Examination Hindrances

In the event that you have registered for an exam online, but are unable to sit the exam for reasons outside of your control, please either re-register for the exam in the second examination period or in the following semester.
A reason for your failure to sit the exam must no longer be evidenced, see information below.
As a rule, six examination dates are available to you, and you may attempt an exam three times across these dates. Exceptions are laid out in each programme’s examination regulations!

The time period within which exams can be repeated expires at the end of the third semester following the semester in which the module was first attempted.

Exception – final thesis!
In the event that you are taken ill whilst completing your final thesis, resulting in a delay in thesis completion, you are of course required to inform the examination board in writing as soon as possible, i.e. within three working days.

For the 2010 summer semester, an important procedural change has been introduced to the examination system, which brings benefits both for the university and its students. Although nothing has fundamentally changed, the procedure to be followed when exams are not sat as planned has been simplified. The rules remains that every student is entitled to three attempts across six exam dates within three semesters, and an exam may only be repeated if it has not been passed, i.e. graded with at least a 4,0.
It is still the case that admission to an exam requires registration to that exam in advance. During the first examination registration period, the student may register to sit the exam in the first or second examination period; registration for the second period can also be performed in the second examination registration period. During the examination registration periods it is possible to cancel an exam registration; however, this is not possible retrospectively for a previous examination date.

In addition, the period during which an exam can be repeated begins, as before, with the commencement of the respective module. Semesters during which the student is officially on vacation or studying abroad, or during which the module is not offered, do not count toward this repetition period.

New is the fact that a student who fails to sit an exam for which he/she has registered is no longer required to provide evidence that he/she was unable to take the exam, in order to avoid receiving a ‘fail’ grade.
Example: If a student registers for an exam in the semester during which he/she has first taken the module concerned, then fails for whatever reason to sit this exam, he/she is deemed to have used up one of his/her possible six exam dates, but not to have used up an actual exam attempt. He/she is still entitled to three further attempts within the five remaining dates in the current semester and the two following semesters. However, as before, after the expiry of the exam repetition period, unused attempts are no longer valid. These attempts have effectively been disregarded by the student as he/she has freely chosen to sit the exam on the last possible date.

The only option open at this stage is for examination boards to acknowledge student hardship. However, this requires the student to contact the examination board without delay – i.e. as soon as possible and within two weeks of the missed exam at the latest – and credibly prove that he/she had been unavoidably prevented from sitting the exam through no fault of his/her own. This means that clear and unambiguous evidence of definitive inability to complete the exam must be provided – evidence of illness alone is in all cases insufficient.

It furthermore remains the case that a student who begins an exam, and in so doing confirms his/her ability to sit that exam, then fails to complete and submit the exam, also forfeits one examination attempt.