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Overview of the Results
- Record High Scores: The average score this year is 60 points (out of 100), which is over two points higher than last year. This is the highest average score achieved since the State Matriculation Exams (DZI) were introduced in Bulgaria in 2008.
- Top Achievers: A total of 338 graduates received two “Excellent 6” grades, with four students scoring a perfect 100 points on both exams.
Exam Violations and Identical Papers
- Annulled Exams: A total of 107 exam papers were annulled, with 100 of them found to have completely identical content.
- How Identical Papers Were Detected: Each exam is independently graded by two separate evaluators in different parts of the country. When evaluators noticed matching texts, they flagged the papers for review by a national commission.
- Types of Copied Work: The identical content was found in the open-ended text creation sections of the Bulgarian Language and Literature (BLL) exam, specifically:
- Task 21: Arguing a stance on whether young people need “saving.”
- Task 40: Comparing interpretations of alienation across two literary excerpts.
- Task 41: The final essay or interpretive essay.
- Other Annulments: 31 additional exams were annulled directly during the test sessions—7 for identical answers and 24 for violating exam rules (including breaching anonymity).
Subject Breakdown
Bulgarian Language and Literature (BLL)
- Total Students: 49,106
- Average Score: 60 points (equivalent to Good 4.39 on the Bulgarian grading scale).
- High Grades: The number of students scoring above 5.50 (Excellent) increased by 42% compared to last year.
- Low Grades: The number of failing/low grades decreased by more than 6%.
- Essay vs. Literature Analysis: About 70% of students chose to write an essay on “Authorities Today”, while 20% chose an interpretive essay on “The Path to Oneself” (based on Yordan Yovkov’s “The Song of the Wheels”). Those who wrote the interpretive essay scored higher on average (17 out of 30 points) than those who wrote the essay (13 out of 30 points).
Second Profiled Subject
- Total Students: 23,618
- Average Score: 71.09 points (equivalent to Very Good 4.89).
- Low Grades: Decreased by over 10%.
- Popular Subjects: English was the most popular second choice, with rising interest in mathematics and entrepreneurship. The highest average scores were achieved in entrepreneurship, biology, geography, mathematics, informatics, and physics.
Vocational Qualification Exams
- Average Grade: Remains steady at around Very Good 4.50.
- Preferred Formats: The majority of vocational students (15,476) chose to defend a diploma project, which also yielded the highest average grade (4.98). This was followed by a practical test (average 4.50) and developing a written topic (average 4.16).
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