Studying in a private school in Île-de-France, is it a guarantee of success in the brevet exam? These are the schools that show the best results, according to the official data from the Ministry of National Education, unveiled on Friday, April 3. How does yours rank? Enter the name of your town in our search engine below to see its results.
Find out more: The 2026 ranking of the best high schools in France
Each time, you will find detailed performances at the brevet exam in general series: the success rate and the raw grade, but also, in parentheses, the “added value” of the institutions on each of these criteria. This indicator highlights the establishments that manage to make their students progress beyond expectations, taking into account their original profile. If it is high, it may mean that the school has “successfully, throughout a schooling, developed in students who may have been less well-off at the start, the knowledge and skills that led to their success,” said the Ministry of National Education.
Another highlighted indicator is the access rate between the 6th and the 3rd grade: the proportion of students who complete their schooling in the institution until the exam. Does the school keep all its students or exclude some along the way?
Among the 6,816 colleges listed by the Ministry of National Education, nearly 500 have a perfect success rate: 100% of students who took the brevet exams obtained their diploma. The most performing institutions also display impressive grades, averaging around 16/20.
However, this ranking is just an indicator of academic performance. As noted by the Ministry, “the criteria used to assess the results of an institution are not the same according to the objectives of students and their parents.” The results, for example, do not predict the involvement of teachers or the well-being of students – for which we do not have indicators.
In 2025, 726,100 candidates passed the brevet exam with a success rate of 86.7% in general series and 75.3% in professional series. Less than one in ten candidates received the mention “very good with jury congratulations” for those who exceeded 18/20. On average, students in general series scored 11.4/20 in French, 13/20 in mathematics, 10.8/20 in history-geography, and 11.3/20 in sciences.
Will these performances change in 2026 with the adjustments to the exam? In the upcoming session, terminal exams will account for 60% of the final grade, compared to 50% previously. There will be four tests: French (3 hours), mathematics (2 hours), history and geography as well as moral and civic education (2 hours), and finally sciences (2 hours), which include physics-chemistry, life sciences, and technology.
Continuous assessment will represent 40% of the grade, but will now be calculated only from the results in the third grade class, not the entire cycle 4 (5th, 6th, 3rd). All subjects will be taken into account with the same weight.
