Résumé express
Bacalaureat is the Romanian take on Categories (the French Petit Bac, close cousin of Scattergories): paper, a pencil, and a randomly drawn letter. Everyone races to fill a grid of categories — a first name, a city, a country, an animal… — with words starting with that letter. The first player to fill every box shouts ”Stop!” and all pencils go down. Answers are then read out one category at a time: a find nobody else had scores big, an obvious answer everyone wrote scores little.
In the app: each round, tap Draw a letter (letters already used are skipped), play it out, then count each player’s answers worth 15, 10 and 5 points.
Mise en place
- One sheet per player, split into columns: one column per category, one row per round.
- Agree on the categories before you start. The classics:
| Category | Example with the letter M |
|---|---|
| First name | Marie |
| City | Marseille |
| Country | Morocco |
| Animal | Marmot |
| Plant or fruit | Mint |
| Object | Mallet |
| Colour | Mauve |
| Job | Mechanic |
- Six to eight categories make a good game: fewer and rounds fly by, more and they drag.
- One player keeps score (or let the app do it).
Tour de jeu
- Draw the letter. A letter is picked at random and called out. Letters with too few usable answers (K, Q, W, X, Y, Z) are skipped, and the same letter never comes up twice in one evening.
- Everyone writes at the same time, one answer per category, each starting with the drawn letter.
- “Stop!” — the first player to fill every column calls it. Everyone else puts their pencil down at once: anything not written does not count.
- Read out and score, category by category: each player reads their answer aloud and the table accepts or rejects it. Then apply the scale:
| Case | Points |
|---|---|
| Only player who filled this category | 15 |
| Valid answer nobody else wrote | 10 |
| Same answer as another player | 5 |
| Blank, off-topic, or rejected by the table | 0 |
- Add it up, record the round total, and move on to a new letter.
Fin de partie
- The table decides how many rounds — often one round per player, or around ten letters.
- The highest total wins. On a tie, play a decider on a hard letter.
- In the app, end the game manually (Finish button) once you have played all the rounds you wanted.
FAQ
Who settles a disputed answer? The table, by majority. Agree on the principle before the first round: either you play loose (anything defensible counts) or strict (one right answer per category). What matters is not changing the rule mid-game.
What about compound names and articles? The first letter of the main word is what counts: “Le Mans” scores for M, not L. State the convention up front.
Two players wrote the same word, but one misspelled it. A spelling slip that leaves the word recognisable costs nothing: both score 5. A made-up or unreadable word scores 0.
Does the player who shouts “Stop” get a bonus? Not in the base scale — their reward is cutting everyone else off. Some tables add 5 points for speed (see Variantes).
Can you hedge by writing two answers in one box? No, one answer per box. If two words are written, the table only keeps the first.
Can the same answer count in two columns? No — a single word can only fill one category per round (for instance “Orange” as a colour or as a fruit, not both).
Variantes
- Speed bonus: the player who shouts “Stop” scores 5 extra points — rounds get a lot more frantic.
- Sand timer: instead of waiting for a “Stop”, flip a 2-minute timer and write until it runs out. More relaxed, and nobody gets cut off.
- Rotating categories: each round, one player swaps a category for one of their choosing (film, band, brand, historical figure…).
- Letter at the end: the answer must end with the drawn letter instead of starting with it. Brutal.
- Team Bacalaureat: two players per sheet, talking it over before writing — the friendliest version with kids.