New dates for EQE 2022 - spread over 2 weeks and earlier than previously announced & Enrolment for EQE 2022 - EQE 2022 will be held online
The dates for EQE 2022 have been published on the EQE website (Notices page), here (Notice of 19 April 2021),
The complete EQE does no longer take place in a single week (in 2011: Pre-Exam on Mon, D on Tue, A on Wed, B on Thu, C on Fri), but is spread over two weeks: the main exam papers on Tue and Thu, the Pre-Exam on Fri of the second week.
Compared to the earlier announcement of 15.11.2018 (wherein the EQE was planned from 21.03.2022 to 24.03.2022), the EQE 2022 starts two weeks earlier, with the D paper on 08.03.22.
The Pre-Exam will take place after all main exam papers, rather than on the day before the main exam.
[Update 10 May 2021:] As e-EQE 2021, the EQE 2022 will be held online and can be taken at any suitable location chosen by the candidate.The examination system Wiseflow will be used (https://europe.wiseflow.net/) (See Announcement EQE 2022)
Enrolment
The dates of each examination paper can be found under EQE notices.
Compulsory registration
Enrolment to the pre-examination will only be open for candidates who have registered at the latest by 15 January of the year in which they intend to enrol for the pre-examination [note from the editor: so, by 15 January 2021, already expired]. See OJ EPO 2018, A99.
All information can be found at registration as candidate.
Enrolment periods
1. Pre-examination 2022
Candidates may enrol as from 3 May 2021. Applications must be submitted no later than 12 July 2021 via myEQE. For a first time enrolment to the pre-examination candidates must have registered at the latest by 15 January 2021. Candidates who have previously been admitted to the pre-examination are already registered.
2. Main examination 2022 (Papers A, B, C and D)
Candidates may enrol as from 17 May 2021 Applications must be submitted no later than 06 September 2021 via myEQE.
Fees
Please note that the fees relating to the EQE may only be paid by credit card or bank transfer. Candidates are strongly recommended to use a credit card as their method of payment as this will ensure swift payment. If the prescribed fees are not validly paid, the application for enrolment will be deemed not to have been filed. Candidates are reminded of the strict application of the closing dates for enrolment. Articles 121 and 122 EPC do not apply. As bank transfers are prone to delays they are therefore not recommended as payment method shortly before the relevant deadline. Fees may not be paid by debiting an EPO deposit account.
Certain candidates can request a fee subsidy (eligibility criteria apply).
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Update 10 May 2021:
The "Announcement of the European qualifying examination 2022" has been published on the (Notices page), here. It is expected that this Announcement will be published in the OJ of May or June. [Update: published in OJ 2021, A44 in the May issue].
The Announcement provides all detail on Pre-examination and main examination.
I. General
1. Compulsory registration
2. Dates of the pre-examination and the main examination and deadlines for enrolment
2.1 Date of the pre-examination and enrolment deadline2.2 Dates of the main examination and enrolment deadline
3. Payment of fees
4. Withdrawal
II. Enrolment process
1. Online access
2. Professional activity
2.1 Required periods of professional activity
2.2 Remission of the period of professional activity – Article 11(5) REE and Rule 16 IPREE
2.3 EPO examiners
3. Choice of papers
4. Fees - Rules 7 and 8 IPREE
4.1 Fee increments4.2 Examination fee subsidies
5. Communications
III. Information on data protection
Please refer to the full announcement for details.
This would have been nice for the EQE 2021.
ReplyDeleteSo true, especially when attending all four exams... At the last one I was extremely tired.
DeleteI don't know if it is better or worse...
ReplyDeleteOn the one hand, having one paper per day is exhausting, and I'm pretty sure that I was more performant for papers D and A than for B and even more C. On the other hand, the "pain" was shorter and I was so happy when it finally ended... ! I am wondering why such a decision has been taken ? Is this for the benefit of the candidates or is this only for organization purposes ?
Not all in the same week is appreciated.
