Frequently Asked Questions

You may cancel your enrolment by submitting a written notice to the principal of your school up to the enrolment deadline. After the enrolment deadline, you may apply to the Matriculation Examination Board to have your enrolment for a test that forms part of the examination, or for a separate test, declared void if there is an exceptionally compelling reason for doing so. The Board considers compelling reasons to include, for example, illness, studying or working abroad, or a significant obstacle arising from military service.

The application must be prepared together with the principal of the general upper secondary school. Documentary evidence of the obstacle must be attached to the application. However, applications based on a sudden illness or another exceptionally compelling reason do not require a medical certificate or other healthcare documentation. Evidence must also be provided of studies or employment abroad during the tests, or that a conscript has not been granted leave to participate in the examination.

Studying or working in Finland, or military service on its own, is not considered sufficient grounds for having an enrolment declared void.

Having an enrolment declared void does not extend the time limit for completing the Matriculation Examination. The examination must therefore still be completed within a maximum of three consecutive examination rounds.

The Matriculation Examination Board may, for exceptionally compelling reasons, approve a change to enrolment details if it can be demonstrated that an error occurred during enrolment. The application must include the candidate’s enrolment form, or a copy of it, as well as a statement from the principal concerning the matter.

Candidates must enrol for tests in writing by the deadline specified by the Matriculation Examination Board. The Board may accept a late enrolment if there are exceptionally compelling grounds for doing so. Candidates should first discuss the matter with the principal of their school, after which the principal may submit an application to the Board on the candidate’s behalf.

The application must explain why the candidate did not enrol by the deadline and why it is important for them to be allowed to sit the tests in that examination round. The grounds given must include an illness or another exceptionally compelling reason. The application must be accompanied by a statement from the school indicating whether the school supports the candidate’s application, together with any other supporting grounds where necessary.

Enrolment for the spring examination must be completed no later than 1 December of the preceding year. Enrolment for the autumn examination must be completed no later than 5 June. Follow the enrolment instructions provided by your general upper secondary school. Enrolment is binding.

You must pay the examination fees for the tests you take (€41 per test) to your general upper secondary school to participate in the Matriculation Examination and qualify for the Matriculation Examination Certificate. Please follow your school’s instructions for paying the examination fees. See the fees on the Examination Fees page.

In special cases, fees paid for individual tests may be refunded upon request, for example if an enrolled candidate does not meet the eligibility requirements for participation or if their enrolment is cancelled. A request for a refund must be submitted to the Matriculation Examination Board no later than the end of the year in which the examination took place. Read the instructions for requesting a refund on the Examination Fees page.

The general upper secondary school collects the examination fees from candidates and then transfers them to the Matriculation Examination Board. If you have not received an invoice for the examination fees, if the invoice has been lost, or if it contains errors, please contact your school. For all matters related to examination fees, please contact your school.

If a candidate has not yet completed the Matriculation Examination, they may retake a failed test three times during the next three examination rounds. If the candidate has already completed the Matriculation Examination, a failed test may be retaken an unlimited number of times. All candidates may retake passed tests an unlimited number of times.

The Board issues a certificate of completed passed tests to a candidate who has successfully completed the compulsory tests of the Matriculation Examination but who does not receive a general upper secondary school leaving certificate or another equivalent certificate. Such a certificate is also issued to a candidate who, within the permitted time limit, has successfully completed only part of the tests. The certificate of completed passed tests is sent to the candidate’s own educational institution.

The Matriculation Examination Board may, for particularly compelling reasons, decide that a candidate may start the Matriculation Examination again from the beginning even if the examination has not yet been completed. The candidate must submit an application to the principal of their general upper secondary school. The principal will forward the application to the Board and attach a statement on the matter.

All candidates may retake passed tests an unlimited number of times, regardless of when the test was originally completed or how many times it has previously been retaken. A passed test may also be retaken an unlimited number of times while a candidate is still completing the Matriculation Examination.

A candidate who has completed the Matriculation Examination may retake a failed test an unlimited number of times. This means that an additional failed test and a compulsory failed test compensated under the compensation provisions may be retaken without restriction after the candidate has completed the Matriculation Examination. This change also applies to all candidates, regardless of when they completed the Matriculation Examination.

