Interpreting EXETAT scores for university admission and international scholarships: comparability across sessions and reference scales

Scores from the Examen d’État (EXETAT), the secondary leaving examination in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, inform university admission and scholarship selection. However, a common percentage scale does not establish comparable standing across sessions or foreign grading systems. Session-relative score positions and external reference correspondences were examined. Recovered records for 2008–2023 represented 9,680,927 participants and 6,338,291 published successful scores. Percentile positions were matched across sessions and eight external reference distributions; positions among represented participants were bounded using counts of participants without published scores. A score of 59 in 2021 corresponded to 61.38 in 2022. At a retrospective 60% admission threshold, 47,763 successful candidates in the recovered 2021 cohort (10.31%) fell below the bar despite meeting the relative standing selected by 60% in 2022. ExetatGPA reports cohort positions and reference correspondences alongside official percentages to inform admission and scholarship selection. These comparisons describe relative standing without establishing equal attainment.