CCVX Physics Exam Preparation

Dutch universities set nadere opleidingseisen, additional entry requirements, for many bachelor programmes. Engineering, physics, medicine and most of the sciences expect VWO physics. If you finished school on a different system, or took a subject combination that did not include it, you are short of a requirement rather than short of ability.

The voortentamen exists precisely for that situation. It is a written exam set jointly by the Dutch universities, and the testimonium it produces is recognised by every university and hbo programme in the country.

A common case, and the one we see in Barcelona: a family at an international school, a child who wants a Dutch university because the bachelor is taught in English and the fees are what they are, and a diploma that does not carry the physics the programme asks for. The ambition is fine. The paperwork is not.

Just as common elsewhere: students switching off a humanities or economics track once they realise which degrees it closes, and people returning to study after some years away who need to prove a subject they last sat a long time ago. We work with all three, wherever they are.

CCVX publishes physics sittings three times a year. For 2026/2027 the first is Tuesday 24 November 2026 in Utrecht, with the following two scheduled around 21 April 2027 and 19 July 2027. CCVX marks the later two as approximate until confirmed, so check its site before committing to a plan.

The dates matter less than what sits behind them. Results from the November and December sittings are timed for the 15 January application deadline, April for 15 May, and July for 15 August. Registration closes well before each sitting, so the real deadline is always earlier than people assume.

We plan backwards from the sitting you need, not forwards from the syllabus. That is the difference between arriving ready and arriving having covered everything once.

We start with a diagnostic against the full CCVX syllabus rather than against your school course. The point is to separate what you were never taught from what you were taught and have forgotten. Those are different problems and they take different amounts of time.

Then the gaps get closed in order of exam weight, not syllabus order. Mechanics and electromagnetism carry more than most candidates expect, and the modern physics topics are where students who taught themselves tend to be thinnest.

The last stretch is full papers under time, marked properly. Most lost marks at this level are method and presentation rather than physics: a correct result with an unreadable route through it does not score what the candidate thinks it scores.

Lessons are in English, one to one, online wherever you are, or in person at our centre in Sant Gervasi if you are in Barcelona. Maths is available alongside if your programme also requires wiskunde A or wiskunde B, which many engineering and science courses do.