The ink had only just dried on the paper when the debate started up again. How difficult was the math Abi this time? The only thing that is reasonably certain is that it wasn’t that easy what Bavaria’s high school graduates had to calculate last Wednesday – this is evidenced, among other things, by the comment columns on YouTube, where clips with sample solutions to this year’s tasks are discussed. “All in all,” writes one user, a “relatively difficult Abi”. Another: “Unfortunately I was only able to fill out half of the geometry part.” One task that involved working with circle sectors was perceived as particularly challenging. Difficulty rating according to another commenter: “bottomless”.
Of course, you shouldn’t see the whole thing so abysmal everywhere. Nevertheless, they could consider registering the Abitur in mathematics as an intangible cultural asset with the Ministry of Education: Complaints about exam questions that are too demanding are piling up with such regularity. In this respect, 2019 can be considered the involuntary high point of Bavarian customs, when thousands signed a petition, complained about unfair questions and demanded that the rating be adjusted. The protesters received support from the state parliamentary group of the Bavarian SPD. In the end, of course, the solidarity didn’t help much, everything “compliant with the curriculum,” it said.
It is therefore foreseeable that question marks will remain again this year, regardless of the result. How bottomless was the math degree really? Heavier than before? Or at least okay? And how much heaviness is even appropriate? It is not easy to find an answer to this, because opinions sometimes differ widely even when it comes to defining the standards. From 2008, for example, a maths teacher has been reported who tried to motivate his examinees with his own needs: “The Abitur is difficult – it took me 15 minutes to solve it.” Others set the bar lower. On YouTube, a user stated that he was actually quite “happy” with the Abi from 2023. Although he was “absolutely crappy in math”, but the stochastic part of the task “I shaved”.