Matura or its translated terms (mature, matur, maturita, maturità, Maturität, maturité, матура, érettségi) is a Latin name for the secondary school exit exam or "maturity diploma" in various European countries, including Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Kosovo, Liechtenstein, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland and Ukraine. It is taken by young adults (usually aged from 17 to 20) at the end of their secondary education, and generally must be passed in order to apply to a university or other institutions of higher education. Matura is a matriculation examination and can be compared to A-Level exams, the Abitur, Baccalauréat or the Bagrut certificate.
By country
Albania The official name is Matura Shtetërore (State Matura) which was introduced in 2006 by the Ministry of Education and Science replacing the school based Provimet e Pjekurisë (Maturity Examination). The Matura is the obligatory exam after finishing the gjimnaz (secondary school) to have one's education formally recognized and to become eligible to enroll in universities. Vocational schools, art schools and schools participating in pilot programs are part of the Matura with different exam structures and subjects. The Matura is a centralized affair, conducted by the QSHA (Center for Educational Services) which is in charge of selecting tasks, appointing national examiners, grading the sheets; other agencies ensure the safety and integrity of the exams. The three compulsory subjects to complete secondary education are Albanian language and literature, mathematics and a foreign language (English, except for students in dual-language schools). Students in high schools must also take one additional exam which they choose themselves out of a list of eight subjects. The Matura exams take place in four separate days usually in the June/July period. The first three days are for each of the compulsory subjects; the fourth day is for the additional exam. The basic marks range from 4 to 10 where a 5 is the lowest passing mark; applicants fill out forms indicating their preferred universities with no ranking between them. The State Matura replaced an admission system conducted individually by each faculty/university which was seen as abusive.
Austria
The official term for Matura in Austria is Reifeprüfung. The document received after the successful completion of the written and oral exams is called Maturazeugnis. In the Gymnasium (AHS), which, as opposed to vocational schools, focuses on general education, the Matura consists of three to four written exams (referred to as Klausurarbeiten, four to five hours each) to be taken on consecutive mornings (usually in May) and two to three oral exams to be taken on the same half-day about a month later (usually in June); The higher vocational education schools (BHS) such as HBLAs, HTLs, and HTBLAs follow a similar format. All examinations are held at the school which the candidate last attended. Candidates have the option to write a scholarly paper (called Fachbereichsarbeit ) to be submitted at the beginning of the February preceding the final exams, which, if accepted, counts as a subject and must be defended in a corresponding oral exam. The grading system is the one universally used in Austrian schools: 1 (sehr gut) is excellent; 2 (gut) is good; 3 (befriedigend) is satisfactory; 4 (genügend) is passed and 5 (nicht genügend) means that the candidate has failed. In addition, a candidate's Maturazeugnis contains a formalized overall assessment: "mit ausgezeichnetem Erfolg bestanden" (pass with distinction: an average of 1.5 or better, no grade above 3), "mit gutem Erfolg bestanden" (pass with merit: an average of 2.0 or better, no grade above 3), "bestanden" (pass: no grade above 4); and '"nicht bestanden" (fail: at least one grade 5). Candidates who have failed may re-take their exams in September/October or February/March of the following school year. Compulsory subjects for the written finals are always German and Mathematics, as well as a foreign language (usually English, French, Spanish, Italian, Latin or sometimes Ancient Greek). Schools with a focus on science may require their students to take written finals in Biology or Physics. The Austrian Matura used to be a decentralized affair, however since 2014 tests in Mathematics, German and foreign languages are now centralized and held at the same day throughout Austria. There is only one external examiner: candidates are set tasks both for their written and oral finals by their own (former) teachers. Formally, however, there is an examination board consisting of a candidate's teachers/examiners, the headmaster/headmistress and one external Vorsitzende(r) (head), usually a high-ranking school official or the head of another school. Oral exams are held publicly, but attendance by anyone other than a candidate's former schoolmates is not encouraged, and indeed rare. It is possible for Austrians of all age groups to take the Matura. Adults from their twenties on are usually tutored at private institutions of adult education before taking their final tests, held separately before a regional examination board.
The new centralized Matura (Zentralmatura) In 2015, the old Matura system was replaced by a new concept called Zentralmatura (centralized Matura). Graduation exams are now put together by bifie (an institution for research in education) and every graduation exam in Austria is now held on the same day. However, the teachers still correct all the exams themselves using an answer sheet that is included in the exam packages. Students can still choose either four or three written exams (maths, German and one foreign language are compulsory; one additional language can also be chosen). When students choose three written exams, they will have to do another three oral exams. When choosing four written exams, only two additional oral exams are necessary. What is also new is that every student now has to write a graduation paper called VWA (Vorwissenschaftliche Arbeit or, literally translated, "Pre-scientific paper"). They can choose any topic they want, usually one year before graduating. When they have finished writing it (it should usually be 30.000 to 60.000 characters long), they have to present it to teachers and to the head (Vorsitzende(r)). The VWA is another grade in the Maturazeugnis.
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