We maintain an archive of past exam papers to help students to prepare for future exams. These papers are usually summaries of the exam task sheets, written down from memory and sent in by students like you.
If you need summaries for your upcoming exams or would like to contribute new ones, please email us at exams@fsinfo.fim.uni-passau.de. Contact us with your student email.
Please also send in your own summaries afterwards to help future students the same way your predecessors have helped you.

The exam regulations of our faculty allow to complete an optional internship at a company of your choice and include it in your curriculum in module group "key competences" (for all current bachelor degree programmes) or in the "general focus area" (for the master degree programme Computer Science).

The current module catalogue requires the internship to last at least 240 hours in total (e.g. six weeks of 40 hours of work per week). At least half of them (120 hours) must consist of tasks relevant to the topic of your studies. This requirement is also used to calculate the number of ECTS credits awarded: you will receive four ECTS credits (one ECTS credit per 30 hours of work being relevant to your topic of studies).

Before the beginning of the internship, you will need to find a professor of our faculty to act as an in-university supervisor during your work experience at the company. Note: The internship will not be graded, but you will have to submit multiple intermediate reports during the internship period as well as a final report. Furthermore, a dialogue session with your supervisor after the internship is mandatory.

The Software Engineering Practical (SEP) for the bachelor degree programme Computer Science as well as the Engineering Practical ("Entwicklungspraktikum", EP) for Internet Computing make up an important part of the respective studies. Unfortunately there is no such practical provided for the bachelor degree programme Mathematics.

As part of one of these practicals a team of three to six students works on a medium-sized software project for a period of one semester. In the SEP five stages of development are achieved in total: Creation of a functional specification document, design, specification, implementation and validation. The work packages of the EP are analogously called analysis, design, implementation and validation.

For the SEP the courses "Software Engineering", "Programmierung II" as well as "Algorithmen und Datenstrukturen" are mandatory prerequisites. The EP additionally requires the modules "Grundlagen von Datenbanken" and "Web und Data Engineering".

Typically the practicals are scheduled in the fourth or fifth semester of the bachelor degree programme. From experience we can say that the effort may be significant, which should be taken into account when planning the other courses in the semester of the practical. At any time you can get support and help by the student committee.

During the practical one gains a lot of experience not only in software development and administration, but also in the scopes of time management, team building and communication.

At the end of the semester, there will be a final meeting where the results of all projects of the current term are presented. We advise you to attend this event in the semester before your own practical semester.

Additionally there is an important and mandatory opening event for the EP and SEP, which usually also takes place at the end of the previous semester. In order to be allowed to absolve the practical, you may not miss this event. The dates of the events will be announced by posters in the FIM as well as on the social media channels of the student council.

English, French and Russian may be credited as key competences for the Bachelor degree programmes Informatik and Internet Computing. In addition, a so-called UNIcert certificate can be purchased for a fee. In order to join a language course with previous knowledge, usually assessment tests are required. Students of our faculty take the test for International Cultural and Business Studies. Afterwards, you can register for one of the courses according to the level via Stud.IP. If you want to learn a language from scratch, it is sufficient to enroll in a basic-level course (Grundstufe 1.1). We recommend that you attend a course even if it is overcrowded, you are on a waiting list or if the seats in the classroom are not enough. Experience has shown that you might still get a place if you attend the course regularly.

In order to broaden your language skills and gain relevant experience, a stay abroad is also an ideal option, for example a semester or an internship abroad. Various institutions and organisations such as the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the EU's ERASMUS+ programme provide fundings for this. The International Office provides advice on organisational matters and financing.

Independently from our official partner universities, you can apply as a freemover at a foreign university on your own, but usually with increased work and organisational effort. Therefore, free placement agencies such as IEC or College Contact are available. In any case, you should start planning as early as possible (about two semesters before)!

If you are planning to take courses at the foreign university, you should check in advance whether you will be able to count those courses towards your local curriculum. For this, an equivalent course needs to exist in the module catalogue for your course of studies. Questions about credit transfers and course equivalencies can usually be answered by the programme convenor.

Scholarships are for nerds? You'd be wrong! Obtaining a scholarship is far easier than you might believe. In many cases, application is possible before or shortly after getting your graduation diploma.

