FMS / BM1 preparation courses Zurich 2026/27

Trans­fer­ring to a spe­cia­li­sed midd­le school (Fach­mit­tel­schu­le) or start­ing Voca­tio­nal Bac­calau­rea­te 1 along­side an app­ren­ti­ce­ship requi­res pas­sing the Cen­tral Ent­rance Exami­na­ti­on (ZAP3). This deman­ding exam requi­res solid know­ledge of Ger­man and mathe­ma­tics, as well as tar­ge­ted preparation. 

With our spe­cia­li­sed pre­pa­ra­ti­on cour­ses, we offer stu­dents the best pos­si­ble sup­port to take the ZAP3 with con­fi­dence and self-assurance.

What sets our preparation courses apart?

An FMS/BMS1 pre­pa­ra­ti­on cour­se with us at Open Learning Space Zurich pre­pa­res your child in a tar­ge­ted way for the ent­rance exam:

• Small groups of up to five par­ti­ci­pan­ts – for indi­vi­du­al sup­port and acti­ve participation.
• Dou­ble les­sons of 75 minu­tes per sub­ject – enable focu­sed and inten­si­ve work on the exam content.
• Focus on exam-rele­vant con­tent and task types – so we con­cen­tra­te spe­ci­fi­cal­ly on what mat­ters most.
• Regu­lar mock tests and inten­si­ve prac­ti­ce pha­ses – to con­so­li­da­te what has been lear­ned and to check the cur­rent level of knowledge.
• A per­so­nal and sup­port­i­ve learning envi­ron­ment – our Open Learning Space offers a fami­ly-like atmo­sphe­re that motivates.
• Indi­vi­du­al feed­back and tar­ge­ted pro­gress updates – so that par­ents and stu­dents are always kept infor­med about progress.

How the preparation courses work

The cour­ses in See­feld, Wie­di­kon and Ober­strass (Dis­trict 6) start after the sum­mer holi­days. A pre­pa­ra­ti­on cour­se con­sists of 20 half-days of classes. 

Each cour­se day includes one les­son of Ger­man and one les­son of mathe­ma­tics, each las­ting 75 minu­tes. The first half of the cour­se is dedi­ca­ted to an inten­si­ve review of the school mate­ri­al cover­ed up to the 2nd semes­ter of the 3rd lower secon­da­ry level. The second half focu­ses on actively sol­ving exam tasks and simu­la­ting the exam situa­ti­on. The cour­se also includes five cor­rec­ted essays and two simu­la­ted exams.

Par­ents recei­ve detail­ed feed­back on your child’s per­for­mance and level of know­ledge after 5, 10 and 15 les­sons (only for the 20-week cour­se). In con­sul­ta­ti­on with us, adjus­t­ments can be made ear­ly on if a need beco­mes apparent. 

Topics and content
Our cour­ses cover all rele­vant and advan­ced ZAP3 topics, including:

• Mathe­ma­tics: cal­cu­la­ti­ons with quan­ti­ties, deci­mal and frac­tion cal­cu­la­ti­ons, direct and inver­se pro­por­tio­na­li­ty, word pro­blems and geometry.
• Ger­man: essay wri­ting, lan­guage ana­ly­sis, parts of speech, grammar and rea­ding comprehension.

Our course materials

Our spe­ci­al­ly desi­gned cour­se mate­ri­als clo­se­ly fol­low the exam requi­re­ments of recent years. This allows us to use cour­se time opti­mal­ly for tar­ge­ted review and prac­ti­ce of all exam-rele­vant con­tent. Sup­ple­men­ta­ry mate­ri­als are available to address indi­vi­du­al weak­ne­s­ses in a focu­sed way. 

Our teachers

Our tea­chers know the exam requi­re­ments in detail and work clo­se­ly with the edu­ca­tio­nal manage­ment. This ensu­res com­pre­hen­si­ve and pro­fes­sio­nal support. 

What prerequisites should your child have?

To pass the cen­tral ent­rance exam suc­cessful­ly, the over­all gra­de is cal­cu­la­ted equal­ly from the pre­vious gra­des and the exam results. The pre­vious gra­des in mathe­ma­tics, Ger­man, French, Eng­lish, and sci­ence and tech­no­lo­gy account for 50% of the over­all gra­de, while the ent­rance exam results in mathe­ma­tics and Ger­man make up the remai­ning 50%. The avera­ge of the­se gra­des must be at least 4.50 for the exam to be con­side­red pas­sed. Stu­dents who do not come from a public Sek A and the­r­e­fo­re can­not pro­vi­de pre­vious gra­des must pass the ent­rance exam with an avera­ge of at least 4.25.

In addi­ti­on, as cour­se pro­vi­ders we expect our stu­dents to have other important qualities:

• Solid pri­or know­ledge and a good gra­de avera­ge (5.0) in Ger­man and mathematics.
• Moti­va­ti­on and per­se­ver­ance to actively enga­ge with the exam content.
• Wil­ling­ness to spend around two hours per week on home­work and prac­ti­ce materials.

Our pre­pa­ra­ti­on cour­ses offer moti­va­ted stu­dents the best con­di­ti­ons for suc­cessful­ly mas­te­ring the ZAP3. This cle­ars the way for ent­ry into a spe­cia­li­sed midd­le school or voca­tio­nal bac­calau­rea­te school.