FAQ

Every November, after the All Saints’ Day holidays, and until the first week of December (included). For onsite coordination, each secondary school designates an ÉpStan coordinator who sets up a schedule with the individual test dates for all classes. To find out the test date scheduled for your class, please contact your ÉpStan coordinator.

There are 3 competence tests, each lasting a maximum of 45 minutes, as well as a pre-test with a completion time of 25 minutes. Around 20 minutes are required to complete the student questionnaire following the competence tests. The overall test administration will take one morning per class.

The ÉpStan are conducted on behalf of the government; therefore, participation in the tests and answering the questionnaires is mandatory for all students.

If a class has not had any German courses/lessons or has only recently begun German courses/lessons, the difficulty level of the test may be adjusted or the respective competence test may not be administered. In this case, the ÉpStan coordinators must inform us before the test. If a student has visual difficulties, we ask the teacher to contact us and let us know the student’s code (not their name!) (info@epstan.lu or +352 46 66 44 97 77). In this event, we can allocate more time to complete the test.

To administer the tests, you will need the class list and the forms with the student codes. You should receive both from your school’s ÉpStan coordinator before the testing process. In addition, to administer the tests you will need the passwords found in the test administration manual.

Pocket calculators, rulers, geometry set squares and other aids are not allowed when completing the tests. We highly recommend that students have a pen and paper available so that they can write down their calculation steps or additional calculations.

In the manual for test administrators, you can find a link that allows you to simulate a test. If you do not experience any problems during this, you should not have any under real test conditions. However, the actual test materials cannot be viewed before the test itself.

A study carried out in the 2024/2025 school year showed that there are no significant differences in the method used for completing the tests (PC versus tablet). Schools/classes are therefore free to decide whether they want to carry out the tests on a PC or on a tablet.

At the end of the class list you will find enough additional student codes that you can use. Enter the student’s name next to one of these student codes and forward the amended class list to the ÉpStan coordinator immediately. The ÉpStan coordinator should enter the changes into the itrust portal. If class names are not correct, please immediately contact your school’s ÉpStan coordinator so that they can pass this on to itrust consulting (epstan_ttp@itrust.lu, tel.: +352 26 17 62 12).

Where possible, students who are unable to take the test (e.g. as a result of illness) should repeat it during the testing period under testing conditions that are as standardised as possible. This means that the student could for example take the test another day in another class – but please make sure that the student uses the student code from their own class list.

Please contact the ÉpStan coordinator. If it is only a short time until the test, it can still be administered without the class list. Distribute the sheets with the student codes using the names on the sheets.

Please contact your school’s ÉpStan coordinator. They should reprint the class list and the sheets with the student codes with the names.

The test can also be started by going to the address cbt.epstan.lu (without www) in an internet browser (e.g., Firefox).

Make sure that the student is using their code as the login name, and not for example their student ID for general use of the computer. Also, check whether the password you wrote on the blackboard is correct and remind the student to type the password in correctly. Make sure that Caps Lock is not on.

If you have technical difficulties of any kind, relaunch the browser and log in again. If this has no effect, restarting the computer usually works. If this still does not solve the problem, call the university’s technical helpline (+352 46 66 44 49 99). If you have problems with your internet connection, please contact your school’s system administrators. As soon as the technology is working again and the test environment has been re-established, you can continue the test. Any items already completed will still be there, as they are virtually stored on our servers in real time.

You may only help students with questions relating to technical processing. Content-related help is not permitted.

The test should not be manually ended or the browser closed before the 45 minutes are up, as this could cause problems in moving on to the next test section. We also aim for test conditions to be as comparable as possible, so all students have 45 minutes to complete the test.

No, students are assigned different tests, on one hand to make copying more difficult and on the other hand to take signs of fatigue into account in the data analysis.

The results of your class provided in the form of a class report as well as individual reports for each student in your class (in the three languages of German, French, and English) will be made available for download via https://feedback.epstan.lu in mid-February. You will be notified by the MENJE in due course.

Results for the children and for the class as a whole will be supplied to you in pseudonymised form. Only you as the class teacher will be able to use the class list you received from your ÉpStan coordinator at the beginning of the ÉpStan process to assign real names to the student codes used in the results feedback. Other agencies, such as school directors or MENJE, will not be informed of either the results of your class or of children’s individual results.