How I scored a perfect 10 in the maths Baccalaureate: method, not talent

In 2025 I scored a clean 10 in maths at the Baccalaureate. When I say this, the first reaction is almost always the same: "it's easy for you, you have talent." I've taught enough students to know it's exactly the opposite — a top mark doesn't come from an innate gift, but from a way of working anyone can pick up. Here is the method, exactly as I apply it with my own students.

Talent is overrated, method isn't

I was the only "country kid" in my year, in one of the most competitive classes in Bucharest, and I saw extremely well-prepared classmates up close. The difference between those who got top marks and the rest wasn't intelligence, but the discipline with which they practised. The good news is that discipline can be copied; talent can't. Everything below is something you can start doing tomorrow.

1. Practise on real papers, timed

The biggest mistake is to "read the theory" and feel ready. Theory is easy to recognise and tricks you into thinking you know it. The exam is made of exercises, so that's where you have to train: take official past papers and solve them timed, without help, from start to finish. Baccalaureate papers have a structure that repeats — after 10-15 papers you start recognising the patterns before you've even finished reading them.

2. Learn the marking scheme, not just the solution

This is where most points are lost for nothing. At the Baccalaureate, steps are scored, not just the final result. You can have the right answer and lose points for not writing the justification — and vice versa, you can earn partial points even if you didn't finish the problem. When you grade yourself against the official scheme, you learn to "think like a marker" and write exactly what earns points. That difference alone moves a student from a 7 to a 9.

3. Collect the safe points first

Before you struggle with the last hard problem, make sure you've secured everything easy. These are points you get quickly and reliably, and many students lose them to haste:

• Solve the paper end to end, don't skip questions.
• Write every step — the justification is scored separately from the result.
• Check simple calculations at the end; that's where the silliest points are lost.

4. Repeat until it becomes a reflex

On exam day you don't have time to "think" about every step. You need the basics — derivatives, integrals, equations, the classic problem types — to come automatically, so you have energy left for the hard parts. That reflex doesn't come from understanding something once, but from repeating it many times. That's why I always aimed to solve more papers than I thought I needed.

Why feedback matters

To practise properly against the scheme you need feedback — otherwise you repeat the same mistakes without realising. That's exactly what I built Era Lumis for: you sit a paper as at the exam and get it graded against the official scheme, with an explanation for every point lost. That way you see, in black and white, where you stand and what to fix, without waiting for a teacher. A perfect 10 isn't a talent race; it's a method race — and you can start the method today.