Thousands of Austrian students prepare for resit exams
Wednesday 19th August 2026 on 09:00 in
Austria
Thousands of students are preparing for resit exams before the new school year begins, ORF reported. More than 5,500 failing grades were recorded in Upper Austria’s compulsory school sector at the end of July 2026, with many more issued at upper secondary schools.
Demand for tutoring is rising as the exams approach. Christine Schoißengaier, head of the Lernwerkstatt tutoring institute in Linz, said bookings were increasing each day and would peak over the next two weeks.
Mathematics is again the most common subject for resit exams, followed by German and English.
Linz student Dunja Vlajkov is preparing for a mathematics resit by studying the material independently and turning to tutoring when she has questions or cannot solve exercises. She spends about two hours a day studying and believes she has enough time to pass the exam.
Focus on independent learning
Learning and business consultant Renate Birgmayer said children needed to take greater responsibility for their learning. She warned that children were spending too much of their free time using digital media and stressed that learning was an active process in which students had to work through and absorb the material themselves.
Birgmayer said parents should explain the benefits of learning and encourage their children to study independently. In her view, the willingness to take responsibility for one’s own learning process is declining.
The education directorate issued about 116,000 school reports in the compulsory school sector last year. They included around 668,770 top grades and nearly 6,000 failing grades. The directorate does not record the number of resit exams or special provisions allowing students to advance despite a failing grade.
Spending on tutoring in Upper Austria has also been rising. According to a study by the Chamber of Labour, families spent 18.5 million euros on tutoring in 2024 and 2025. One in four students receives paid or unpaid tutoring during the current school year or the preceding summer.