Regulations for the Second National Language and Foreign Language Tests

The language tests are prepared in each language on the basis of the courses and syllabi that are prescribed as compulsory courses and courses offered as advanced studies under section 11 of the Act on General Upper Secondary Education (714/2018), as set out in the distribution of lesson hours in general upper secondary education (Government Decree 915/2005, section 1; Act 714/2018, section 63). The number and content of courses are determined in the Government decision on the distribution of lesson hours and in the national core curricula confirmed by the Finnish National Agency for Education.

In the second national language, tests are organised at two different levels of difficulty. In foreign languages, tests may be organised at two different levels of difficulty (Act on the Matriculation Examination 502/2019, section 3). Candidates may choose which level of the language test they take, regardless of their general upper secondary studies. In the second national language and in foreign languages, the more demanding test refers to a test based on the syllabus of an A language beginning in grades 1–6 of comprehensive school education.
(For the completion of language tests as part of the matriculation examination, see the General regulations and guidelines, subchapter 1.1.1 Subject combinations in the examination, subchapter 1.2 Tests and subchapter 1.4.1 Binding nature of enrolment.)

Table 1. Syllabi of the language tests organised in the Matriculation Examination.

The regulations and guidelines for the implementation of the tests in the second national language and foreign languages are issued separately in the General Regulations and Guidelines of the Matriculation Examination Board. The aforementioned regulations and guidelines also specify the procedures to be followed if a candidate arrives late for a test or if a test is interrupted.

The task types used in the language tests in each examination round are not announced in advance. The spring and autumn examinations may differ in format. The instructions necessary for completing the tests are provided with the tasks. The instructions are binding. Full points can only be awarded for answers that comply with the instructions.

These regulations apply to the tests in the second national language and foreign languages. Hereinafter, the term language test is used. In these regulations, the language of instruction of the general upper secondary school refers to Finnish or Swedish. Hereinafter, the term language of instruction is used.

In the second national language test, Swedish or Finnish, candidates may choose between two different levels of difficulty (Act on the Matriculation Examination 502/2019, section 3). One of the tests is based on the advanced syllabus and the other on the intermediate syllabus. A test based on the advanced syllabus refers to a test based on the A syllabus specified in the National Core Curriculum for General Upper Secondary Education (2019). A test based on the advanced syllabus is the more demanding test referred to in section 3 of the Act on the Matriculation Examination (502/2019). A test based on the intermediate syllabus refers to a test based on the B1 syllabus specified in the National Core Curriculum for General Upper Secondary Education (2019). Candidates may choose which level of the language test they take, regardless of their general upper secondary studies.

Instead of the test in the second national language, a candidate may, if they so wish, take the mother tongue test in that language (Act on the Matriculation Examination 502/2019, section 11). Thus, for example, a bilingual candidate who takes the mother tongue test in Finnish may replace the second national language test with the mother tongue test in Swedish. This requires the examination to be completed over more than one examination round, as the mother tongue tests in Finnish and Swedish are held on the same examination day. The examination may not include both the mother tongue test and the second national language test in the same language, except by supplementing the examination at a later stage.

A candidate who has taken the mother tongue test in the second national language, instead of the second national language test, and who has failed, may, if they so wish, retake the failed test by taking the second national language test.

If a candidate takes the mother tongue test in a Sámi language, they may take the test in Finnish or Swedish as the second national language test. Instead of the second national language test, the candidate may also take the mother tongue test in either Finnish or Swedish.

The Government Decree specifies the foreign languages in which tests are organised (Decree 612/2019). The Matriculation Examination Board decides in which languages tests are organised at two different levels (Act on the Matriculation Examination 502/2019, section 3).

The foreign language test is organised at two different levels of difficulty, based on the advanced syllabus and the basic syllabus, in English, Spanish, French, German and Russian. A test based on the advanced syllabus refers to a test based on the A syllabus specified in the National Core Curriculum for General Upper Secondary Education (2019). Only the test based on the advanced syllabus is the more demanding test referred to in section 3 of the Act on the Matriculation Examination (502/2019).

The examination may include, as a foreign language test, the mother tongue and literature test in a Sámi language.

The foreign language test based on the basic syllabus is organised in the following languages: English, Spanish, Italian, French, German, Russian, Inari Sámi, Skolt Sámi, Northern Sámi, Latin and Portuguese. In the basic syllabus for foreign languages, there are only nationally defined advanced courses; there are no compulsory courses. A test based on the basic syllabus refers to a test based on the B3 syllabus specified in the National Core Curriculum for General Upper Secondary Education (2019). Candidates may choose which level of the language test they take, regardless of their general upper secondary studies.

In a single examination round, a candidate may take only one foreign language test based on the advanced syllabus. If a candidate wishes to take more than one foreign language test based on the advanced syllabus, the tests must be taken in different examination rounds. A candidate may take a maximum of two foreign language tests based on the basic syllabus in a single examination round. If a candidate takes two basic‑syllabus tests on the same examination day, they are granted an additional two hours to complete the tests.

A student completing the general upper secondary syllabus may participate in a Matriculation Examination test after having completed the compulsory studies in the subject specified in the Government Decree on the distribution of lesson hours (Act on General Upper Secondary Education 714/2018).

If a foreign language test is based on a syllabus that includes no compulsory studies, a student completing the general upper secondary syllabus may participate in the test after having completed six credits of studies in the subject (Act on the Matriculation Examination 502/2019, section 7). In the examination, candidates may choose the level of the test regardless of the syllabus according to which they have studied the language.

By decision of the principal, a student may, for a special reason, also be permitted to participate in an examination test even if they have not completed the syllabi referred to in the second and third paragraphs of this chapter, provided that they can otherwise be considered to have sufficient prerequisites to complete the test (Act on the Matriculation Examination 502/2019, section 7). This may apply, for example, if the person has learned the language abroad or has had a long‑term illness that has prevented them from completing the required courses.

