Lebanese Baccalaureate - Literature & Humanities (LH) study guide
Lebanese Baccalaureate - Literature & Humanities (LH) · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The Lebanese Baccalaureate in Literature & Humanities (Bac LH, رسميًا فرع الآداب والعلوم الإنسانية) is the national secondary-school leaving certificate awarded to students who complete the humanities track of the Lebanese General Secondary Certificate. It is designed for candidates who read, argue, and write well rather than calculate: students heading toward law, journalism, languages, education, philosophy, history, or the social sciences at university, and anyone whose strengths lie in text and interpretation. The Lebanese Baccalaureate - Literature & Humanities (LH) study guide has 9 sections and about 2,174 words.
01Arabic Language and Literature
A candidate must master three strands: grammar (النحو) - the case system (إعراب), verb types, transitivity, and the functions of nominal and verbal sentences; rhetoric (البلاغة) - the figures of تشبيه , استعارة , كناية , مجاز , and the sciences of معاني and بديع ; and literary analysis - identifying genre, theme, structure, tone, and the relationship between form and meaning in classical and modern texts (شعر عمودي، شعر حر، مقالة، قصة قصيرة). Confusing حال (circumstantial accusative) with تمييز or with a predicate of a hidden verb; the clue is a question like كيف؟ .
296 words, about 1 min02First Foreign Language (French)
The French paper tests compréhension écrite (identifying thesis, tone, implicit meaning, text type), compétence linguistique (tenses, agreement, subjunctive, connectors, vocabulary in context), and expression écrite (structured argument, register, cohesion). Passé composé vs imparfait : the imperfect describes background/habit; the compound past reports completed events.
253 words, about 1 min03Second Foreign Language (English)
The English paper assesses reading comprehension (main idea, inference, reference, vocabulary in context), language (tenses, conditionals, passive voice, reported speech, connectors, word formation), and written expression (paragraph structure, formal register, linking devices). Conditional types : If + present, will (real); If + past, would (hypothetical); If + had + past participle, would have (unreal past).
262 words, about 1 min04Philosophy
Candidates must handle logic (propositions, validity vs truth, syllogism, fallacies), epistemology (knowledge, justification, empiricism vs rationalism, scientific method), ethics (deontology, consequentialism, virtue ethics, freedom and responsibility), and history of philosophy (major figures and their central theses). The essay requires a clear problem, a thesis, argumentation with references, and a critical conclusion.
246 words, about 1 min05History
The syllabus covers modern and contemporary world history (Enlightenment, French Revolution, industrialization, world wars, decolonization, Cold War) and Lebanese history (Ottoman rule, Mutasarrifiyya, French Mandate, independence 1943, civil war 1975–1990, Taif Agreement 1989, postwar reconstruction). Confusing causes, triggers, and consequences - questions often ask specifically for immediate causes.
213 words, about 1 min06Geography
Three strands: physical geography (relief, climate, hydrology, biomes), human geography (population, migration, urbanization, development indicators), and economic geography (primary/secondary/tertiary sectors, resources, trade). Cartography requires reading scale, legend, projection, and thematic maps.
220 words, about 1 min07Sociology and Economics
Sociology : social institutions (family, school, religion, state), socialization, norms and values, social stratification, and social change. Economics : scarcity, supply and demand, market equilibrium, factors of production, inflation, unemployment, and the role of the state.
233 words, about 1 min08Mathematics (General Culture, Literary Track)
The literary-track paper emphasizes numerical and algebraic fluency , functions and graphs , percentages and proportional reasoning , basic statistics and probability , and logical/quantitative reasoning applied to real situations (finance, demography, data reading). Percentage change confusion: a 20% increase followed by a 20% decrease does not return to the original value.
214 words, about 1 min09Civic Education / National Education
Covers the state and its institutions (executive, legislative, judiciary), the constitution , rights and duties of citizens , democracy and elections , rule of law , and national identity and citizenship in the Lebanese context, including the Taif Agreement's institutional reforms. Confusing separation of powers with a hierarchy - the branches check, not command, one another.
237 words, about 1 min