BAC 2024. For Première students, the French test takes place this Friday from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. Here’s how to prepare for the French baccalaureate written test.
This Friday, all Première students take the writing test for the 2024 French baccalaureate. This anticipated test will begin at 8 a.m. and end at noon. At the end of the test, candidates will have to wait around ten days before taking the second part of the French baccalaureate: the oral test.
For this Friday’s test, all students will have four hours to compose a written production of their choice based on one of the themes studied during the year. From poetry to novels, theater and intellectual literature, everything is possible. You will therefore have to be prepared for any eventuality. Because the students will be questioned about their knowledge and their literary culture.
For students in the general series, the dissertation and the commentary are your choice while for the technological series you must prepare to work on a text commentary, or on the contraction of a text but in this case, you will also have to produce a essay. The written word counts for 50% of the final French mark, so you shouldn’t miss it. For this, the Internet user and our partner Studyrama invite you to discover the official subjects of the French bac 2024 given to students from foreign centers as well as those passed last year are available in full on this page.
Based on the French program for this year 2024 and taking into account past subjects, according to the annals of the last five years, it is more likely to come across the following subjects for this 2024 edition. Be careful, the probabilities do not allow us to say with certainty that this or that subject will necessarily fall this year. No impasse is possible at the time of the revisions.
For general literature, “Gargantua” by Rabelais, “Les Caractères” by LaBruyère or “Declaration of the Rights of Women and Citizens” by Olympe de Gouges could be on the program. We also advise you to study your classic authors such as Balzac, Hugo, Proust, and Zola. Some contemporary writers like Maylis de Kerengal or Nathalie Sarraute have a good chance of winning this year. In poetry, “Les Cahiers de Douai” by Rimbaud or My forests” by Hélène Dorion could be included. “Le Malade Imaginaire” by Molière, “Les Fausses Confidences” by Marivaux and “Juste la fin du monde” by Jean -Luc Lagarce are also possibilities in theater For the technological sector, poetry could well be at the heart of the debates Ronsard, Apolinnaire or Verlaine with “Fêtes galantes” are serious options for this 2024 French baccalaureate.
What are the official subjects of the 2024 French baccalaureate in foreign centers?
In French schools abroad, the baccalaureate exams always take place some time before the start of those in mainland France. This year, only foreign centers in North America took the bac exams, for those from other regions of the globe, they will take place in June, a few days before France, Reunion and Mayotte.
For this 2024 French baccalaureate, candidates could choose the subject to be covered: a commentary on an extract from Roman Gary’s novel Kites, 1980, or a dissertation of your choice between “Cahiers de Douai” by Arthur Rimbaud, “La Rage de l’expression” by Francis Ponge and “My forests” by Hélène Dorion. This anticipated test therefore focused on two themes: the novel and the story from the Middle Ages to the 21st century and poetry from the 19th to the 21st century. Note that for poetry, two of the three propositions appear in the probable subjects above.
What are the dates for the 2024 French baccalaureate?
For this 2024 edition of the French baccalaureate, here are the dates to know and tick in your calendar:
- Friday June 14, 2024 (in the morning between 8 a.m. and 12 p.m.) : anticipated French tests
- Between June 24 and July 5, 2024 : anticipated oral tests
- Between Wednesday July 5 and Friday July 7, 2024 : catch-up tests
- Friday September 13, 2024 : replacement test for the French baccalaureate
- Monday July 8, 2024 : test results
The objectives of this test
If the test has been redefined by the reform of the baccalaureate, the expectations remain the same according to the specialized site The courses of Parnassus : “master the French language, be able to express oneself clearly, analyze texts and construct personal reflection.” When writing, each student has two subjects to choose from: an essay or text commentary.
High school students must above all master the registers and literary movements of the program to pass this exam. The figures of speech and authors analyzed during the year must also be well in mind. The basics of French should also not be neglected: the spelling, grammar and conjugation of the copies must be impeccable otherwise you will lose points.
French writing
In the general series, the written test lasts four hours. It is rated out of 20 for a coefficient of five. Anne Laurens, French teacher at the François Truffaut high school (Challans), gives her advice for the written exam: “You have to master the methodology. You have to avoid the famous: ‘I go to talent’, but rather make files on each work with the key words to remember.”
High school students must choose between a text commentary and an essay. As for the technological baccalaureate test, it includes a commentary with the reading axes or a contraction of text followed by an essay on a work studied during the year. Also lasting 4 hours, the test is marked on 20 points, or on 10 points + 10 points depending on the choice of subject.
Oral French
For the oral exam, each candidate is summoned to another high school to appear in front of an unknown teacher. The oral lasts 50 minutes: 30 minutes of preparation and 20 minutes of passage. This passage is composed of a two-line reading, a linear text explanation, an interview on a work chosen by the student with a short presentation then five minutes of discussion. The coefficient is also five.
For oral, she advises: “Read and reread the texts, make them your own. You must have in mind the structure of the text and the problem to link them to a clear backbone. The student will then be able to spread out his remarks facing to his examiner.” In the general series, students have 20 texts to know while in the technological series, this figure drops to 12 because these high school students have fewer hours of French lessons.
It is obviously impossible to predict the subjects of the different French tests but the good way to practice is to take a look at those from last year in order to be ready on the big day. When revising the French baccalaureate, no concept should be overlooked because many of them can be used regardless of the subjects that fall during the exam on Friday June 14:
- For the text commentarycandidates will work on a single object of study and will have a single imposed subject.
- For the dissertation, candidates will be able to choose to work on one of the three proposed subjects. Note that all the issues will relate to the same theme, but may be linked to different works and authors.
- For the text contraction and testing, offered to candidates in technological fields only, students will be able to choose from three subjects which will focus on a single major theme, but on three different texts. Note that the choice of subject is valid for both exercises.
A topic for two exercises of your choice. Last year, for the text commentary, the students were entitled to a study of Salon of 1767 by Denis Diderot, while for the dissertation three subjects were proposed: Manon Lescaut of Abbot Prévost, The skin of sorrow by Balzac or texts by Colette.
In the technology sector, candidates had the choice of commenting on a text by Théophile Gautier or of synthesizing a text by Rabelais, La Bruyère or Olympe de Gouges last year.
Our partner Studyrama offers correction elements on French subjects. They allow us to understand what is expected by the baccalaureate correctors. Find all the subjects and the answers to the baccalaureate on the Studyrama website for last year’s session.
For students in the vocational sector, the subject invited them to analyze the following texts: Ivanhoe by Walter Scott, Burning secret by Stefan Zweig and Reality show by Aurélien Bellanger. The subject has four questions to assess reading skills and then one question to assess the candidates’ writing level. Find the topics in their entirety below, thanks to Studyramawhich gives topics and corrections each year.