'Miarma', 'no ni na', and the triumph of simplistic speeches at the start of the university entrance exams.

BarcelonaThe more than 44,000 Catalan students taking the university entrance exam this Wednesday have already passed the first test: the Spanish language and literature exam. A test that, despite the fear of themess about how much spelling mistakes could be penalized, most students described it as "simple and accessible." "I'm not right to say this, but I think I did really well," said Lucas, who is taking the University Entrance Exam (PAU) exam at Pompeu Fabra University.

One of the main points of the test was the reading comprehension exercises from the article. Maybe, maybe, maybe by Irene Vallejo. A text in which the author highlights the fact that currently, in "a world of urgency and apocalypse," simplistic speeches are given more credibility as if they were an example of leadership, while those who "have the courage to share their perplexities" are ignored.

Aside from Vallejo's text, which all the students had to interpret because this year there is only one exam option, the future university students also had to develop an expository text on uncertainty. "It was difficult to write a text like this because uncertainty is something too abstract to not put an opinion on," complained Helena, who wants to study philosophy and who also acknowledged that the exam seemed "easier than I expected."

Although questions on required readings are no longer asked because they are no longer part of the high school curriculum, excerpts from texts by two well-known authors have been included: Azorín and Pío Baroja. Here, students had to choose four of five questions to answer, among which, as usual, questions arose regarding the rhetorical figure used in a text. This year, they had to choose whether the phrase "A soft trail of tenderness" contained a simile, a pleonasm, a paradox, or a synesthesia—many students chose the latter.

The Dignity of Language

In the second block of the test, students had to reflect on some linguistic concepts. For example, they had to explain to which diatopic variety of Spanish the expressions belong. my weapon and no way and justify it with a maximum of 50 words. In addition, in the midst of a crisis to see if the level of writing of university students is appropriate Whether or not, future university students have found themselves having to justify whether they agreed or not with this statement: "Linguistic variation and change are due to the carelessness and lack of culture of speakers," a phrase from the book The dignity and equality of languages, by Juan Carlos Moreno Carrera.

Finally, one of the points that also generated doubts among the students was an exercise where it was necessary to create a coherent grammatical sequence containing a collective noun, an aspectual periphrasis and a qualifying adjective in less than 20 words. "This one was difficult for me because it was a kind of reverse grammatical analysis," lamented Sam, who is confident that he will get a good grade, although he assures that "the mess with correcting" the spelling mistakes of the last few days has made him "stop crazy."

The listening from the Australian mountain

The enthusiasm generated by the Spanish test was less widespread for the English test, one of the most feared exams in the University Entrance Exams (PAU) and one that 98% of prospective university students took, far ahead of other foreign languages. "I have a C2 in English, and I swear they're out to get me," said Jordi, a student at the Hamelin-Laie International School in Montgat. One of the critical points was the listening and several students complained that "the narrator's accent was incomprehensible." The audio was a fragment of a radio program that talked about Uluru, a monolith considered one of Australia's most important natural icons, but which many students were unfamiliar with. In fact, some have mistaken it for a tribe. "I got to the point where I tuned out because, after all, I didn't understand anything," Marta admitted.

In the reading comprehension section, the students came across an article by Washington Post where they reflected on how it is increasingly difficult for Americans to know how much they should tip and explained where this custom comes from. Finally, in the written expression exercise – one of the few sections where students can choose between two options – they could write an opinion essay on the disappearance of traditional food in the face of the rise of fast food, or, write a descriptive text about a day in your favorite season.

As for the tests in other foreign languages, which less than 2% of students took, the French reading comprehension exercise stands out, which discusses school phobia and the stress and anxiety caused by returning to school; in Italian, a written expression question asks the student to describe a historical event that occurred when they were young; and, in German, a reading comprehension section on the life of Franz Kafka.