The optional exam in Romania’s Baccalaureate: what students score in each subject

Geography or logic? Anatomy or physics? A comparison between classmates#

Subject averages cannot be compared directly, because different students choose different subjects. On the sciences track, those who pick physics have higher maths marks than those who pick biology. So for each student we subtracted the average of their first two exams from their optional mark. Then we compared classmates only: students in the same class of the same school, in the same year, who chose different subjects.

On the humanities track, geography and logic come out practically level: across the 6,789 classes where both were chosen, the difference is −0.01 points. Classmates who chose psychology scored 0.41 points less, relative to their own marks, than those with geography. For sociology the gap is 0.36 points and for economics 0.80.

On the sciences track, anatomy sits above the rest. Against classmates who chose physics, students with anatomy scored 0.72 points more in the natural-sciences stream and 0.50 in the maths-and-computing stream. Against computer science the gap in the maths-and-computing stream is 0.48 points. Between computer science and physics it is only 0.03 points.

This does not prove the anatomy paper is easier. One possible explanation is preparation: students applying to medical school study anatomy for the entrance exam as well as for the Baccalaureate. What the numbers do show is that marks in different subjects are not directly comparable, yet they carry the same weight in the Baccalaureate average.

The technical track: one student in three with at least 5 in Romanian and maths does not pass#

Technological high schools have three tracks: services, technical, and natural resources and environment. All three sit the same Romanian paper and the same maths paper. The list for the third exam differs. Services students choose between geography, logic, psychology and economics. Technical and natural-resources students choose between biology, physics and chemistry.

In 2026, 5,747 technical-track students scored at least 5 in both Romanian and maths. Of them, 1,781 did not pass the Baccalaureate, or 31%: 1,289 scored under 5 in the third exam and nearly all the rest were left with an average under 6. On the services track, 6% of students with at least 5 in both exams failed.

The students’ level, as far as the other two exams show it, explains very little of the gap. Among students whose Romanian marks fall in the same half point, services students scored 0.16 points more in maths than technical students in 2024–2026. Among students matched in the same way on both Romanian and maths, they scored 1.91 points more in the third exam.

Hours taught in each subject: on the technical track, biology is taught one hour a week in grades 9 and 10 and not at all in grades 11 and 12, the final year. The rules allow only the biology paper a student has studied, so only plant and animal biology, which covers the first two years. Physics is taught two hours a week up to grade 12, yet only 12% chose it in 2026. On the services track, geography is taught one hour a week in grade 11 and two in grade 12. The data do not say why technical-track students choose biology.

Had technical students passed at the rate of services students with similar first two marks (within the same half point), about 1,200 more would have passed in 2026, and about 13,000 more over the 12 years. This is only a calculation: nobody knows what the same students would have scored in geography.

The list of subjects stays the same for the 2027 Baccalaureate. For students who started grade 9 in 2026 and sit the exam in 2030, the ministry has approved a new structure: on technological tracks the first track exam becomes one specific to the vocational field, and the second is, in the ministry’s words, “a subject relevant to the sciences track”.

Anatomy or plant and animal biology?#

Biology comes in two papers: plant and animal biology, covering grades 9 and 10, or human anatomy, physiology, genetics and human ecology, covering grades 11 and 12. A student may choose only the one they studied.

On the natural resources and environment track students take either paper. In 2026, the 3,536 students with anatomy scored 0.37 points above their own Romanian-and-maths average. The 875 with plant and animal biology scored 0.25 points below theirs. Between classmates, over all 12 years, the gap is 0.47 points in favour of anatomy. On the sciences track, natural-sciences stream, it is 0.25 points.

Of natural-resources students with at least 5 in each of the first two exams and averaging 5.00–5.99, 42% of those with anatomy passed in 2024–2026, against 17% of those with plant and animal biology.

On the technical track the comparison cannot be made. In 12 years, 78 students out of 115,802 chose anatomy there.

The same subject, a different result from one year to the next#

For each year, the chart shows how far the average optional mark was above or below the same students’ average in the first two exams. A track’s students change little from one cohort to the next, so the large jumps most likely come from the papers and marking schemes of the optional exam or of the first two.

