They have been working towards this exam for more than ten years, and now the time has come: 46,000 students throughout Austria are taking the majority of their written Matura exams this week, 6433 of them in Upper Austria. According to the Ministry of Education, a total of around 220,000 exercise books with 4.3 million pages were printed.
The dead languages are the starting point: Today, 2,100 candidates across Austria are writing the Latin or Ancient Greek Matura. A large part is in Latin, with only a handful of students dedicating themselves to Greek.
That’s when the exams with the most participants take place: on Tuesday, mathematics with 45,000 participants. After that, the Upper Austrian state holiday gives the students a break before it’s time for German on Thursday – the only exam that all 46,000 high school graduates have to take.
Special regulations again
This will be followed by English on Friday and French, Italian and Spanish from next week. As in the past two years, participants must take an antigen test (valid for 24 hours) or a PCR test (valid for 72 hours) before the test. Excluded are people who were corona positive in the past 60 days. Students do not have to wear a mask during the exam.
However, there are still some special regulations due to the pandemic: As in the two previous years, there is one hour more working time for each exam. The grade of the certificate of the final class is included in the Matura grade – but the candidates must have at least 30 percent of the points in writing in order to achieve a positive grade.
From the end of May, the written Matura will be followed by the oral matriculation examination. Unlike in 2020 and 2021, it is mandatory again this year, despite criticism from student and parent representatives – there are, however, simplifications such as the possible restriction of subject areas. And here, too, the grade from the final year is taken into account. “I am very happy that this year the oral Matura can take place again for everyone. Because the students have earned this formal qualification after many years at school,” says Minister of Education Martin Polaschek (VP).
Source: Nachrichten
