Here you can find information about the Filter Exam, how it works and what to do if you do not pass on your first attempt. It tries to pre-empt any possible queries but if you have any questions that you cannot find the answers to here, please get in touch with one of the team:
julia.varaljai@uni-miskolc.hu (in English please)
The Filter Exam is designed to ensure that students’ knowledge of English is of a sufficient standard to continue their studies in the second year. It is held twice a year at the end of the first and second semesters usually starting two weeks after the last teaching day in the spring semester and one week after the last teaching day in the autumn semester and continuing until the end of the university exam period. Obviously, this changes from year to year so please ask one of the team if you are not sure when the next filter exam will be. The exam is in 4 parts: Listening, English in Use (grammar, vocabulary and reading), Essay Writing and the Oral Exam (see section Parts of the exam for more information). Students must pass all parts of the exam to receive a passing grade in Neptun and be eligible to continue their studies in the second year.
In each exam period there are 3 rounds of exams each starting with the written exam (Listening, English in Use and Essay Writing) and followed by the oral exams. The written paper is typically held on a Friday and the oral exams take place during the following week (or weeks depending on the number of students). For example if the first written paper takes place on Friday 9th June, the oral exams will be held from the Monday 12th June. The second and third written papers and oral exams are held at approximately 2-week intervals. These exams, as for all university exams, are fixed and there is NO possibility to change these dates nor take the exam at another time!
In order to take the exam, students must have passed the three core filter exam subjects: Grammar in Use 2, Descriptive Grammar 2, and Reading and Writing 2. Students must have received a grade in Neptun for all of these subjects to be eligible to take the exam. Signatures of attendance are not sufficient and proof of eligibility may be requested. (For students who started their studies before the academic year 2021/22, there are 10 core filter exam subjects: Grammar in Use 1 and 2, Descriptive Grammar 1 and 2, Listening 1 and 2, Integrated Skills 1 and 2 and Reading and Writing 1 and 2.)
All students must sign up into Neptun at least 24 hours before the exam and will not be allowed to take the exam if they are not registered in Neptun. If a student is signed up for an exam but is not eligible (see section Eligibility above) to take the exam, this will still count as an attempt. If a student signs up but fails to attend an exam, this also counts as an attempt. Registering for the exam includes both the written paper and oral exam. It is not necessary to sign up separately. However, if a student only needs to take the oral exam, they must still sign up in Neptun.
A student must sign up for the exam via Neptun even if they are only retaking the oral exam. The first attempt is free of charge, but further attempts may incur a fee. Any fees need to be paid in Neptun before the student is able to sign up. No other method of payment is accepted. Please contact a member of the team if you have any difficulties as help cannot be given after the deadline for registration has passed. Late registration is not possible. Make sure that sufficient time remains for your difficulties to be addressed.
Within a given exam period students may take the exam 3 times provided that they are eligible to do so. If a student fails to achieve a passing grade in one or more parts of the exam (Listening, English in Use, Essay Writing and the Oral Exam), they only need to retake those parts of the exam which they failed within that exam period. If a student fails to achieve a passing grade for all of the parts of the exam within an exam period, they will need to retake all the papers again during the next exam period unless they attain 75% or a grade 4 in one or more of the parts. In this case students need only to retake the parts of the exam for which they received less than 75% or a grade 3 or lower in the next exam period.
If a student has passed the exam but wishes to retake it to attain a higher grade, they may do so. However, as this is a complex exam, students must retake all parts of the exam! A student may attempt to improve their grade in this way once in an exam period. However, this must be arranged through the Tanulmányi Osztály as Neptun will not allow a student to sign up for the exam if they already have a passing grade.
The exam is divided into 4 parts. These are Listening, English in Use, Essay Writing and the Oral Exam.
Students will be given the questions prior to listening to the text and have sufficient opportunity to read through them. Student will then hear a text once during which time they may take notes or enter their answers into the answer sheet. This part of the exam lasts for approximately 30 minutes.
Students must achieve 60% to receive a passing grade. (grade 2 ≥ 60%, grade 3 ≥ 70%, grade 4 ≥ 80%, grade 5 ≥ 90%)
This paper contains grammar, vocabulary and reading exercises. These exercises usually include sentence and word transformation, gap-filling, multiple choice questions, open questions and error correction. Other types of exercises may be included. Students must complete all the exercises. This part of the exam lasts for 120 minutes.
Students must achieve 60% to receive a passing grade. (grade 2 ≥ 60%, grade 3 ≥ 70%, grade 4 ≥ 80%, grade 5 ≥ 90%)
Students must write an argumentative essay on one out of three topics given on the question paper. Essays must follow the structure of an argumentative essay and be between 400 and 500 words. If an essay is too short, it will be failed. If an essay goes over the limit, it may be penalised or failed. All writing must be submitted and no question papers or rough notes may be taken from the exam room. Students may use a bilingual or monolingual dictionary.
Essay will be graded 1 to 5 where ‘1’ is a fail.
The schedule for the oral exam will be arranged on the day of the written paper when students will be asked to sign up for one of the available days most convenient for them. Students may not change the day of their oral exam without prior permission from a member of the team. Failure to show up for an oral exam will count as a fail (grade 1). If a student cannot attend, they should let the team know verbally or in writing. It may be possible for alternative arrangements to be made in advance in some situations.
The exam is divided into two parts.
At the beginning of the exam, students will receive a text and have at least 5 minutes to make notes and prepare a summary of their text in their own words. Students will first be asked to summarise the text before a general discussion on the given topic. Students may be asked questions to prompt them, in the case that they do not understand their topic or have any difficulties.
Students will be given a sentence(s) which they must analyse word by word explaining what part of speech each word is e.g. verb, noun, or adjective. Then, students will be asked to analyse the given sentence as a whole or be given other sentence(s) or grammatical structures to analyse. For example, a student may be asked to explain why particular tenses are used or explain a grammatical structure, like conditionals or modals, in more detail. Students may be asked questions to help elicit relevant information. Students are expected to be able to explain a variety of grammatical structures or verb tenses.
Students will receive 2 grades (one for each part of the oral exam). Students will be graded 1 to 5 where ‘1’ is a fail.
Students may request to see their papers but will only be allowed to do so at a prearranged time during regular university opening hours. Papers must not be copied, photographed nor removed from the premises.
Results of the written papers will be posted to the department website and Facebook page. Grades for the oral exam are usually posted on the same day as the exam. Grades for the written exam will be posted within 12 days of the written exam. This is usually earlier but depends on the total number of students. Grades will be given for each part of the exam and the final grade will be the average of the parts of the exam provided all parts of the exam have been passed. If one or more parts of the exam area grade 1, the overall grade will also be grade 1. Overall grades will be entered into Neptun.
Any students suspected of cheating will be removed from the exam room will fail the whole round of the exam. Plagiarism also counts as cheating as does the use of any outside help in any form!
For access to any mock papers, please contact Julia Váraljai, in English, at julia.varaljai@uni-miskolc.hu
Listening: 9:15 – 9:45
Use of English: 10:00 – 12:00
Essay Writing: 12:30 – 14:00
Oral Exam: For more information about the oral exam see the section Oral Exam above.
If a student has passed one or more parts of the exam, they only need to attend those parts of the exam that they need to retake.