Basic State Exam

The Basic State Exam (Russian: Основной государственный экзамен; OGE) is the final exam for basic general education courses in Russia. It is used to control the knowledge obtained by students after 9 years, as well as for admission to secondary vocational education institutions (not in Moscow and the Moscow region (colleges and technical colleges)). It is one of the three forms of the State Final Attestation (GIA), with the Unified State Exam happening two years later for students graduating high school, and a separate exam being held for students with disabilities.

Procedure

The procedure for conducting the OGE is determined by the "Procedure for conducting the state final attestation on educational programs of basic general education". The key provisions of this document are:

1. The OGE consists of four exams - Russian language, mathematics and two elective subjects.
2. Students who have no academic debts and have fulfilled the curriculum are allowed to take the OGE.
3. For admission to the OGE, a student must receive credit for the final interview in Russian language, which is held on the second Wednesday of February and on additional days.

Format

The format of the exam is related to the USE. Maximum scores for each subject (as of 2022)

• Russian language- 33 points.
• Mathematics (19 in algebra and 12 in geometry) - 31 points.
• Physics- 45 points.
• Chemistry (work with a real experiment) - 40 points.
• Biology- 48 points.
• Geography- 31 points.
• Social Studies- 37 points.
• History- 37 points.
• Literature- 42 points.
• Information and communications technology - 19 points.
• Foreign language - 68 points.

The GIA of 9th grade graduates is assessed at the regional level. In case of successful passing of the exams, pupils are issued certificates of basic general education.

In the 2018/19 academic year, ninth-graders had to take a total of four final exams, of which two were compulsory (Russian language and mathematics), and two more students chose from a list of approved subjects.

In 2018, the approbation of the oral part of the Russian language exam, officially called "Final oral interview in Russian language", began. It, along with the absence of annual grades below "satisfactory", is an admission to the main examination.

Mathematics

As of 2024, the mathematics exam is divided into two modules: the Algebra module and the Geometry module. The minimum number of points to obtain a certificate is 8. It is necessary to score at least 6 points in the "Algebra" module and at least 2 points in the "Geometry" module. If a student, for example, correctly solved 7 tasks from the "Algebra" module and only one from the "Geometry" module, the final certification will not be credited.

The exam consists of 2 parts. In Part 1 pupils are offered tasks where they have to give one answer, and in Part 2 - a detailed answer. The duration of the exam is 235 minutes.

Russian language

The Russian language exam requires the fulfillment of answer-choice tasks, full-answer tasks, essays and narrations. The duration of the exam is 235 minutes. Pupils listen to the text of the essay from the audio recording on the disk attached to the KIMs. In 2018, an oral exam in Russian language was also introduced separately; the duration of the exam is 15 minutes.

Introduction of the OGE

Experiments on the introduction of the GIA in Russian language and mathematics have been conducted in various regions of Russia since 2002. Now such a system is used throughout Russia.

Incidents

On May 27, 2024, ninth-graders in Nizhny Novgorod were unable to pass the OGE due to a technical failure in the software. The exams in computer science, biology, chemistry, physics and social studies were postponed to a reserve day, and students had to stand outside for over three hours. The prosecutor's office started an inspection of the fulfillment of the legislation on education.