Board Examination 

Please note: From 2017 onwards, the exam will be delivered over 3 days (schedule see below).

2020 - Monday, February 3^rd to Wednesday, February 5^th

Location: Vetsuisse Faculty University Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 260, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland

Exam Documents and Application Process

Examination guide (update: November 2018) (pdf) and Confidentiality Form (doc)

Residents eligible to sit the exam will be notified by the Office during autumn of the year preceding the exam. To sign up for the exam, candidates need to submit the online application (via 'Your ECVS') and send a scan of the signed and dated confidentiality form to exam@ecvs.org by October 25^th of the year preceding the exam.

The online application via 'Your ECVS' is only open to candidates who have been invited to sit the exam. If you believe you should be able to apply for the exam, but cannot, please contact exam@ecvs.org.

Reading lists from 2020 onwards:

• Large animals
  • Auer & Stick: Equine Surgery has been updated to the 5^th edition (2018)
  • Fowler: Medicine and Surgery of Camelids has been added to the list.
• Small animals
  • Tobias & Johnston: Veterinary Surgery Small Animals has been updated to the 2^nd edition, October 2018.

Mock Exam

To access the mock exams, please proceed as follows:

• Password: ECVS
• A dummy candidate ID will be completed automatically. In case this does not happen, 'test' followed by any number (e.g. test005, test5874689, test-9) into the candidate ID field.
• Click the 'confirm' button on the screen opening up next.
• Tick the box next to 'I consent to the electronic ...' and click 'OK' (this is just to show you the actual set-up of the exam platform; no data will be stored and everything will be deleted after you have clicked through the mock exam).
• Select the exam which you like to take (Small Animal Practical, Small Animal Case-based, Large Animal Practical or Large Animal Case-based)
• Please note that a selection of questions has been made available for the mock exams to demonstrate the variety of question types you will encounter. You will not necessarily find entire cases or strictly consecutive questions in the mock exams.

Further instructions and information:

• The row of circles at the top of the screen indicates where in the exam you are. The total number of circles indicates the total number of questions in the exam (remember that this is a mock exam with a reduced number of questions). Unanswered questions are depicted by empty circles; completed questions are marked by filled-out circles. The question you are currently working on is marked in orange. In the Practical exam, you can mark questions as uncertain (with the button in the lower right corner of your screen) and return to it later. Uncertain questions are identified with ? in a purple circle in the row of circles at the top. You can directly skip to such a question by clicking on the respective circle.
• Font size can be varied via the A buttons in the top right corner.
• Images can be enlarged by clicking on them. When the image pops up in the middle of the screen, you can use mouse-over to zoom in on certain areas. To reduce the image to the preview size again, click the X in the top right corner.
• In case of several images per question, these will appear in vertical order on the very left. Clicking on an image will bring up its preview, which can then be enlarged by clicking on it (see above).
• You will find certain text formatting elements above the answer box; however, we do not expect you to format your answers beyond strictly necessary formatting such as super- and subscript.
• To create more room on the screen, you can hide the question by clicking on the 'show / hide question' button with the four arrows pointing into the four corners of a square. Clicking the button again will show the question again.
• You can also hide / show the image preview pane by clicking on the black arrow (< and >) in the grey bar.
• On the right side of the screen you will see a panel for notes, additional documents, a calculator and drawings. You can call up or hide these elements via the respective orange buttons.
  • The notes and drawing is only for your use during the exam. No information entered here will be saved once you finish the exam. Only answers and information from the answer text box will be evaluated.
  • Certain questions will have an additional document in this section such as a PDF showing the entire question page. This is intended for your easier orientation through the question. You will not find here any information beyond what you see in the question text itself and the image material. You do not need this file in order to be able to correctly answer the question. It is only there to help you see at once glance how the question page develops. You can hide and call up the PDF at any time with the respective orange button. (Please note that some questions may have 2 PDF pages.)
• To move to the next question, click on the 'Next question' button in the lower right corner. In the Practical exam you can also navigate to the previous question with the button in the lower left corner. You do not need to hit a save button before navigating to the next question. Your answers are automatically saved.
• For the Case-based exam (where you will only be allowed to move forward, not back), you always need to enter at least one letter into the answer box before clicking 'next question'. If you do not enter any text, you only have the choice of skipping the case entirely. In order to be able to move to the next question in the case, enter at least one letter, then click 'next question' and confirm 'Yes, complete question'. You are able to view your answers to previous questions, but cannot change anything once you have completed the question.
• The Overview button at the bottom of the page brings you to an overview of all questions, and you can see which ones you have answered or not or have marked as uncertain. You can also navigate directly to a specific question.
• If you see a warning message that the connection is interrupted, this means that your Internet connection to the exam server has temporarily been lost. In such a case, simply wait for the message to disappear. As soon as the connection is re-established, you can continue working.

Note: You will also find a 'Mock Exam - All Question Types' online. This is a generic exam example with general knowledge questions purely for the purpose of demonstrating the technical implementation of various question types. You will not find any ECVS content in these questions, nor will all of these question types necessarily be used in the ECVS exam.

For further details and information on the ECVS exam, also have a look at the Exam - what to expect presentation.

Exam Schedule

Please note this schedule is subject to change and will be finalised closer to the exam. Ample advance notice given to candidates.

• Evening preceeding the exam (approx. 18.00 h – exact time will follow with your personal schedule) information and briefing of examination procedures.
• 1^st day: Part I - case based section
• 2^nd day: Part II - practical section
• 3^rd day: Part III - multiple choice questions
• right after the examination – examiners and candidates "get together" (your spouse is cordially invited)!

update 26.11.2018 / wsr

Getting Around

The following tram stops are close to the Vetsuisse faculty (Tierspital):

• Tierspital (closest stop): trams no. 7 (black) and no. 9 (purple)
• Milchbuck (walk through the Irchel park to the clinic): trams no. 7 (black), no. 9 (purple), no. 10 (pink, from / to the airport) and no. 14 (blue)
• Uni Irchel (walk through the Irchel park to the clinic): trams no. 9 (purple) and no. 10 (pink)

For further information, visit the Zurich public transport webpage > ZVV.

Campus map:

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