A student aiming for a scientific prépa (the two-year preparatory classes for the French grandes écoles) prepares during terminale, the final year of lycée, not during the summer before. Terminale is when the options that count in the Parcoursup application are chosen, when the grades admissions committees read are built, and when the work habits the prépa will demand from September take shape. Maths comes first.
Specialist maths in terminale: what is on the syllabus
In the general track, specialist maths takes 4 hours a week in première and 6 hours in terminale. Two 3-hour options are added in terminale: mathématiques complémentaires, for students who dropped the specialism, and mathématiques expertes, for those who keep it and want to go further.
Since the 2027 session, all première students also sit an early maths exam: two hours, no calculator, a multiple-choice section on core skills marked out of 6 and two or three exercises marked out of 14, with a coefficient of 2. This year's terminale students sat it in June 2026; this year's première students will sit it in June 2027.
Maths expertes in terminale: the syllabus
The official maths expertes syllabus, published in 2019, has three parts: complex numbers, as algebraic and geometric objects; arithmetic, with divisibility, primes, greatest common divisors, Diophantine equations and encryption; matrices and graphs, with linear systems, recurrent sequences, counting paths in a graph and simple Markov chains.
Is maths expertes required for a prépa?
No national text requires it. But each prépa writes its own expectations on Parcoursup, and the wording is telling.
- MPSI at the Lycée Henri-Poincaré (Nancy): choosing maths expertes "strengthens applications and is strongly advised".
- MPSI at La Martinière Monplaisir (Lyon): the option "is not required, but we extremely strongly recommend taking it".
- MP2I at the Lycée Pierre-de-Fermat (Toulouse): maths expertes results are among the criteria rated "essential".
- MP2I at the Lycée Claude-Bernard (Paris): "an asset, but not necessary".
- PCSI at the Lycée Charlemagne (Paris): "welcome but not indispensable".
For an MPSI or MP2I, and all the more so for a selective prépa, the option is therefore an expected signal. For a PCSI, expectations are more flexible. Admission figures by class are in What grades for an MPSI and Which prépa with which grades.
What really prepares for a prépa
Grades open the door; the way of working decides the first year. Three habits make the difference in September: writing a complete proof without skipping steps; calculating quickly and accurately without a calculator, which the early exam is starting to require; working alone on a long problem for an hour without giving up. The terminale syllabus does not teach all of them, and that is where work beyond school makes sense.
Texts and expectations in force in 2026-2027. Official timetables of the general track; maths expertes syllabus (special Bulletin officiel no. 8 of 25 July 2019); early maths exam (circular of 10 June 2025, Bulletin officiel no. 24); programme expectations read on Parcoursup on 3 October 2026. Expectations should be checked each year on the programme's page.
A private maths tutor in terminale
I prepare terminale students for the prépa in maths private lessons: the maths expertes chapters, written proofs, calculation without a calculator, and research-style exercises like those of the first year. For the choice of prépa and the Parcoursup application, that is the work of Carmine; for the schools admitted students come from, see Which lycée for a top prépa.