The Government rectifies: spelling mistakes in the university entrance exams will also be deducted from exams that are not language-related.

BarcelonaSpelling mistakes will deduct points from any university entrance exams on June 11, 12, and 13 that include writing exercises, the Department of Research and Universities announced Thursday. Minister Núria Montserrat has had to rectify In an appearance on 3/24, she and her team publicly revealed the information she and her team gave on Wednesday in a working session with journalists about the new features of the University Entrance Exams (PAU), which highlighted that spelling errors would only be included in language and literature subjects and, therefore, would not be penalized in any of the 25 subjects, both compulsory and optional.

This Thursday, however, Montserrat said that students taking exams in non-compulsory subjects that contain exercises involving writing texts could lose up to 1 point off their grade if they make errors in written expression, as specified in the decree for the new university entrance exams. The minister explained that, in subjects where students must write a text, not only spelling is taken into account, but also other criteria such as coherence, cohesion, vocabulary, grammar, and the presentation of the written answer. "This set of criteria can lead to a discount of up to 10 percent of the overall exam grade," he admitted. Specifically, the measure affects the following six subjects: Greek languages and cultures, Latin languages and cultures, geography, history, history of philosophy, and dramatic literature.

Thus, and contrary to what the coordinators of the PAU in Catalonia explained just over 24 hours ago, one of the following will be applied:The main new features of the new decree on university entrance examswhich, a priori, should begin to standardize the criteria for correctness and rigor throughout the State. In this regard, a maximum of two penalty points will be applied for spelling mistakes in the mandatory Catalan language and literature and Spanish language and literature exams, as well as in the optional Catalan literature and Spanish literature subjects.

In the case of mandatory language exams, each spelling mistake will subtract 0.1 points, as last year, with the difference that now the student can lose a maximum of two points for not writing correctly, unlike until now, when there was no penalty limit.

Although the regional minister asserted on Thursday that "no change in criteria has been made with respect to state regulations," the truth is that on Wednesday, the coordinator of the University Entrance Exams (PAU) in Catalonia, Pilar Gómez, stated that the decision had been made to eliminate spelling correction criteria outside of language and literature subjects because "there are already enough new features this year," a "cautious" approach to "consolidating the new exam model."

The head of the University Admissions Office, Mònica Garizuain, also clarified that this did not mean that students could write poorly or inconsistencies, and that it would not be reflected in their grade. "In these subjects, there has never been a discount for spelling mistakes, but, obviously, if there are glaring errors or presentations that make it difficult to read the handwriting or are very messy, the choice will not be made to correct the exercise," she added.