Fachsprachprüfung in Hamburg: format, minus points, fees

At a glance

How the exam works in Hamburg

The exam is set at level C1 of the Common European Framework of Reference. The chamber provides a notepad and a pen; your notes are not included in the assessment. No other aids are permitted — so, unlike at some other chambers, there is no dictionary. The general structure of the FSP is described in How the FSP works.

Section 1: doctor–patient conversation (20 minutes)

An examiner plays the patient. You are expected to take a comprehensive history, formulate the suspected diagnosis and propose further diagnostic and therapeutic steps — explained so that the patient can follow you. You should respond to the patient's questions. How to structure this conversation: History taking in the FSP.

Section 2: documentation (20 minutes)

You transfer the information from the conversation by hand onto a set form. The chamber stresses two things: legibility and completeness. No sample of the form is published on the chamber's website.

Section 3: doctor–doctor conversation (20 minutes)

You present the case to a fictitious Ober- or Chefärztin / Ober- or Chefarzt (senior or chief physician) and answer their questions. Communication here is exclusively in medical terminology. The section ends with a vocabulary test in which 15 medical terms must be translated into German.

Registration and dates

There is no separate registration with the chamber. The responsible authority — in Hamburg the Behörde für Arbeit, Gesundheit, Soziales, Familie und Integration, Sozialbehörde for short — sends the exam details to the medical chamber. The chamber usually asks you by email to pay the administrative fee. After payment you receive a written invitation with the date and details.

Fee: The Gebührenordnung (fee schedule) of the Ärztekammer Hamburg sets €550 per applicant for the oral exam establishing language skills. If you cancel after receiving the invitation, €200 is due; if there is an important reason, the chamber can waive this cancellation fee. Fees in other states are compared in FSP fees by federal state.

Funding: If you want to apply for financial support for the exam, the chamber says this must be done before registering and, above all, before taking the exam.

Punctuality: If you arrive late or do not attend, you have failed — whatever the reason. A new date can then be set no earlier than three months later.

Scoring and result

Only your linguistic expression is assessed, not your medical knowledge. The examination committee decides jointly using a scoring sheet in four parts:

1. Allgemeine berufsbezogene Kommunikation (general professional communication)
2. Arzt/Ärztin-Patienten-Kommunikation (doctor–patient communication)
3. Schriftlicher Ausdruck (written expression)
4. Arzt/Ärztin-Arzt/Ärztin-Kommunikation (doctor–doctor communication)

Minus points are counted; with twelve minus points you have failed. Particularly important exam content is hatched on the sheet and counts 4:1 against the other fields. The chamber does not publish which fields are hatched or how many minus points a single field carries. What is clear is that weaknesses in the core content weigh four times as heavily as weaknesses in secondary points. How other chambers grade: How the FSP is graded.

You receive the result promptly by email. The chamber also reports it to the responsible authority, which handles the next steps.

Retaking

If you fail, the FSP can be retaken "nach Erfüllung der erteilten Auflage" (once the condition set has been fulfilled). The chamber's page does not describe what that condition is in an individual case; clarify this with the chamber or the authority after your result. The fee schedule sets €550 per exam; no reduced retake fee is listed. How to analyse a failed attempt: Failed the FSP?

Tips for the exam in Hamburg

• Train your handwriting. Legibility is an explicitly named criterion. Write practice reports by hand under time pressure and ask someone to check that every word can be read.
• Completeness before polish. Completeness is the second named criterion for the documentation. Fill in every area of the form first, then refine your wording.
• Manage without a dictionary. Because no reference book is allowed, the spelling of common medical terms must be secure beforehand.
• Translate 15 terms quickly. That is a long list for the last minutes of section 3. Practise the direction medical term → German until the answer comes without thinking: Medical terms in the FSP.
• Medical terminology throughout the doctor–doctor conversation. Hamburg requires exclusively medical terminology there. The switch from the lay register of section 1 must be automatic: „Bauchspeicheldrüse“ becomes „Pankreas“, „Wassertabletten“ (water tablets) become „Diuretika“.
• Your manner counts too. A whole part of the scoring sheet is devoted to general professional communication. A polite, clear tone with all examiners is therefore not a side issue.
• Allow plenty of buffer time. In Hamburg, arriving late means "failed" and at least three months' wait for the next date.

Sources

• Ärztekammer Hamburg: Fachsprachenprüfung
• Gebührenordnung der Ärztekammer Hamburg (PDF)