Since the reform of the baccalaureate and the elimination of the three sectors S, ES and L of the general baccalaureate, first year students must choose three compulsory specialty courses among thirteen.
They will keep two for the final year.
The choice of these specialties impacts certain educational trajectories, particularly those of girls in scientific specialties.
An observation which led to modifying the 2019 reform by imposing on everyone an hour and a half of maths per week from the start of the 2023 school year in first grade.
Maths regains color
A little early to judge the effects, the fact remains that in final year, 44% of students chose maths in specialty teaching in 2023, compared to 40% in 2022 and 38% in 2021. The subject thus gains four points after having taken it again two in 2022. It is still the subject most chosen by students.
Then, they took SES for 35% of them - 36% in 2022 and 2021 -, then 31% physics-chemistry followed by HGGSP (26%) and SVT (23%).
Another positive point for maths: between the first and the final year the abandonment of this specialized teaching declines.
There were 38% who dropped out between the two classes in 2022, 41% in 2021, but only 33% left math.
And this is valid for girls (7 points less) as for boys (5 points less).
On the other hand, they abandon HGGSP more easily (30% in 2023 against 26% in 2022) and the SVT (39% in 2023 against 36 in 2022).
Mostly scientific combinations
The most chosen specialization doubles in final year are maths and physics-chemistry, then HGGSP and SES and Physics-chemistry and SVT.
For the first, the share of girls amounts to 37.2%, compared to almost 60% with the HGGSP and SES doublet.
But it is in the HLP - LLCER doublet that they are the most numerous with 85.6% girls for this doublet.
Conversely, boys are the most numerous to have chosen maths-SI or maths-NSI since they represent 88% in the two pairs.
Other important information: 38% of students chose optional education in final year, including 16% in “expert mathematics”, 7% “law and major issues in the contemporary world” and 15% “complementary mathematics”.
Enough to complete the double of specialties and open additional doors.
Provided you have chosen a course in line with your professional project and its results.