Lack of preparation is the reason for rising failure rates in Catalan exams

The increase in registrations and the fact that applicants are not adequately prepared for the exam are the two main reasons that have led to a large number of suspensions (ineligibility) in the official Catalan exams held last month, the results of which were published on Tuesday, especially in the case of the highest levels (C1 and C2), as the director of language policy, Joan Sans, assured Bondia yesterday.

Compared to the January call, 30 more candidates appeared in June and the number of suspended candidates is lower than in the current call. In C1, 60% were declared unsuitable and now it is over 70%, while in C2 it was only 30% in January and it has climbed to over 50% in June.

One of the reasons that could explain so many C1 failures is that 70% of correct answers are needed to be declared qualified, 5% more than in Catalonia, which reduced these 5 points, while Andorra decided to keep them. However, if this had been done, only two more people would have passed, while if the limit had been further reduced to 60%, as in the case of C2, two more applicants would have passed. That is, a total of four.

Sans believes that 90% of those who decide to take the official Catalan language exam do not consider it an indispensable requirement, but having this diploma in their professional life can represent an advantage, which explains the increase in registrations. Now, “if people want to pass the exam, they should know what it is like, but we find that a large percentage of people do not prepare properly, because the oral notes are very good, but the rest of the exam, that is, the written part, grammar and written expression, the scores are very low and far from the average”, he laments.

Given this situation, Política Lingüística does not intend to make any changes to the way official Catalan exams are given, at least for the time being. “We do not believe that this fact reflects a low level of knowledge of the official language in society, but rather that it is difficult to reach the level required for such exams due to a lack of preparation,” Sans said.