Some 217,000 Dutch secondary school pupils begin taking their final exams on Thursday, with the last tests taking place on May 23.

Pre-university pupils kick off with Greek and chemistry on Thursday, with biology on the timetable for 16-year-olds heading for vocational training and philosophy and maths for those in pre-college streams.

The results will be published on June 12, with resits for those who failed to make the grade taking place between June 17 and June 20.

Just over half the pupils are in vocational streams (vmbo), 62,000 are taking pre-college havo exams and 42,000 are in vwo classes. Last year’s pass rate was 92%.

As every year, the school pupils’ union Laks has opened a complaints line where students can report poorly worded or impossible questions.

Last year, the hotline recorded 177,000 complaints.