Examination information

• End-of-semester examinations at the end of the autumn semester 2024
  End-of-semester exam phase:
  Monday, 9 December up to and including Friday, 20 December 2024 and Monday, 6 January up to and including Friday, 17 January 2025
  
• Session examinations Winter 2024/25
  Monday, 20 January up to and including Friday, 14 February 2025
  
• Repetition of failed end-of-semester examinations from the autumn semester 2024
  Monday, 17 February up to and including Friday, 28 February 2025

To clarify any uncertainties, please first consult FAQ's.

TYPE OF A PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT:

• To find out what TYPE of exam you are taking, check myStudies Functions ⇒ Course registration ⇒ Individual course units ⇒ Performance assessment:
  The details in the course catalogue are binding in any case!
  
  
  • You do not need to register for SEMESTER performances  (no matter if graded or ungraded), not even if the performance assessment will be carried out as an examination! You only have to make a timely enrollment into the respective course unit.
  • In addition to the enrollment in the course unit you must also actively register for END-OF-SEMESTER exams  which are defined as such in the course catalogue.
  • In addition to the enrollment in the course unit (possibly in a past semester) you must also actively register for
    SESSION exams which are defined as such in the course catalogue.
  • For Continuous Performance Assessments / C.P.A.  (Compulsory continuous performance assessment, Interim examinations, Learning tasks) there is no registration required through myStudies. Please also note the corresponding Download Directive on Deploying Continuous Performance Assessments in Teaching (PDF, 49 KB).

• Qualifying examinations for doctoral students do not have to be registered. They only have to be listed in resp. organized by using myStudies Functions ⇒ Qualifying Examinations.
  More information can be found on the page Qualifying exams.
  
• During exam registration you can allocate performance assessments to a certain CATEGORY of your study regulation. This allocation can still be changed after  the result of the performance assessment has been decreed. At the latest, prior to submitting your diploma request you have to bindingly assign all relevant categories to the respective performance assessments.

DEADLINES:

• Starting Monday, 30 September until no later than Sunday, 13 October 2024 at midnight, you can register for all end-of-semester- and session exams through myStudies Functions ⇒ Examinations.
  This deadline applies for both session- and end-of-semester exams!
• If you do not pass an end-of-semester exam and the examiner offers you the possibility to take a repeat exam (see information on ‘performance assessments’ in the course catalogue), you can register for it between
  Monday, 27 January up to and including Sunday, 9 February 2025, at midnight.
  Please note that you will only be able to register for such a repeat exam if the result of your first attempt has been decreed, i.e., is listed online in your ‘Transcript of Records’.
• The closing dates are mandatory for everyone!
  Once the regular registration deadline has passed, it is no longer possible to register for examinations through myStudies.
  Such late registrations can only be accepted in well-founded cases and must be submitted by email.
  
• Please note that we cannot assist you, should you miss the registration deadline because of encountered (computer-)problems on the last day resp. the weekend of the registration deadline.
  We therefore advise you to register for exams at the beginning of the registration phase if possible, so that any problems can be noticed at an early stage and a solution sought within the registration period with the Examination Office by e-mail or telephone.

BELATED EXAMINATION REGISTRATION:

For session- and end-of-semester examinations the following applies:
An exam registration until the end of the fourth week of the semester (generally through myStudies or in case of problems by email to the Examinations Office) is free of charge.

Late registrations incur a late registration fee.

• From the 5^th week of the semester until the publication of the schedule of written examinations (approx. in the second half of November 2024) a registration is only possible by email to the Examinations Office and costs CHF 50.--
• After this date and until the belated registration deadline (see below), a late registration is only possible by email to the Examinations Office as well and costs CHF 90.--
• For a late exam registration, please send the filled out and signed registration form, which can be found in myStudies, by e-mail to . The Examinations Office will check whether a late registration is possible and, if so, will take care of it. You will then be sent an invoice for the payment of the late registration fee.
  

ATTENTION:
For late registrations the following deadlines apply. Please note that after the respective deadline has expired, a late registration will NOT be possible anymore. Therefore, please make sure by checking myStudies that you are registered for all exams you would like to take before the deadline expires:

• Session Examinations
  • From the end of the registration phase (5^th week of the semester) up to and including Sunday, 12 January 2025, at midnight, thus one week before the beginning of the examination session.
• End-of-semester Examinations (regular term)
  
  • From the end of the registration period (5^th week of the semester) up to and including Sunday, 8 December 2024, at midnight, thus two weeks before the end of the lecture period.
• End-of-semester Examinations (repetition dates)
  • No late registration possible, as the registration and de-registration deadlines are the same here (Sunday, 9 February 2025, thus one week before the start of the spring semester 2025).
    

