French Baccalauréat
Personalize your education based on your interests.
About a quarter of students at International High School choose to continue their studies in French and prepare for the French Baccalauréat (Le Bac). After preparatory courses in Grade 9 (Classe de 3ème) and Grade 10 (Classe de 2nde), students pursuing Le Bac compose a personalized schedule that combines required core courses and selected in-depth specialty courses. This customization reflects individual strengths, future college aspirations, and passions.
At International, students in the French track take around seven core subjects and must choose three specialty subjects in their junior year; they will then drop one in order to study the remaining two in greater depth. They also have the opportunity to add an arts option (Arts or Theater) to the regular program, and in their senior year, to add a mathematics option (Advanced or Applied Mathematics). In this way, students can customize their academic pathway within the French track.
We strongly encourage the students to choose the International French Baccalauréat (Baccalauréat Français International), an academically demanding bilingual pathway within the French Baccalauréat. Half of their final exams are taken in English, including written and oral exams in Language, Literature and Culture, and in History–Geography, as well as an oral presentation of their global studies research in Contemporary Studies (Connaissance du Monde). These exams account for nearly 40% of the total points awarded for the Baccalaureate diploma. The curriculum emphasizes deep linguistic competence, critical thinking, research and presentation skills, and cultural literacy. Completion of the BFI is highly valued by universities worldwide, as it reflects a high level of bilingual and bicultural achievement and strengthens students' readiness for global academic environments.
The French Baccalauréat speaks volumes to the sheer excellence of the education in our French Track—and also the camaraderie and sense of belonging—that many of our highest-performing students in the French Track come from families where French is not spoken at home.
Le Bac Courses
- A Shared Core
- Specialty: Mathématiques
- Specialty: Sciences économiques et sociales
- Specialty: Sciences de la vie et de la terre
- Specialty: Physique/Chimie
- Specialty: Humanités, littérature et philosophie