Every year, 12-graders from Romania face the most important exam in their lives- the Baccalaureat. They must pass the exam at 4 compulsory subjects such as Romanian, for example, which is the common subject for every senior. Unfortunately, despite it being their native language, they always have fear of it at the Baccalaureat. The reason? The literary analysis of a book read in high-school, which must be written in relatively 4 pages as the third task on the test paper. Should this exercice still be a part of the Romanian Baccalaureat or should it be taken out of the test paper forever?
On one hand, this particular task teaches the pupils how to organise their essays. Given that they must follow a pre-etablished structure plan for their compositions, they learn, step by step, how to express their ideas in a coherent way. Moreover, by reading the books they write their essays about, the students watch how their country evolves throughout the history, by the help of the litterature; they discover what life was like in the 15th, 19th or 20th century, they learn about people's moral values at these times and maybe try to make a connection to the modern society.
On the other hand, this type of exercice requires a lot of attention to the details, as well as a well-trained memory. Some 12-graders still find it difficult to memorise everything and use it where it is requiered; they simply would't remember the significant information about a certain writing and eventually get a bad grade at the exam. In addition, all the books every senior must have read until the 12th grade are "old". Most of them, written at the end of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century, tell us about the life of the people from the countryside, which is, in 99%, not at all interesting for 18-year old teenagers. That's why most of them choose not to read all of these writings and desperately hope that they will get something easy, like a poem, at the Baccalaureat.
All these things being said, it is still very unlikely that the Education Government will change the structure of the national Romanian Baccalaureat by eliminating this task. However, it may be simplified, transformed into something easier and more pleasant for the students, making the national graduation exam a more relaxing thing to think about and to prepare for.