The lowest average grade since 2017: What happened in the university entrance exams?
In the first edition of the new PAU exams, the Catalan language results were the worst in the last nine years.
BarcelonaThe 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.
In the general phase of the University Entrance Exams (PAU), this year's average grade (6.440) was the lowest since 2017, including the 2020 exam session (6.616), when students missed months of classes due to the pandemic. In fact, this year's average grade is between two and four-tenths lower than the results of any of the exam sessions in the last eight years. All of this, of course, has also ended up impacting the entrance average—the grade obtained from the average of the baccalaureate and the selectivity exams and which determines which degree you can enter—which, at 7.181, was one-tenth lower than in the last two years and the lowest since 2020.
The results have also suffered a further drop. In the first edition of the university entrance exam without compulsory readings, the worst average grade for Catalan (6.30) in the last nine years has been achieved, while in Spanish the average grade of 6.40 is the worst result since 2018. In fact, the results for Catalan are almost three tenths lower than last year and more than 2 and more than 2 and more than 2.
Similarly, the average grade in Spanish is half a point lower than last year (6.95) and almost a point lower than the results obtained in the 2023 tests, when the average among all students was 7.39. A similar situation has occurred with English, the foreign language chosen by more than 90% of students for the University Entrance Exams (PAU). The average grade was 6.82, 0.25 points lower than last year and 0.67 points below the 2022 results. Then, with an average of 7.49, the best results of the last five years were obtained.
The scientist's math performance improves
After last year's debacle, when the scientist's average math grade was 4.87, the worst results of the decade, in 2025 the grades have rebounded significantly: with a 6.12, the best average grade since 2020, when it was reached during the pandemic.
In contrast, in social studies mathematics, there has been a drop of almost a point and a half. The average grade has gone from 6.51 last year to 5.08 in the tests administered at the beginning of June.
Grades have also improved, albeit very slightly, in physics, one of the subjects that tends to cause the most headaches. This year, the average grade was 6.12, just 0.06 points higher than last year. In contrast, this year's results in this subject are almost a point (0.94) lower than in 2020.
