FAQ

Every year in November.

For all participating class levels, there are 2 maths tests, each lasting a maximum of 40 to 50 minutes (depending on the class level), as well as a student questionnaire, which takes about one lesson to complete. In addition, over the coming school years, all grades in the German and French language sections will progressively take part in ÉpStan competence tests on listening and reading comprehension in the respective language of literacy acquisition. These language tests will take a maximum of 40 to 50 minutes (depending on the grade level) to complete. About 10 minutes are needed to answer the parent questionnaire.

The ÉpStan are conducted on behalf of the government; therefore, participation in the tests and answering the questionnaires is mandatory for all students. The parent questionnaires must be handed out to the parents / legal guardians. If parents / legal guardians are not willing to answer the questions, their choice must be respected.

Children with little knowledge of the language of instruction (Primo-Arrivant students) should always attempt to complete the mathematics tests, as the assessment is as language-free as possible and a translation of the tasks by the supervisor is possible. Regarding the language tests, it is suggested to carefully consider the student’s language ability, in order to decide whether a participation would make sense or not. It is also possible to have Primo-Arrivant students work on the booklets so that they are not excluded but not to code the answers. For children with visual or auditory impairments, the test material will be adapted by the respective Centre de compétences and, if necessary, carried out separately. In the case of developmental disorders of varying severity, a case-by-case decision by the teacher in consultation with the Direction de région or the school management is proposed.

In elementary school, the students work on the test booklets and the booklet containing the student questionnaire together with the teachers. Currently, it is not possible to complete the tests on a computer or a tablet.

The test materials are delivered during the first few days after the autumn half-term holiday (All Saints Day holiday) and should be checked for completeness as soon as it is received.

The students have time to work on the test booklet as long as the audio file is playing. From the moment the audio file starts there should be no more talking until the test is over. Please do not stop the audio file prematurely and do not play passages several times.

To ensure comparable administration of the test across all classes, assistance is only permitted in certain cases: when administering the mathematics test and the student questionnaire, the question may be translated in the event of linguistic difficulties, but without influencing the processing of the item in itself. If children have practical questions about completing the test, for example which pen they can use or how they should draw a cross, pursuant instructions may be provided.

The class teacher gives the parent questionnaire to the children, together with a blank envelope. Parents are asked to complete the questionnaire, seal it in the envelope and give it to their child to return it back to their teacher at school. Class teachers then return all the envelopes from their class together to the University of Luxembourg.

Should legal guardians not want to follow this procedure, they can also send the completed questionnaire directly to the University of Luxembourg (University of Luxembourg, LUCET, Campus Belval, Maison des Sciences Humaines, 11, Porte des Sciences, L-4366 Esch/Alzette).

At the beginning of the school year you receive a provisional class list (without student codes) from the ÉpStan coordinator of your cycle, to check for accuracy. If any changes are required (students are missing or included in your list by mistake), please enter them into Scolaria by 10th October. After the 10th October, there is no automatic transfer of modifications from Scolaria to itrust and any changes to the class list must be communicated to the ÉpStan coordinator.

In October, you will receive the class list for test administration with the student codes provided for the ÉpStan testing. One additional code is provided per class in case any missing student still needs to be added after the first review. Please make a copy of the amended list and immediately return it to your ÉpStan coordinator so that they can pass this information on to itrust. If the extra code is not sufficient, please see the note under “The test material is insufficient”.

In that case, please contact your school’s ÉpStan coordinator as soon as possible. The ÉpStan coordinator can ask itrust consulting for additional codes. We are automatically informed of changes and send the required additional materials (we send a full set of tests and questionnaires for each additional code

Contact the ÉpStan team as soon as possible(info@epstan.lu, tel: +352 46 66 44 97 77) to reorder any missing materials! Please do not under any circumstances use materials from other classes.

For the mathematics test, you may help students who have linguistically induced comprehension difficulties (e.g. by explaining unknown vocabulary), but this is not permitted for the language tests.

Where possible, students who were 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 test should be completed independently and under supervision in a quiet atmosphere. If the test cannot be retaken, please indicate the reason for not taking the test in the digital coding mask. The same rules as for the tests apply to the student questionnaire: the questionnaire should be subsequently completed under standardised conditions within the given test period.

If, during the test phase, a new student joins your class, please use the test material with the additional code for this student and update your class list accordingly. Then, provide a copy of the updated class list to your ÉpStan coordinator so that they can add the student to the TTP portal, ensuring that the report for this new student can be included in your feedback documents.

If you have handed out the parent questionnaire incorrectly, please inform the parents / the legal guardian immediately that they will receive new questionnaires and contact the ÉpStan team (info@epstan.lu, 46 66 44 9777) as soon as possible to request new parent questionnaires. If you have distributed the student questionnaires incorrectly, the administration must also be repeated, as incorrect assignment could distort the results. In this case, please contact the ÉpStan team (info@epstan.lu, 46 66 44 9777) to request new student questionnaires.

The ÉpStan are evaluated using digital coding masks. The use of the coding masks is intuitive and explained in an instruction video in the application. The correct solutions are always shown in the digital coding masks. You can access the coding masks via the following link: https://coding.epstan.lu. If you would like to add an additional teacher for coding, you can request this in the coding masks. You will need your colleague’s full name, IAM code, and email address. If you still experience technical problems, please contact the following technical helpline: 46 66 44 4999.

In P1 and Stage 1, respectively, inverted written numbers (“single digits”) and letters are not counted as incorrect. However, for inverted numbers, it should be noted that only the individual figure may be inverted, not the number as a whole (e.g., “13” instead of “31” should be coded as incorrect, whereas „ε“ for „3“ or „я“ for „R“ should be coded as correct).

Spelling mistakes are not taken into account during marking. A contextually correct answer is considered correct, even if there are spelling mistakes.

Results for the children as well as for the class as a whole will be supplied to you in pseudonymised form. Only you as 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 Directions de région or MENJE, will not be informed of either the results of your class or of children’s individual results.

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.

Every November after the autumn half-term holidays (All Saints Day holidays), until the first week in December (included). For onsite coordination, each secondary school has an ÉpStan coordinator who provides a schedule in advance, setting the individual test times for each class. Please contact your ÉpStan coordinator to find out the exact test day for your class.

There is one mathematics competence test of no more than 45 minutes in length, and a student questionnaire, completed after the competence test, taking around 20 minutes. All of the testing together will take up half a morning per class.

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

If students have visual difficulties, we ask that teachers please contact us and let us know the student’s code (not their name!) (info@epstan.lu oder +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 test performance among S3/5e students depending on which method of processing was used (PC versus tablet). Schools and S3/5e classes are therefore free to decide whether they want to carry out the tests on a PC or on a tablet. In S1/7e, testing on a computer is not (yet) permitted, as no study on possible mode effects is available for this grade level.

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 were 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.

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 as well as for the class as a whole will be supplied to you in pseudonymised form. Only you as 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 Directions de région or MENJE, will not be informed of either the results of your class or of children’s individual results.