General secondary education
In the French-speaking sub-system, admission to the first cycle of general education (class 6e) is by competitive examination (concours d'entrée en 6e). The same applies to the English-speaking sub-system, where the examination for admission to class 1 is the Common Entrance.
The legal age for the 6e entrance exam is 12 and 13 for the Common Entrance.

The first cycle of French-speaking general secondary education lasts four years, while the first cycle of English-speaking secondary education lasts five years.

The first diploma for French-speaking general secondary education is the B.E.P.C. The examination is taken in 3e (fourth year of study).

For English-speaking general secondary education, the first qualification is the GCE OL (General Certificate of Education Ordinary Level). This exam is taken in Class 5 (fifth year of study).

In French-speaking general secondary education, the duration of studies is three years. For general English-language education, it is two years.

The French-speaking sub-system has two examinations (Probatoire and Baccalauréat) while the English-speaking sub-system has only one (GCE AL - General Certificate of Education Advanced Level).

The legal age for the French-language second cycle is 16. For the English-language second cycle, it is 17.

Technical secondary education
In the French-speaking sub-system, admission to the first cycle of technical education (Year 1) is by competitive examination (concours d'entrée en 1ère Année de l'enseignement technique). The same applies to the English-speaking sub-system, where the Form 1 entrance exam is the Common Entrance exam.

The legal age for the 6e entrance exam is 12 and 13 for the Common Entrance.

The two sub-systems, French-speaking and English-speaking, have a duration of 4 years for the first cycle and three years for the second cycle.

The first cycle diploma for French-speaking secondary technical education is the CAP (Certificat d'Aptitude Professionnelle). It is awarded at the end of the 4th year.

For the first cycle of English-language technical secondary education, the diploma is the TVEE IL (Technical and Vocational Education Examination Intermediate Level) obtained after 4 years.

In the second cycle of technical education, the duration of studies is three years, for both the Anglophone and Francophone sub-systems.

The qualifications are as follows:
- for the English-speaking subsystem: the TVEE AL (Technical and Vocational Education Examination Advanced Level)
- for the French-speaking sub-system: the Probatoire technique and the Baccalauréat technique.

Exams and Competitive Examinations past papers Secondary education

Epreuve de SVT BEPC 2008