The president of the Federation of Entities for the Teaching of Mathematics in Catalonia, Raül Fernández, told ARA that the exam for this subject, in the PAU, for scientific students, was "excessively long, with more sections than it should have and some poorly worded questions". Students achieved the lowest average in a decade, and, in fact, many left the test crying. "An exercise this year was like two exercises from the previous year," he says.

In a world where illiterates and empty heads in general achieve notable media coverage, it is always comforting to hear from students who have achieved the best grades in the “tremendous” university entrance exams, because they usually speak with a lot of sense. The number 1, Laura Tallada, from Banyoles, explains that despite the possibility of continuing in her father's pharmacy, she has decided to study humanities, because she has always liked them. The number 1, Laura Tallada, from Banyoles, explains that despite the possibility of continuing in her father's pharmacy, she has decided to study humanities, because she has always liked them. Ah, the eternal dilemma between career prospects and interests, a situation where parents often tear their hair out. However, I have already heard professionals from the Barcelona digital ecosystem explain that while junior programming jobs are already being done by machines (which doesn't mean they don't need engineers), there is a need for humanistic minds capable of thinking about AI biases, company responsibility, social impact, technological law, philosophy and programming, and user experience. To be sure that Life's Laurels are not mistaken if they don't want to be pharmacists, I ask the AI what it would say if it were their father. And it answers: "Don't choose a career because others believe such a high grade deserves a science. But don't just pick without thinking about how you want to live in ten years. Choose what you're passionate about, but get well-informed about career prospects." And when I point out that the answer lacks the biological emotional factor, he takes me directly to a science fiction movie from years ago: "I haven't experienced a partner's pregnancy, the birth of a child, worry about their health, pride, fear, or the conflict between wanting them to be happy and wanting them to have economic security. A real father can offer a perspective I can't have." He seems like a word machine.

Students who took the University Entrance Exams (PAU) can now check the grades of all their exams and know their final mark in each subject. The grades were published on Tuesday morning and students can view them through the University Access Portal. The result of the selectivity exam must be added to the grades from high school or the vocational training cycle.

"I have an average of 9 throughout high school and this has been the worst exam of my life," assured one of the students last week after leaving the exam – which some described as "terrible" – in mathematics of this year's PAU. Next to her, her teacher assured that this year's test "was affordable, but it asked things differently than how it had been done in class" and also said that nerves had to be taken into account. While waiting to see what happens with the grades of this exam, this scene can be an example of how the difference between the average high school grade and that of the general phase of the PAU is further away each year.

End of the 2026 PAU exams, marked by the coincidence with the Pope's visit to Barcelona and the premiere of new detectors for electronic devices —mobile phones, watches, and smart glasses, etc—. Despite this novelty, the Minister of Research and Universities, Núria Montserrat, assured this Thursday that no electronic "device" has been detected in the random checks carried out throughout the tests.

With what moral authority does one of the former heads of the PAU, the University Entrance Exams, which have become the main stupidity of the educational system, write an article like this? An initial clarification, however, regarding the functions they have:1) Arrange in a single line all students who have completed their baccalaureate studies or equivalent and who aspire to university studies.2) Ensure that pre-university centers that have taken care of these students (in general, high schools, subsidized centers, and private centers offering baccalaureate studies or cycles equivalent to the baccalaureate) reasonably evaluate their students.Regarding the first function, it is a clear and evident reality. The entirety of the candidates are placed on a single list and the places are assigned to the university centers. But it must also be clarified that the baccalaureate grade obtained by students in their school is the determining factor for the final qualification. Part of the dishonor of the PAU (University Entrance Exam) issue is the ex post invention of adding certain optional baccalaureate subjects to the access grade, placed without a true academic discussion with different values depending on the studies the students aspire to. Thus, for the universities of Madrid, for example, Humanities subjects weigh for Psychology; for Catalan ones, they do not. Let us remember that the sophistication of epicycles kept the Sun revolving around the Earth for a number of centuries, as Ptolemy would have wanted and as the Pope effectively preferred.Regarding the second function (equalizing criteria for grades), I would not discuss it if it were truly considered. But, either it is esoteric information that perhaps the Generalitat keeps, or simply no one takes it into account. However, my opinion is that increasing its weight is the key to a simple alternative to the PAU method.

Religion and God are not only marking this Wednesday's news with the visit of Pope Leo XIV, but they have also made an appearance in this year's PAU philosophy exam. Students who chose this subject – the history test was also held first thing – had to analyze how the statement "God is dead" would be evaluated from the perspective of two prominent Western philosophy authors. "It was an easy question because we had all worked on it," admitted a student from the Premià de Mar institute when leaving the test at UPF.

Joy and some relief at the end of the first PAU exam of this 2026. After the pressure of whether reaching the tests would be complicated due to mobility restrictions for the Pope's visit and the teachers' strike, most students have come out satisfied from the Spanish language and literature exam. "It was very chill —easy to pass—", one of the students taking the selectivity at UPF replied to her teacher. An exam in which reading comprehension was based on the adaptation of the text The Utility of the Useless. Manifesto, in which the Italian philosopher Nuccio Ordine reflects on how in recent decades humanities have been considered "useless", even in state budgets.

