Recommendations for the Entrance Home Assignment for the Bachelor programme Humanities.
The applicant will complete a home assignment according to instructions published on the CU Faculty of Humanities website after the application deadline. They will turn in their completed home assignment in accordance with the published instructions by August 31, 2022. The home assignment consists of a summary of a foreign-language academic text and answers to three follow-up questions based on the text (the applicant will specify their preferred foreign language in their application – they can choose from English, German, or French; this choice is final and cannot be changed; the summary and answers to follow-up questions must be written in Czech, Slovak, or the foreign language specified in the application). Maximum number of points is 20 (10 for the summary and 10 for the follow-up questions). Assessment will focus on the meaningfulness and factual accuracy of the summaries and answers. The assessment is governed by uniform criteria and is subject to subsequent supervision.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Where can I find a reading list for the entrance exam?
There is no official reading list for the entrance exam. The exam is meant to test reading comprehension and individual thinking – it does not focus so much on factual knowledge of specific academic texts, but on your abilities to understand and analyse ideas put forth in the given textual excerpt.
If you would like to prepare for the exam, you can start by reading relevant academic books – works of Hannah Arendt or José Ortega y Gasset should provide a good starting point. However, you don’t have to limit yourself to these authors – reading and analysing any sort of academic literature relevant to the study programme you are applying for should give you the skills necessary to pass the exam.
What should I focus on when working with the text and what should I avoid?
The main goal of the entrance exam is to see whether the applicant can comprehend main ideas in the provided text and the relationship between them. Your answers are assessed mainly on factual accuracy and comprehension of the line of thought provided in the textual excerpt. Don’t mechanically rewrite sentences. Your ability to read, understand and express ideas of an academic text is more important than your knowledge of the foreign language. Show the main ideas and their continuity in the text. Be careful not to miss any important thoughts, but also not to add any which are not in the text.
What is assessed in the homework?
The most important thing in the summary is whether and how you understood the main idea of the assigned text, without adding anything to it, and whether your summary makes sense as a whole. Avoid grammatical and stylistic errors; while grammar is not assessed as part of the exam, well-formulated answers help our assessors understand and trace your own line of thought. In your answers to the questions, express your ideas clearly and comprehensibly; do not merely suggest anything.
When will the home assignment be published?
The home assignment has been published on 22 August.
Where can I find my home assignment?
In your electronic application in the Information System and on the faculty website.
May I use printed or digital dictionaries?
Yes. The more detailed and extensive, the better.
Can I use encyclopaedias?
Can I use internet sources such as Wikipedia etc.?
Yes. You can use anything you find useful. See the previous question.
Is the submission deadline on 31 August binding?
Yes. You will not be allowed to submit your homework after the deadline.
Can I revise my homework solution after I submit it?
Unfortunately not. Please, submit the final version of your work.
When will I know the results and how?
Information about the results will be published in your electronic application in the first half of September, and we will also send you information by email.
What format should I submit my work in?
The assignment can only be submitted in PDF format.
How do I know if I have submitted my assignment properly?
The file will be available in your online application.
Is there a minimum score for admission?
The point threshold is set by the Dean of the Faculty and depends on the number of assignment submissions and takes into account available capacity of the Faculty.
Is it possible to view (completed) assignments from previous years?
Assignments from previous years can be viewed below. However, we do not publish samples of finished work. It would give the impression that there is only one correct answer and only one correct style of answers. It is meaningfulness and factual accuracy of the summary and answers that is the decisive factor – each applicant’s finished assignment will look different since there isn’t only one correct answer.
Can I submit the assignment in a different language than the one I chose in my application?
No.
What should I name my homework file?
There is no prescribed form for the name of the submitted file and we leave it entirely up to you.
Assignments from previous years
English
French
German