Online-Self-Assessments (OSA)

Source: https://www.uni-bonn.de/en/studying/student-orientation-and-getting-to-know-the-university-of-bonn/online-self-assessments Parent: https://www.uni-bonn.de/en/studying/application-admission-and-enrollment/enrollment

Online-Self-Assessments (OSA) are tests designed to help prospective students choose a subject by providing insights to the respective subject. With an OSA, you can take as much time as you need to find out whether your expectations regarding a specific subject are realistic and whether your interests and skills match the subject requirements. In short: Find out if a subject is right for you.

No one but yourself will see your score, and your performance on the test will not influence your chances of admission or application! The OSA is a tool designed to help you identify your academic strengths and interests.

Please note that the OSA are offered in German. Only the OSA for the M. A. English Literatures and Cultures is offered in English.

Note on the availability of Online-Self-assessments (OSA)

On December 19, 2025 (11:59 p.m.), the outdated OSA-platform Testmaker was shut down as it is no longer supported. As a result, some OSA are temporarily unavailable. The affected OSA are marked with an asterisk (*) in the list below.

We are currently revising these OSA and will offer them again in a modernised, smartphone-friendly form as soon as possible.

Online-Self-Assessments by subject

Agricultural Sciences*

We are currently revising this OSA.

Archaeologies*

We are currently revising this OSA.

Art History

With registration1 | Without registration2

Asian Studies

With registration1 | Without registration2

Biology

With registration1 | Without registration2

Catholic Theology

With registration1 | Without registration2

Celtic Studies

With registration1 | Without registration2

Chemistry (including Food Chemistry)*

We are currently revising this OSA.

Computer Science, Cyber Security

With registration3 | Without registration4 [old system]*

Dentistry

With registration1 | Without registration2

Economics*

We are currently revising this OSA.

English Literatures and Cultures (Master of Arts)*

We are currently revising this OSA.

English Studies

With registration1 | Without registration2

French, Romance Studies

With registration1 | Without registration2

Geodesy und Geoinformation

With registration1 | Without registration2

Geosciences*

We are currently revising this OSA.

Geography

With registration1 | Without registration2

German as a Second and Foreign Language

With registration1 | Without registration2

German Language and Literature, Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies*

We are currently revising this OSA.

History*

We are currently revising this OSA.

Italian, Romance Studies

With registration1 | Without registration2

Language and Communication in the Global Media Society

With registration1 | Without registration2

Latin, Greek

With registration1 | Without registration2

Law

With registration1 | Without registration2

Mathematics

With registration1 | Without registration2

Media Studies

With registration1 | Without registration2

Medicine*

We are currently revising this OSA.

Meteorology und Geophysics

With registration1 | Without registration2

Midwifery Studies

With registration1 | Without registration2

Molecular Biomedicine

With registration1 | Without registration2

Musicology/Sound Studies*

We are currently revising this OSA.

Nutrition and Food Sciences

With registration1 | Without registration1

Pharmacy

With registration1 | Without registration2

Philosophy*

We are currently revising this OSA.

Physics*

We are currently revising this OSA.

Politics and Society*

We are currently revising this OSA.

Protestant Theology

With registration1 | Without registration2

Psychology

With registration1 | Without registration2

Spanish, Romance Studies (including Latin American and Ancient American Studies)

With registration1 | Without registration2

Additional information on our self-assessments

01.

What's in the assessment?

Depending on the subject, the OSA contains different kinds of assessments:

You review your expectations of the subject.
Sample problems give you a realistic idea of what studying that subject would be like at university.
Some OSAs test foreign language skills that may be important when you begin your studies.
Based on a questionnaire, you assess your interest in the contents of a subject, for example.

Some of the questions and problems may be tricky–but don’t let that discourage you.

02.

Teaching degrees as a special case

Are you wondering whether studying to become a teacher would be right for you? The following tools can help you learn more about the teaching profession and whether it suits you:

For subject orientation, we recommend you to work trough the OSAs in the subjects that correspond with the school subjects you plan to teach.

03.

How do I take the self-assessment?

An OSA takes about 45 to 60 minutes to complete. Ideally, you take it on a PC, but a cell phone or tablet will work as well. We recommend creating an account before taking the test. This will allow you to interrupt the OSA and continue later where you left off.

To get meaningful results, it is worthwhile taking the OSA in a quiet location and with sufficient time.

04.

What's next?

The OSA cannot answer all questions; it may even give rise to new ones. To get these questions answered, you are welcome to make a personal appointment with the degree program counselors or with the Central Study Advisory and Counseling Service7 at the University of Bonn.

Once you have decided to apply at the University of Bonn, further information on deadlines and application procedures is available under Application, Admission and Enrollment8.

05.

Certificate of completion

To enroll in the degree program Molecular Biomedicine, you need proof of participation in the OSA for this subject. Once you have completed the OSA, you can download your certificate of completion.

Some other universities ask for proof of applicants’ participation in an academic orientation program as a prerequisite for enrollment. The University of Bonn’s OSA certificate of completion may satisfy this requirement – please ask at the universities in question for further information.

For technical reasons, no certificate of completion can be issued for OSA on our original system.

Feedback

"Thank you for the insights into this degree program. I now feel much more confident regarding my choice of program."

“I was amazed at how you can get a good insight into the subject despite a very condensed format.”

“I was positively surprised by the clear breakdown of results and the level of detail. Just loved it.”

“The OSA simply gives you a good idea of what awaits you and whether it’s what you’re interested in.”

200.000

OSA tests taken

self-assessments

Contact

Marlene Schütz

selfassessment@uni-bonn.de

+49 228 73-7083

2.001

Poppelsdorfer Allee 49

53115 Bonn

Our service for you

Do not hesitate to contact me if you have questions about participating in the OSA.

If you are a staff member and would like an evaluation of your OSA or would like to develop a new OSA, I'm happy to assist.

Collaborations and networks

Center for Evaluation and Methodology

Bonn’s OSAs are developed in close collaboration with the Center for Evaluation and Methodology (ZEM) at the University of Bonn as a partner with technological and methodological expertise.

Lern more9

Network of Online-Self-Assessment (NOSA)

Consortium of universities who create and further develop their own OSA based on scientific evidence.

Lern more10

Online-Self-Assessments (OSA)

Note on the availability of Online-Self-assessments (OSA)

Online-Self-Assessments by subject

Additional information on our self-assessments

What's in the assessment?

Teaching degrees as a special case

How do I take the self-assessment?

What's next?

Certificate of completion

Feedback

Contact

Our service for you

Collaborations and networks

Center for Evaluation and Methodology

Network of Online-Self-Assessment (NOSA)

Links