The examinations for admission are conducted almost precisely upon the same system which is now used in those for the Polytechnic School.[18] There is a preliminary or pass examination (_du premier degré_), and for those who pass this a second or class examination (_du second degré_.) For the former there are three examiners, two for mathematics, physics, and chemistry, and a third for history, geography, and German. The second examination, which follows a few days after, is conducted in like manner by three examiners. A jury of admission decides. The examination is for the most part oral; and the principal difference between it and the examination for the Polytechnic is merely that the written papers are worked some considerable time before the first oral examination (_du premier degré_,) and are looked over with a view to assist the decision as to admissibility to the second (_du second degré_.) Thus the _compositions écrites_ are completed on the 14th and 15th of June; the preliminary examination commences at Paris on the 10th of July; the second examination on the 13th. [Footnote 18: The system was, in fact, first tried at St. Cyr, and adopted, on the representation of the Mixed Commission, at the Polytechnic. The previous method, by which different sets of examiners took different districts, had created distrust and dissatisfaction.] The subjects of examination are the following:-- _Arithmetic_, including vulgar and decimal fractions, weights and measures, square and cube root, ratios and proportions, interest and discount, use of logarithmic tables and the sliding rule. _Algebra_, to quadratic equations with one unknown quantity, maxima and minima, arithmetical and geometrical progressions, logarithms and their application to questions of compound interest and annuities. _Geometry_, plane and solid, including the measurement of areas, surfaces, and volumes; sections of the cone, cylinder, and sphere. _Plane Trigonometry:_ construction of trigonometrical tables and the solution of triangles; application to problems required in surveying. _Geometrical representations_ of bodies by projections. _French_ compositions. _German_ exercises. _Drawing_, including elementary geometrical drawing and projections; plan, section, and elevation of a building; geographical maps. _Physical Science_ (purely descriptive:) cosmography; physics, including elementary knowledge of the equilibrium of fluids; weight, gravity, atmospheric pressure, heat, electricity, magnetism, acoustics, optics, refraction, microscope, telescope. _Chemistry_, elementary principles of; on matter, cohesion, affinity; simple and compound bodies, acids, bases, salts, oxygen, combustion, azote, atmospheric air, hydrogen, water; respecting equivalents and their use, carbon, carbonic acid, production and decomposition of ammonia, sulphur, sulphuric acid, phosphorus, chlorine; classification of non-metallic bodies into four families.