Permanent scholarships with financial and ideational encouragement can be found at 13 organizations for promoting gifted students working with the Federal Ministry of Education and Science. When considering an application, you should make sure that the foundation's profile matches your own. A suitable personality profile increases the probability of acceptance significantly. The award holders of many foundations are organizing themselves in student societies at the University of Passau and will assist you with an application.

Google offers the annual  Women Techmakers Scholars Program dedicated to women in IT. Despite the slim chances of success, you should not hesitate to apply if you qualify.

Furthermore, the university offers the "Deutschlandstipendium". It supports students with 300€ per month regardless of income. The scholarship is financed half by private sponsors and half by state benefits. An application is especially worthwile if you can show an excellent overall average grade, which is the first criterion for exclusion.

The university's AlumniClub awards one or more scholarships of major partners every year. The chances for STEM students are very promising.

Students in their second or higher semester who qualify for the German BAföG benefits programme have good chances of obtaining the Oskar-Karl-Forster Scholarship which provides a one-time bonus of 500€ for learning supplies like books or notebooks.

The university has compiled information about scholarships here.

Here you can find our recommendations for your course schedules, i.e. the study plans. They give an idea about which lectures should be taken in the first, second, third, ... semester. The timetable is different each semester, depending on where and when each event takes place.

Caution: Please be aware that the following study plans may deviate from the officially recommended plans since they were adapted based on our personal experience.

• Start of studies in the winter semester
  • Bachelor Computer Science
  • Bachelor Internet Computing
  • Bachelor Mathematics
  • Teaching degree programme Computer Science
  • Teaching degree programme Lehramt Mathematics
• Start of studies in the summer semester
  • Bachelor Computer Science
  • Bachelor Internet Computing
  • Teaching degree programme Computer Science
  • Teaching degree programme Lehramt Mathematics

When their degree programme is nearing its end, most students at the FIM wonder: Where do I find a supervisor and a topic for my bachelor's thesis or master's thesis?
While there is no universal answer to this question — every chair handles this in an individual way — we have collected some hints and guidelines to help you complete your thesis successfully.

First, you should consider which fields you are most interested in (for computer science, this might be programming, software engineering, networks, deep learning, etc.). This can help you to focus on contacting the chair or chairs that best represent your field of interest.
The exact procedure, however, varies between chairs:

Many chairs publish lists of possible thesis topics on their websites, or ask you to get in touch for an up-to-date list. The faculty website has a list with information about theses, which contains links to topics, contact information, and any special requirements or procedures set by the individual chairs.

For those chairs that don't require a fixed assignments procedure, you can often discuss thesis procedures and topics directly with a member of the chair.
As a first point of contact, you can usually ask the lecturers of tutorials and exercise sessions; there are some chairs, however, that prefer you contacting the chair's full professor directly. As a more informal setting, there are faculty events like our annual BBQ, which can be a great opportunity to get to know with the chairs' lecturers and their research interests.
In many cases, thesis topics are also offered at the end of a seminar or lecture, e.g. as a continuation of the lecture's topic. Some chairs may also be open to discussing your own ideas for possible topics, but there is no guarantee that a topic idea or a company collaboration will be possible exactly as proposed, as it will usually need to align with the chair's own research areas.

Finally, the details, such as scope, extent, and time frame, will be arranged with you by your supervisor. After the thesis is registered, you have three months until you have to submit your thesis for the bachelor's programmes and six months for the master's programme.

In general, it is advisable to think about your thesis at an early state in order to avoid conflicts (e.g. with the begin of a consecutive master degree course).

In general, according to all current course and examination regulations for Bachelor courses at our faculty, one module per module group does not have to be included in the calculation of the overall grade.

If you have achieved more than the required minimum number of ECTS (usually 180 for Bachelor degree programmes or 120 for Master degree programmes), you can have modules certified as "additional qualification" in a separate document, so that they are also not included in your overall grade. Thus, modules with less good grades may be kept out of the main certificate (as long as they are not obligatory in your study and examination regulations and you do not fall below the minimum number of ECTS credits by omitting them).

A weighted overall average is then calculated from all these grades. The weighting depends on the number ECTS points of the course. In concrete terms, this means that the sum of all marks of all modules (`mark_i`) multiplied by the respective ECTS points (`ECTS_i`) divided by the total number of ECTS points gives the total mark.

The overall mark is only valid up to the first decimal place, but is not rounded. For example, a 2.59 is entered as 2.5 in the certificate.

