Basque PAU General Sciences

It is the official assessment that, together with your Bachillerato record, produces the score used for university admission in Spain. Students finishing Bachillerato take it, and it can also be required for those entering from higher vocational training or foreign systems. Check the Basque university's admissions page for your specific case.

The Ciencias Generales paper is written and mixes item types: multiple-choice, short-answer definitions, open-response explanations and numerical problems. You may be asked to interpret a data table or describe an experimental design. Expect to write, calculate and justify, not only tick boxes.

The concepts are within Bachillerato level, but the difficulty comes from breadth and time pressure. Questions often combine two areas, for example a graph about enzyme activity or a stoichiometry problem with an environmental context. Practising under timed conditions is the most reliable way to close that gap.

Yes, retakes are normally possible in later calls, and the better result usually counts. The specific rules, limits and how marks are combined change, so confirm the current retake policy on the official Basque admissions website rather than relying on what older students tell you.

The official body sets and publishes the current duration and number of items each year, so consult its site for the exact figure. As a planning rule, allocate roughly a minute per multiple-choice item and reserve a substantial block for the long problems and explanations.

Start with scientific methodology and data interpretation, because those skills appear in every other block. Then build chemistry and physics foundations, since they need repeated calculation practice. Biology and Earth science come next, and leave science-technology-society and interdisciplinary questions for revision, when you can connect them to everything else.

Three recur: not showing units or significant figures in calculations, answering the question asked rather than the one you revised, and ignoring the data given in a graph or table. Examiners award method marks, so write the formula, substitution and result line even when the final number feels obvious.

Not hands-on experience, but you must recognise standard procedures: titration, microscopy, separation techniques, control and variable design, and safety. Questions usually ask why a step is done or what a result means, so learn the purpose of each technique rather than memorising recipes.

No. The score is an access credential, and competitive degrees set cut-off marks that vary each year with demand. A good EvAU result improves your options but does not reserve a place. Check the published cut-offs for the specific degree and campus you want.

The Basque university admissions authority and the universities themselves publish the calendar, structure, scoring formula and any changes each year. Always use those official pages, because details such as specific-phase weighting tables are updated and secondary sources quickly become outdated.