The key facts

  • The essay will take place in early December, usually on the first Wednesday of the month, and will serve as the admission requirement for the 2027 Unified State Exam
  • Minimum — 250 words, 350 recommended; time allotted — 3 hours 55 minutes
  • In the event of a 'fail', the student is not admitted to the state exams

Timing and conditions

High school students will write their final essay in early December, and it will serve as the admission requirement for taking the 2027 Unified State Exam. RIA Novosti was told this by an expert from the Russian Ministry of Education, a Russian language and literature teacher at Secondary School No. 33 with advanced study of individual subjects in Kamchatka Krai Sofia Pokhodiy. According to her, the exam is usually held on the first Wednesday of December, and students are given 3 hours 55 minutes to complete the essay.

Length, criteria and consequences of a 'fail'

The minimum essay length is 250 words, with 350 words recommended. The work will be deemed not independent if, upon review, it turns out to have been copied from any source or reproduced from memory. In the event of a 'fail', the student is not admitted to the state exams — which is why the essay effectively serves as an entry filter before the Unified State Exam.

New topic formulations

The head of the Russian language department at the online school 'Shkolkovo' Tatiana Koval said that new formulations on the history of Russia have appeared in the final essay topic bank. To complete the work, it is enough to choose one of the proposed options and present one's own position, supported by literary examples.

Context

Earlier the head of the Presidential Human Rights Council called for introducing exams in all important subjects at schools — this is a separate proposal not directly related to the procedure for holding the final essay.