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EBAU / EVAU 2027: structure, how the grade is calculated, and dates
If you're starting the final year of Bachillerato this September, your university entrance exam is in June 2027. Here's how it works: which exams you'll sit, how your grade is calculated, how much you can raise it, and what's known so far about the dates.
Is the exam changing in 2027? Short answer: no
This is the most searched question, and there's a fair amount of outdated information circulating about it. For years, a new exam model was announced for around 2027 or 2028, featuring a "maturity test" that would count for 75% of the grade. That design was never actually implemented as planned.
The model currently in force is set by Royal Decree 534/2024, and it's already in effect: it applies to entrance exams from the 2024-2025 academic year and to admission procedures from 2025-2026 onwards. In other words, the 2027 exam will be, in essence, the same as 2026's. If you're preparing, the exam you've seen this year is the valid reference.
About the name: officially the exam is called the PAU (Prueba de Acceso a la Universidad, University Entrance Exam). "EBAU", "EvAU" and "Selectividad" are still used colloquially and vary by autonomous community, but they all refer to the same thing.
How many exams there are and on which subjects
The exam consists of four exercises, or five in autonomous communities with a co-official language. These are:
- Spanish Language and Literature II (and Co-official Language and Literature II where applicable).
- History of Spain or History of Philosophy — you can choose which one.
- Foreign Language II: German, French, English, Italian or Portuguese.
- A compulsory specific subject, which depends on your Bachillerato track.
Which specific subject applies to your track
| Bachillerato track | Specific exam subject |
|---|---|
| Science and Technology | Mathematics II or Applied Mathematics for Social Sciences II |
| Humanities and Social Sciences | Latin II or Applied Mathematics for Social Sciences II |
| Arts | Artistic Drawing II or Musical Analysis II / Performing Arts II |
| General | General Sciences |
How your admission grade is calculated
The grade that gets you into university isn't your exam grade alone: it's a weighted average between your school record and the exam.
- 60% — Bachillerato average grade (not counting Religion).
- 40% — entrance exam grade.
To pass, you need at least a 5 out of 10 in that weighted average. In addition, the exam grade itself (the arithmetic mean of the four or five exercises) has to be at least a 4. If you score below a 4 on the exam, it isn't averaged with your Bachillerato grade at all.
How to go from 10 to 14: the admission phase
The entrance grade tops out at 10, but the cutoff grades for many degrees are above that. This is where the admission phase comes in, which is optional: you can sit up to three additional subjects from the final year of Bachillerato, different from the ones you've already taken, plus a second foreign language.
Each university decides which subjects it weights for each degree and publishes those weightings every year. Those weighted grades are added to your entrance grade, which is why the admission grade can reach up to 14. It's worth checking the weightings of the specific university you're interested in before choosing which subjects to sit: the same subject can carry a different weighting depending on the degree and the institution.
Spelling mistakes do count
In exercises that require writing, the assessment of coherence, cohesion, and grammatical, lexical and spelling accuracy accounts for at least 10% of the mark for that question. That's a minimum, so each regional education authority can apply a higher weighting. The criterion is relaxed for students with specific educational support needs.
How long your grade is valid
There are two different time limits worth not confusing:
- A passed exam doesn't expire. Once you pass the PAU, that status is valid indefinitely.
- Admission-phase grades do expire. They're valid for the academic year immediately after and the following two years. After that, if you want that extra weighting again, you'd need to sit the exam once more.
EBAU 2027 dates: what's known and what isn't
Let's be precise here, because some sites are already publishing 2027 calendars as if they were final: the 2027 dates are not official yet.
The process each year works like this: the Ministry publishes a resolution in the BOE (Spain's Official State Gazette) setting the deadline dates for holding the exam and publishing provisional results, and each autonomous community then sets its specific days within that framework. That resolution is usually published around March of the same year. Until then, any detailed 2027 calendar you find is an estimate, not an official figure.
What has been stable by custom in recent years: the ordinary sitting is held in June and the extraordinary sitting at the end of June or in July, with Catalonia as the usual exception, which has held its extraordinary sitting in September. We'll update this page as soon as the official resolution is published.
Check the cutoff grade for any degree and calculate whether your grade qualifies with Vocaria's calculator →