A technical glitch during Finland’s autumn matriculation exam for mother tongue disrupted assessments, allowing some students to answer only one task—either an informational text or a literary analysis—instead of both.
The hiccup, which occurred a few weeks ago, meant that log data from students’ computers accumulated so rapidly that the exam system’s servers quickly ran out of disk space. This unfortunate crash forced examinas to halt at various schools.
In response to the interruption, the Matriculation Examination Board (YTL) implemented an emergency measure: schools where the disruption lasted more than two hours were permitted to administer a shorter version of the exam. Instead of evaluating both an informational and literary text, students could focus on just one, with their score for that single task doubled and supplemented with additional compensation points.
Tommi Kinnunen, a Finnish-language teacher at Turku’s Luostarivuori Upper Secondary School, voiced concerns about this solution, labeling it as “really bad.” He explained that students who opted for the informational text had an advantage, given that this task typically garners higher scores.
YTL’s secretary-general, Tiina Tähkä, acknowledged the problem and noted that the board is currently analyzing the results from a statistical perspective. While concrete data is still forthcoming, she highlighted early signs indicating that the informational task was favored by candidates and yielded better results.
Preliminary figures suggest that the scoring adjustments significantly benefited those whose exams were interrupted. At Kinnunen’s school, only one student chose the literary analysis question, a trend he attributes to a general decline in students’ engagement with literature. He raised valid concerns about the fairness of the adjustments for students who completed the full exam.
### Compensation Points
Around 2,500 students were affected by the glitch, with 1,840 receiving one or two additional points. However, YTL has not clarified the criteria used to differentiate between schools where students simply waited and those where they had the chance to prepare their responses during the downtime.
Kinnunen emphasized the ripple effect of these scores on students’ future educational opportunities. “If the points fall just the right way, it can tilt the final result into a positive outcome,” he noted.
Meanwhile, roughly 610 candidates underwent interruptions of less than an hour and completed the full exam without the option of an alternative test. Kinnunen described this situation as “very cruel,” underscoring that even minor disturbances can impact performance.
At Sampo Upper Secondary School in Tampere, Principal Tuija Ylöniemi made the decision to transition to the abbreviated test as the delay continued to grow. She deemed it “the only right decision” to prevent the exam from extending into the evening hours.
Although she admitted the solution wasn’t completely equitable, she argued it was a necessary step to avert further complications. Ylöniemi also pointed out that the mother tongue grade is derived from two separate exams, and students applying for further studies in the spring can retake the test if they feel the disruption hindered their performance.