The state matura is a mandatory final written exam that high school students take after finishing the fourth grade during their high school education. Students of exclusively four-year high schools can take state matura exams, if they want to continue their education at universities.

The Matura tests evaluates the acquired knowledge, skills and abilities of students previously acquired during primary and secondary education, in accordance with the prescribed curricula.

Based on the results of the state qualification, the knowledge of each student is assessed objectively and impartially, so that a comparable assessment of all students in the Republic of Croatia is achieved, which makes it possible to continue further education at universities in the Republic of Croatia and abroad.

The examinations are prepared and administered by the National Center for External Evaluation of Education in collaboration with schools and other public institutions involved in the administration of the state final examination.

The content, conditions, nature and procedure of the state final qualification and state final examinations are determined in the Rules of Procedure.

The compulsory subjects are available at the basic (B) or higher (A) level exams. Certain higher-education institutions require the candidate to take certain or all compulsory subject exams at the A level. On the other hand, there are higher-education programmes requiring only the B level exams. In such cases, the candidate taking an exam in a certain subject on the A level is credited more points than a candidate taking the B level exam: 1 point of the A level exam is worth 1.6 points of the B level exam.

Three subjects must be taken:

- Croatian
- Mathematics,
- a foreign language (English, German, Italian, Spanish or French). Students can only take the exam in a language that they had a positive grade in for at least two years of their high school education.

For an example I will describe how te math test in level A ist done. The higher level in mathematics is written for exactly 3 hours (180 minutes), without breaks.

Matura in Math level A (downloaded from: https://algebarskistolac.wordpress.com/2013/01/25/drzavna-matura-zadaci-brojevi-i-algebra/)

There are 5 units that the higher level includes: numbers (10%), algebra and functions (50%), shape and space (15%), measurement (20%), data, statistics and probability (5%).

How many points does the exam have?
The exam consists of 3 exam units and it is possible to obtain a total of 60 points. The first unit consists of 24 rounding questions, the second 13 short answer questions, and the third 3 extended answer questions.

First exam unit: rounding questions, possible to achieve 24 points, each correct task carries 1 point.

Second exam unit: short-type tasks, i.e. tasks where you only have to write the correct answer on the line (only one answer correct), possible to achieve 22 points, each correct task carries 1 point.

Third exam unit: extended tasks, i.e. tasks in which the set task, procedure and correct answer are scored (possible to achieve 14 points).

One of the advantages of the state baccalaureate is that a student can apply to a maximum of ten colleges. Until now, such a thing was not possible, given that the entrance exams were held in two to three days throughout Croatia and their dates often coincided.

The disadvantage of the state matriculation exam is that students already in December have to roughly know what they want to enroll in and what they want to do in life. In previous years, they could choose until the end of June to apply to colleges.

Reference: https://gradivo.hr/blogs/news/matematika-a-razina-kako-izgleda-ispit-drzavne-mature