Twenty-four university faculties recently adopted a new standardized entrance examination for students inspired by the SAT test in the United States.

"Schools will finally be forced to change the way they teach," says Petr Matějů, a sociologist who works on educational and scientific issues for the Education Ministry.

That's what Parliament had in mind when it passed its sweeping curriculum reforms in January 2005. Now, nearly two years on, many teachers and secondary schools have lagged behind in implementing the changes, which seek to shift the emphasis from traditional rote learning to a Western-style system that prizes creativity and independent thinking.

The new exam was conceived in that spirit, says Ondřej Šteffl, the founder of the Scio agency, which developed the test.

"The whole impact is going to be dramatic," says Šteffl. "It's a clear signal from universities to high-school teachers, saying: 'We don't want just theoretical knowledge any more.' "

Charles University divided

Only 24 of the nation's 200 university faculties have so far adopted the exam, but Šteffl still sees this year as a breakthrough. Ten years ago, when he came up with the idea, nobody wanted to break with tradition. "But nowadays," he says, "there are more young professors teaching at the universities — and they are open to such a change."

One of the holdouts is Charles University in Prague, where only the Law Faculty has agreed to replace its entrance exam with the NSZ.

"A couple years ago, the professors here worked hard to improve the university's entrance tests," says Jan Bednář, the university's president. "Now, they don't want to throw it all away."

Šteffl sees it differently. "Charles University is the oldest one, the most traditional one and so the slowest one."

The Scio agency is set to provide full service to nine faculties countrywide planning to accept the exam, among them the Philosophical Faculty at Olomouc's Palackého University, the Humanities Faculty at the University in Hradec Králové and the Pedagogical Faculty of West Bohemia University in Plzeň.

Besides its emphasis on creative thinking, the three-part NSZ will still test basic knowledge. The first part of the exam is a sort of general study skills test, divided into three sections similar to the SAT: verbal, analytic and quantitative.

A second part tests knowledge acquired in all subjects studied at high school. A third part tests knowledge in the particular discipline that the student plans on studying.

The exam's first part carries the most weight; if a student does poorly on the knowledge sections but shows exceptional ability to use language and think critically, he or she will still score well on the test and is likely to get into university.

Students can take the NSZ three times, and only the best score will count, as opposed to past entrance exams that were taken just once.

"The students won't have to be stressed out that their life will be decided in one day," says Olga Kopecká, Scio's marketing director. "They will always have another chance."