ExpertBack to school
Back to school quiz: school laws, grandes écoles and exams (expert)
For education buffs: French school laws, elite colleges, foreign entrance exams, mathematical logic and the origins of paper and species naming.
Back to school quizzes
History of school, subjects, great scholars and school culture
The Back to school theme looks at the history and culture of education: Jules Ferry's laws on free, secular and compulsory schooling, the creation of the baccalauréat under Napoleon, classic subjects from dictation to multiplication tables and Pythagoras' theorem, and the great scholars who fill textbooks, such as Marie Curie, Louis Pasteur or Archimedes.
These quizzes on school life and the start of the school year are a chance to refresh what you learned in class and rediscover how education took shape. They are free, offer five difficulty levels from very easy to expert, and give an explanation after every answer so the key ideas stick.
Quizzes
HardBack to school
Back to school quiz: famous educators and mathematicians (hard)
For fans of education history: the founders of the Sorbonne and Harvard, teaching methods, great maths and physics discoveries, and pen inventions.
MediumBack to school
Back to school quiz: universities, chemistry, pencils (intermediate)
From Europe's first universities to everyday school inventions: chemistry, biology, Greek geometry and school calendars around the world.
EasyBack to school
Back to school quiz: school history, scientists and accents (easy)
Test your classroom knowledge: the history of public schooling in France, famous scientists, chemical formulas, French accents and pencil materials.
Very easyBack to school
Back to school quiz: geometry, planets and times tables (very easy)
Warm up with classroom basics: geometry tools, times tables, colours, planets and oceans. An easy quiz to get back into the school routine.
Related themes
Frequently asked questions about Back to school
Who made school free, secular and compulsory in France?
These principles come from the laws of Jules Ferry, Minister of Public Instruction under the Third Republic. A law of 1881 made public primary schooling free, and a law of 1882 made education compulsory from age 6 to 13 and made public school teaching secular.
When was the baccalauréat created in France?
Napoleon I created the baccalauréat in 1808, and the first graduates passed it in 1809. At first it concerned only a very small number of young men; the first woman to earn it, Julie-Victoire Daubié, did so in 1861.
What does Pythagoras' theorem say?
In a right-angled triangle, the square of the hypotenuse equals the sum of the squares of the other two sides. It is named after the Greek mathematician Pythagoras, although Mesopotamian mathematicians were already familiar with the relationship long before him.