Over 170,000 candidates took yesterday the first written examination of the Baccalaureate – the Romanian Language and Literature exam. All the classrooms used during for year’s Baccalaureate are equipped with video monitoring cameras.For yesterday’s exam, education officials prepared 10 versions of subjects, of which subject no. 4 was randomly selected. High-school graduates were asked to comment a fragment of ‘The Old Court Libertines’ by Mateiu Caragiale, to write an essay starting from a poem by Mihai Eminescu, or an argumentative text starting from a statement by Lucian Blaga.The exam was marred by unpleasant incidents throughout the country. In the Timis County, four pupils were expelled from the exam when they were caught with cheat sheets or cell phones. This was also the case at the ‘Edmond Nicolau’ high-school of Cluj-Napoca, where a Baccalaureate candidate got expelled when his cell phone rang during the examination. In Mures – a county with a total 4,300 candidates – two pupils took the exam at home or in hospital, while a third was allowed to stay in exam longer than usually, because he is visually impaired.After the Romanian Language test, candidates will take today the written exam of Maternal Language and Literature, followed tomorrow by the mandatory test of the profile, and by on July 6 by the optional profile and speciality exam. Results will be made public on July 8, and complaints will be filed on July 9.