UNPORTAL and ARA make available to you a grade simulator that, from the publication of the Selectivity Grades and until the first assignment of places, scheduled for July 10, will allow you to make calculations around the score you would need to enroll in the degrees that interest you.

Unlike last year, in this year's university entrance exams (PAU) there will be no major changes either in the format of the exams or in the correction criteria. The exams on June 9, 10, and 11 will be marked by an unprecedented context, both due to the Pope's visit and the open conflict between teachers and administration which, according to the Government, will not affect the selectivity. Also because it will be the first edition in which mobile phone detectors and electronic devices will be used to prevent students from cheating. This Friday, more details have emerged on how these devices will be used, which can detect radio frequency signals from a mobile phone or any device with wifi or Bluetooth connection, such as a wireless microphone or a smartwatch. There will be them in all universities, but not in all classrooms. They will be randomly distributed and, in case of suspicion, the exam proctor may request that one be brought.

The Pope's visit to Catalonia, which counts on Montserrat and Sagrada Família as world emblems of Christian pilgrimage, coincides with the selectivity exams of our hardworking and always most tender adolescents. Among these students, do not doubt it, there are —there must be— our substitutes and who knows if the Pope's own.

Notable news in the university entrance exams that will be held next month: for the first time, detectors will be used to prevent students from cheating on the PAU using electronic devices. As explained in a circular from the Interuniversity Council of Catalonia, which has been sent to the institutes, in the exams to be held on June 9, 10, and 11, "the organization may use electronic device detectors during the test."

A significant change is coming to the university admissions process in Catalonia. Starting in 2027, the extraordinary sitting of the University Entrance Exams (PAU) – for those who did not pass the June exams or wish to improve their scores – will no longer be held in September but in July. This Friday, the board of the Inter-University Council of Catalonia (CIC) – the coordinating body between the Catalan Government and the twelve Catalan universities – agreed that 2026 will be the last year in which the PAU resits are held in September. With this change, Catalonia aligns itself with the rest of Spain's autonomous communities, as it was the only region that still held the university entrance exams in September. According to a statement from the Department of Research and Universities, the measure follows the same approach already applied to other educational levels (primary, secondary, and upper secondary), where extraordinary exam sessions are not held in September. In fact, nowadays, university degrees don't offer resits in September either. Furthermore, the government also argues that one of the main positive effects of the agreement is that it will allow pre-registration and September course assignments to be brought forward by a few weeks, and therefore, university enrollment can be finalized earlier. In addition, one of the most important changes will be that all students will be able to start university at the same time – in mid-September – regardless of whether they passed the first or second sitting of the university entrance exams. Finally, the CIC also argues that, if students take the resit exams, they will have a much more recent understanding of the subjects because they will have taken the entrance exams just a month before, and "this temporal proximity can contribute to better academic performance." In the last extraordinary sitting of the University Entrance Exams (PAU) in September, 8,237 students registered, representing 18.5% of the total number of students registered in the ordinary sitting in June, in which 44,388 students registered. Peace 2026

Regarding next year's university entrance exams (PAU) – those of 2026 – the regular session will be held on Tuesday, June 9, Wednesday, June 10, and Thursday, June 11, while the resit session will take place on Wednesday, September 2, Thursday, September 3, and Friday, September 4. As for the content and marking criteria, there will be no changes; they will remain the same as those used in the last exams.

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This is the main fear of the tens of thousands of students who take the entrance exam each year: Not obtaining the grade that would open the doors to studying the university degree they wantNow, however, a report has quantified this fear: last year, almost half of the university students in Spain did not gain admission to their first-choice degree program. Specifically, according to the study by the Knowledge and Development Foundation (CyD), 245,226 places were offered for undergraduate degrees at public universities in the 2024-2025 academic year, an offer that received 474,319 applications. Therefore, last year, 229,053 students across Spain were unable to access their first-choice degree program. Behind these figures lie two key factors, also highlighted in the report. On the one hand, the document points out that the number of university degrees offered by public universities has remained stable in recent years, and on the other, that the demand for access to degree programs has grown by 26% in the last decade nationwide. Public universities offering in-person instruction show a mismatch between supply and demand: while applications for degree programs have increased by 25.9%, the number of available places has decreased slightly (-0.6%)," the study's authors report.

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Choppy sound, overlapping speeches, and constant "I can't hear you," "I can't hear you," "I can't understand you." This was the situation experienced by the nearly 700 teachers who logged on last week to the information session about the evaluation criteria for the Catalan language exams in preparation for the university entrance exams next June. Beyond the meeting's technical problems, several teachers complained that the session's content was less enlightening than expected and that some of the criteria introduced in last year's university entrance exams "don't make sense." According to teachers from DocentsCAT—which includes more than a hundred Catalan language teachers—and the Pere Quart Collective—the group of teachers who have been advocating for Catalan literature in the classroom for the past ten years—two aspects particularly concern them: the large number of people Required readings have been removed from the curriculum And the fact that the syntax exercises don't stipulate that it's necessary to use the new grammar of the Institut d'Estudis Catalans (IEC).

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