Hörverstehen in the EPD in Vienna: how the listening section works and how to prepare

The current sample exam for the EPD, the German exam for admission to Vienna's universities, includes a listening section, Hörverstehen. If your Zulassungsbescheid assigns you the EPD, you sit this section along with the others. You can't choose it or skip it.

The bar here is lower than in the other sections, but it has its own minimum, and if you miss it, you fail the written part, however many points you score in reading and writing. You can sit the EPD without taking the VWU course, the preparatory course of Vienna's universities. The VWU doesn't publish recordings for the official sample, so the only way to try the listening section under exam conditions is with practice material.

Hörverstehen in the written part of the EPD

The VWU sample in force since June 2026 splits the written part into four sections, and listening comes second, between reading and grammar. It gets 35 of the 180 minutes, is worth 15 of the 75 points, and has a minimum of 5 points, a third of the section's points. In the other sections the minimum is about half. You pass the written part only if you reach the minimum in every section and score at least 45 points in total.¹

Our archive also has papers without a listening section. Use them for reading, grammar and writing, and the two papers in the June 2026 format for Hörverstehen.

How one listening text runs

The section has two texts, and both run the same way. First you get 90 seconds to read the task. Then the recording is played twice in a row, and after the second play you get another 60 seconds to check your answers.

The sample tells you to answer while you listen. You may take notes, but they're handed in with your paper at the end. Dictionaries and electronic devices are banned in the written part, listening included.¹

Task types in Hörverstehen

The two texts come with tasks of different types. The sample shows three possible types and doesn't say which two you'll get, so it's worth preparing for all three. Each type has a solved example numbered 0.

• Single-Choice. Each item has three options, a, b or c, and exactly one is always correct.
• Kurzantworten. You answer a question in your own words, in no more than five words.
• Notizen ergänzen. You get notes on a broadcast with gaps, and you fill each gap with exactly one word from the recording.

In the second and third types you write the answer yourself, so what matters is whether you caught the word and can spell it. The sample doesn't say whether a misspelled word counts. How to approach each type, and what the 90 seconds before the recording are good for, is covered in the theory article on listening task types.¹

Which texts you hear in the exam

Under each listening text the sample names its source: Ö1, the radio station of the Austrian broadcaster ORF. Three broadcasts appear in the sample: on how people work today, on professional sport, and on how building and asphalt seal off the soil, Bodenversiegelung in German.

The VWU doesn't provide audio files for the sample. The end of the document, though, prints full transcripts of every recording, and they show you how long and dense the broadcasts you'll face are. Where to listen to Ö1 and how to practise with any episode, even without an answer key, is covered in the theory article on Ö1 listening texts.¹

How to prepare for Hörverstehen

1. Do the listening section of a practice paper under exam rules: 90 seconds to read the task, two plays in a row, 60 seconds to check. Don't pause the recording and don't play it a third time.
2. Check your answers against the key and compare your score with the minimum. If you're well short of 5 out of 15, listening needs its own practice, or it could cost you the whole written part.
3. See which task type you lose points on. In the EPD trainer the listening tasks are sorted by these three types, and in exam mode you can play the recording only twice, as in the EPD.
4. Between practice sessions, listen to Ö1 broadcasts: they're exactly what the sample uses, and it's better to get used to the pace of radio speech in advance.

The next written EPD takes place on 10 November 2026. Registration opens on 16 October and closes on 29 October at 12:00. If this is your last exam, the November session won't work for that: it falls after the universities' admission deadline, so you can no longer move into a regular degree programme in the 2026 winter semester. The other sections and the oral part are covered in the EPD overview.²

Sources

· 2 checked 23.09.2026

1. 1Modell Ergänzungsprüfung Deutsch (gültig ab Juni 2026)
2. 2Ergänzungsprüfungen — Vorstudienlehrgang der Wiener Universitäten