Gymi Preparation — Zurich runs the exam, Zug does not

The Zurich Zentrale Aufnahmeprüfung is on Monday 8 March 2027, for both the Langgymnasium and the Kurzgymnasium. The Langgymnasium papers run from 08:00 to 11:45. The Kurzgymnasium sits from 09:00 to 11:45 and again from 13:15 to 14:45 — a longer day that spans lunch. Registration is open from 1 January to 10 February 2027 and costs CHF 50, charged once per school year however many applications you make. The 2028 date is already published: Monday 6 March 2028. Results are sent by post and are visible online the following day.

Yes, and it catches people every year. The Gymnasium Kunst und Sport Rämibühl closes on 15 January 2027, not 10 February — a full four weeks earlier — and the same 15 January deadline applies to the Liceo Artistico. The examination itself is still the 8 March paper. A family working to the widely published February date has already missed it. If Kunst und Sport is anywhere in your thinking, put 15 January in the calendar now.

Two: German and mathematics. Nothing else. Three written papers, no oral component. For the Langgymnasium: Sprachbetrachtung und Textverständnis for 45 minutes, mathematics for 60, and the Aufsatz for 60 — 165 minutes in total. For the Kurzgymnasium: the same Sprachbetrachtung paper at 45 minutes, then mathematics for 90 and the Aufsatz for 90 — 225 minutes, a full hour more of writing. Parents routinely arrive expecting French, English or science to be examined. They are not.

One quarter Sprachbetrachtung und Textverständnis, one quarter Aufsatz, and one half mathematics. That weighting is the single most useful planning fact on this page and it is published by the canton. Mathematics is worth as much as both German papers combined, in both the Langgymnasium and the Kurzgymnasium route. A preparation plan that divides the time equally between the two subjects is not matched to the paper.

It is your child’s school report, counted as half the total alongside the exam. The canton calls it the Erfahrungsnote at the Langgymnasium and the Vorleistungsnote at the Kurzgymnasium. For the Langgymnasium it is the average of the German and mathematics marks in the January report of the sixth primary class. For the Kurzgymnasium it is one fifth each of German, mathematics, French, English, and Natur und Technik — and your child must have a mark in all five. It counts only for pupils in the Zurich public system at the point of registration; private-school and home-schooled candidates sit without it.

It depends on whether the report counts. With an Erfahrungs- or Vorleistungsnote, the combined figure must be at least 4.75. Without one, the exam alone must reach 4.5. For non-gymnasium school types the thresholds are 4.5 and 4.25. There is a counter-intuitive consequence worth sitting with: a private-school candidate needs only 4.5 on the paper, while a public-school pupil needs 4.75 overall — but a public-school pupil with strong January marks needs correspondingly less than 4.75 from the paper itself. The January report is a lever, and it is set two months before the exam.

No. The admissions regulation in force since August 2022 states plainly that there are no oral examinations, first applying to the 2023 examination. Until then, near-miss Kurzgymnasium candidates could be called to an oral; that route is gone. There is one exception and it is for illness only: a candidate who is genuinely unable to sit must notify the school immediately and produce a medical certificate within three days, and is then invited to a Nachprüfung. The date of that make-up paper is not published on the cantonal pages, so ask the school directly if you ever need it.

Published by the canton every year. In 2026, 15,759 examinations were sat and 8,060 passed — 51.1 per cent, which the canton describes as being in line with the long-run average. For the gymnasium specifically the figure was 48.2 per cent. In 2025 it was 15,273 sat and 7,954 passed, 52.1 per cent. Langgymnasium entries rose to 4,772 in 2026 from 4,562; Kurzgymnasium entries were essentially flat at 4,136. So roughly half of candidates pass, and the number sitting is climbing.

No — and this is now settled rather than merely current practice. Entry to the Zug Langzeitgymnasium is decided in conversation between the teacher, the parents and the child, with a commission to resolve disagreement. The canton consulted on introducing an entrance test; on 2 October 2025 the Zuger Kantonsrat rejected entrance examinations by 63 votes to 9 in the second reading and adopted a counter-proposal keeping admission exam-free, and the optional referendum period expired unopposed on 9 December 2025. If you are in Zug, there is no ZAP to prepare for. What there is to prepare for is the school work the assignment conversation is based on, which is a different job.

Several, on different dates and different terms. Zurich, St. Gallen, Schaffhausen and Schwyz run a compulsory examination. Basel-Stadt admits on grades with a voluntary examination as a second chance, on 12 March 2027 with a make-up on 18 March and registration from 4 to 29 January. Bern offers a recommendation procedure or an examination without it. Aargau admits without examination by default and uses one as a fallback, on 15 March 2027. Fribourg examines on 13 March 2027 with a second sitting on 10 July. Vaud examines only candidates from outside the canton, on 24 to 28 May 2027, with registration closing 31 January and no extensions. Zug, Lucerne and Geneva do not examine at all. Tell us the canton before anything else — it determines whether there is an examination to prepare for.

The market answers this clearly if you read its pricing rather than its copy. The established Zurich courses open registration in the spring and start in mid-to-late August, running through to February; one large provider prices its early-bird tiers at early March, mid-May and late July, with a CHF 340 spread between the cheapest and dearest booking dates. Another states that preparation should begin at least six months before the March date. So the decision is made between March and July, the courses run August to February, and the October and February holiday weeks are the intensive moments. If you are reading this in the summer, you are on time. If you are reading it in January, you need a different product — a sprint, not a course.

Often both, and they do different jobs. A group course gives structure, a syllabus, past papers under timed conditions and the reassurance of a cohort, at a price per hour no one-to-one arrangement can match. What it cannot do is stop for the one topic your child does not understand, or work on an Aufsatz that needs individual attention. The commonest sensible pattern we see is a group course carrying the structure with a small package of one-to-one hours attacking the two or three specific things it leaves behind. We will say so even though it means selling fewer hours.

Not immediately. Entry is followed by the Probezeit, a trial semester in which the pupil must confirm the performance shown at the examination. The cantonal figures are published: in 2021/22, 8.5 per cent of Langgymnasium entrants and 12.1 per cent of Kurzgymnasium entrants left during it — roughly one in eight at the short gymnasium — though both figures had improved on 2018/19. Because the Probezeit runs the first semester from August, the summer between the result and the start is the last uncommitted time before that clock begins. There is more on that on our summer tutoring page.

Tell us the canton and the school year. In Zurich that settles almost everything — whether it is the Langgymnasium or the Kurzgymnasium paper, whether the January report counts and therefore whether the bar is 4.75 or 4.5, and how many weeks are left. Send the last report with it if you can, because the Erfahrungsnote is half the total and it is the half most families have never thought of as adjustable. We will come back with a tutor who has prepared candidates for that paper, typically within 48 to 72 hours, and with an honest view of whether one-to-one hours are the right purchase at all. Sometimes the answer is a group course and nothing from us. Nothing is charged to enquire and nothing is charged to be assigned. Book a tutor, or send a WhatsApp message on +41 76 213 1843.