Lecture on Matriculation Exam
“The purpose of the matriculation examination is to determine whether candidates have assimilated the knowledge and skills set out in the National Core Curriculum for General Upper Secondary Education and whether they have reached an adequate level of maturity in line with upper secondary school education”.
Ministry of Education and Culture
What is the computerized high school exit exam format and how to grade it? There are about 6000 students who will take the exam in chemistry this year. Next year, all the exams must be done electronically. This year it is still optional. Subject teachers are required to grade their own students' exams and then the exams are sent to a local University where the professors in Education Department recheck the answers.
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| Next year all the high school exams must be taken with a computer |
Next students have one month to prepare for the matriculation exam which takes place on March 12-28. In order to graduate from high schools, students are required to take at least 4 exams and pass them. 1. Finnish, which is mandatory to all the Finnish speaking students. This takes two days; language and writing. Then, students need to choose 3 additional exams from the following categories: 2. Swedish (listening and reading exams). 3. Foreign Language, listening and reading. (English, German, French, Russian, Spanish, Italy, Latin, or Portuguese). 3. Mathematics (advanced which is called long mathematics or regular eq. short). 4. Science and Humanities (Psychology, Philosophy, History, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Environmental Science, Geography or Health). Of course, students can take several of these exams.
The exams are given in fall and spring. In theory, students can take 8 exams which are graded as shown in the table below.
The table also shows the approximate percentages of grades in all the subjects received by the students in Finland.
Degree Points. Description # of students
receiving the grade.
If a student passes any of these exams, she/he can try to improve the score only once. If the student fails, she/he can try twice again within year and a half. Students can also try to pass exams they have not tried before. So many ways to succeed!
Degree Points. Description # of students
receiving the grade.
laudatur
|
L
|
7
|
Excellent
|
5 %
| ||
eximia cum laude approbatur
|
E
|
6
|
laudable
|
15 %
| ||
magna cum laude approbatur
|
M
|
5
|
good
|
20 %
| ||
cum laude approbatur
|
C
|
4
|
satisfying
|
24 %
| ||
lubenter approbatur
|
B
|
3
|
moderate
|
20 %
| ||
approbatur
|
A
|
2
|
passable
|
11 %
| ||
improbatur
|
failure
|
5%
|
If a student passes any of these exams, she/he can try to improve the score only once. If the student fails, she/he can try twice again within year and a half. Students can also try to pass exams they have not tried before. So many ways to succeed!
This is what I learned today from professor Lamminpää. 5 females, 1 male present.
The exam is based on general themes in chemistry, not from any book.
There will be
1-2 simple basic questions
4-5 integrated questions, one of them can be a question that requires and experimental setup.
Hints for students to take the exam: When answering, don’t flourish, just answer the question. Illustrations help. Estimate the approximate answer and compare to your result. See if it makes sense.
Your own teacher check all of the questions and grade them
Test are sent to the University where professors spend 1-2 months checking the answers.
During today’s lesson, the instructor gave an example of a problem and several answers. The students had to discuss how to grade them.
Next the professor gave practice problems on a paper and pre-service teachers quietly graded the answers for about 25 minutes, followed by the whole class discussions.
I was surprised that the chemistry portion of the questions also contained questions that are covered in biology.
Explain briefly
1. ampholytes
2. unsaturated hydrocarbons
3. heterocyclic compound
4. lipid
5. polymerization
6. diffusion
The second class had the same lecture. There were 7 females and 4 males in the class.
