Examinations
Examinations serve to determine your knowledge and the skills you've acquired in your degree program. If you don't pass your exams successfully, you cannot graduate.
In each degree program you have to take examinations. In general, there are different types of examinations: written exams, oral exams, presentations, term papers, projects of various types, multiple-choice tests or a combination of these requirements. Depending on how important the examination is, the type of performance required from you is laid down in the corresponding Examination Regulations or the Examination and Study Regulations. It may also be decided at the discretion of the teaching staff.
Previously, with modularized degree programs (e.g. bachelor's), all intermediate and final examinations were held in one block. This has now been changed so that exams are spread over the entire length of your studies. So although you will have numerous examinations (and will likely have to register at the Examination Office more than once), they are more manageable in terms of the volume of content. Some Examination Offices are set up so that at the beginning of the following semester you can view your personal account via the online course catalog LSF. Here, your modules, examinations and grades as well as the number of ECTS points you have acquired are listed. Please note this is not possible via all Examination Offices.
In many bachelor's programs you must sit a Grundlagenorientierungsprüfung GOP (basic orientation exam) in your first year of studying. Should you fail that GOP, you can only repeat once more at the next available date. All legal questions concerning examinations and the course of your studies are regulated in the Examination and Study Regulations for your subject: There you can read, for example, whether you have to complete the GOP in your first or second semester. If required for your degree program, please also register for the GOP via the online course catalog LSF.
If you are studying a degree program, which has not been modularized yet, such as master's, Diplom (German academic degree) or Staatsexamen (State Examination) (excluding teacher education), your academic performance will be documented using course certificates (Scheine). For such non-modularized degree programs you will be required to take both a large intermediate and a large final examination. You must register for these examinations at your corresponding Examination Office and will only be admitted when you present your course certificates, as defined in your Examination Regulations, as well as your duly maintained record of study (Studienbuch) or your confirmation of programs studied (Studienverlaufsbescheinigung) that you received at registration. Please be proactive about exploring our exam registration formalities at your Examination Office! You can get hold of the Examination Regulations that apply to you online as part of the description of your degree program. The time leading up to these large examinations will involve constant and prolonged periods of revision and intense self-studying which requires perseverance.
In almost all degree programs you have to write an independent, scientific final dissertation. This is the case for most Magister (German academic degree) Diplom, bachelor's and master's or teacher education programs which require an admission dissertation. You should deal with this final dissertation in due time (i.e. after your intermediate examination or after having acquired roughly half of the necessary ECTS points). Depending on your degree program, work intensity and rhythm, you should plan a period of three to six months.
A few more recommendations on the subject of examination deadlines are available via the Examination and Study Regulations which include provisions on the time by which you must have taken a module, intermediate or final examination. If you have not taken the exam required by that date — for reasons of your own — the exam counts as taken for the first time and not passed. You must then take a repeat exam within a specified period of time. If this does not occur, the examination counts as a fail. This leads to expulsion from studying (exmatriculation). Whether you can still register for the same or a related degree program in Germany must be clarified with the university in question.
Examinations always present a certain psychological stress. If you notice that you are struggling with this challenge, contact the Central Student Advisory Office, the psychosocial advisory service associated with the Munich Student Union (Studierendenwerk) or one of the Christian university communities for help. The sooner you do this the better!