This document is an English-language abstract (approximately 1,500 words) of part of a comprehensive research project concerning the Finnish matriculation examination. The goal of the project was to explore the matriculation examination as a series of tests indicative of ability differences between individuals, regardless of their causes. The central aim of the study was to gauge the usefulness of the matriculation examination as a standard for predicting success or lack of success in university studies. The main group of individuals making up the sample was 1,330 Finnish-speaking students who graduated from the University of Helsinki, in the Departments of history, philology, mathematics, natural sciences, political sciences, and social sciences. Analysis of the role of the matriculation examination and it concurrent and predictive validity suggested at several points that the predictive information contained in the examination as taken by the sample group had so far not been utilized in the most efficient manner possible. A number of different research methods were used; the total group of 10,929 who were officially enrolled was compared with those who graduated to determine differences between the two groups. (Author/GDB)