Free Practice Questions for Državna Matura Hrvatski

Since the 2022/2023 academic year, the Croatian Language (Hrvatski jezik) State Matura is administered at a single, unified level (jedinstvena razina) replacing the former A (higher) and B (basic) tiers. The examination comprises two parts sat over two days: Part 1 consists of the Test of reading comprehension, Croatian language, and literature (100 minutes, 62 points) together with a short summary writing task (sažetak, 80 minutes, 18 points). Part 2 is the handwritten school essay (školski esej, 160 minutes, 30 points), lasting 160 minutes and worth up to 44 points, bringing the composite maximum to 110 points.

To earn a passing grade (dovoljan 2), candidates must achieve an overall score of at least 30% (33.00 out of 110 points). In addition, separate sub-thresholds apply to both parts: candidates must score at least 26.67% on the school essay (školski esej) and at least 31.25% on the didactic test and summary. Failing either part's sub-threshold means the candidate cannot pass the examination overall, regardless of performance on the other part.

NCVVO publishes an annual list of canonical works from which the unannounced essay prompt is drawn. The canonical syllabus includes foundational Croatian and world literature spanning all major literary periods: antiquity (Sophocles, Homer), Renaissance (Marko Marulić's Judita, Marin Držić's Dundo Maroje/Novela od Stanca, William Shakespeare's Hamlet), Baroque (Ivan Gundulić's Dubravka and Osman), Romanticism (Ivan Mažuranić's Smrt Smail-age Čengića, Edgar Allan Poe), Realism (August Šenoa's Zlatarovo zlato, Ante Kovačić's U registraturi, Vjenceslav Novak's Posljednji Stipančići, Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment), Modernism (Janko Leskovar, Antun Gustav Matoš, Milan Begović), the Avant-garde and Interwar period (Miroslav Krleža's Gospoda Glembajevi and Povratak Filipa Latinovicza, Ivo Andrić's Prokleta avlija), and Post-WWII/Contemporary literature (Albert Camus's The Stranger, Ranko Marinković's Ruke/Kiklop).

The language and grammar section tests standard Croatian linguistic norms across four years of secondary education: phonology and phonetics (sound changes such as sibilarizacija, palatalizacija, jotacija, nepostojano a, vokalizacija, jednačenje po zvučnosti i mjestu tvorbe), orthography (correct spelling of č/ć, dž/đ, ije/je, and punctuation rules), morphology (all 10 parts of speech, noun/adjective/pronoun declension cases, verbal aspect and tenses including aorist and imperfekt), syntax (sentence structures, clitic ordering, dependent clause types), lexicology (synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, archaisms, neologisms, phraseology), and historical development (Old Church Slavonic, the Baška tablet / Bašćanska ploča, and Glagolitic script heritage).

The school essay is a 160-minute handwritten interpretative or comparative essay of at least 440 words written in response to starting questions and an unannounced excerpt from one of the works on the annual NCVVO reading list. Evaluators assess the essay using standardized analytic rubrics across three main dimensions: content and text understanding (knowledge of the literary work, answering the prompt, thesis development, contextualization), structure and coherence (logical progression, clear introduction-body-conclusion paragraphing, cohesive devices), and linguistic-stylistic accuracy (orthography, morphology, syntax, and appropriate register).

No. All reference materials, including spelling guides (pravopisi), grammars, dictionaries, and literary study notes, are strictly prohibited in the examination room. Candidates may only bring approved writing instruments (blue or black non-erasable ballpoint pens) and an identification document. Any scratch paper needed is provided stamped by the school examination committee.

Croatian state matura scores are transmitted electronically to the centralized university admissions portal (Postani-student). Croatian Language is a compulsory core subject required for admission to almost every university faculty in Croatia. Depending on the university program (e.g., humanities, law, medicine, social sciences, or technical disciplines), the Croatian language result typically constitutes between 10% and 40% of the applicant's total admission ranking points.