The 8th grade students took the Mathematics exam on Tuesday as part of the simulation with unique subjects at the national level. “It’s welcome training.”
Even more 8th graders were absent from the second mock test of the 2026 National Assessment nationwide. Assistant teachers scanned more than 144,300 papers at the end of the test, but more than 12,700 absences were recorded, compared to more than 11,800 on the first day, while three students were caught copying or trying to copy, being removed from the exam.
It should be noted that in 104 school units the simulation was not organized, due to the boycott of the activity by the teaching staff, so that more than 5,200 students could not go through this training.
In fact, most of the students looked at the test that way, being impatient to find out their grades.
“Simulation is very important to me. I really want to know where I stand right now,” said a student who took the test at a center in the municipality of Slatina. “The subjects were similar to those from the simulations we also do in class. It wasn’t something that surprised us. Ah, the geometry problem was harder for me, that’s it, I already know I still have work to do there”said another student.
“It was good! There were accessible topics,” was all that another student could say at first. She lived the test as if she were taking the real exam. She says she couldn’t control her emotions very well. “For us, who don’t take the exam in our school, it’s important to know where we come from, even where we can leave our things. At the county simulation, it was different. The subjects were similar, but we went to our class, we left our clothes on the hanger, we couldn’t even simulate everything. It’s a welcome training”said the student.
As for the grades, the students, most of them, think they will be lower than those of the Romanian language, but they promise to keep practicing until the exam in the summer.
“The downside is that any miscalculation can result in a loss of 5 points”
The subjects should not have caused great problems to the students, because they were written respecting the syllabus, according to the Mathematics teacher Titu Vîrban.
“It should be noted that the subjects were on the same model known since 2021 – the first year with this format. They followed the syllabus, obviously excluding a few chapters from the 8th grade. Topics 1 and 2 cover the entire material of algebra and geometry in grades V-VIII, having short solutions and requiring basic concepts. The downside is that any miscalculation or ignorance of a formula can result in the loss of 5 points. The third subject, which is fully solved, has six subjects of 5 marks each: three of algebra and three of geometry. The 5 points are divided into two requirements – A and B. (…) The requirements in point A generally have short and easy solutions, so it helps to increase the students’ score”. the teacher explained. Subpoint B, more difficult, required even more calculations.
The first of the three algebra problems is patterned after the exercises students do throughout their middle school years, so it shouldn’t have surprised them. The second algebra subject required 8th grade knowledge with many shorthand formulas. The third topic, which is usually on the exam with a function, now not included in the syllabus for the simulation, was replaced with a problem from the 7th grade, with the representation of points in the plane, similar to the function.
And the geometry subjects respected the syllabus, the teacher pointed out. “They required a lot of notions of congruence, similarity and, it should be noted, a lot of trigonometry. This is also a signal for us, the teachers, to insist more on trigonometry which is done at the end of the 7th gradeProf. Vîrban emphasized.
It should be noted that for geometry in space, students who have correctly solved the requirements will receive only 10 points out of the total of 45 that belong to geometry. “Maybe for some children, who have a harder time understanding geometry in space, it’s an advantage”the teacher also said.
The proposed subjects can make the difference between the very good children, the good ones and those who have a harder time in Mathematics, the teacher also noted. “They seem to me very well balanced subjects. You know that there are counties where a few hundredths matter a lot for admission. There are classes that are entered with very high averages, and then a difference must be made”, Prof. Titu Vîrban added.
