EPM in your Zulassungsbescheid: what now? The Ergänzungsprüfung Mathematik at the VWU step by step

If your Zulassungsbescheid, the admission decision from a Vienna university, lists the Ergänzungsprüfung Mathematik (EPM), the university found substantial differences between your school-leaving certificate and an Austrian one and prescribed a maths exam. You take it at the VWU, the preparatory programme of the Vienna universities, and only after passing it are you admitted to regular degree studies. You can register without attending a VWU course and prepare on your own. If the first attempt fails, you have four retakes left.^1·2

Step 1. What to check in your Zulassungsbescheid about the EPM

Find the list of Ergänzungsprüfungen in the decision. Maths, English, or history/geography are prescribed when your certificate comes from outside the EU and EEA, you apply for a bachelor's or diploma programme, and the certificate differs substantially from the Austrian one; German is added when you did not upload proof of C1. You have to pass every prescribed exam before you are admitted to regular studies. If history/geography is prescribed, you choose one of the two subjects. You have at most four semesters at the VWU to pass all of them. Keep the document itself: without a valid Zulassungsbescheid that prescribes the EPM, you cannot register for the exam.^1–3

Step 2. Is there a certificate instead of the EPM?

You may be prescribed fewer exams if you prove years of study at a recognised university. Such proof is checked while your application is processed, and a prescribed exam can only be struck off before you are admitted to attend the VWU. The pages name no maths certificate or school document that replaces the EPM. The exams are prescribed by the university that issued your decision, and the VWU is not part of it, so proof of university study goes to that university, before you register at the VWU.^1·3

Step 3. How to register for the EPM without a course

Registration is online only, through the VWU student portal at portal.vwu.at, and only during your sitting's registration window, which closes at noon Vienna time on its last day. If you have never attended a VWU course or registered for an exam there, create an account and choose "Möglichkeit 2 – Anmeldung zu einer einzelnen Ergänzungsprüfung". You pay the €70 fee for each exam in the same portal, under Prüfungen. You can withdraw from the written part up to one week before the first day of the written exams.²

Step 4. The next EPM sittings

Each semester has three sittings: September, November and January in winter, March, April or May, and June in summer. If you pass your last exam in November or April, you cannot move to regular studies in the same semester, because those sittings fall outside the admission period (Zulassungsfrist) for regular studies. If you want to start right away, pick another one. How to plan another attempt if the first one fails is in the article on retakes.²

Step 5. Is there an official EPM sample?

Unlike German and English, the VWU publishes no sample for maths. vwu-info.at tells anyone not attending a VWU course who needs information on the maths exam to email johann.brandstetter@vwu.ac.at. The exam rules themselves are public. The written EPM takes 180 minutes and has two parts, and you need at least 50% of the points in each. The full working must be on the paper: a correct result without it is not marked. In the oral you get two questions and about 20 minutes to prepare. Topics and preparation are covered in the article on the EPM.^4·5

Step 6. Take a timed EPM mock exam

Without an official sample, past papers show the format best. Our past EPM exams are open without registration, with the tasks in German as in the real exam and a worked solution for every task. Once the topics work for you, sit an EPM mock exam in the trainer: the clock runs on the server, and the paper is handed in automatically when time is up. The result shows in which of the two parts you stay below 50%.

Sources

· 5 checked 28.10.2026

1. 1Der Vorstudienlehrgang der Wiener Universitäten (VWU), Universität Wien · checked 28.10.2026
2. 2Ergänzungsprüfungen — Vorstudienlehrgang der Wiener Universitäten · checked 28.10.2026
3. 3Ich will in den VWU: häufige Fragen, Universität Wien · checked 28.10.2026
4. 4Mathematik am VWU, vwu-info.at · checked 28.10.2026
5. 5Unterrichtsorganisation und Prüfungsregelung in Mathematik (WS 2026) · dated 13.09.2026, checked 18.09.2026