(See also the General Regulations and Guidelines, subchapter 1.3.4 Retaking a passed test and supplementing the examination, subchapter 1.3.5 Retaking a failed test, and subchapter 1.4.1 Binding nature enrolment.)

On the examination day of each language test, the Board publishes on its website the correct answers to the multiple‑choice tasks and the features of a good answer for the written production tasks. These are published under the heading Features of a Good Answer. It should be noted that the correct answers provided by the Board at this stage are preliminary. The final assessment is determined by the censors for the subject concerned. For the multiple‑choice tasks, an item analysis is produced using statistical methods, showing the distribution of responses across the answer options. Once the analysis has been completed, the Board may accept more than one answer option for some questions. The final approved answers to the multiple-choice tasks are published when the results are released.

In the Latin language test, the use of printed dictionaries is permitted. In the Latin test taken in either Finnish or Swedish, the following dictionaries may be used:

• Streng, Latinalais–suomalainen sanakirja
• Heikel, Latinalais–suomalainen sanakirja
• Salmi–Linkomies, Latinalais–suomalainen sanakirja
• Cavallin, Latinskt skol‑lexikon
• Heikel, Latinsk–svensk ordbok
• Salonius, Latinsk–svensk ordbok
• Ahlberg–Lundqvist–Sörbom, Latinsk–svensk ordbok
• Pitkäranta, Suomi–latina–suomi‑sanakirja.

The dictionaries intended for use in the test must be submitted for inspection to the principal or a teacher designated by the principal no later than the day before the test. The inspected dictionaries are returned to the candidates at the start of the test session.

Latin test performances must be completed following the instructions provided with the tasks.

Test performances are checked and preliminarily assessed by the teacher of the subject concerned designated by the provider of general upper secondary education, and finally assessed by the Matriculation Examination Board (Act on the Matriculation Examination 502/2019, section 18). Candidates’ test performances are confidential official documents (Act on the Openness of Government Activities 621/1999, section 24, subsection 1, item 30). Test performances may not be copied, printed or disclosed to persons other than the teacher concerned and the principal (See the General Regulations and Guidelines of the Matriculation Examination Board, subchapter 1.7.2 Preliminary assessment).

If a candidate takes a foreign language test in a language for which the education provider is unable to designate a teacher to carry out the assessment, the preliminary assessment is carried out by the Matriculation Examination Board (Act on the Matriculation Examination 502/2019, section 18).

The teacher must indicate content‑related errors and shortcomings. Such assessments must also be made in productive answers written in the language of instruction. In scoring productive answers, only the points indicated in the example answers in the Features of a Good Answer may be used. In assessing writing tasks, only the points listed in the assessment criteria table may be used.

Test performances are finally checked and assessed by the Matriculation Examination Board (Act on the Matriculation Examination 502/2019, section 18). The Board’s censors assess all performances and award scores in accordance with the assessment criteria jointly agreed within each subject section.

For each examination round, the Matriculation Examination Board appoints the first censor for the language tests of each general upper secondary school. Under the conflict‑of‑interest provisions of the Board’s rules of procedure, a censor appointed by the Board may not assess performances from a school with which they have a close connection due to teaching duties, family ties or similar reasons. In addition, the Board issues instructions on the use of a second and a third censor.

Tasks assessing listening comprehension measure the candidate’s ability to understand spoken language and to respond to various tasks on the basis of what they hear. The audio texts represent different text types and vary in length. Some texts may be listened to more than once, while others are heard only once. Some of the listening texts may also be videos. Tasks assessing reading comprehension measure the candidate’s ability to understand written language and to respond to various tasks on the basis of what they have read. Tasks assessing listening and reading comprehension are varied and multimodal. They include authentic or edited audio, text, images and video, or combinations of these. On the basis of the text heard or read, the tasks assess, for example, understanding of the main idea or main ideas, understanding of important details and examples, making inferences, and understanding or interpreting meaning.

Answer instructions are provided with each task. The instructions are binding, for example in terms of the language of the answer or the maximum permitted length of the response. The binding nature of the instructions is indicated by their wording. The instructions may also include a recommendation on the use of background material. A maximum score for each task or task item is indicated with the task or item. The target content of the task and the scores used in assessment are described in the Features of a Good Answer. Full points can be awarded only for an answer that contains no incorrect information. The censors of the examination subject decide jointly on the application of the Features of a Good Answer in the final assessment.

Statements presented in a performance that are clearly contrary to the law or to good practice are regarded as factors that reduce the value of the performance.

Also, in tasks other than writing tasks, a maximum number of characters may be specified for the length of the response. The length of the response is calculated in characters. Spaces and line breaks are not included in the character count. The test system calculates the number of characters automatically but does not restrict it. Over‑length responses or writing task performances result in a deduction of points as set out in subchapter 5.3.2.

The overall assessment of the response to the writing task is based primarily on the criterion ”Communication”. The assessment is supplemented by the criteria ”Content of text and/or dealing with the topic”, ” Text structure associated with text type”, ”Linguistic range”, and ”Grammatical correctness and severity of errors”.

Any score deductions are applied as described in subchapter 5.3.2.1 Responses to the writing task in the advanced syllabus.

Advanced-level written production task evaluation criteria

The overall assessment of responses to the writing tasks is based primarily on the criterion ”Communication”. The assessment is supplemented by the criteria ” Content of text and/or dealing with the topic” and ”Linguistic range and accuracy”.

Any score deductions are applied as described in subchapter 5.3.2.2 Responses to the writing task in the intermediate and basic syllabi.