Psychological warfare and built-in injustice: the need to reform the French “classes prépas”
As a twenty year old I would sometimes escape from the dark corridors of the dormitories at Louis-le-Grand to take a walk on the quays of the Seine. If the doors were open, I would enter Notre Dame, sit on a bench and admire the keystones. At a time when my life seemed to be so stupidly hanging by the thread of a single exam, I needed to look up to something less futile. Ten centuries of History. The Beauty of Mary. If my two years of hard work and self sacrifice amounted in the end to nothing, I would still have Notre Dame.
Louis le Grand is one of the French « Classes Prépa », a system of schools which during two years prepare high school graduates for competitive entrance into the famed « Grandes Écoles ». The preparation is taxing and the competition ruthless. I increasingly catch myself contemplating the eery beauty of the two years of self-sacrifice which Prépa meant to me; and the sheer cruelty of a system which I luckily overcame.
When Grande École first appeared in the late nineteenth century, the thinking was this would be the most “republican” way to train the elites of the country. As the population grew and the number of top Grande Écoles didn’t, the system has gotten more and more competitive. Today, entrance exams are so long and hard (up to two weeks of back to back four 4 hour tests) that a full two years of preparation is required. That preparation has been institutionalized in a system called « Classes Prepas ».
The system has its merits.
For example, unlike other courses in France or a typical undergrad curriculum in the US, Classes Prépas allows students to go both deep and broad in the subjects they study. For two years, I was able to study mathematics, philosophy, history, literature, English and Spanish- all at an undergrad level. That diversity is a strength as it allows students to draw connections between seemingly disconnected topics and allow them to develop good « culture générale », a very French concept often disparagingly referred to by Americans as « trivia » but which according to French ideals is an essential part of a well-rounded education.
Another perk of studying in Classes Prepa (most of which are publicly funded and free to students) is the student to professor ratio. A typical week in Classe Prépa includes forty hours of class taught by eight different professors, in addition to at least two hours of one-to-one practice oral exams with professors. That is made possible by the small size of the class: typically only forty students.
For those who succeed at the exams, remembering the Prépa years comes with a feeling of pride to have ‘made it’ and relief that things ended well. For many others who either drop out half-way or fail at the exams, the feeling is one of bitterness. Over the years I have come to see those two accounts as two sides of the same coin, each symptomatic of the ruthlessness and cruelty of an antiquated system.
The ruthlessness and cruelty of an antiquated system.
First there is the fear. For two years students are like athletes who prepare for a single race where they will have only one chance to do everything perfectly. Two years of practice, hard work and self sacrifice can effectively be cancelled out by an accidentally bad score a the one-off final exams. Thus, two years of Prépa lead students to a paralyzing question: « Will it have been worth it ? ». Some students cope better with the never-dying stress than others. For me, fear materialized as chronic insomnia, mood swings and compulsive eating. And it didn’t just stop at the exam. One year into Grande École, I remember still having nightmares about the oh-so-life-defining exam.
There is then the envy and the shame. Grandes Écoles select students solely based on their ranking at the exam therefore Classes Prépas regularly rank students in practice exams which occur daily or weekly for two years. When essays are graded, the grades of each student along with often blunt, cold-blooded commentary from the Professor are shared out loud in front of the entire class. Similarly, a full ranking of each student from first to last is shared publicly, in paper format, every quarter. One is always aware of where one stands relative to others. Professors refer to this system as « émulation » which is a politically correct way of saying ruthless competition.
Finally, there are the daily pressures to fit in the mold. Performance at the exams is not a question of individuality or originality, it is a matter of knowledge and logic. As the only student with a regional accent, professors would openly confront me about my pronunciation or pretend to not understand what I said (I distinctly remember a math professor asking me to repeat the word “One” three times, pretending in front of the class to not understand me until I said it with a Parisian accent).
Two years of sacrifice create an imbalance in students’ life which later take years to offset. As a student I would practice an average 100 hours a week, allowing myself to rest only on Sunday mornings. Outings to McDonald’s or quick walks around the Luxembourg gardens were one of my most cherished and only allowed distractions over the weekend. Dedication to academic excellence in Prépa is at the expense of everything else including physical development through sports, creative pursuits, extracurricular activities and of course, emotional and sexual development.
My general rule of survival was ignore it, shove it, if it’s not a book, don’t even consider it”.
Meanwhile, everyone else who was my age would live their lives in full and discover who they were and what they were into in ways that I could not even imagine.
It is obvious to me now that such institutionalized sacrifices- while allowing students in the short term to get into the schools they want- are no preparation for today’s world. At twenty, students arrive in Grande École with the emotional maturity of teenagers. Little exposure to diversity during Prépas unleashes sexism, racism, and homophobia in Grande École, when students have more time to say stupid things and act stupidly. Furthermore, inexperience with public speaking, extracurricular activities or even team sports all result in extremely low interpersonal skills, a gap which subsequent years in Grande École do not necessarily fill. I have since moving to the US met countless 23 year olds who, while painfully lacking in “culture générale” were infinitely more prepared for the job market than 25 year old European master’s degree graduates.
It’s time to overhaul the French system of Classes Prépa.
Already, cracks have started to appear. Grande École increasingly open “side door” entrances to allow undergraduates to join their course half-way, effectively skipping Classes Prépas and the full entrance exams. Some reformers point to the cost of Classes Prépas relative to the lack of funding of Universities. Others denounce the entrance exams themselves, pointing to the socially elitist nature of subjects like philosophy and geopolitics, which penalize students with modest social backgrounds.
Before the cracks shatter the Prépa system leaving the French with a still underfunded, low performing Université system, we need to imagine what a better system might be for future generations.
Classes Prépa can no longer be the theater of institutionalized psychological warfare. We need competitive schools to look at the entirety of the student’s profile and achievements, which means taking an interest in non academic pursuits and allowing students to pursue their own interests at an earlier age. We need to do away with « culture générale » testings which are increasingly socially and racially exclusive. And we need to ensure entrance into Grande École is equally competitive for everyone, with no back door or fast tracks.
The spirit of Classes Prépas was fundamentally Republican and meritocratic. Allowing all students to get into top schools solely based on their work was a noble goal which we need to still look at. But we need to stop ignoring the ruthless reality and injustice which the system has created, so we can create a better education for everyone. Since Classes Prépas are so synonymous with French elitism, reforming them will be a hard, emotional and scary journey. But it is one we need to start urgently.
