Image: VOLKER Weihbold
The central Matura ends today, Thursday, with the exams in Italian. For the high school graduates, however, this does not mean the end of this year’s school leaving examination season. In two and a half weeks, the oral maturity exams, which are staggered depending on the school, will begin. In addition, those students who have passed the written Matura with a grade of five can correct this in a compensatory exam on May 31 or June 1.
Technically, these compensatory exams are part of the written Matura (although they are oral). Anyone who has a negative grade after the written Matura, even after including the annual grade, is allowed to take part – i.e. either a four in the annual report and a five on the exam or who missed the threshold of 30 percent of the points in the exam.
Compensation check voluntary
The questions in the compensatory examination are specified by the Ministry of Education, as in the case of the Central Matura, and are examined by the class teacher in front of a committee. Taking the exam is voluntary: Anyone who decides against it and instead wants to study for the oral Matura, for example, must correct the five by taking the written matriculation exam again on one of the next dates. However, since it “costs” nothing to take the compensatory exam, i.e. it does not mean that you lose the ability to take the exam, almost all those affected at least try.
Oral: No uniform appointment
The oral matriculation examinations are also on the program from the end of May or the beginning of June. According to the law, there must be at least two weeks between the last written exam and the start of the oral exam – unlike the Central Matura or the compensation exam, there is no uniform date for the oral Matura throughout Austria. Rather, it takes place in stages, depending on the school, until just before the end of the school year.
Certificate grade is taken into account
All students are allowed to take part, regardless of the result of the written Matura or the compensation test. Here, too, the grade of the annual report is included in the grade for the Matura – the prerequisite for this is not a certain number of points, as is the case with the exam, but only active participation in the oral exam. Teacher representatives saw this recently critical. In contrast to the written Matura and the compensation test, the questions for the oral Matura are not specified centrally, but are worked out by the respective class teacher (based on the subject areas specified by the respective subject teachers of the school).
Source: Nachrichten
