Admission to higher education for gifted persons with no entrance qualification - applying for admittance to examination
If you have an outstanding talent in a specific area, you can acquire the allgemeine Hochschulreife (general higher education entrance qualification) by taking an examination for gifted persons.
This examination consists of written and oral components. It is held once a year in spring at one of the administrative headquarters (Regierungspräsidien).
Responsible authority
the Ministry of Culture and Education (Kultusministerium)
Contact
Details
Prerequisite
- Principle residence in Baden-Württemberg
- Minimum age: 25 years
- at least five years of work experience following the completion of a course of vocational training, or at least seven years of work experience if the final examination that concludes the course of vocational training is brought forward. The management of a family household is deemed equivalent to other jobs. This applies to households comprising at least three persons or, in exceptional cases, at least one person requiring education or nursing care.
- special aptitude and appropriate level of all-round education. You must provide evidence of these by submitting documentation or possibly by attending an interview.
You may not sit the examination if
- You have already tried to obtain a general higher education entrance certificate (allgemeine Hochschulreife) or a higher education entrance certificate bound to a specific group of subjects (fachgebundene Hochschulreife or Fachhochschulreife) but without success.
- You already have a higher education entrance certificate bound to a specific group of subjects (fachgebundene Hochschulreife) and you are able to take a supplementary examination to acquire the general higher education entrance certificate.
Procedure
You must apply to the Kultusministerium in writing. The Kultusministerium will then decide whether to admit you to the examination and specify the administrative headquarters (Regierungspräsidium) at which you are to take it.
The written examination covers the following areas:
- a science subject chosen by you
- German
- Mathematics or a foreign language (English, French, Latin)
Once you have passed the written examination, you will be required to attend for an individual oral examination. This will cover
- your chosen science subject
- mathematics if you took the written foreign language examination, or a foreign language if you took the written mathematics examination
- a subject in subject group 1 (physics, chemistry, biology) or a subject in subject group 2 (history, geography) The subject group will be determined when you are admitted to the examination. Applicants are required to choose one subject from this group for examination.
The oral examination usually lasts one-and-a-half to two hours. The examination time is distributed more or less evenly between each subject.
In order to pass the examination, you must obtain at least five points in each subject in both the written and oral parts. After passing the examination, the Kultusministerium will award you the general higher education entrance certificate.
Deadlines
By 1 August for the following year's examination.
Required documents
- a Curriculum Vitae with detailed information on the educational background to date, the jobs carried out, scientific activities and the intended career
- all school-leaving certificates
- proof of vocational training and vocational achievements
- details on the selected scientific area, the focus points in the individual subjects and the intended course of study
- Two reports concerning capability, performance and level of education, in particular in the chosen specialist area
- the assurance that the applicant has neither undergone the normal school-leaving examination or the school-leaving examination for external students, nor the examination for admission to the higher education degrees without school-leaving certificate or an examination to acquire the qualification entitling the holder to study at a university of applied sciences and that he/she has not applied for admission to one of these examinations.
- a passport photograph
Note: All certificates have to be presented as certified copies. You can be requested to present the originals.
Costs
none
Processing time
about one month
Detailed information
- Merkblatt zur Begabtenprüfung (Leaflet on the examination for gifted persons)
Release note
The German original version of this text was drafted in close cooperation with the relevant departments. The Kultusministerium released it on 05.11.2019. Only the German text is legally binding. The Federal State does not assume any liability for the translated texts.
In cases of doubt or if you have any questions or problems, please contact the relevant authorities directly.