High School Exam Season Begins
Graduating high school students began their final exams on Wednesday, with all 8,430 students having to navigate three exams.
The end-of-year exam system was changed this year, with students having a more limited testing schedule. Last year, all students had to pass six tests; the Estonian-language exam, or Estonian as a second language exam, and four other exams of choice.
Each 12th grade student will have to pass the Estonian language or Estonian as second-language exam. They will also take one foreign language exam in either English, French, German or Russian. Students will finish with the math exam on May 23. The Estonian language exam will take place at the end of the month, as will French, German and Russian-language exams.
First up was Estonian as a second language, on Wednesday, for schools teaching in mainly Russian. That test was taken by 2,284 students.
Besides the state exams, students will have to pass one school exam and submit a research paper.
A total of 10,500 people will take the exams, which includes students re-taking the tests. That figure was 12,000 a year ago, with the decline in the Estonian student population playing the biggest role.