On the humanities track, logic was 1.22 points above the first two exams in 2016 and 0.21 in 2020. Logic was above geography in four of the 12 years and below it in the others. Sociology was below geography in all 12. On the sciences track, physics was below anatomy in all 12.

A small gap between two subjects, seen in a single year, says nothing about the next. The average gaps over all years are those in the classmates chart.

What students at a given school chose#

Search for a school by name or town. For each subject chosen in 2026 by at least ten students you see how many chose it, their average in the first two exams and their average optional mark.

Does the subject matter above 9?#

For students averaging at least 9 in the first two exams, passing is not in question. The decimals are, because some Romanian universities count the Baccalaureate average towards admission. The table shows how many of these students scored at least 9.50 in the optional exam in 2024–2026.

On the sciences track, maths and computing, 78% of those with organic chemistry scored at least 9.50, against 58% of those with computer science. On the humanities track, 63% of those with logic, against 33% of those with sociology.

Every track and every subject, 2024–2026#

For each track: how many students chose each subject in the last three years, their average in the first two exams, their average optional mark and how many passed.

What the comparison cannot say#

• Students choose their subject. The gaps show what happened to those who chose it, with their preparation, teachers and interest. Comparing classmates holds the school, class and year constant, but not these.
• The average of Romanian and maths or history is an imperfect yardstick. A student strong in maths is not necessarily as strong in a subject that relies on memory, and vice versa.
• We expected that among students with at least 5 in the first two exams and averaging 5.00–5.99 the pass-rate gap between two subjects on the same track would exceed 20 percentage points in at least 9 of 12 years. It did not. Between anatomy and plant and animal biology, on the natural-resources track, the gap exceeded 20 points in 3 of 12 years. Between geography and sociology, on the humanities track, in 7 of 12. The gap runs in the same direction every year but is smaller than expected. Between the services and technical tracks it is at least 36 points every year.
• Who is counted: current-year school-leavers present at all three written exams in the summer session, with marks after appeals. Earlier cohorts and candidates carrying marks over from previous sessions are left out. For 2016, 2017 and 2019, 8,513 candidates, between 2.3% and 2.7% of each of those years’ cohorts, are also missing because their marks cannot be read unambiguously from the published file.
• Pass rates by track and subject leave out students who also sit a mother-tongue exam (5.2% of the total), whose average is taken over four marks.
• Marks stop at 10. Students with high first two marks have less room to rise in the third, so gaps between subjects are compressed at the top.

Questions about the optional exam#

Sources and method#

Every figure starts from the per-candidate results published by the Romanian Ministry of Education on data.gov.ro for each summer session from 2015 to 2026, under CC BY 4.0 and OGL-ROU-1.0. The number of enrolled candidates in the files matches the figures in the ministry’s press releases for 2025 (107,961) and 2026 (130,854). Of 1,634,257 enrolments over 12 years, the calculations use 1,349,756 current-cohort school-leavers with marks in all three written exams. School names come from the school network register on data.gov.ro.

• Romanian Ministry of Education: per-candidate Baccalaureate results, first (summer) session, 2015–2026 (data.gov.ro)
• Ministry of Education: list of Baccalaureate subjects by track, annex 1 to Order 4800/2010 (in Romanian)
• Ministry of Education: Baccalaureate biology syllabus, the two papers (in Romanian)
• Baccalaureate methodology, art. 70: minimum 5 in each exam and minimum average 6 (in Romanian)
• Framework curriculum for grades 11–12, technological high schools (annex 4 to Order 3412/2009, as amended by Order 7724/2024; in Romanian)
• Framework curriculum for grade 10, technological high schools (Order 3081/2010; in Romanian)
• Ministry of Education: the 2030 Baccalaureate, press release of 16 June 2026 (in Romanian)
• Ministry of Education: final results of the first 2026 session (in Romanian)
• Ministry of Education: school network register (data.gov.ro)
• Ofqual: inter-subject comparability, working papers 2015–2016