While a candidate is still completing the Matriculation Examination, a failed test may be retaken three times during the three examination sessions immediately following the session in which the candidate received the failing grade. If a candidate's time limit for retaking the test has not yet expired, they may retake the test three times in accordance with the current legislation. For example, a candidate who receives a failing grade in a test for the first time in spring 2027 may retake the test in autumn 2027, spring 2028 and autumn 2028.

Read more about retaking tests

If you have successfully completed the Matriculation Examination, you may supplement your examination by taking tests in subjects that were not included in your original examination. You may also supplement your examination by taking tests in the same subjects at a different level from those included in your completed examination. For example, you may take the advanced syllabus test in German even if you previously completed the basic syllabus test in German as part of your examination.

If you have already completed the Matriculation Examination, you should primarily enrol at your former general upper secondary school to supplement your examination. If that school no longer exists, you should enrol at another general upper secondary school operated by the same education provider (usually the city or municipality) or at the general upper secondary school closest to your place of residence. You may also contact other general upper secondary schools to enquire whether they are able to accept additional candidates wishing to retake or supplement tests.

You may apply for special arrangements for taking a test if you have one of the following:

• An illness or disability
• A hearing impairment
• A visual impairment
• Dyslexia
• Insufficient proficiency in the language of instruction as a candidate with a foreign language background
• An exceptionally difficult life situation

Special arrangements may include, for example, extra time during the test, a separate exam room, the right to enlarge the font size, the right to use a larger display, taking the test using assistive devices for visually impaired candidates, a test with restricted audio material, or the use of an assistant.

An illness or disability, dyslexia, or an exceptionally difficult life situation may be taken into account in the assessment if the candidate receives a failing grade in the test.

The candidate submits an application for special arrangements together with the principal of their general upper secondary school. Please see the Special Arrangements section for information on the statements and supporting documents required for each type of application.

Please submit your application for special arrangements well in advance of the Matriculation Examination. Where possible, applications relating to permanent conditions should be submitted at the beginning of general upper secondary studies.

Applications may be submitted either on a paper form or through the electronic services portal. We recommend using the electronic services portal, as applications submitted electronically can be processed more quickly.

In the Matriculation Examination, the power supply of the exam room examination network and the exam room servers is safeguarded by battery backup in the event of a power outage. Candidates’ computers are backed up by their own batteries. If the power outage lasts longer than five minutes, the candidates’ computers and the exam room servers will be shut down in a controlled manner.

All candidates’ answers remain safely stored on the exam room server and the backup server during the power outage. After power has been restored, the servers are restarted and, after logging in again, candidates can continue the test from the point at which they were interrupted before the outage. Any test time lost due to the power outage will be compensated for.

Due to copyright restrictions, the Matriculation Examination Board cannot publish past tests on its website. Past test questions may be ordered from the Board’s office. Teachers may use past test questions in their teaching through the login-protected Examina service. Copies of a candidate’s own test responses may be ordered through the Board’s online services.

In addition, some organisations and media outlets publish test questions on their websites.

Abitti is the digital test system used to sit the Finnish matriculation examination. It gives every candidate a fair, secure and reliable computer-based test environment.

On a test day, candidates bring their laptop and start it using the dedicated candidate application, which locks out the computer's usual files and programmes. The laptop connects to a closed exam network with no internet access. This network links the candidates' computers to a group of exam-room servers, which distribute the questions and materials and store the answers as they're submitted.

The system is built to tolerate faults: if a server or network component fails, it can be replaced or restarted without candidates losing the answers they've already given. Security relies on both technical restrictions, which block access to forbidden content and functions, and monitoring, which flags attempts at cheating that can't be blocked outright.

A new version, Abitti 2, will replace the old system that relied on USB sticks from the autumn 2026 examinations onwards.

Candidates can view their own test responses in the Finnish National Agency for Education’s My Studyinfo service once the results have been released. This applies to test responses from autumn 2019 onwards. Digital test responses are retained permanently. Candidates may also view their test performances and any assessment markings at the Board’s office at a pre-arranged time under supervised conditions.

The retention period for paper-based test responses has expired, and copies of them are no longer available.

Candidates may order a copy or printout of their test performance here. Copies and printouts of test responses are subject to a fee.