CLAIMS:

• Please note, that you have no entitlement to take a session- or an end-of-semester examination without being registered for it.
  An examination taken without registration cannot be registered belatedly and is not valid.
  This rule also applies for semester performances accordingly, but only as long as there is an internal registration procedure (which is organized by the lecturer/s).

STUDY DEADLINES:

• If you have a binding deadline in this semester and therefore either have to take the first-year examinations, pass your additional requirements or have to conclude your studies please make sure to register for all required examinations.
  

Do not send your registration form to the Examinations Office in vain. The most common cases are:

• Semester performances (A separate examination registration is not required, not even if there is an examination - enrolling for the course unit is sufficient.)
  How do I determine, whether it is a semester performance or not?
  myStudies  (Functions ⇒ Course registration ⇒ klick on the respective course ⇒ Performance Assessment ⇒ Type)
  (The information in the course catalogue regarding the "Type" is binding.)
• Missing enrolment for the course unit itself.
  (In most cases such course registrations can still be made - retroactively as well - by you in myStudies.)
• Students who are enrolled in the first semester of a study programme without split first year exams cannot register for the first year exam block.  

In the following cases a registration is not possible in myStudies:

MAXIMUM NUMBER OF EXAMINATIONS:

• The maximum number of session examinations that you can register for is limited to 11.
  This limitation became necessary in order to be able to ensure that students can take all registered examinations that are part of their respective curriculum.
  Exceptions to this rule can only be granted in well-founded cases. Such requests have to be handed in by email () to the Examinations Office by no later than and including Sunday, 13 october 2024.  

FURTHER CASES:

• Certain cases involving an exam exemption or additional requirements must be processed by hand.
• If you are repeating the first semester (enrolment in the first study semester), an online registration for first-year exams is not possible in myStudies. (This only applies to study programmes without split first-year exams.)
  
• Course units that you enrolled in more than four semesters ago.
• Special cases that have to be processed by hand.

PROCEDURE:

• In these cases you must fill out the REGISTRATION FORM that you can find in myStudies under “Registration for Examinations” and send it by email to the Examinations Office () by no later than and including Sunday, 13 October 2024.
  
  
• If you are asked by the Examinations Office to come in person, you will find it here:
  Examinations Office, ETH Main Building, Rämistrasse 101, HG F 18
  
  
• When:
  Desk opening hours: Monday-Friday, 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.
  By phone: Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. - 11 a.m.
  

During the last week of the registration period we receive many e-mail inquiries. Please note that it may take longer until you receive your answer. In urgent cases, we advise you to contact the Examinations Office by telephone.

SESSION EXAMINATIONS:

The examination schedules for session examinations will be published in three phases:

• Approx. during the second half of November 2024 the schedule of written session examinations will be published in myStudies. The Examinations Office will inform you by email as soon as it is available.
• The schedule of oral session examinations will be visible in myStudies approx. shortly before Christmas 2024. (The dates of the exams will be indicated, but the time designation for oral exams will still be provisional.)
  
  As soon as the de-registration deadline has passed (Sunday, 12 January 2025, at midnight) the examination schedules of the examiners will be optimized in order to fill gaps that have occurred due to deregistrations of oral exams.
  The published examination dates are fixed – only the starting times of oral examinations might change within the days on which the exams will take place.
• Your personal examination schedule (including dates, locations and definite time designations) will be available in myStudies shortly before the beginning of the examination session.

END-OF-SEMESTER EXAMINATIONS:

• Those exams take place during the last two weeks of the lecture period or during the first two weeks of the semester break
  (9 December - 20 December 2024 and 6 January - 17 January 2025).
  They are organized by the lecturers resp. by the department responsible for the corresponding course unit. The lecturers enter the dates of the end-of-semester examinations continuously so that you can view the dates of the registered end-of-semester examinations in myStudies.
  As of 4 November 2024, dates of the end-of-semester examinations will be listed.
• Repetitions of failed end-of-semester examinations are also organized by the responsible department and/or the lecturers.
  Those exams will take place during the first two weeks of the consecutive spring semester 2025
  (17 February - 28 February 2025).
  These exam dates will also be listed in myStudies as of 3 February 2025.  

• End-of-semester examinations:
  Until no later than Sunday, 8 December 2024, at midnight
• Session examinations:
  Until no later than Sunday, 12 January 2025, at midnight
• Repetition of end-of-semester exams:
  Until no later than Sunday, 9 February 2025, at midnight
• Semester performances (graded and ungraded):
  Please follow the information given by the lecturers.
• Continuous Performance Assessment:
  The information given by the lecturers in charge is crucial in this case as well.

