Subject-specific Aptitude (Fachmodul)
What the Subject Module tests
The Subject-specific Aptitude domain is the Fachmodul. You choose one module matching your intended degree: Humanities, Cultural Studies and Social Sciences; Engineering; Mathematics, Computer Science and Natural Sciences; or Economics. Each module lasts about 145 minutes and contains several separately timed subtests. The test does not ask you to reproduce school facts; it asks you to use the working methods of the field - reading subject-specific texts precisely, formalizing relationships, and solving multi-step problems.
Core rules
- Text comprehension: the correct answer must be supported by the passage. Background knowledge helps you read faster, but an answer that is true in the field yet not stated or implied in the text is wrong.
- Formalizing relationships: translate verbal conditions into equations, ratios, tables, or diagrams before calculating. Pay attention to direct versus inverse proportionality.
- Problem-solving: identify the target quantity, list given values with units, estimate the order of magnitude, then compute.
- Module choice: the module should match the degree you are applying for; universities see the subject score alongside the core score.
Worked example
Engineering module, gear train: a 12-tooth driving gear turns at 300 rpm and meshes with a 36-tooth driven gear. What is the driven gear’s speed? Reasoning: the gear ratio is 36 ÷ 12 = 3. The larger gear turns more slowly by the same factor, so speed = 300 ÷ 3 = 100 rpm. If the question asked for torque, the relation would be inverse: the driven gear would have three times the torque, ignoring friction. Writing the ratio first prevents the common error of multiplying instead of dividing.
Traps that cost marks
- Answering from memory when the passage states a different definition or scope.
- Using direct proportion where the quantity is inversely proportional, such as gear teeth versus speed.
- Ignoring qualifiers such as “not”, “except”, “mainly”, or “in the long run”.
- Forgetting units or mixing, for example, watts and kilowatts in an intermediate step.
- Treating a long text subtest as a reading test: the questions target inference and argument structure, not verbatim recall.