If you believe that an error has been made in the assessment of your test, you may submit a request for administrative review to the Matriculation Examination Board. The request must be submitted within 14 days of the date on which you first had the opportunity to view your assessed test response. A request for administrative review may be submitted by the candidate or, in the case of a candidate under the age of 18, by their parent or guardian. You may also authorise another person, such as the principal of your school, to submit the request on your behalf.

Requests for administrative review are submitted through the Board’s online service. A fee is charged for submitting a request, and payment must be made when the request is submitted. The outcome of the administrative review will be communicated to both the candidate and the person who submitted the request. The fee will be refunded if the administrative review results in a change to the grade or score awarded. If a grade changes as a result of the administrative review, a new Matriculation Examination Certificate or other certificate will be issued free of charge to replace the original one. An administrative review cannot result in a lower grade than the one originally awarded.

Read more about submitting a request for administrative review here.

Due to copyright restrictions, the Matriculation Examination Board cannot publish test questions or the materials associated with them. Under the Copyright Act, the Board is entitled to use copyright-protected materials in test sessions, but not for other purposes. Under the Matriculation Examination Act, candidates and the parents or guardians of candidates under the age of 18 have the right to view the candidate’s test performance. However, this right does not extend to the test questions themselves. Other organisations may nevertheless publish test questions, for example on their websites, either under publication rights granted to media organisations or on the basis of permissions obtained from the copyright holders.

Read more about how grade boundaries and grades are determined.

An illness or disability, dyslexia, or exceptionally difficult life circumstances may be taken into account in the assessment only if you would otherwise receive a failing grade in the test. Any score adjustment may not exceed the minimum score required for the grade Approbatur. No score adjustment is available on the grounds of foreign language background. The score shown on the results list may be higher if a circumstance that adversely affected your test performance or a disruption during the test was taken into account in the assessment.

The parent or the guardian of a candidate under the age of 18 can sign in to the Studyinfo service using their own credentials and view the candidate’s results and test performances. For more information about acting on behalf of another person, please see the information available on the Suomi.fi website.

You can also access your test performance in the following ways:

• If you are under 18 years of age, your parent or guardian can log in to the service using their online banking credentials or mobile certificate and show or print the performance for you.
• You can ask your school to print the performance from the assessment service.

If you believe that an error has been made in the assessment of your test performance, you may request an administrative review of the assessment by the Matriculation Examination Board. See instructions for submitting a request for administrative review.

The red underlining and red markings shown on the printout of your test performance were made by the teacher who carried out the preliminary assessment. The blue underlining and blue markings were made by the censor or censors responsible for the final assessment. The markings are intended as working notes and are often brief. They should not be used as a basis for drawing conclusions about how the test performance was assessed.

On the right-hand side of the page, the points awarded for each task or part of a task are shown. The points awarded in the preliminary assessment are marked (prel.), and the points awarded by the first censor are marked (1st c.). If more than one censor participated in the final assessment, the points awarded by each censor are shown separately (2nd c.) and (3rd c.). The test performance also shows the total number of points awarded for all the tasks you answered.

The principal or the teacher of the subject concerned may submit a request for verification to the Matriculation Examination Board either by telephone or in writing. The request should be submitted as soon as the incorrect information is identified. Any technical errors confirmed by the Board will be corrected without delay.

The results are made available to the higher education joint admissions system at the same time as they are released.

Your test performance shows the total number of points awarded for all the tasks you answered. The score shown on the results list may be lower if you answered more tasks than permitted. It may be higher if the assessment took into account a factor that adversely affected your test performance or a disruption that occurred during the test. 

If you were granted additional points because of circumstances that adversely affected your test performance or a disruption during the test, the score shown on the results list will be higher than the score shown on your test response. If you answered more tasks than permitted, the points awarded for the extra task will appear on your test response but not on the results list. Your grade is determined on the basis of the final score shown on the results list.

No, unless the candidate has provided them with a power of attorney authorising them to submit the request for administrative review.

You may request an administrative review if you applied for the factor concerned to be taken into account in the assessment and an error occurred in the handling of your application.

Such an error may arise, for example, if:

• your general upper secondary school failed to forward your application to the Matriculation Examination Board; or
• you are receiving a failing grade, circumstances that adversely affect test performance apply to you and may qualify you for a score adjustment, and the adjustment to your score has been calculated incorrectly.

