The new university entrance exam begins: less optionality, more writing, and controversy over spelling

BarcelonaNow 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.

One of the main new features of the 2025 selectivity exams is that students will have less room to choose and, at the same time, less room to avoid questions on topics they may not be as familiar with. Unlike what has happened until now, each subject will have a single exam model, not two, which will mean that all students will face the same test. However, within each exercise, some questions will be optional.

This new model pursues a dual objective: to make the exams more comprehensive across the country and to avoid the strategies followed by some students who took advantage of the optionality to discard syllabus to study.

More writing

Among the most notable changes is also a ban on multiple-choice questions. According to the new decree on university entrance exams, exam questions will be divided into closed, semi-constructed, and open questions.. The regulations establish that 70% of the exercises must be from the latter two categories, meaning that more writing will be required.

In the case of open-ended questions, the Department of Research and Universities specifies that answers will be required that require "more or less extensive writing," and in semi-constructed questions, "very brief answers, or filling in gaps, completing definitions, and relating concepts." Be that as it may, multiple-choice questions may only represent 30% of the exercises on the University Entrance Exams.

Initially, it was explained that this new entrance exam would be more competitive-based throughout Spain. However, in Catalonia, the Catalan government has already explained that for years it has been opting for a less rote approach to testing and, therefore, has ensured that "all the competency-based elements already present in the exams administered until now will be maintained."

No required readings

Specifically, one of the sections that used to include multiple-choice questions was the exercises that assessed students' knowledge of the required readings. the high school curriculum and no longer requires all students to read the same works, this will be the first edition of the PAU in which questions will not be asked about specific required readings such as Diamond Square by Mercè Rodoreda or Chronicles of the Hidden Truth by Pere Calders. It remains to be seen what questions will be used to address the literary knowledge of future university students.

The controversy over spelling mistakes

Although it wasn't supposed to be one of the new features that caused the most disagreements in the exams, the misunderstanding about the spelling correction criteria for the tests has been one of the issues that has most concerned students in recent days. Just a week ago, the Government explained that Only spelling mistakes in language and literature subjects would be taken into accountThe next day He rectified and assured that, apart from languages and literature, spelling correction will be taken into account in six subjects. more than containing writing exercises: Greek languages and cultures, Latin languages and cultures, geography, history, history of philosophy and dramatic literature.

Finally, in these six subjects, spelling errors can result in the loss of up to 10% of the grade, while in languages and literature, each spelling mistake will be penalized with a 0.1 point deduction, up to a maximum of two points. Unlike last year, when there was no limit to the loss of a grade if a student did not write correctly.