Good to knowTaking Exams at THGA

Before the start of the exam

• Be in front of the correct room 15 minutes before the exam begins. Plan for parking, train delays, and room searches. You find the exam room at meine.thga.de. Colleagues at the front desk can assist if needed.
• Be prepared as to which aids are allowed. You will receive information on this beforehand from your lecturers. Only these aids may be on the table during the examination.
• Wearing an FFP2 mask is recommended in the building and in the examination rooms.
• Please have an official photo ID (in Latin characters) ready, which will be checked by the examination proctor to verify your identity.
• Turn off your cell phones and smart watches or place them out of your reach.
• Inform the examination supervisor if fellow students will not be appearing for the examination so that unnecessary waiting time is not wasted.

During the exam

• The first page of the exam should be signed at the beginning.
• The examination sheets are stapled and must not be separated.
• In case of illness, the immediate submission of a medical certificate attesting to the inability to take the exam is required, otherwise the exam will be considered failed. For more information, see Withdrawal from Examination due to Illness or Other Reasons.
• Sudden indisposition prior to handing out the examination papers must be reported to the invigilator and will be treated as a case of illness. A medical certificate must be submitted immediately.
• Drinking during an examination is permitted.
• When going to the toilet, the student ID card must be handed in at the front to the examination invigilator. Only one person is allowed to leave the room at a time.
• Follow the instructions of the examiners or room supervisors.
• The examiners or room supervisors determine the seating arrangements.
• If a preliminary performance test (Prüfungsvorleistung, PVL) is required for the exam, make sure you have passed it; either the PVL you passed is on file at meine.thga.de or you have the paper certificate (please bring the certificate with you).

Completion of the exam

• As soon as the exam is considered finished, immediately put your pencil aside.
• If you finish earlier, you may turn in your exam and leave the room.

You can deregister from any written or oral examination up to one week before the respective exam date. The deregistration period ends on that weekday on which the exam is scheduled meine.thga.de at the same time in the week before the exam.

Please note that the deregistration period is calculated based on the dates and time stored in HIS. This rule does also apply for oral examinations.

Example:

If your exam data in meine.thga.de lists Monday, 26 Sept, 10.00am as your exam date and time, you can deregister from this exam until Monday, 19 Sept, 10.00am. From 10.01am onwards, no deregistration will be possible.

The final thesis (Bachelor’s or Master’s) is to provide evidence that the candidate is capable of independently completing a (practice-related) assignment on a subject pertaining to their field of study within a given time frame, relating it to an interdisciplinary context, making use of proven scientific and subject-related methods, and presenting the results in a clear and comprehensible manner.

Application

You can apply for admission to the final thesis by writing to the head of the examination board. The respective form is available in the examination office.

Admission and time for completion

Both the admission criteria and the time for completion can be found in the applicable exam regulations. In exceptional cases the time for completion can be extended in agreement with the supervisor. To be granted an extension, you need to submit a reasoned application to the examination board before the initial time for completion has run out. This application can be done informally as an email or letter.

Submitting the thesis

After you have completed your thesis, you will need to submit three copies in the examination office. One of these copies has to be bound as it will be filed in the archive of the university library. The two other copies are intended for the examiners. If you do not want the thesis to be available to the public, you need to place a clearly visible confidential clause in the library copy.

Failing/rewriting the final thesis

You can write a failed final thesis once again.

Final oral examination (Colloquium)

The final oral examination complements the final thesis. It is to be evaluated as an independent examination and is to be held within two months after the submission of the final thesis. It is used to determine whether the candidate is capable of orally presenting and independently justifying the findings of the final thesis; its scientific and methodological fundamentals; its inter- and multidisciplinary contexts, and of assessing the thesis’ significance for practice.

Students may only be admitted to the final oral examination if they have received a grade of at least “sufficient” for their final thesis. Any other admission criteria are stipulated in the respective exam regulations.

The final oral examination (colloquium) is supposed to take 30 minutes and is held and assessed jointly by both examiners of the final thesis.

After you have enrolled as a student at THGA, there is the option to have examinations and achievements of other universities acknowledged. If you want to do this, you need to file an application.

Applications of recognition are to be submitted between March and May of the summer semester or between September and November of the winter semester. Otherwise, we cannot guarantee a timely processing of your application due to staff being on leave during semester holidays.

Once your application of recognition has been successfully processed, you can view your grades in the table of grades provided in the university portal meine.thga.de. If your application was not successful, you will be informed in writing.

Change of study programme or study regulations at THGA

If you study at THGA and change your study programme, your exams and achievements will be recognised on application. If you apply for a change of study regulations, previously achieved credits will officially be recognised automatically. Additional modules will generally only be recognised if an application is submitted. This recognition will be done by the examination board, and if the application has been successful, you can view your updated table of grades in the university portal.

If you have any questions regarding the recognition of achievements, please contact examination board.

Students need to register for exams online in the university portal meine.thga.de – you can find instructions here. There are specific deadlines to be observed in every semester which you can find here.

If you want to retake an exam to achieve a better grade (if that condition is stipulated in your applicable exam regulations) you need to apply forthis in the examination office, the Prüfungsamt. Again please observe the applicable deadlines.

More information on how to register for exams and how to sit exams that do not require registration or prerequisites can be found in our Official Announcement.

There are some examinations that are shown as written seminar papers (term papers) or accumulated written tests in the curricula and examination schedules and have been defined as this type of examination by the examination board.

There is a separated registration period for the written seminar papers or accumulated written tests at the beginning of each semester; you can find the respective dates and deadlines here.

