; regional languages: Basque, Breton, Catalan, Corsican, Auvergnat, Gascon, Languedoc, Limousin, Niçard, Provençal, Vivaro-Alpine, regional languages of Alsace regional languages of Moselle), Tahitian, Albanian, Amharic, Melanesian languages, Bambara, Berber, Bulgarian, Cambodian, Korean, Croatian, Hausa, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Malaysian, Laotian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malagasy, Persian, Fulani, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Swedish, Swahili, Tamil, Czech.^[3]

The pass mark is 10 out of 20. The 2014 success rate for the baccalauréat in mainland France was 87.9%.^[4]

For the baccalauréat, three levels of honours are given^[5]:

Excellent candidates who score over 18 can be awarded by the jury the unofficial and extremely-rare félicitations du jury (highest honours with praise), which is mentioned by hand on the official baccalauréat document^[5].

Honours are prestigious but not crucial, as admissions to the classes préparatoires (preparatory classes), which prepare students for the grande école examinations, are decided months before the examination.

French educators seldom use the entire grading scale. The same applies when marking the baccalauréat. Therefore, students are very unlikely to get a 20 out of 20 or more (it is actually possible to get more than 20 because of options). It is also very rare to see scores lower than 5.

Grade inflation has become a concern. Between 2005 and 2016, the proportion of students who received an honour in the general baccalaureate doubled.^[6]

A European section is an option in French high schools to teach a subject through a European language other than French. It also gives pupils the opportunity of having more hours in the language studied. It is also an opportunity to learn more about the culture of the country of which the language is being spoken. For example, learning History in Spanish the history of Spain and that of Central and South America would be emphasized. Teachers present their lessons in English, German, Italian or Spanish.

At the end, students can receive a "European section" mention on their baccalaureat. To have that mention, they need to get at least 12/20 on their language examination and at least 10/20 at an additional oral examination on the subject in the language.

For example, those who choose History in Spanish as an additional subject would take their Spanish examination like the rest of their classmates, who do not have History in Spanish, and get at least 12/20. They then have to pass an oral examination on history in Spanish and get at least 10/20.

A student who averages between 8 and 10 is permitted to sit for the épreuve de rattrapage (also called the second groupe), a supplemental oral examination is given in two subjects of the student's choice. A student who does well enough in those examinations to raise the overall weighted grade to a 10 gets the baccalauréat. A student who does poorly in the orals and receives below a 10 may choose to repeat the final year of lycée (terminale).

Students may not redo the entire examination in September; the September examinations may be taken only by those who have not been able to take the June examinations for serious reasons (such as illness).

There are a small number of schools which prepare students for the baccalauréat in the United States. Otherwise, it is possible to prepare for the baccalauréat with the National Centre for Distance Education, a French public institution under the oversight of the department of education dedicated to providing distance learning material. It can, of course, be taken only after completion of the necessary coursework, which is entirely in French. Upon receiving the baccalauréat, students wishing to pursue postsecondary studies in the US generally will submit their lycée/high school transcripts to a college or university office of undergraduate admissions. If it is decided that the coursework, along with American standardized test scores, application essays, and letters of recommendation, merits admission, students holding the baccalauréat will be admitted to the undergraduate program to which they have applied.