Study Guide: Please make sure to have a look into our guide to your studies that contains all general information that students need to know. Tutoring for Research Methods: The Institute has two tutors for qualitative and quantitative methods who offer support in the methods training of the program. Find out more about them here. Different types of exams - How to...

… write a term paper/essay?

See our Term Paper Guidelines

...how to write a Master thesis?

See our Master Thesis Guidelines

... write an exam?

All lectures are completed with a written exam (90 minutes) or test (<90 minutes). The lecturer decides about his/her specific exam conditions. S/he will explain it at the beginning of the course. The written exam normally consists of questions directly referring to the lecture’s topics. We recommend attending the lectures regularly and always reading the basis texts. If you have understood issues within their contexts, you don’t have to learn by rote at the end of the semester.

… how to take an oral exam?

An oral exam takes about 20-30 minutes. The lecturer will explain his/her conditions at the beginning of the seminar. You either choose two or three topics from the seminar or you prepare a lecture about a topic of your choice and the lecturer will ask some additional questions. A good preparation is to hold a speech about your topic on your own or to your friends. Read more.

Information on plagiarism

Please read all relevant information about plagiarism carefully.

Sample papers can be found on the Blackboard of the FU Berlin. The selection is meant to give students an orientation in writing their own seminar papers (semesters 1 & 2), research reports (semester 3) and masters thesis (semester 4). Access: Follow the link to Blackboard, log in, go to "Community", search for the organization Master "Sociology - European Societies" (just search for "sociology"), become a member. In this organization, there is a separate area "Sample Papers".

Mailing Lists: We run two mailing lists that students of our program can subscribe to:

fu-sociology-internal@lists.fu-berlin.de

This is our internal mailing list for important information about the MA program, advertisments, events, etc. With this list, you get regularly informed about teaching, research, and job offers at the Institute and its affiliated research centers. You can subscribe to the internal mailing list here.

fu-sociology-external@lists.fu-berlin.de 

This is our external mailing list for external job advertisements and information on academic events that are not organized by members of the Institute but might still be relevant to you. You can subscribe to the external mailing list here.

You can also use this mailing list to inform your fellow students about events, job advertisements, etc. Please note, however, that the mailing list is moderated and only relevant content will be forwarded.

How to get access to FU services from outside the Campus

How to access literature from outside the Campus?
Connect to the Virtual Private Network (VPN) of Freie Universität Berlin:

1. Download the software “AnyConnect Client” (https://www.zedat.fu-berlin.de/VPN - choose your respective operating system)
2. Click on the AnyConnect-Icon. Choose the name of the VPN-Server (vpn.fu-berlin.de), then click connect.
3. Enter your username and password and press ok.

Academic Calender: Please make sure to regularly check the Academic Calender that contains information about the semester duration, teaching activity, holidays, re-registration periods etc.