You can read more about this in your examination regulations. You can also request binding information from the Examination office.

When you have completed your studies, all you need is a certificate. You will not receive this automatically, but must apply for it. This can be found for each degree programme on the website of the examination secretariat.

In this application you also specify the options for your degree programme, e.g. the elective area or focus, and which modules should not be included in the overall mark (as described in the previous section).

If you have completed your degree course and decide to take a Master's degree at our university, there are theoretically only the application deadlines to consider when applying. You can find concrete information about this on the website of the University for the Master of Computer Science or the Master Computational Mathematics.

You can also apply for the Master's degree if you have not yet received your Bachelor's degree. According to the General Study and Examination Regulations for Master's Courses of our faculty, you have the possibility to submit the required grades for the Master's degree up to the 10th week of lectures. However, the examination results required for the degree must all have been completed before the beginning of the lecture period.

If you end your course prematurely, either because you do not like the subject or because you have not completed a compulsory module, you have some options:

Of course, you can change your course of studies within our university, but only the enrolment/application times have to be considered. You may even be able to have already passed modules credited to the new degree programme. The best way to do this is to contact the (subject) Academic Advisory Service.

If you are taking BAföG, a one-off change of subject until the 2nd semester is generally possible without any problems and without losing your entitlement. After that, this is only possible under certain conditions. You can find more detailed information on the website of the Studentenwerk.

If the unpleasant case has occurred that you have not passed a compulsory module, you still have the following options:

If you were unable to pass the examination for serious reasons, e.g. for health reasons (you must prove a certificate from the official doctor), you can try to file an application for hardship with the examination board. Alternatively, you can apply for the above-mentioned change of study programme. For example, if you have not passed Linear Algebra I, Internet Computing is still open to you. It is relatively easy to credit modules that have already been passed thanks to the same examination numbers. Of course, it is now also open to you not to have individual grades credited, but to improve them by taking another exam.

However, if you cannot/do not want to stay at our university, you can still try it at other universities/universities of applied sciences in other/similar courses of studies.
In the case of the same (especially identically named) degree programmes, there may be problems with a new start at other universities. Universities of applied sciences are usually more accommodating. The world of apprenticeship is also open to you. With applications you can present your already passed modules, your achievements do not need to disappear.

If you would like to look for alternatives yourself, we can recommend the Hochschulkompass or the Studienberatung at our university. The staff have a lot of information and flyers and are happy to support you in your future.

No need to stick to consultation hours

Most of the tutors at the FIM have an open-door policy which means that you can come at any time and you might find their doors open allowing you to ask questions. Even if the doors are closed most of the tutors will answer any questions anytime - just knock. The same holds for our office, just come by. Professors will also help you with an informal counseling interview to spot potential difficulties in your studies. Also, you should check the Stud.IP forums regularly. Questions asked and answered there will help all students in the course.

Parking

You may park in the underground parking lot for students (below the mensa, WiWi building and central library) if you are living outside of the Passau central area but no more than 90km away from Passau. You can claim access to the parking lot for your CampusCard in room JUR 017. The parking ticket which you can download via HISQIS must be placed inside your car behind the windshield where it is easily visible. Opening hours for the parking lots can be found at their entrances or here.

Registration periods for the exams

If no deviating information is provided, you need to register for all exams via HISQIS, but registration periods vary from faculty to faculty. For example, the registration period for exams of the Faculty of Business, Econonimcs and Information Systems usually starts and ends one month before exams at our faculty. Depending on your subjects you may have different registration periods for your exams! The exact times will be announced in the lectures, on Stud.IP, in HISQIS and via social media. After the official period, you can no longer register for the exam and need to wait for the next date. Speaking of the next date - usually there are two dates for exams at the FIM. The first date is right after the lectures and the second date is right before the next semester starts. Double-check whether you registered for the first or second date and bring the printout of your registered exams to the exam itself in case something goes wrong.

Exams

You may fail an exam twice but you must repeat the exam within one year after your last try. You cannot repeat an exam after you passed it. There is no way to improve your grade. Some courses have oral exams, especially when the course has few participants. Remember to prepare differently for those exams: meet up with you fellow students and ask each other questions to make sure that you can explain the concepts.