BELATED DEREGISTRATION:

• Late deregistrations of individual exams as well as of entire examination blocks are still only possible by direct notification to the examinations office ( or by phone).
  
  
• In this context, it is important to note the Directive on the examination phase at the end of the semester (will be sent to all students with registrations for end-of-semester examinations approx. during the second half of November 2024), as well as the Directive on the examination session (will be sent to all students with registrations for session examinations together with the schedule of oral examinations approx. shortly before Christmas 2024), which will also be filed in the Directives Collection of the Rectorate.
  
  
• According to the Ordinance on Performance Assessments at ETH Zurich: Implementation stipulations determined by the Rector, all obtained results are listed on the academic record resp. on the addendum.
  This rule applies to all passed, failed and dropped performance assessments. The result of the last try will be listed.
  

EXAMINATON BLOCK:

• Examinations that are part of an examination block must be taken in the same examination session.
  Because of this, an examination block can only be registered and deregistered as a whole.
  
  Exception: Examination blocks that had to be discontinued in the previous examination session due to compelling circumstances. In such cases, a registration is automatically processed for the next examination session.

IN THE FOLLOWING CASES A DEREGISTRATION IS NOT POSSIBLE (ELECTRONICALLY):

• The deregistration deadline has passed.
  
• The first-year exams or an examination block were discontinued in the previous session.
• The deadline for the first-year exams or for the final degree exams (which is not checked electronically!) will not be met.
• There is a request for distance exams or for the preponement of exams.

Please contact the Examinations Office by email () or by phone (+41 44 632 20 68 / Mon - Fri, 9 a.m. - 11 a.m.).

• Students, who cannot take a session examination (resp. an end-of-semester examination) as scheduled due to important study-related reasons (especially student exchange, mandatory internships) can receive permission to take the exam as a distance examination (same time but different location) or reschedule the exam to a preponed date before the examination session/end-of-semester examination phase.
  
  
• Requests for a preponement of session and/or end-of-semester examinations, respectively for taking them as distance examinations have to be submitted using the designated function in myStudies from Monday, 14 october until presumably the end of November 2024.
  (Taking a session examination as a distance exam can only be requested once the schedule of written session examinations has been published, which will be the case approx. mid-November.)
  
  
• On Monday, 14 October 2024, the respective function as well as additional guidelines will be available here:
  myStudies  (Functions ⇒ Examinations ⇒ Start request)
  
  Please register in any case for all examinations, including the ones that you intend to reschedule to an earlier date or that you want to take as distance examinations.
  
  
• Further information and corresponding regulations for the preponement of exams resp. distance exams can be found here.
  

FIRST-YEAR-EXAMS:

• First-year exams – for study programmes without split first-year exams:
  First-year exams must be taken within two years after you begin studying. This also applies for any repeat exams.
  The first try must be taken straightaway at the end of the first year of study or in the following winter examination session at the latest.
  Any second attempts must be promptly made no later than in the summer examination session at the end of the second year of study.
• First-year exams – for study programmes with split first-year exams:
  First-year exams, consisting of two separate examination blocks, have to be taken within four semesters after starting with the study programme, incl. any repeat exams.
  Examinations that are part of a separate first-year examination block have to be taken within the same examination session.
  The two first-year examination blocks can be taken independently of each other and in random order, either in different or in the same examination session.
  Accordingly, the first examination block can already be taken after completion of the first semester.
• Study Deadlines:
  The deadlines can be viewed in myStudies  (Functions ⇒ “Deadline”).
  If you cannot meet one of these deadlines, you must submit a detailed and well-founded request for extending the deadline to the Examinations Office or to the Student Administration as soon as possible. (Please also note the information further below.)
  Pending examination attempts expire after the deadline for the first year examinations and do not entitle to an extension of the deadline.

MEETING STUDY DEADLINES:

• It is your personal responsibility to meet all study deadlines.
  
  If a study deadline is not met, a well-founded request for deregistering and for extending the examination deadline must be handed in along with the relevant documents, e.g., substantiated medical certificate.
  
  Requests for first-year examination deadline extensions have to be emailed () to the Examinations Office (by the end of the fourth teaching week of the semester).
  
  Detailed information about study deadlines can be found here: Study terms

• All study achievements completed at ETH Zurich are listed either on your academic record or on the addendum, including any "no-shows".
  
• Only the last attempt of an examination taken as a repetition will be shown. (This means that a repetition may correct an insufficient grade or a "no-show" from the first attempt.)
• In order to avoid "no-shows", please keep to the deadlines when deregistering for an examination you will not take.