79 517 Bulgarian high school seniors took Tuesday morning their second mandatory school-ending exam.

While the first exam was in Bulgarian language and literature for all seniors, the second one is in a subject of choice by the individual student.

Students can pick from 13 different subjects. "Foreign language" is counted as one subject where the seniors have six options of languages taught at high schools around the country - English, German, French, Russian, Spanish, and Italian.

Almost half of all seniors - 35 763 - have chosen to take a school-ending exam in subject "geography and economy". Italian has been selected by the smallest number of students.

The second school-ending exam of the high school class of 2009 took place at 1 054 schools around the country. 15 000 teachers supervised the students in 6 246 exam rooms.

Apart from having to pass their school-ending exams in order to graduate, Bulgarian high school seniors also have the option to use their scores to apply to 35 universities and colleges around the country that recognize and use these scores in one way or another in their admission process.