Step-by-Step Relocation Guide

Online tests: the step people find out about too late

Some German Master's programmes run their own online test or assessment as part of admission. Find yours below — then read what it involves before the invitation arrives, not after.

Find your programme's test

The kinds of test you may run into

There is no single national exam, and no central body that publishes these. Each programme designs and documents its own, which is why the lookup above links to the university rather than to one shared source. Broadly, what you are invited to falls into a few shapes:

• An aptitude assessment (Eignungsfeststellungsverfahren, often shortened to EFV). A formal, published procedure some universities run for competitive Master's programmes. It can be document-based, a written test, an interview, or a mix of stages.
• A subject-knowledge test. Questions on the core content of the relevant Bachelor's — for computer science, typically algorithms and data structures, discrete mathematics, linear algebra, probability, and programming.
• An online interview. A video call with faculty about your background, your transcript and your motivation for that specific programme.
• A proctored online exam. Taken at home under remote supervision, with camera and screen monitored, in a fixed time slot.

How to prepare — whatever the format

Before you apply

1. For every programme on your shortlist, open its admission page and search the text for test, assessment, interview and Eignungsfeststellung. Note which have one before you decide where to apply — a programme with a test is a bigger time commitment than one without.
2. Write down the assessment window for each. They usually sit a few weeks after the application deadline, and they often overlap across universities.
3. Check whether the German page says more than the English one. It frequently does; run it through a translator rather than assuming the English version is complete.

Once you have applied

1. Watch the email address you applied with, spam folder included, and check the application portal itself — some universities post the invitation there and never email it. Invitations routinely give only a few days' notice.
2. Re-read your own application. Interviews and assessments are built from the transcript and motivation letter you submitted. Being unable to explain your own final-year project is the classic failure.
3. Revise your Bachelor's core, not new material. These tests check that the degree you claim actually holds up. Go back to the courses the programme lists as prerequisites.
4. Practise saying it out loud in English, if there is any interview stage. Explaining your thesis fluently is a different skill from knowing it.

On the day

• Test your setup a day early — camera, microphone, browser, and any proctoring software they require. Install it in advance; some of it refuses to run on the first attempt.
• Plan for load-shedding and internet cuts. A charged laptop and mobile data as backup is the whole contingency plan, and it is the single most likely thing to go wrong from Pakistan. If the connection does drop, email the coordinator immediately rather than after the slot ends.
• Check the time zone. Times are given in German local time (CET/CEST), which is 3–4 hours behind Pakistan depending on the season. Convert it, then double-check it.
• Have the ID you applied with on the desk, and sit somewhere quiet with a plain background and no one walking through.