Maturity Exam

Practical advice for writing your maturity exam  

1. You have 3.5–4 hours to complete the exam.
2. Write an essay on one topic only. The topics will be provided to you in the exam in the form of essay prompts.
3. Assume that your audience is familiar with the main principles and general terminology of your field, but not with the topic in question. You must write your maturity essay as a coherent, independent text. Therefore, the reader must be able to understand it without having read your thesis.
4. You must write an essay-type text that reflects your expertise on your chosen essay prompt. This means that you must demonstrate the standard writing conventions for a formal essay. You can find some helpful general advice for writing academic essays here.
5. The length of your essay should be about 700 words. Written by hand on each line, this equals about one exam paper (i.e. four pages). If the text is considerably shorter than this, the exam is graded as a fail, even if the text was otherwise almost faultless.
6. The essay must have a title. You can create an appropriate title if the essay prompt is not phrased in a way that it suitable for a title (e.g. if the question asks you to describe, tell about, or evaluate something). Subheadings (e.g. Introduction, Theoretical Background, Discussion) are not needed in a short text such as this.
7. Because you are required to produce an essay-type text, your essay must follow a clear and coherent introduction-body-conclusion structure and must not consist principally of lists, figures, formulas, etc. You may find it helpful to draft an outline plan of your essay first.
8. Pay attention to formatting. Please write in clear handwriting – it makes evaluation quicker and easier. Remember to also separate the paragraphs clearly, by either leaving a blank line between each paragraph, or beginning the paragraphs by indenting the first line. Make a clear distinction between upper- and lowercase letters, and separate words clearly from each other. You need not rewrite a final version of the essay, but it is recommended for hand-written exams because it allows you to check and edit your text.
9. Students' special needs are considered in maturity exam arrangements. An examinee with, for example, dyslexia can be allowed extra time. However, it must be noted that extra time cannot be allocated for computer-based exams in the eTentti system. If you need special arrangements for completing the maturity exam, please contact your department or subject staff in advance.
10. If you do not write your maturity exam in your first language (for example, if you write it in Finnish or English as a second language), it will be taken into account when assessing the language of your exam. The expectation of your ability to produce a suitably academic essay-type text is at the same level as for those who write in their first language. However, it is also recognised and accepted that you may commit certain language errors that would not be expected of those writing in their first language.

PLEASE REMEMBER THAT BOTH CONTENT AND LANGUAGE ARE ASSESSED IN THE MATURITY EXAM.

The full criteria for language evaluation of maturity exams written in English can be found in the link at the bottom of this page.

Practical advice for writing your e-maturity exam   

1. You have 3 hours 50 minutes to complete the exam.
2. Write an essay on one topic only. The topics will be provided to you in the eTentti system in the form of essay prompts.
3. Assume that your audience is familiar with the main principles and general terminology of your field, but not with the topic in question. You must write your maturity essay as a coherent, independent entity. Therefore, the reader must be able to understand it without having read your thesis.
4. You must write an essay-type text that reflects your expertise on your chosen essay prompt. This means that you must demonstrate the standard writing conventions for a formal essay. You can find some helpful general advice for writing academic essays here.
5. The length of your essay should be about 700 words. If the text is considerably shorter than this, the exam is graded as a fail, even if the text was otherwise almost faultless.
6. The essay must have a title. You can create an appropriate title if the essay prompt is not phrased in a way that it suitable for a title (e.g. if the question asks you to describe, tell about, or evaluate something). Subheadings (e.g. Introduction, Theoretical Background, Discussion) are not needed in a short text such as this.
7. Because you are required to produce an essay-type text, your essay must follow a clear and coherent introduction-body-conclusion structure and must not consist principally of lists, figures, formulas, etc. It is usually helpful to draft an outline plan for the essay first. This can be done in Notepad.
8. Pay attention to formatting. Please separate the paragraphs clearly by leaving a blank line between each paragraph.
9. Students' special needs are considered in maturity exam arrangements. An examinee with, e.g., dyslexia can be provided with extra time. However, extra time cannot be arranged in the e-maturity exam. If you need special arrangements for completing the e-maturity exam, please contact your department or subject staff in advance.
10. If you do not write your maturity exam in your first language (for example, if you write it in Finnish or English as a second language), it will be taken into account when assessing the language of your exam. The expectation of your ability to produce a suitably academic essay-type text is at the same level as for those who write in their first language. However, it is also recognised and accepted that you may commit certain language errors that would not be expected of those writing in their first language.

PLEASE REMEMBER THAT BOTH CONTENT AND LANGUAGE ARE ASSESSED IN THE MATURITY EXAM.

Advice for writing an essay-type text 

Instructions for examiners of maturity exam content

The maturity exam is an essay-type exam written in an examination room. Its purpose is for students to demonstrate their proficiency in academic and formal language, as well as the mastery of their field. Students who have completed their primary and secondary education in a language other than Finnish or Swedish can, upon agreement, complete the maturity exam in another language. The maturity exam can also be taken as an e-exam.

Assigning the maturity essay

In the maturity exam, students are required to write an essay. The wording of the assignment should therefore prompt students to focus on writing an essay, rather than a typical exam answer.

Avoid writing instructions which could be open to stylistic interpretation, such as "Answer one of the following questions..."

The instructions and essay prompts (topics) must be given in the same language in which the student will write the maturity exam.

If you do not provide an essay prompt which can be used as a title for the essay, please remind the student in the assignment instructions that they must write an appropriate essay title of their own.

Please bear in mind that a long and complex essay prompt makes writing an essay-type text more difficult. The topics you assign for the exam should also not require the extensive use of formulas and figures.

An example of an appropriate assigned maturity exam

“Write an essay of approximately 700 words on one of the following topics:

1) Discuss the significance of XXX as one future option.
2) Discuss the reasoning of NN concerning XXX.
3) Analyse the main results and conclusions of your study, and discuss their implications for XXX.

Include a relevant title for your chosen topic at the top of your essay.”

Submitting the maturity exam for language evaluation

Hand-written maturity exams and forms are sent for language evaluation via the University’s internal mail to the following address: Maturity exam language evaluation / Oppio.

In the case of computer-based maturity exams, they are written and submitted in the eTentti system, and are automatically sent for language evaluation once the content has been accepted by the departmental examiner.

The two weeks reserved for language evaluation begin from the date on which the exam script and  form arrive at the Movi (formerly known as the Language Centre/Kielikeskus), or on which it transfers to the language evaluation section of the eTentti system.

Language evaluation criteria for the maturity exam can be found in the link at the bottom of this page, but if you have any further questions related to the language evaluation feedback your student receives, you can contact the language examiner at kypsyysnaytteet-movi@jyu.fi. 

Urgent maturity exams

If a hand-written maturity exam is urgent, please notify the maturity language examiner  via email (kypsyysnaytteet-movi@jyu.fi), and send the paper copy with the word 'URGENT' marked in red on the exam envelope or on a post-it note. This ensures that the language examiners will acknowledge the urgency of the maturity exam.

If a computer-based maturity exam is urgent, please notify the maturity language examiner via email (kypsyysnaytteet-movi@jyu.fi). This ensures that the language examiner will acknowledge the urgency of the maturity exam.

Criteria for language evaluation

The language of the maturity exam is assessed based on the following criteria:

• text type and style
• structure
• clauses and sentences
• linguistic form.

Read the full criteria for language evaluation here.