Like every year, the arrival of selectivity (now EBAU) opens the eternal debate about the disparity in difficulty in the University entrance exam. Despite the fact that the pass rate grows every year, the difference in grades from one Community to another is remarkable. Come on, it is not the same to be examined in Seville than in Bilbao. The constant controversy is not surprising: around 300,000 students risk their academic and work future, since grades are the gateway to universities.
Every year’s mess. Some days ago, a young woman complained on Twitter about the level of difficulty of the exams in Madrid compared to those of Murcia. “This is the level of the EVAU in Murcia. While in Madrid we have to fight to make 4 heads in 1:30, in Murcia they put on a confession of love from Bárbara Rey to Chelo García Cortés. The difference in demands between Autonomous communities”.
His anger is not unfounded. As we have already explained in other Magnet articles, each region can set the number of questions they want, the agenda is becoming more flexible and the different level of demand is doubtful. The question arises again as to whether you have more advantage by living in one place and not in another. The data for 2021 was already clear last year and reflected important territorial differences.
This is the level of the EVAU of Murcia.
While in Madrid we have to fight to make 4 heads in 1:30, in Murcia they play a confession of love from Bárbara Rey to Chelo García Cortés.
It is a shame the difference in demand between Autonomous Communities. pic.twitter.com/EV9L4zIxBe
— Murcian user (I’m from Murcia) 🕊 (@Tabxntha) June 6, 2022
Disparity between Communities. Based on the data of the results published by the Ministry of Universities, the five communities with the most passes in the EBAU exams were: País Vasco (97.6%), Castilla y León (97%), La Rioja (96, 4%) and Aragon (95.8%) and Navarra (95.1%). And the five with the least were the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands (89.9%), Galicia (90.5%), Andalusia (91.8%) and Madrid (92%). The differences are minimal, but they are there, increasing more and more.
Pass record. In fact, a record number of passes has been reached. Nothing less than 92.7% of the total number of those presented. And not only that, but the percentage of students who obtained an A also grows every year. The communities with the most: Murcia and Asturias (12.9%), Extremadura (11%) and Cantabria (10.9%). At the bottom: once again the Balearic Islands (1.9%), La Rioja (3.1%), the Valencian Community (3.4%) and Galicia (3.7%). And indeed, in 2019 the highlights were much lower.
Academic inflation. That the percentage of approved and outstanding grows every year (13% more since 2019) fuels the doubt of whether it is true that the tests are getting easier. A few days ago, El Mundo published an editorial in which it described the phenomenon as “academic inflation.” A way of saying that students come with better records and pass with fewer difficulties.
Why? In 2020 the Government changed the format of Selectivity, the “pandemic model” some called it, which is still in force two years later. This model presents, instead of the two test alternatives to choose from as has always been done, a single proposal made up of a greater number of questions, in order to integrate all the contents of each subject. That is, students can select which questions to answer, discarding those they want and allowing them to increase the chances of answering correctly.
Decentralization of the educational system. Added to this is the fact that 17 selectivities are being offered with different evaluation parameters. Because each region can put in the exam the number of questions it considers, when other years The central government set a limit. In 2018, the Minister of Education of Castilla y León already assured that the exams were easier in some communities than in others and that the grades of some students arrived “swollen”. In this Magnet article we explained to what extent those accusations were true.
This year the critics have not been slow to arrive either. asking for a single test in all of Spain. However, it must be remembered that former minister Celaá rejected this idea last year. “If by only we understand exact, no, it is not necessary, it would be an impoverishment of the curriculum”, he underlined. What the Government wanted was to “guarantee equity”, not creating an exact test for all communities, but yes it had the same degree of difficulty. Something that doesn’t seem to be happening.
Image: Flickr