This year's PAU exams in Bizkaia have led to a cascade of zero scores among students. Although the University of the Basque Country (UPV) stated it had corrected a specific error affecting eight students, numerous testimonies on social media and cases like that of Hidaya, an Artistic Baccalaureate student, suggest a much wider problem. This student, who also received a zero, has decided to voice her concerns about a grade she finds incomprehensible.
Her feeling upon finishing the exam was very positive. "We were taught with super-complicated exam models," she explains, but the actual exam "was much lower in level." She recalls understanding the text "quite well." Therefore, the surprise was immense upon seeing the grade. "A zero is impossible, but how can I have a zero? It's the first one in my life," she says, still astonished.
“"I went on social media and videos of people started appearing, and they were all photos of zeros."
After the initial shock, Hidaya turned to social media, where she discovered she wasn't alone. Her own Basque language teacher couldn't believe it. "She told me: 'Seriously? It's impossible, they have to look into it. How can you have a zero? You don't have a zero level'".
Although the grade does not affect her average for accessing the Art degree she desires, she has decided to appeal "due to the indignation" such a grade has caused her. She cannot understand how she didn't score a single point in any part of the exam, which included multiple-choice questions on the text and a written section. "I can assure you I don't think I failed those, because I've never failed those questions in language," she states.
Highlighting the frustration of not being able to easily access the correction to understand what happened, Hidaya laments that the method for recalculating the grade after an appeal is based on the average between the first and second score, meaning she would start from a zero.