If your general upper secondary school made an error when submitting your application or supporting statement to the Matriculation Examination Board, ask the school to forward the application. If you submitted an application, describe in your request for administrative review in detail the applications and supporting statements relating to the matter that you previously submitted. Please note that, in the assessment process, insufficient proficiency in the language of instruction is not grounds for a score adjustment for candidates with a foreign language background.

See the instructions for viewing your test performance on the Results and Test Performances page. The page also explains what the markings in the test performance mean.

All requests for administrative review that are submitted within the prescribed time limit and for which the fee has been paid will be considered. Each request for administrative review is considered by at least two censors who were not involved in the original assessment of the candidate’s test performance. On the basis of the grounds provided in the request, they assess whether the alleged error identified and justified occurred in the assessment of the tasks or other parts of the test concerned. If no such error is found in the application of the assessment criteria, the assessment will not be changed. If an error is found, it will be corrected. Any other errors identified during the review process may also be corrected. However, the test performance is not separately re-examined for the purpose of identifying additional errors.

Your request for administrative review must clearly identify the tasks or other parts of the test concerned and explain what error you believe was made in the assessment. You must also explain why you believe an error occurred and how it should be corrected. You do not need to copy the test question or your answer into the request form, as the person handling the request can access them directly through the system. See the attachment for an example of the information that a request for administrative review may contain:

Please note that a request for administrative review must relate to an error made by the Board during the assessment process. The assessment will not be revised unless such an error has occurred. Therefore, simply stating that your total score was close to the threshold for the next grade or that the score awarded does not reflect your actual level of competence is not grounds for administrative review. A request for administrative review cannot be directed at the assessment of the test as a whole; the alleged error must be identified and justified. The Board determines which aspects of a response are awarded points and which lead to points being deducted.

You will be notified of the outcome of your request for administrative review either by post or by email, depending on the option you selected. The notification will explain the outcome of the review. If notification is sent by email, it may occasionally be filtered into your spam or junk mail folder, so please check there as well.

Information about the review is also shown at the top of the test results report available through the My Studyinfo service. If a substantiated request for administrative review concerned a specific task or tasks, there may also be entries relating to those tasks. The test results report is usually updated within 24 hours of the notification being sent. Any revised grades or total test scores will also be shown in My Studyinfo.

General upper secondary schools are notified of the outcome of the administrative review process via the email address or postal address provided to the Matriculation Examination Board by the school.

No appeal may be made against a decision regarding a request for administrative review (Matriculation Examination Act 502/2019, section 23).

A separate request for administrative review must be submitted for each test. For this purpose, the tests in reading literacy and writing skills in the mother tongue and literature are treated as one single test, so you may request the administrative review of both in the same application. A single request for administrative review may cover more than one matter relating to the test concerned. In your request, list all the matters in that test for which you are seeking administrative review and provide grounds for each of them. If you are requesting the administrative review of two tests, you must submit two separate requests for administrative review.

Information about any revised grade or total score will be available to Finnish higher education institutions and other educational institutions once the outcome of the request for administrative review has been issued. If you have applied to an institution that takes matriculation examination results into account and the application period has already closed, please contact the institution directly to confirm how you should proceed.

Further information about requests for administrative review is available in subchapter 1.7.7 of the Board’s General Regulations and Guidelines.

Many factors affect the time required to process a request for administrative review. Processing may take up to six weeks or longer. The Matriculation Examination Board is unable to take account of requests concerning the processing schedule of individual requests for an administrative review. As a result, candidates who have submitted requests for administrative review of the same test may receive notification of the outcome at different times.

The digital Matriculation Examination Certificate can be downloaded free of charge from the My Studyinfo service in Finnish, Swedish and English. However, the translated certificates issued by the Matriculation Examination Board are not official translations. An official translation can be obtained from an authorised translator. For example, the Finnish National Agency for Education maintains a register of authorised translators: https://akr.opintopolku.fi/akr/etusivu.

The paper certificate is a valued tradition, and there are no plans to discontinue it. Many newly matriculated students wish to show their certificate to their relatives and friends.

The digital Matriculation Examination Certificate is available from the My Studyinfo service whenever needed. The information shown on the certificate is updated when the examination is supplemented or tests are retaken.

