or its translated terms (mature, matur, , , , , , ) 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. is a matriculation examination and can be compared to A-Level exams, the , 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.
Bulgaria In Bulgarian the matura is formally called държавен зрелостен изпит (Romanization: darzhaven zrelosten izpit, State Maturity Exam) or ДЗИ (DZI), but usually it is called simply матура. There is only one compulsory subject – Bulgarian Language and Literature, but students are required to select an additional subject of their choice; they can also request a third and fourth subject. Each exam consists of a single written test. The second subject must be chosen between: A foreign language (English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian) Mathematics Physics and astronomy Biology and health education Chemistry and environmental science History and civilization Geography and economics cycle of "Philosophy" Information Technology
In 2008, according to the statistics on the web site of the Bulgarian Ministry of Education,zamaturite.bg 76,013 students have registered for the matura exams. Of them only 1748 students registered for a third, voluntary subject. Only 845 of them passed the third examination successfully. Because of the exam's challenging nature, students who request a third subject have a significant advantage in the university admissions process.
Croatia
The nationwide leaving written exam State Matura Exam (Croatian: Državna matura) was introduced for gymnasium (and other four-year high school program) students in the 2009/2010 school year,dnevnik.hr Rektorski zbor za uvođenje državne maturednevnik.hr 'Apsolutno je moguća odgoda državne mature' and nationwide primary school written exam National Exam (Croatian: Nacionalni ispiti) was introduced for all Croatian primary school pupils in March 2023. Both examinations are conducted by the National Center for External Evaluation of Education (Nacionalni centar za vanjsko vrednovanje obrazovanja (NCVVO)).ncvvo.hr, Nacionalni centar za vanjsko vrednovanje obrazovanja For high school students (taking the State Matura Exam), there are two available terms during which candidates can take their exams: the summer term, taking place during June, and the fall/autumn term, typically occurring in the last weeks of August. Many university faculties and other higher-education institutions already have their applications closed by the end of the summer term due to having reached their first-year students enrollment quota for the upcoming academic year.mojfaks.dnevnik.hr Slobodna mjesta za jesenski rok: gdje je ostalo najviše, a gdje najmanje mjesta za maturante? For primary school pupils, the National Exam is conducted during the months of March and April, and attended by 4th year and 8th grade pupils. As of 2026, NCVVO uses the National Exam only for surveys and analytics, and the results of the National Exam have no effect on pupils' enrolments in high schools.
Državna matura (State Matura Exam) Državna matura is taken by all 4th grade gymnasium students (and optionally other four-year high school students) at the end for the school year. The compulsory subjects are available at elementary (B) or higher (A) level exams. Certain higher-education institutions require the candidate to take certain or all compulsory subject exams at the A level. On the other hand, there are higher-education programs requiring only the B level exams. In such cases, the candidate taking an exam in a certain subject on the A level is credited more points than a candidate taking the B level exam: 1 point on the A level exam is worth 1.6 points of the B level exam.
The three compulsory subjects are:mzo.gov.hr Državna matura Croatian (or Serbian, Hungarian, Italian or Czech for minorities), Mathematics, first foreign language (English, German, Italian, Spanish or French). Students can only take the exam in a language if they had taken classes (and therefore passed them) for at least two years of their high school education. Students of classical gymnasiums are therefore also able to choose Latin or Ancient Greek instead of (or in addition to) a modern foreign language.
The State Matura Exam in Croatian language tests communicative language competences, literary theory, literary history and linguistic knowledge, understanding of literary and non-literary texts, and the use of standard Croatian language in writing various types of texts. The Croatian language exam is structured according to three test areas: Reading and Literature, Croatian Language and Writing, which are based on the educational outcomes from the subject curriculum. The Reading and Literature area consists of three subareas (reading a literary text, reading a non-literary text, theory and history of literature), and the Croatian Language and Writing areas consist of two subareas (structure of the Croatian language, application of the structure of the Croatian language; writing a functional text, writing a school essay; respectively). The number and type of tasks are predetermined for each test area and subarea.
The optional subjects are Biology, Chemistry, Computer science, Ethics, Geography, History, Logics, Musical arts, Philosophy, Physics, Politics, Psychology, Religious studies, Sociology, and Visual arts. Optional subjects are available only at a single level. A gymnasium student is considered to have finished their high school education program upon passing only the three compulsory subjects (alongside fulfilling the other prerequisites set by their high school); if a student fails a Matura exam on an optional subject, that subject simply will not be listed on their certificate.ncvvo.hr Pravilnik o polaganju državne mature