unfitness to sit an examination

When is someone unfit to sit an examination?

The standard is a significant, temporary impairment of body or mind — not a bad day or normal pre-examination nerves. Acute events such as an accident on the day of the examination or a febrile infection are also covered. Examination anxiety is regularly held by the courts to be insufficient unless it reaches the level of a condition requiring treatment. A distinction must be drawn from lasting conditions: those who are permanently impaired are referred to reasonable adjustments, since a constant withdrawal would postpone the examination indefinitely.

How is it asserted?

In practice it usually works as follows: the examining office is informed in writing without delay; a medical certificate follows, describing the complaints and their impact on performance capacity in a comprehensible way; some offices require details of the diagnosis or an official medical certificate. For the Medical Examination, § 18 of the Medical Licensing Regulations requires the reasons to be communicated without delay; § 19 governs the consequences of absence. The burden of proof lies with the candidate, and that is the real hurdle: a bare “unfit for work” is generally insufficient, and many regulations also set a fixed deadline of a few days for submitting the certificate. Time limits and requirements follow from the applicable examination regulations and state law and should be checked by a lawyer if in doubt.

What applies when studying in an EU country?

At universities in Bulgaria, Hungary, Croatia, or the Baltic states, the dean's office decides under local rules, often with certificates from physicians in the country of study and in the national language. Those who need complete documentation for later recognition in Germany should collect certificates and decisions from the outset. For the knowledge test in Germany, German requirements then apply again.

The most common mistake

Those who sit the examination despite complaints and only report sick after seeing the result almost never succeed. Case law holds that: taking the examination is in principle a declaration of fitness to sit it. Those who realise during the examination that they cannot continue should stop and have the discontinuation immediately recorded in the minutes.