Entry exams
Examination process for the program, as well as the application process, is organized in St.Petersburg. Exams are to start immediately after the application time expires and take approximately two weeks.
There are two exams you pass to enter the program:
Assessment of the applicant’s portfolio;
Oral examination (Skype-based interview).
Both exams will be assessed by the Examination Board; the latter will consist of representatives of St. Petersburg State University and Freie Universität Berlin. The Examination Board works on parity basis; this means that portfolios and oral answers will be judged independently by the German and Russian sides, and mean marks will be announced.
! Please note that all the entry exams have to be passed online.
The exams will be conducted in June 2016, after the application process closes.
Exam 1: Assessment of portfolio
When applying for the program (see ‘HOW TO APPLY’ , the applicant submits via the ‘Personal Account’ (‘Личный Кабинет’) service the portfolio set which will be assessed by the Examination Board.
The applicant’s portfolio includes:
Motivation letter and CV (1 to 2 standard pages long);
A document that allows to judge upon your mean mark on the first step of education: English-language certified transcript (or certified copy of the original if issued in English) of your Bachelor/Specialist diploma or your full academic record (‘академическая справка’);
English language proficiency certificate: TOEFL (80 points minimum), Academic IELTS (6 points minimum), or Cambridge ESOL: FCE/CAE (B2.2/C1.1 minimum);
Academic achievements (publications, conferencing, summer schools etc.);
Professional portfolio: proof of work in media and/or communication industries (reference letters from editorial offices, certified workbooks etc.) and authored works in media and or/communication industries;
Other achievements.
The applicant’s portfolio may get maximum of 100 points. Each part of the portfolio plays its own part in the overall picture. The first three documents are compulsory to provide; failure to do so will result in getting 0 points for the whole portfolio.
In detail, the portfolio requirements, points assignment, point deduction principles and other clarifications are described on the SPbU website here
After the portfolio assessment is completed, a preliminary rating of applicants is formed. This is done in order to announce whether there are students who got 0 points for their portfolios.
Exam 2: Oral Examination
The second exam is a 10-to-15-minute conversation with German and Russian examiners. The interview may be conducted either in person (at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, St. Petersburg State University) or via Skype. All the applicants who will have received a non 0 mark for their portfolios are eligible for interviewing; those with 0 mark are not.
The technical details of Skype connection (Skype-conference username, timing of the exam, and the email address for communication) will be provided in June 2016. The interview will be based on applicant’s assessment of an English-language issue-oriented article published in 2016 in the world leading English-language media. Guiding questions for your assessment of the article, as well as the Examination Board’s assessment criteria, are already on the SPbU website here.
As soon as the exams are completed, the final student ratings will be formed and published on our website, as well as on SPbU website. The following ratings will be formed:
Russian residents, state-funded places (5 places);
German residents, state-funded (‘goslinia’) places for foreign applicants (5 places);
Residents of third countries, state-funded (‘goslinia’) places for foreign applicants (5 places);
Russian residents, paid-for places (3 places);
Non-Russian residents, paid-for places (2 places).
In case there are no Russian residents to occupy the three commercial places, these places may be given to non-Russian residents.
