The first students face selectivity: From Primo de Rivera to the diversity of accents

The dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, the diversity of accents in Spain and the almost unpronounceable word "incontrovertible" have slipped into the university entrance exams on Monday.

Oliver Thansan
Oliver Thansan
04 June 2023 Sunday 22:24
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The first students face selectivity: From Primo de Rivera to the diversity of accents

The dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, the diversity of accents in Spain and the almost unpronounceable word "incontrovertible" have slipped into the university entrance exams on Monday. Second year Baccalaureate students from the communities of Cantabria, Madrid, Murcia and La Rioja have been the first to face this dreaded exam in which they pass more than 90%.

Until mid-June, some 250,000 young people will go through an examination that depending on the region has a different appellation: EBAU in Asturias, Canaries, Cantabria, Castile and Leon, Extremadura, Balearic Islands, La Rioja and Murcia; EVAU in Aragon, Castile-La Mancha, Navarre and Madrid; PEvAU in Andalusia, Abau in Galicia; UAE in Basque Country and PAU in Catalonia.

Primo de Rivera, the Paleolithic, the new plant decrees or the coming of age of Isabel II have been some of the questions that have started the Spanish History exam for Cantabrian high school graduates, a total of more than 3,000.

The first day has been carried out without major incidents, although there has been a problem with the Language and Literature exam, because a poem that was not included in the agenda has been included and has been replaced by another.

The diversity of accents, capitalism and the behavior of banks have been some of the issues that have marked the first day of the Baccalaureate Assessment Test for University Access (EBAU) in Murcia, to which they were called more than 8,600 students.

The Spanish Language and Literature exam has consisted, as usual, of two texts, to choose one. The first dealt with the richness of accents in Spain and the importance of defending them as heritage assets and not trying to neutralize them.

In this document, the protagonists have become, among others, the youtuber from Alhama TheGrefg; the La Mancha accent of the singer-songwriter Rozalén, the Andalusian of the minister María Jesús Montero or the Murcian accent of the comedian Miguel Maldonado; and the "canary leave" of the journalist Nicolás Castellano. The second text has addressed the effects of financial capitalism and the way banks operate, according to the author, in the context of the economic crisis.

In the Community of Madrid, students began with Language and Literature at 9:30 a.m. and continued with History of Spain at 11:00 a.m., a first day that started without problems on the six public campuses for 38,251 young people, reported the vice-chancellor of students of the Complutense, Rosa de la Fuente.

"Incontrovertible" has been the most heard word in the Faculty of Pharmacy of the Complutense at the exit of the Language and Literature exam. The students have had to do a morphological analysis of this word, which they admit has "caught" them because it is difficult for them "even to pronounce it". Despite this, the majority have left "happy" because they have "fallen" the avant-garde and Noucentismo in literature.

The vice-chancellor for students of the Complutense has acknowledged that there is "a certain concern" of the organizing commissions for the entrance exams to the University for 2024 because the Government has paralyzed the draft of the future Ebau due to the electoral advance.

In La Rioja, nerves and the review of last-minute notes have been the protagonists at the start of the EBAU, where students have had to choose in their first exam between the poetry of Blas de Otero and the theater of Valle-Inclán .

Hundreds of the 1,456 enrolled students have gathered since early in the morning at the sports center of the University of La Rioja (UR), in Logroño, to be able to access inside to take the first exam, in Spanish Language and Literature II. Grouped in groups at the gates of the sports center, most have rushed until the last minute to review their notes and books.

In their first exam, they had to choose between developing a topic on Blas de Otero or Valle-Inclán, explained the acting general director of Educational Innovation for the La Rioja government, Alberto Abad. The students also had to choose between a text by the journalist Martín Caparrós on Current Consumerism and another by the writer Catherine L'Ecuyer on The importance of basic studies.