The ''Begabtenprüfung'' (, "aptitude examination", literally "examination of the gifted") is a
college
A college (Latin: ''collegium'') may be a tertiary educational institution (sometimes awarding degrees), part of a collegiate university, an institution offering vocational education, a further education institution, or a secondary sc ...
admission examination in
Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
which provides an alternative to the
Abitur
''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...
or qualifies the student for a "field-specific Abitur" (''
Fachgebundene Hochschulreife''). Its formal German name is ''Prüfung für den Hochschulzugang von besonders befähigten Berufstätigen'' (Examination for College Attendance by Specially Qualified Workers).
Eligibility
Candidates must be 25 or older, unable to enroll in an educational institution and take the non-student Abitur (see below) and not in possession of a field-specific Abitur with the possibility of upgrading it to the general Abitur, and have completed an
apprenticeship
Apprenticeship is a system for training a potential new practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study. Apprenticeships may also enable practitioners to gain a license to practice in a regulat ...
, trade school training, or governmental/military training and then worked for 5 or more years in that profession, or completed secondary school with a non-college-bound certificate and then have seven or more years of employment and/or as a single head of household with dependents, and show evidence of independent preparation. Those who have failed the examination twice are ineligible to re-take it, subject to the right of individual
states
State most commonly refers to:
* State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory
**Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country
**Nation state, a ...
to grant exceptions.
Alternative examinations
Instead of the Begabtenprüfung, the states of
Brandenburg
Brandenburg, officially the State of Brandenburg, is a States of Germany, state in northeastern Germany. Brandenburg borders Poland and the states of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It is the List of Ger ...
,
Hamburg
Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
,
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...
and
Saarland
Saarland (, ; ) is a state of Germany in the southwest of the country. With an area of and population of 990,509 in 2018, it is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, and the smallest in ...
offer a ''Nichtschülerprüfung'' (examination for non-students) or ''Externenabitur'' (external Abitur), formally called a non-student Abitur, ''Abiturprüfung für Nichtschülerinnen und Nichtschüler''. This has a minimum age of 19 and requires the candidate not to have been enrolled in an educational institution during the preceding year, except for special cases such as
Waldorf schools.
Examination
The Begabtenprüfung is regulated and administered at the state level by a commission.
The examination consists of an oral and a written component, to be graded at a standard corresponding to the Abitur.
The written examination consists of 3 components each of 4–5 hours:
* a German language test
* a test in the candidate's choice of mathematics or a foreign language
* a test in the subject the person wishes to study, which must be offered by a college in the state (this may be waived for demonstrably qualified candidates)
The oral examination consists of
* a test in mathematics or a foreign language, whichever the candidate did not elect for the written examination
* a test in the subject the person wishes to study
* a test in another subject chosen by the examiners from one of two groups such that it is remote from the candidate's employment expertise but demonstrates his or her well roundedness
History
The Begabtenprüfung dates to before World War II. For example, Fritz Behrens, a communist who became a professor at the
University of Leipzig
Leipzig University (), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December 1409 by Frederick I, Electo ...
immediately after completing his
Habilitation
Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...
in 1947, entered university after taking the Begabtenprüfung and received his doctorate in 1935.
After the war, making further education available to those who had been unable to graduate from a ''
gymnasium'' was a priority in both Western and Russian sectors of Germany, but in the Soviet zone and later the
GDR responsibility for the Begabtenprüfung was placed with the college or university rather than the locality; institutions were required to provide ''Vorstudienanstalten'' (pre-study institutes) to prepare workers for the examination, and after 1949, to have integrated departments for workers and farmers.
["Nr. 9 Hochschulkonferenz Wiesbaden (17.6.1946)" in Mannfred Heinemann, Klaus-Dieter Müller, Michael Reinbold and Thomas Heerich, ''Süddeutsche Hochschulkonferenzen 1945-1949'', Berlin: Akademie, 1997, ]
p. 76 and note 2
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Begabtenprufung
Education in Germany
Academic terminology