ReplyDeleteBut every second day is a huge burden and has hardly any advantages. Big disadvantage is that the day in between is a lost day: no exam, no studying, no patent drafting or alike.
Why not one every week, e.g. every Monday of March. Or one every month, for example every first Monday or Tuesday, for all main exam papers?
I agree.
DeleteI sat D, A and B. I expect to have failed D due to the false start which killed my whole day. I expect to gave failed B because I could not conclude on a solution.
I plan resit D and B, and sit C next year. The exam will keep me busy for two full weeks rather than one: from the Monday before D until the Friday after C. I need to stay focused on exams in the days in between. So will only get more nervous as no distraction from exam thoughts with normal work (the afternoon after A was already stressful).
I like your proposal one every month: D in February, A in March, B in April, and C in May.
Giving candidates time to breathe in between is a positive thing.
ReplyDeleteA "lost day" or even a "lost week" is much better than a lost year. When everything is in one week, candidates fail for mere exhaustion (in particular as a few points can often mean the difference between pass or fail).
- Flora
Interesting changes. The online exam enables stretching out the papers as it removes the necessity to book large exam halls for the dates. So it will certainly be an online exam.
ReplyDeleteI would assume that the EQE also gets easier due to this change, as it allows reviewing the specific material for the respective exam for a full day. Arguably each of the exams has a different character and I can see the benefit in a focused preparation on the day(s) leading up to the exam.
I've heard this argument before. exams moving online would make it easier - in fact, the e-EQE 2021 was the hardest set in recent times. This coupled with candidates having to experience for the first time ever, the online exams format - which made it very complicated for candidates preparing for the exams. I wouldn't assume it would be easier.
DeleteI think they needed to change this. The eEQE has made exams much longer on the day e.g. paper D was over 8 hours altogether. Since there was such a shambolic IT meltdown during paper D, this has huge knock on effects later during the week. Many candidates going into paper A with the stress and anxiety from the mess up over paper D. At least this would give some room in case there are any other significant errors.
ReplyDeleteI think for EQE2021, they need to account for this during marking. It was a huge burden and significantly affect candidates for the whole week.
I do welcome the spacing of exams - I wonder how in practice this would be achieve. For example, would firms be willing to offer their office spaces for 2 weeks in a row. Assuming everybody will return into offices in 2022.
ReplyDeleteThere a more fundamental question here as to whether the papers really to reflect fitness to practice. The papers this year was a mere joke - designed to throw off candidates, confuse them with contraditory statements, hiding essential details until a certain time, not allowing printing of the paper, complex subject matter, long/huge amounts of reading materials and awful time management of the exams.
ReplyDeleteFantastic, now I can schedule therapy sessions following each paper!
ReplyDeleteEnrolment dates have been announced:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.epo.org/learning/eqe/enrolment.html
in view of the enrolment dates announced, it may be expected that the results of Main EQE will be out well before September 06, 2021
DeleteThx Dr Me, I have added the enrolment dates to the blog post.
Deleteif I appeal my pre-exam now, can I then enrol to main exam 2022? Or can I not sit main exam 2022 if the Board of appeal does not decide well before September 06, 2021?
DeleteI am curious how according to EPO our bosses should react. Is it expected that candidates should get a sabbatical leave, now longer for another week (please explain it to my boss)? Or should a future European Patent Attorney be tough enough to be able to interweave exams with regular work?
ReplyDeleteProbalby you will also be able to simply take regular vacation on the days between the exam if you want to.
DeleteI dont know why this should be a serious issue the EPO should be worried about. In my opinion, a future European patent attorney should be quite capable of handling such 'challenges' independently...
For those working in private practice, i.e. self-employed attorneys, it is even worse. revision for and taking the exam must be done in the evening/night hours and on the weekends since the other time must be spend earning money to feed the family! They cannot simply take vacation or any "sabbatical leave"...but...this was already the case for each EQE before 2022...
