katsy Feb 13, 2015:

and the Sorbonne Yes, the dropout rate can be high, as Charles says. However, there is a lot of "creaming off" at the end of Hypokhâgne, and a number of students are refused entry into Khâgne. The proportion, up to about 15-20 years ago, of those moving forward to Khâgne was quite small. In recent years, instructions have come from on high to keep more students in Khâgne, so only, I'd say, about 10% get moved back into the university system (here, the Sorbonne). But this does not mean there are more places at the ENS as a result. However, the students, even if they 'fail' the ENS exam, have the benefit of a pretty demanding course during the 2 years of "prépa", more demanding than in a university, and they often sail through the rest of their university studies.

katsy Feb 13, 2015:

agree with Wendy and Charles Agree too, that you need to explain what iit is "preparatory" to - the competitve exam to get into one of the ENS (one in Paris, la "rue d'Ulm' the one in Lyon (ENS LSH) and the one in Cachan). Hypokhâgne and Khâgne are indeed slang terms, but used just for arts subjects - for the science classes the slang is usually the more explicit "MathSup" and "MathSpé", but if you want to be more abstruse, you can say "hypotaupe" and "taupe" ( not heard so much nowadays....)
I would consider it necessary to explain what an ENS is. Maybe I don't know how to search, but to my surprise I can't find it translated in Kudoz. I usually explain it as "an elite college with entry via a competitive exam" (rather succinct, but it avoids a lot of more wordy explanation)

philgoddard Feb 12, 2015:

I'd never come across this strange word, so I looked up the fascinating etymology: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khâgne#Etymology_of_Kh.C3.A2gne

Charles Davis Feb 12, 2015:

@Louise I think I would do as Wendy suggests: leave the French term and then explain it in parentheses.

In the explanation, maybe you should add something for those who may not be aware that "preparatory class" means classes prépas in arts/literature for people who are going to try for one of the Grandes Écoles, normally one of the Écoles Normales Supérieures.

(If this person was at the Sorbonne the following year it sounds as though they dropped classes prépas and didn't do khâgne. If so, it's not unusual; the pressure is horrendous and the dropout rate very high.)

Wendy Streitparth Feb 12, 2015:

Maybe you could write "hypocagne" and then your "first year preparatory class" in brackets. Or the other way round!