The authenticity of the certificate is ensured by an electronic seal. The seal embedded in the file confirms that the information in the document has not been altered and that the document was issued by the entity identified in the seal. To verify the authenticity of the certificate, follow these instructions:

1. Go to the website of the Digital and Population Data Services Agency.
2. Select the document according to the instructions provided on the website.
3. Verify the following: 
   1. The document contains only one signature, and the certificate issuer is approved by the EU.
   2. The signer is the Matriculation Examination Board.
4. If this information matches, the certificate and all the information it contains are authentic.
5. If this information does not match, the certificate may not be authentic. Contact the Matriculation Examination Board.

Validating of a Certificate of the Matriculation can be done in the Digital and Population Data Services agency's web service. Read the instructions for validation here.

If you began your Matriculation Examination in 1990 or later, you can download a digital certificate from the My Studyinfo service. The certificate is updated whenever you supplement your examination with new tests or your grade improves after a test is retaken. Matriculates who began their Matriculation Examination in autumn 1989 or earlier can order a digital certificate through the Matriculation Examination Board online service. As these certificates are created manually by combining information from register records, a fee applies to them.

Your digital certificate will always display the personal details recorded in the Population Information System maintained by the Digital and Population Data Services Agency.

Candidates who complete the Matriculation Examination will continue to receive a paper certificate free of charge. If a candidate loses their certificate, they may order a replacement. The Matriculation Examination Board charges the applicable fee in force at the time for replacement certificates and translations of certificates.

The certificate is in PDF format.

There is no need to keep a copy of your digital certificate, as it is always available from the My Studyinfo service whenever needed. If a manually prepared certificate ordered through the Matriculation Examination Board's online service is lost, a replacement certificate must be ordered. Manual preparation is required for certificates of persons who began their Matriculation Examination before 1990.

Both the digital and paper certificates are official certificates. The authenticity of the digital certificate can be verified more easily. Ultimately, it is up to the recipient of the certificate to decide what type of certificate is accepted, for example in student admissions.

Grades are published on the date the certificate is issued. For the spring examination, this is the Saturday of week 22, and for the autumn examination, 5 December.

The blue matriculation examination certificate can be downloaded from the My Studyinfo service or collected from your general upper secondary school (paper certificate) no earlier than the certificate issue date, which is the Saturday of week 22 for the spring examination and 5 December for the autumn examination.
  
If you have not completed your Matriculation Examination yet, you can download a white certificate of passed tests from the My Studyinfo service. Grades from the current examination round will not appear on certificates until after the certificate issue date for that examination round.

The blue Matriculation Examination Certificate is issued to anyone who has completed the Matriculation Examination, whether they are a newly matriculated student, retaking tests, or supplementing their examination. It can be downloaded from the My Studyinfo service or obtained from the student's general upper secondary school (paper certificate) no earlier than the certificate issue date, which is the Saturday of week 22 for the spring examination and 5 December for the autumn examination.

The white certificate is a certificate of tests completed with a passing grade. It includes the grades of all tests passed before the Matriculation Examination was completed. The white certificate can also be downloaded from the My Studyinfo service no earlier than the certificate issue date, which is the Saturday of week 22 for the spring examination and 5 December for the autumn examination.

Tests can be retaken, and the Matriculation Examination can be supplemented after graduation. The completion dates show how the examination was built up and which tests were completed before the qualification was awarded. In addition, legislation stipulates that, where there are multiple grades for the same test, the most recent of the highest grades is recorded on the certificate.

The electronic signature required to verify the authenticity of the certificate is typically valid only for a limited period. However, there is no need to store the certificate permanently, as it can be downloaded again from the My Studyinfo service whenever needed.

No. If you do not submit an application, you will receive a failed grade for the test you were absent from. A failed test may be retaken in the next examination round, provided that you still have retake opportunities remaining. A failed test may be retaken three times during the three examination rounds following the failed grade.

Submit the required information to your general upper secondary school within two weeks of the test date, unless, for example, an illness prevents you from doing so.

Please provide:

• your name;
• your contact details (postal address, email address and telephone number);
• the test to which the application relates;
• the required supporting documents; and
• a bank account number for a possible refund of the examination fee for the test concerned.

The general upper secondary school must submit applications to the Matriculation Examination Board through the electronic application service (hakemukset.ylioppilastutkinto.fi) after the test dates.

