At the main Matura exam in spring or summer 2023, slightly worse results were achieved than in the previous three years – but they were still significantly above the results of the pre-Corona period, shows an evaluation by Statistics Austria published on Thursday.
Between 2017 and 2019, around 85 to 86 percent of the students who took the main exam passed the school leaving exam. In the first two Corona years, 2020 and 2021, this rate shot up to around 94 percent, and in 2022 it was slightly lower once more at 90.5 percent – probably also because some of the relief measures were no longer applicable. In 2023, further special measures were eliminated and the success rate was now 89.4 percent.
Due to the pandemic, new Matura rules were introduced in 2020. Among other things, the oral Matura was only voluntary, there were also a maximum of three written exams, and the working time for the exams was extended by one hour. In addition to the examination grade, the annual grade was also used for the Matura grade.
Inclusion of the annual grade is retained
In 2021 and especially in 2022, some of the relief was removed once more. From the start of the Matura in 2023, almost the “old” Matura rules applied once more. Big exception: The inclusion of the annual grade was probably the most significant change that was retained and incorporated into the rules.
“Since the Matura exam process was changed in 2020 due to the pandemic, the exam results have improved significantly,” said Statistics Austria General Director Tobias Thomas in a press release. For example, at the main date in 2023, only 6.7 percent of the candidates had a fiver in at least one subject. For comparison: In 2019, the last year before Corona, this proportion was almost twice as high at 12.7 percent. A further 3.6 percent did not complete the Matura in 2023 because they did not take all parts of the exam (without failing any of the parts of the exam).
The grades got better in the Corona years
In the Corona years, not only did the pass rate increase significantly – grades in general also improved. Before the pandemic, between 15 and 17 percent of those who took the matriculation examination completed the school leaving examination with excellent success (average grade of maximum 1.5 and no “Satisfactory” or “Not Satisfactory”, note). In 2020 it was 19 percent, in 2021 24 percent, in 2022 21 percent and in 2023 20 percent.
There was no big difference in the pass rates between AHS (89.2 percent) and BHS (89.6 percent) in 2023. The situation is different with the excellent results: at the AHS almost 26 percent achieved a Matura with preference, at the BHS only 15 percent.