Check the grading of exams

After an exam has been graded you have the right to get an explanation of your grade. For this you need to go to the post-exam reviews. Sometimes you have to register for them - sometimes not. All the details are explained on the Stud.IP page of the course after the grades have been assigned. During these reviews you can not only check for errors in the marking but you can also learn from your own mistakes.

Bachelor's thesis

You should keep one semester free for your bachelor's thesis. Ask early and autonomously at a chair of your choice for a suitable thesis. After the thesis is registered, you have three months until you have to submit your thesis Please note that for master's applications to other universities you may need a final grade for the bachelor's thesis, for which chairs have up to three months time.

FIM library

In the FIM library you can find up-to-date specialist literature as well as many issues of magazines. Additionally, there is a stapler and scanner for books where you can scan for free. If you have a group project you can reserve a room there if it is not already occupied.

Using the German "Du"

If you want to improve your German skills you should talk German! Germans differentiate between the informal "Du" and the formal "Sie". At the FIM all students use "Du" to address each other. This also holds for most tutors. You only need the "Sie" for professors and secretaries.

Illness during or right before exams

If you fall ill right before an exam you need to bring an attestation for this illness issued by a doctor. If you get sick during an exam you need to inform the supervisors and bring the attestation afterwards. Check the website of the Examinations Office for more details.

Electives vs. Required (Compulsory) Electives

In every bachelor's degree programme you have to choose a subject area in which you can hear additional lectures outside your own field of study — the elective. During the bachelor's degree programme, a fixed number of ECTS credits must be obtained in the elective field, which you choose retroactively when requesting your graduation certificate at the end of the degree programme.
Compulsory electives, on the other hand, are advanced courses offered at the FIM and can be chosen from a list of eligible courses independently from the elective field — there is only a certain number of ECTS credits that must be achieved. How many points each bachelor's programme requires is shown in the study plans. Which courses are eligible for credit depends on the degree programme and can be looked up in the respective module catalogue, which you can find on the university website.

Key Competences

The so-called key competences are usually block seminars held on a weekend. Students enrolled in the bachelor's degree programme Computer Science and Internet Computing can collect up to three ECTS credits in such seminars of the Centre for Careers and Competencies (ZKK) or in suitable language courses. In the bachelor's programme Computer Science you need a minimum of 18 ECTS credits of compulsary electives and key competences, in the bachelor's programme Internet Computing 16 credits. For the bachelor's programme of Mathematics you need three ECTS credits. The registration for these courses is meant to be done via Stud.IP in most cases and is only possible for a certain period, beginning roughly at the start of the semester. If you cannot attend a seminar you registered for, remember to cancel your registration in time as you may be treated with lower priority in the next semester otherwise. Note that not all offered seminars may be credited in your degree programme and that you need a grade in order to do so (you may need to remind the lecturer of that before you begin the course). If you are interested in further seminars that are not creditable, you can still apply for them for personal education.

Counting ECTS credit points

Keep in mind that your enrollment may be terminated if you don't achieve certain credit point thresholds within the specified amount of time or exceed the maximum duration of study of the respective degree programme.
The following table gives an overview of the ECTS credits to be achieved in order to continue studying or receive student loans in accordance with the German BAföG.

Tips for the teacher training courses

Do not postpone lectures

At the end of your studies you will have to take the very time-consuming state examination, but the curriculum in the last semester usually also includes 30 ECTS credits worth of coursework. Therefore, it is advisable to take some of these courses in earlier semesters. In addition, you can also take a part of the state examination (the so-called EWS exam) prematurely, so you will "only" have to take the examinations in your two subjects and didactics at the end of your studies. So you'd be better off doing a little bit more at the beginning of your studies in order to have enough time for studying towards the end. In addition, you should consider further requirements that are necessary for enrolling in the exam (e.g. school and company internships or admission papers) which usually don't appear in the module catalogues or study plans.

Take notes (diligently!)

Of course, documents and notes should never be thrown away in any course. This is especially true for the teacher training courses: since at the end of their studies, students are required to pass the state examination, it is particularly important for them to write and retain detailed summaries - this pays off during your exam preparation.

Studying for two degrees

In order to open up further career prospects in addition to the teaching profession, a bachelor degree can be obtained in addition to the state examination (in the context of a so-called double degree programme). The additional effort required for this is usually within reason; we recommend that you inform yourself beforehand about which courses can be credited for both degree programmes and to plan them well.