It’s in the bag(rut)

Back in this post, I provided a list of some bagruyot (Israeli high school matriculation exams) basics.

As promised, here’s a glossary of those terms:

Matkonet – מתכונת – Literally, standard or measure. This refers to the pretest given by the teacher in advance of the actual bagrut.

Ezrachut – אזרחות – Civics. One of the basic, required subjects. (And also one of the least popular…)

Hagashah – הגשה – Literally, submission. The term refers to the grade given by the teacher. In theory, the hagashah is based on the aforementioned matkonet, but most teachers take other factors into consideration. Note that the final bagrut grade is the average of the hagashah and the score the student receives on the bagrut. (Therefore, this is sometimes referred to as the tziyun magen – ציון מגן – literally, “protective mark”. However, there are times when the hagashah can actually hurt the student.)

Megamah – מגמה – Course of study or “major”. Depending on the school, students must choose a megamah by the end of 9th or 10th grade.

Feezikah – פיזיקה - Physics. This is generally considered to be one of the hardest megamot.

On-seen – אנסין – Literally, “unseen”. On both the English and Gemara bagruyot, the students are required to analyze text which they’ve never seen before. (Heblish speakers may be surprised to learn that this is NOT an English term…)

Mikud – מיקוד – Literally, concentration. A few weeks (months?) before each bagrut, the Education Ministry announces which specific topics will appear on the exam.

Lashon – לשון – Language arts or grammar. Another one of the required subjects.

Yechidot – Literally, units. Most Heblish speakers call them “points”, but those of us who attended college in the States tend to think of them as “credits”. Students take a different number of yechidot in different subjects. For example, in general, one takes five yechidot in one’s megamah.

Machshevet – מחשבת – Jewish thought. For students attending yeshiva high schools and ulpanot (girls’ religious high schools), this is a required subject.

Machsheivim – מחשבים – Computers. Like feezikah above, this is considered to be a ri’ali (ריאלי – literally, realistic – i.e. practical, technological or science-based) megamah.

‘G’ – The English bagrut is divided into several individual tests. “G” refers to one of the harder tests.

Eretz – ארץ – The official name of this (non-ri’ali) megamah is Limudei Eretz Yisrael – לימודי ארץ ישראל – Land of Israel Studies.

Mo’ed bet – ‘מועד ב – A makeup exam date. This is offered for English and math.

Efess-chamesh – 05 – The math bagrut is also divided into different tests. “05” is one of them.

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Now excuse me while I sit back and wait for some of my younger readers to pounce on all the mistakes, errors, and omissions…

…ושוב

!בהצלחה לכל הנבחנים