To pass the baccalaureate exam, nothing is more effective than practicing in real conditions. And here is the ideal application for that!
THE baccalaureate candidates take the grand oral exam from June 24, 2024. This presentation on a subject previously drawn at random and part of the panel of themes prepared during the year, has a coefficient 10 (out of 100). Coefficient which therefore surpasses that of philosophy (coeff. 8). The stakes are high, candidates must be prepared to avoid missing out.
Revising, studying the subjects, recording the lessons is good… but it is not enough. To really pass the grand oral test at the baccalaureate, you have to be good… at speaking! And unfortunately, students do not always have the sufficient and necessary time to put themselves in real conditions. Fortunately, technology and AI enable things that were completely unimaginable just a few years ago. And now it is possible to do major mock orals, by recording and obtaining notes and suggestions for improvement.
The Mon Grand Oral application, in fact, allows students to improve considerably. This service, approved by teachers, works using artificial intelligence trained on the National Education program. It leverages Google’s Gemini AI model to provide as detailed an account of student performance as possible. An indicative score is assigned for each pillar, as well as a list of strengths, areas for improvement and practical advice.
For greater relevance, the artificial intelligence used in the application was trained on several final year textbooks, and the evaluation grid was reworked and validated by the teaching staff of several high schools. The objective of the application is in no way to replace the jury, but to help the student progress by clearly identifying the points to improve and rework in their presentation.
Important point: the application does not collect any sensitive data, and does not require account creation. Users can enter an email to save their progress.
Candidates can also improve their oral skills: work on gestures, eliminate language tics and become more like an exchange than a recitation. To succeed in the big oral exam and perhaps grab a mention, here are some professional tips to better control your stress and therefore this 2023 baccalaureate test.
In order to best pass this exam, the professor of public speaking at Sciences Po Cyril Delhay taught to the Parisian some welcome advice. If he invites candidates to speak without notes for more fluid and easier enunciation, he advises, however, to write in advance your first and last sentences, those which should make the most impression on the jurors. Take care of your transitions between each major point is also a plus, as is the fact of… leave blanks. By imposing small periods of silence, the idea is to allow the jury to integrate the information provided, but it also means, for the candidate, to take the time to breathe, calm down and manage their stress. Finally, it is advisable to favor short sentences.
The flagship test of the new version of the baccalaureate, the grand oral is an exercise during which each candidate answers a question with a presentation lasting approximately five minutes. Ten minutes of discussions then follow between the high school student and the jury. The stated objective of National Education is to “train people to speak in public clearly and convincingly.
This test also allows you to use your knowledge (that which is linked to your specialties) to create an argument and show how it is essential for your further study project and even your professional project. “During the year, two questions are defined on the two specialty courses followed by the student. On the day of the test, the jury chooses one of the two questions and the candidate then has 20 minutes to prepare, before making your presentation.
Unlike the other tests, the grand oral test is spread over two weeks. Final year candidates for the general or technological baccalaureate will take their test between Monday June 24 and Wednesday July 3, 2024, on variable dates and times depending on the establishments and academies.
According to website dedicated to Thotis students as well as the specialized site of Le Parisien Etudiant, here are examples of questions formulated according to the specialties during the grand oral test:
In Its (Economic and social sciences):
- “Are ecology and economics compatible?”
- “How can we reduce the public deficit?”
In geopolitics
- “Should humanitarian aid surpass a country’s sovereignty?”
- “Does humanitarian aid support the regimes in place? – the example of Afghanistan”
- “The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, an impossible peace?”
In mathematics
- “How can we explain that, in a group of 23 people, there is more than a one in two chance that at least two of them were born on the same day?”
- “Why are pollsters wrong all the time?”
- “Using counting, how can we understand the diversity of genetic information?”
- “Can algorithms generate discrimination?” (possible question in cross-sectional Maths / Eco)
In SVT
- “Can we grow potatoes on Mars?”
- “Is it true that if we painted all the roofs and roads white, we would lower the temperature of the Earth?”
- What are the consequences of global warming on agriculture?
In Arts
- “What ethical questions can art recovered from the colonies raise?”
- “Should we return works of art or objects in museums to their countries of origin?”
In History-geography
- “How did India become a space power?”
- “Why is the reconstruction of Notre-Dame de Paris mobilizing the whole world?”
This very recent test is the one which most values oral skills andexpression of baccalaureate candidates, with a coefficient 10 for the general sector, the most important after the specialty tests, all marked with a coefficient of 16. The grand oral is therefore an opportunity to accumulate a lot of points to obtain the diploma or obtain a mention. In the technological sectors, the opportunity to score points is all the greater as the coefficient of the test increases to 14.
The grade for the grand oral is based both on the knowledge provided during the presentation and on the general expression of the candidate. Marked out of 20 points, it represents 10% of the final baccalaureate mark for the general route and 14% for the technological route. The jury examines above all the candidate’s knowledge, but also their ability to argue and connect knowledge, their critical thinking, the precision of their expression, the clarity of their words, their commitment to their words, their strength of conviction. The points can be submitted to the appreciation of each professor according to different and more or less demanding criteria.
If this framework may appear fluctuating, the Ministry of Education and several rectors of academies nevertheless wanted to recall that the principle of benevolence took precedence for this still new test (since it is only its second edition). The ministry added details: “this oral exam allows the candidate to demonstrate his ability to speak in public in a clear and convincing manner, to put the knowledge he has acquired, particularly in his specialist teaching, at the service of an argument, and to show how this knowledge nourished his project of further studies, even his professional project”.
A special evaluation grid for the grand oral
And if you would like to know more about the concrete way in which the grand oral exam can be evaluated, know that the Ministry of Education has put online a grid of precise criteria on which the professors examining the grand oral exam can rely on to establish their grade. It is important to know, the famous grid is not obligatory but can serve as an aid to the jury. This indicative evaluation grid for the final oral test * lists five criteria, which can be judged by the jury as “very insufficient”, “insufficient”, “satisfactory” or “very satisfactory”:
- Oral quality of the test
- Quality of continuous speaking
- Quality of knowledge
- Quality of interaction
- Quality and construction of the argument
* see in Appendix 1 on this page
A priori, the results of the grand oral test will be available on Monday July 8, 2024, at the same time as the results of the other tests (French, philosophy and specialty tests). The coefficient according to the sector and the date of passing the oral exam early does not influence the publication of the results. The grade of the grand oral will also be accessible on the details of the candidate’s transcript. The transcript must be issued to the candidate by the educational establishment in which he is registered.