Deletethe results of Main 2021 must be out much earlier than 06.09, so that the candidate would have enough time to decide which paper he/she should sit.
ReplyDeletecan you not already decide now? suggestion: the paper(s) you failed, and the paper(s) you did not yet sit?
DeleteHow can you decide now without knowing which paper 2021 you have failed?
Deleteeasy to make it now: decision = "I will resit the paper(s) that I did not pass"
DeleteNo comments...
DeleteTo Anonymous30 April 2021 at 12:17, you cannot decide something wherein the basis of the decision is not known yet. It is like a "reach-through" claim, wherein you cannot claim something which is not invented yet. Therefore, literally you are correct. However, your statements are connecte with so many possibilits, each of which would also lead to different decisions. Thus, at present it is an undue burden for a candidate skilled in the art to figure out which paper he/she should sit.
DeleteI think he is also wrong that said decision="I will resit the paper(s) that I did not pass" is directly and unambiguously derivable. This is because the candidate can also decide that "I will resit only one of the papers, if there are more than one paper that I did not pass". Therefore, provided that there are two alternatives with equal weights, it cannot be directly and unambiguously derived that a candidate would definitely make the decision that "I will resit the paper(s) that I did not pass".
DeleteTo Anonymous30 April 2021 at 13:10, you can already now decide to celebrate your birthday with a big party on the first Saturday after your birthday, isn't it? Even though you do not yet know whether you are still alive then?
DeleteAs you can already now decide to not sit any exam paper in 2022?
So you can also decide to sit any that you did not pass, i.e. any for which you got a fail or a compensable fail and any that you did not uet sit at all.
@Anonymous30 April 2021 at 13:20: the issue was whether a candidate can already decide now or not. The issue was not whether we could also predict directly and unambigously which solution the candidate would pick. The decision "I will resit the paper(s) that I did not pass" can be made already now.
Great solution! For people (like me) who experienced technical issues every day the level of stress was simply too high. This negatively affected my performance. On the forth day I was gone! Recovery days are in my view a very good way to reduce the stress and come down before the next exam. Even worse than dedicating 2 weeks for doing the EQE is to study a whole year (or longer!) and lose it because you lost focus due to a problem with the system.
ReplyDeletesolution? for a problem that they created themselves? technical issues should not be solved by candidates, but prevented by the organization. every second day is too much lost time. prefer all in a row, or one on every Monday on 4 weeks in a row.
DeleteSo it's official; the 2022 exam has been announced (presumably slated for OJ publication in May) and will again run on Wiseflow - hopefully by then the errors experienced will have been rectified.
ReplyDeletehttp://documents.epo.org/projects/babylon/eponot.nsf/0/E741841AC099D415C12586CB002EB48D/$FILE/AnnouncementEQE2022.pdf
Why are this people not listening?? eEQE 2021 was a total disaster why are they persisting on this???
DeleteWiseflow again.
ReplyDeleteEQE 2021 was horrible and shambolic. They decide to use this software again - its rubbish. Not listening EPO
The decision to stick with wiseflow for 2022 baffles me. EQE 2021 was a painful experience. They need to make the system much much simpler. More pain in 2022. The committee are not taking candidates opinions and views into the account. They haven't been listening to members of the profession for a long time. Make it simpler which means NO to wiseflow.
ReplyDeleteThe EQE 2021 has not been a success at all for candidates. The printing restrictions has created more confusion and made it much more difficult for candidates.
ReplyDeleteI do not understand why candidates are not allowed to print of claims for paper C for example. It would me so logical to have this in front of you rather than flicking between several different tabs. The committees really need to understand these issues and allow candidates to have copies of the full paper in hardcopy form.
Its not good that they have decided to stick with wiseflow. I was so confused with the new system and did not perform well at all in my exams, despite doing all the EQE mocks.
ReplyDeleteI think we must go online but the system is far to confusing. Not being able to print all the paper, hiding things such as claims and creating a system where its not easier to review your answers or use basic functionalities.