Ergänzungsprüfung Biologie at the VWU in Vienna: the oral exam, the question catalogue and how to prepare

The supplementary biology exam, Ergänzungsprüfung Biologie und Umweltkunde, is assigned by the university you apply to with a foreign school-leaving certificate if your school biology falls short of what the programme needs. Whether you've been assigned it is stated in your admission decision, the Zulassungsbescheid.

The exam is oral, and the VWU, the preparatory course of Vienna's universities, has published every question you can draw in advance, so you can prepare for each one separately. You can study biology on the VWU course, but you can also sit the exam without it.

Who gets assigned the biology exam

The university draws up the list of supplementary exams for a specific programme and a specific school certificate. For medicine in Vienna, the VWU prepares you for five exams: German, biology, chemistry, physics and mathematics. Which of them you're assigned is stated in your own admission decision.¹

How the biology exam works

The exam is oral only. The question catalogue has three parts; you draw one question from each and answer all three in front of the commission. The VWU doesn't publish, for biology, how much time you get to prepare and answer or how much of each question you need to answer.²

The commission has three members: your examiner, another VWU teacher and a university representative, who chairs it. Grades run from 1 to 5, where 5 means a fail.³

The biology question catalogue

The catalogue has 82 questions: 28 in the first part and 27 each in the second and third. The first part runs from the characteristics of living things and the origin of life through the cell, viruses, fungi and the immune system to human reproduction and development. The second covers animals and the human organ systems, the third plants, the microscope, genetics, evolution, and air and water pollution. The questions are phrased as prompts to talk about a topic, and some carry the note Skizze: for the structure of chloroplasts or mitochondria, you have to draw it as well as describe it.²

A worked example: the mitochondria question

Take a question from the first part: "Beschreiben Sie den Aufbau und die Funktion der Mitochondrien (Skizze)", that is, describe the structure and function of mitochondria, with a sketch. It helps to build the answer in three steps, and the same order works for any question marked Skizze.²

First the sketch: the outer membrane, the inner membrane with its folds, the cristae, and the space inside, the matrix. Label the sketch in German: äußere Membran, innere Membran, Cristae, Matrix. Then the structure in words: a mitochondrion has two membranes, the folds of the inner one increase its surface area, and the matrix holds its own DNA and ribosomes. Finally the function: this is where cellular respiration takes place, the citric acid cycle in the matrix and the respiratory chain on the inner membrane, and this is how the cell gets most of its energy, in the form of ATP.

An answer like this fits into one sketch and a few connected sentences. If you can draw and explain the sketch from memory, the question is covered; if you mix up the labels, start with those.

Syllabus and reading list

Besides the catalogue, the VWU publishes a four-part exam syllabus and a reading list: the textbook LINDER Biologie SII, the reference book Duden Basiswissen Schule Biologie Abitur, and the textbooks of Austrian upper secondary schools (AHS Oberstufe).

Both documents are old: the syllabus file was created in 2017 and the catalogue file in 2019, and there are no updated versions on the website. The syllabus has no section on evolution, while in the catalogue it takes up almost a third of the third part. That makes the catalogue the basis for your preparation.⁴

Biology exam dates, registration and retakes

Oral exams in all subjects take place in the same weeks: the next ones from 30 November to 3 December 2026, then from 25 to 29 January and from 15 to 19 March 2027. Registration for the November session runs from 16 to 29 October 2026 until 12:00 through the VWU portal, and you need an admission decision that assigns you biology. The fee is €46 per attempt, you can retake the exam up to four times, and you can withdraw your registration up to one week before the first day of the oral exams. 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.³

How to prepare for the biology exam

1. Download the question catalogue from the VWU biology course page and sort the questions into the three parts.
2. For each question, write an answer outline in German, as in the example above: the sketch if one is needed, then the structure, then the function.
3. Talk through the answer out loud from your outline without reading it: you'll answer orally in the exam, so speaking is exactly what to practise.
4. Alternate between the parts. If you work through them in order, the last one gets less time, and you're certain to draw a question from it.

How the other supplementary exams and the preparatory course work is covered in the VWU overview.

Sources

· 4 checked 01.10.2026

1. 1Vorstudienlehrgang, Medizinische Universität Wien · checked 01.10.2026
2. 2Fragen zur Prüfungsvorbereitung - Biologie · checked 01.10.2026
3. 3Ergänzungsprüfungen — Vorstudienlehrgang der Wiener Universitäten · checked 23.09.2026
4. 4Prüfungsanforderungen BIOLOGIE · checked 01.10.2026