Final Examination – Master’s Degree Programme

Format of the State Final Examination

The state Master’s examination consists of the defence of the Master’s thesis and an oral examination. The entire state examination lasts approximately 1 hour (roughly 30 minutes for the defence, 20 minutes for the oral examination and 10 minutes for administrative matters). The student has 15 minutes to present their Master’s thesis, with a further 15 minutes devoted to analysing the assessors’ reports and discussion. During the oral examination, the student answers the questions posed without prior preparation; this typically takes the form of a discussion covering two to three questions.

In the event of negative reports on the Master’s thesis, the student may choose to withdraw from the defence, accept a ‘fail’ mark and proceed directly to the oral examination. In the event of a failed defence, it is not possible to withdraw from the oral examination.

The grounds for failing the Master’s state examinations are:

• The student is unable to explain (even intuitively) any of the concepts explicitly mentioned in the wording of the question.
• The student is able to formulate definitions of the concepts but is unable to apply them in practice, even in a basic example.
• The student is familiar with the concepts explicitly mentioned in the wording of the question, but only at a superficial level, and is unable to respond to follow-up questions.
• Failure to answer one question (i.e. a grade F) cannot be offset by brilliant answers to other questions.

The language in which the examination is conducted depends on the programme. English-taught programmes are examined in English; for other programmes, the primary language is Czech (or Slovak), although by mutual agreement the examination may also be conducted in English. The defence of the dissertation is expected to take place in the language in which the dissertation is written; however, a dissertation written in English may also be defended in Czech or Slovak.

Questions regarding the final state examination