Best wishes to the 220 000 Romanian pupils who started the Baccalaureate on the 22nd of June 2009 (and to all of you writing your final year high school tests) !

Some quick facts on the Romanian final year high school exams...

The Baccalaureate (or BAC for short) is an exam held in Romania when one graduates high school.
The Romanian Baccalaureate has a single degree. It follows a pattern of six subjects, letter-coded (A, B, C, D, E, and F). All the subjects (except subject A) depend on the profile studied: mathematics and computer science, philology, natural sciences: social sciences, or various other vocational tracks, and the candidate's choice.

Subjects
A: Romanian Language (oral and written examination)
B: foreign language (any studied language; oral examination)
C: maternal language (if different from Romanian, and if studied; oral and written examination)
D: compulsory subject (of the profile)
E: subject to be chosen (of the profile)
F: subject to be chosen (of the opposed (complementary) profile)

Tests A, B, and C consist of an oral examination. The candidates must prove that they have the ability of expressing themselves in that language, can understand a written text, can read a text in the foreign language.

Tests A, B, D, E, and F consist of a 3 hour written exam. Test F may consist, instead of a written exam, of a practical examination.