It is kind of like a tradition in France to not give perfect scores (20/20) to tests, especially in humanities. The idea is that there is no such thing as a per

It is kind of like a tradition in France to not give perfect scores (20/20) to tests, especially in humanities. The idea is that there is no such thing as a perfect essay, and so, no perfect score. Perfect scores are much more common in hard science and maths, where it is usually a simple matter of answering correctly to every question, but some teachers are still hesitant and may find some tiny imperfection to justify a "19/20". I think it is becoming a thing of the past as perfect scores are becoming more common, but it was a time where getting a perfect 20/20 in philosophy for the baccalauréat was literally newsworthy, as in, it gets talked about on national news.