On Wednesday, the director of the NCVVO, Vinko Filipović, presented the final results of this year's state matriculation exam after students dissatisfied with the results filed complaints. 12,6 percent of applicants filed 6099 complaints, mostly in the Croatian language, as last year.
"After the announcement of the provisional results a week ago, every high school graduate could file an objection within 48 hours," said Filipović.
The number of rejected complaints last year was 3471 (64,3 percent), and this year it was 4022, or 65,9 percent.
The number of accepted complaints this year was 2077 (34,1 percent), and last year it was 1923 (35,7 percent).
"Quantitatively, there were slightly more complaints, but in percentage terms, nothing significant changed compared to last year," said Filipović.
The most complaints were about the Croatian language, a total of 2218, of which 1561 were about the essay, and 657 about the summary and test. This was followed by complaints about the exams in mathematics, biology, English, chemistry and physics.
After the first level of objection, if the applicant is not satisfied with the opinion of the expert committee, the objection can be sent again, and this year 303 applicants did so, of which 287 were rejected and 16 were accepted.
He added that all high school graduates, regardless of whether they filed an objection, were granted the 27th math problem due to its imprecision.
After the complaint, the director received emails that, as he says, "cross the boundaries of decency."
Significantly better passing score on the Croatian language essay compared to last year
28.481 students took the matura exam, 10.454 of them were high school students (41,4 percent), and 14.819 were vocational school students (58,6 percent), while 3.208 were applicants, or people who had matura exams in other countries.
Filipović said that there were significantly fewer negative ratings than last year, this year 13.544, and last year as many as 20.215.
Of these negative grades, 1914 were from high school students, 10.364 were from vocational schools, and the remaining 1266 were from other schools.
In the Croatian language exam, or essay, 13,6 percent of applicants did not pass the passing threshold, compared to 19,6 percent last year.
Filipović concludes that this year's graduates wrote their essays much better than last year.
This year, 16,3 percent of applicants who took the Croatian exam fell below the passing threshold, while last year there were 21,7 percent of those who failed the Croatian language exam.
At the higher level of mathematics, 14,2 percent were below the passing threshold, and at the elementary level, 11,5 percent.
This year, only one percent of students failed the higher level of English, and 9,2 percent of applicants failed the basic level.
The lowest average completion rate is in basic mathematics and physics with 43,4 percent, and the highest is in advanced German with 72,9 percent.
Compared to last year, average exam grades are better in both levels of English, higher level German, biology, politics and economics, chemistry, fine arts, and history, and worse in Croatian language, psychology, and computer science.
Filipović reported that there were 70 candidates with 100 percent correct answers in the exam. The most such candidates, 24, achieved results in higher level mathematics, followed by physics (18) and basic English (13). He particularly highlighted five candidates, two of whom had 100 percent in higher level mathematics, computer science and physics, and three in the computer science and physics exams.
Photo: HINA/Damir Senčar