During this period, you will be able to register for and deregister from written seminar papers or accumulated written tests. You can check your status any time on meine.thga.de. It is not possible to register or deregister for those examinations after the registration period has expired.

Here you can get an overview of those courses that feature written seminar papers (and accumulated written tests) in the winter semester 2024.

Exceptions

There are two exceptions to this procedure: student assignments (often preparing for the bachelor or master thesis) and specialist research papers. These will be registered via the examination office with the supervisor in charge using the form for registering assignments and research papers.

Students that study according to exam regulations which are being phased out can still sit exams. Once the regulations have been phased out, no exams will be offered in those study programmes. Therefore, consider the time needed for the Bachelor’s thesis and the final oral examination so that you can finish them before this period runs out. If you would like to register to continue under the new exam regulations, please make an appointment with your study advisor.

The admissible examination aids are specified for each exam in HISinOne.

After the exam process has been finished, you can file for an appointment to inspect your own exam papers, the grades and assessments provided by the examiners and the examination minutes. For that purpose, you need to file an informal application with your examiner within one months after the exam results have been published. The examiners will decide on a place and date for the inspection. If the examiner is external (e.g., an assistant lecturer without office hours), you can contact the exam coordinator or the office of the respective university departments. All further information can be found here. Please read the handout carefully before inspecting the files and, if necessary, fill out the attached declaration for file inspection.

Module examinations

The module examinations to be taken during your studies result from the exam regulations which apply to you. The module examinations are to determine whether students are overall proficient in the essential topics and methods taught in the modules, and whether they are capable of independently applying the knowledge and skills acquired.
The module examination is either a written examination, an oral examination (known as a specialist discussion), or a term paper. A module exam can be divided into partial module exams as well. Usually, the examination board determines the type and length of the individual module examinations at least two months prior to the examination period.

Module exams can only be taken if students have registered for them in advance and if the admission criteria stipulated in the respective exam regulations are met (e.g., practical exercises). The results of the module exams are integrated into the overall grade of the final examination

If a module exam was not passed, it can be retaken twice (exceptions are possible). If a module exam has not been passed in its final, i.e. third, attempt, the student will be deregistered from the university roster (exmatriculation) and will not be able to continue his or her study programme; this might also apply to similar study programmes.

Partial module examinations

Depending on the exam regulation, module exams can also be done as partial module exams.

The examination board determines the time for completion and examinations which in aggregate shall not exceed the overall limits applicable to module exams. The partial module exams are weighted according to the ECTS credit points assigned to them. A module exam consisting of partial module exams is deemed as passed if each partial module exam has been graded minimum as “pass”. Apart from that, the same rules apply to partial module exams that apply to module exams. In other words, a partial module exam can be retaken twice and i fit is not passed in its third (final) attempt, the student will be exmatriculated.

Most of the exam regulations stipulate that you can take a supplementary oral exam before you are awarded the grade “fail” as a final mark on the written exam of a subject. If you want to do that, you need to file an application for the supplementary oral exam with the examination office immediately after you have learned of your result. You can obtain a form a the examination office on request. The supplementary oral exam is then conducted by both examiners together. The only possible grades are “pass” (4.0) or “fail” (5.0). According to the exam regulations, this supplementary oral exam can only be taken on a limited number of exams and is not available in case of a student having missed or cheated on an exam.

From the HPO 2020 onwards, all registrations for pre-examination performances (PVL) will take place via meine.thga.de. The registration periods for these preliminary examinations are the following:

For pre-examination performances of the summer semester: 01.11.-30.11. of the previous year.
For pre-examination performances of the winter semester: 01.05.-31.05. same year.

Cancellations after the registration period has expired are possible until the start of lectures by email to pvl[at]thga.de.

Students in the HPO 2013 register as usual via the Moodle platform. The procedure can be found as a guide here.

The results of the exams are immediately published on the university portal meine.thga.de after they have been registered by the examination office. You can find the information how to access the results here. According to the exam regulations the exams have to be assessed by the examiners within six weeks after the exam date. Due to data protection no information on the exams is given over the phone. After the exams have been published, students are given the opportunity to inspect their own exam papers.

Please study our Official Announcement in the case you need to withdraw from an exam because you are unfit to take the exam.

If you need to withdraw from an exam because you are ill, please use only the form provided by THGA to do so. Any other certificates such as a certificate of being unfit to work or attend school are not sufficient to evidence that you are unfit to take the exam. The documents must be fully filled out and signed and submitted to the examination board no later than three working days after the exam date.

If the end of the period happens to be a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday, the period is automatically extended until the next working day.
You need to have certified by a doctor that you are unfit to take the exam close to the exam date itself, usually on the day of the examination. If the exam day is a Saturday, a certificate dated on the Monday after will be sufficient, too.

If the examination board assigned a medical examiner to you, you are obliged to consult them.

Some subjects require prerequisites (PVL) which need to be evidenced according to the applicable exam regulations before a certain specialist exam or paper can be done. Such prerequisites include a certificate of attendance of specified practical exercises, seminars, exercises or other courses and are a requirement to be admitted for the relevant exam. Without these prerequisites, the student will not be permitted to sit the exam.

Information on how to register for exams and how to sit exams that do not require registration or prerequisites can be found in our Official Announcement. Instructions on how to register exam prerequisites can be downloaded here (from exam regulations 2020 onwards via HISinOne).

Unless otherwise expressly provided, the retention periods shall commence at the end of the calendar year in which the documents were concluded.

Example:

Exam written in July 2023. Retention period begins at the end of 2023 (31.12.2023 24:00). The period therefore ends on 31.12.2024 at 0:00 and the exams can be destroyed. The exams must be stored in such a way that unauthorised persons cannot access them.