This year, university admission tests that decide the future of thousands of students will be held from 14 to 16 June. We present ‘selectivitat.io’, the definitive tool to prepare for them and give you the best chance at success.

In 2021, at the age of 22, Jaume Plana created selectivitat.io, a platform that offers all the teaching material to prepare for your GCSE, as well as for university admission tests. The initiative was born from the experience of Jaume and other people around him who had, as he describes, a feeling of abandonment when it came to studying and preparing for these exams.

In just over a year, the platform has collected all the material necessary for the subjects taken in the GCSE: notes sent by the students themselves, notes from academies and professionals, mock exams, grade calculators, courses and podcasts. All with the philosophy of free access, as Plana explains: “It’s free now and forever and ever, we believe that you don’t have to pay for educational material”.

In addition to these basic and free services, there are additional paid services for students who may need the support of a teacher to help them resolve doubts and accompany them in this process.

The grade that decides your future

This is the well-known, and dreaded for some, cut-off mark. The mark that is extracted from the ‘selectivitat’ and which will decide which degree the student can study and at which university, within the range of options that he or she has chosen. A system that Plana himself considers unfair and with a great risk of loss of talent along the way: “There are incredible people who would be perfect in entrance examinations, but they can never get there because the filtering is based on marks” when the employment sector, he remarks, “is not based on marks”.

The current education system focuses on grades from the start. Even in nursery school (from three to five years old) there are schools that initiate students into this selection system that will accompany them for the rest of their academic life. Therefore, they become accustomed to selection by grades. 

However, Plana points out that they are not taught the basis of the learning process and take advantage of it. There are thousands of students who, due to a lack of organisational tools, lack of support or fear of not achieving their objectives, end up failing in this system.

Pressure closes doors

Managing pressure can be very important in terms of the results of the university entrance exams. In this sense, the mental preparation of students is relevant, as Plana explains: “Pupils who get a 14 or very good marks are very good students who know how to handle pressure very well”.

Jaume Plana also points out that we are not prepared for failure, as we are not educated to identify it as something natural and even positive. On the contrary, those who fail are singled out.

The pressure when it comes to tackling studies is subsequently transferred to the way we approach the labour market, which becomes a limiting pillar for many young people. 

Therefore, in addition to academic preparation for the entrance exam, there is also mental preparation, which includes three main aspects: having the support and accompaniment to be able to face these tests; being aware that it is OK if you fail, as there will be new opportunities, and finally, making it clear that your aptitudes will be more important for your future than any grade.

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