Four out of ten university students do not get into the degree program and institution they chose as their first choice. This proportion, which would be alarming in educational stages such as vocational training (VT), is a trend repeated in the Catalan university system. In 2025, in the July pre-registration period, only 58% (27,927) of the students assigned a place obtained a seat at the degree program and university they had chosen as their first preference. In the July pre-registration period of last year, 62% of university students were able to study where they wanted, the same percentage as those who did so in 2023.

The fact that almost all students (95%) who took the university entrance exams passed doesn't mean that Catalonia's university entrance exam results are good. In fact, according to data released Wednesday by the Department of Research and Universities, the pass rate in the first edition of the new university entrance exam dropped by two points compared to the 2024 and 2023 tests, when the pass rate was 97%, and by one point compared to the 2022 and 2023 results.

Gentrification, lobbying, and the inability to afford rent. The housing crisis was undoubtedly the focus of the first Catalan language exam without required reading for the university entrance exam. The test, which some students admitted was "affordable," like most of this year's entrance exams, began with a reading comprehension exercise based on an excerpt from the article. Green gentrification, the ignored danger, by Josep Maria Boronat i Pujals –and not Joan Maria, as it appeared by mistake in the exam–.

After decades of university entrance exams, in 2025, for the first time, a woman appeared on the philosophy exam. Philosopher Martha Nussbaum, with a reflection on the need to make education compulsory, was the protagonist of the philosophy test alongside René Descartes and his Metaphysical Meditations. Almost half of the students took the exam, unlike last year when less than a third chose it, and which some have criticized as "very easy."

Now it's time. After years of proposals and drafts, this Wednesday more than 44,000 students across Catalonia will be taking the new selectivity model for the first time. These new PAU exams aim to be more competency-based—and therefore less rote—and have already generated controversy before they even begin.

The 44,200 students who, starting Wednesday, will be playing a part of their future in the university entrance exams have been preparing for this moment for months, in one way or another. At the same time, the wheels have also been turning for weeks to make the university entrance exams run like clockwork—or at least try to. This network includes everyone from the university entrance exam coordinator and the head of the University Admissions Office in Catalonia to 221 examining boards that organize 35 tests and, of course, the more than 2,400 teachers involved in the university entrance exams.

Finally, spelling mistakes will deduct points on university entrance exams where writing is a major focus. The Catalan government has backtracked on a fiasco that had simultaneously generated alarm and confusion among students, teachers, and families. The Department of Universities announced on Wednesday that spelling would only deduct points on language and literature exams, but the following day, Thursday, following a public reaction, they quickly hid behind confusion and went back to square one. With less than a week until the university entrance exams, such a spectacle is lamentable. So, from the outset, the ones who fail are the university entrance exam itself: those responsible for its organization. A mistake like this does nothing to enhance the prestige of the exam and, above all, creates insecurity among both students and examiners.

A major twist in the university entrance exams that 44,200 students will take in Catalonia next week. Unlike what It had been hinted at the beginning of the course, in this year's PAU exams, spelling mistakes will only be included in language and literature subjects. That is, spelling will not be taken into account (and will not be penalized) in any of the 25 compulsory and optional subjects that do not directly assess a language or literature.