The cancellation of an enrolment requires exceptionally compelling grounds. For applications based on a sudden illness (such as a cold or a stomach bug), no medical certificate or other healthcare documentation is required. A candidate who falls ill suddenly must contact their general upper secondary school by telephone or email on the morning of the test day. In other cases, a medical certificate or another expert statement concerning the candidate’s situation must be provided.

Cancellation of enrolment on the grounds of a sudden illness or another exceptionally compelling reason. The following must be attached to the application:

• an account of the candidate’s situation and its impact on their ability to complete the tests;
• confirmation from the general upper secondary school of the candidate’s account (for example, a note that the candidate contacted the school by telephone or email on the test day);
• in cases other than sudden illness, supporting documentation such as a previously issued medical certificate or a self-printed extract from the Kanta register.

If you do not attend a test, you will receive a failed grade. A failed test may be retaken three times during the next three examination rounds. This also applies to candidates for whom this would otherwise be their third examination round. In other words, you will not have to start the Matriculation Examination all over again.

If, in addition to a test required for completing the Matriculation Examination, you were also absent from an additional test, consider separately whether you wish to apply to have your enrolment for that test cancelled. You cannot supplement your Matriculation Examination with new subjects until you have completed the examination.

If you do not attend a test, you will receive a failed grade. A failed test may be retaken three times during the next three examination rounds. You may also apply to have your enrolment cancelled (see the grounds above).

If all enrolments for your first examination round are cancelled, your Matriculation Examination is not considered to have begun.

Inform the general upper secondary school where you are taking the tests as soon as possible. If you are unsure what to do, it is advisable to discuss your options with the principal or a study counsellor to minimise any impact on when you complete the Matriculation Examination. Any applications can be submitted after the test date.

Options for a candidate who is absent from a test:

• A failed grade if you miss the test and do not apply to have your enrolment cancelled.
• An application for the cancellation of your enrolment and a refund of the examination fee for the test concerned.

A candidate loses the right to participate in the tests if they engage in cheating, attempt to cheat, assist in cheating, or otherwise seriously violate the examination regulations. If a candidate cheats or violates the examination regulations, all tests taken during that examination round will be failed, and the candidate may also be prohibited from enrolling for the next examination round. Any tests for which the candidate has enrolled in the same examination round are failed.

Several forms of supervision are used in the Matriculation Examination, one of which is the technical supervision provided by the test system. This remains unchanged in Abitti 2. For practice tests, teachers can access a supervision report in the Oma Abitti service after the test has ended.

Abitti 2 disk images can be downloaded from the abitti.fi website. If the computers are centrally managed, the IT administration can install the application on multiple devices simultaneously. If a student manages their own computer, they can install the application by following the instructions available on the abitti.fi website.

The candidate is responsible for ensuring that the version of the Abitti 2 Candidate Application required for the test session is installed on their computer.

The Abitti 2 Candidate Application is available from the Abitti.fi web service. (in Finnish)

The transition to the Abitti 2 system involves a change from supplementary software installed locally on a computer to solutions that run directly in a web browser. Development of the web-based LibreOffice application has been suspended since 2020. The development work was primarily carried out by Collabora Productivity, which has since focused on publishing its own software solution under the name Collabora Online. Collabora Online Development Edition (CODE) is an open-source software product that anyone is free to develop and maintain. However, Collabora Productivity does not provide the full commercial version of the software free of charge, except for a limited demonstration version with restricted functionality. The Matriculation Examination Board maintains the open-source CODE version of Collabora Online within the Abitti 2 system. However, the Board cannot provide maintenance or support for this software in schools' own learning environments.

No. The English-language Matriculation Examination is available only under strictly defined conditions and can be completed only at a general upper secondary school that has been granted a licence to provide general upper secondary education in English. The English-language Matriculation Examination has the same status as a Matriculation Examination completed in Finnish or Swedish. If required for applications to further studies, you may obtain an English translation of your Matriculation Examination Certificate.

The Matriculation Examination can be completed in English at a general upper secondary school licensed by the Ministry of Education and Culture to provide education in English. Specific eligibility requirements apply.

A person who has successfully completed the matriculation examination in English may supplement their examination with tests in English. A person who has completed the matriculation examination in another language may also supplement their examination with tests in English. However, the education provider is not obliged to offer this opportunity to a candidate who has completed the examination in another language.