Romanian students struggle at pre-high school Math exam simulation

Only a third (33%) of the Romanian eighth graders who sat the simulation of the National Evaluation exams got pass marks in Mathematics, according to data from the Education Ministry. At the same time, 63% of the students achieved pass marks at the Romanian Language and Literature exam, and 82.6% at the Native Language exam. In the Romanian school system, the eighth grade is the last one before high school. Students sit the National Evaluation exams when they graduate from the eighth grade. The results count towards their high school admission, alongside the GPA of the four secondary school years. The minimum pass grade is 5, and the highest that can be achieved is 10. At the simulation, 74,690 students achieved grades higher or equal with the pass mark of 5, accounting for 47% of the students who took the exams. This is slightly lower than last year, when 51.47% achieved similar results. As far as the average scores are concerned, there were 22,554 scores between 5 and 5.99; 20,371 scores between 6 and 6.99; 15,805 scores between 7 and 7.99; 10,968 scores between 8 and 8.99; 4,944 scores between 9 and 9.99; and 48 scores of 10. The most scores over 5 were registered in Cluj county (60.2%) and in Bucharest (64.7%). The results were released after 99.4% of the tests were graded. A total of 99.5% of the students sat the Romanian Language exam (170,232 of 171,017 eighth graders), 97.7% the Native Language exam, and 99.4% the Mathematics exam. The simulation is meant to familiarize the students with the exam and help them test their preparation level. Over 95% of Romanian secondary school students study at least two foreign languages Romanian teachers self-evaluate positively, students remain below OECD average in PISA tests editor@romania-insider.com