Entrance tests

 Entrance tests

For some specialties in Austrian universities, entrance exams have been introduced. This is especially true for popular areas (medicine, economics, etc.). Moreover, each university itself determines the procedure for conducting entrance examinations.

For example, the Vienna University of Economics (WU Wien) has introduced the following rules:

The admission test for the English-language Bachelor's program "Business and Economics" will be conducted online on July 7, 2020.

The planned oral entrance exam is replaced by an essay. Moreover, it is relevant only if there are more applications than the allocated places for the bachelor's degree in Economics and Law and Economic and Social Sciences.

Now on medicine. Entrance tests for specialties in all medical universities of the country have been postponed to autumn 2020. So far, several possible, but not exact dates have been highlighted: August 14, or in the period from September 28 to October 7.

The situation is approximately the same in biology, pharmaceuticals, psychology and other areas. Perhaps, by analogy with the Vienna University of Economics, these will be online tests, perhaps they will be canceled altogether or the format will change. In a word, it is still unknown.

Important! If you enter immediately after school from the CIS countries, and the German level is below C1, then you go first to the preparatory course.

 4. Other exams ⠀

Many are also interested in the question: how are exams for students in Austrian universities conducted during a pandemic, whether studies are canceled and whether the student fee is returned. The answer is unequivocal: no, they do not cancel and no, they do not return. They just translate online.

For example, students at the University of Graz can close most of the subjects by the end of June. There are three options for online tests for this.

1. "Open-Book-Exam" using the Moodle platform. The student completes assignments at home (while he is allowed to use notes, books and other materials). Next, he uploads the completed exam as an image (photo) or scan and sends it for verification.

2. Exams using the "Perception" program. Students write the exam from home for a certain limited period of time. Assignment options in multiple choice format, or Open-Book-Exam, or both. ⠀

3. Skype4Business Oral Exams: Exams are conducted live. Features such as a waiting room, from which students are actively taken to the exam, make Skype4Business an effective tool for oral exams.

By the way, as part of the video marathon "Distance Learning in Austria", we recorded about 10 videos with our students, in which the children shared their experience of studying in quarantine.

In addition, the following types of online exams are planned at the Vienna University of Economics:

Remote Take Home Exam

Written exam on the "MyLEARN" platform

Oral exam via Microsoft TEAMS

Finally, the pandemic cannot last forever, and many universities are resuming local testing and exams. This is what the University of Klagenfurt did: from May 13, it resumed testing in classrooms. Of course, with all safety precautions, hygiene, distance, etc.