IT secondary school

Enrolment in the IT secondary school in the Swiss canton of Zurich

The IT secondary school, short IMS, is becoming increasingly popular among Swiss students, because in addition to the business vocational Matura, graduates also obtain a federal diploma of vocational education and training as a computer scientist in the field of application development. Especially in this sector, skilled workers are currently, but also in the coming years, urgently needed worldwide. In addition, computer science offers students many practical use cases, which means that students who are enthusiastic about technology and computers could be in better hands here than in other schools.

However, in order to attend an IT secondary school, your children must first meet the admission requirements and take an exam. For this purpose, we have compiled all important information and requirements on this page. After completing the compulsory schooling of nine or ten years, your child can register for the IMS exam. If you consider the factors listed above and if your children prepare themselves comprehensively for the upcoming IMS exam, there is nothing to stop them from entering the IT secondary school!

All important dates for the IT secondary school

Before considering enrolling for the IMS exam, your child must have completed the third year of high school, level A or B. It is also possible to register if your child has already completed an equivalent education. In addition, your children must have been born after 15 June 2008 (for entry into the 2026/27 school year).

If these requirements are met, you can focus on what is really important and register your children for the central entrance examination. For this purpose, there is usually an information evening at the school prior to the registration period, where you will receive all essential information as well as instructions on how to register via the corresponding online portal. You can find this under the following link: Registration for the central entrance examination

The registration period for the central entrance examination for IMS in 2025 runs from 1 September 2025 to 30 September 2025. The IMS examination will then take place on Monday, 27 October 2025.

The IMS exam procedure

The central entrance examination for the IT secondary school therefore takes place every year in October, on a single examination day.

Your children will usually start at 8:00 a.m. with the mathematics examination, which lasts 90 minutes. At 10:00 a.m., they continue with the first part of the German exam, ‘Language Analysis and Text Comprehension,’ which lasts 45 minutes. At 11:15 a.m., they move on to the second part of the German exam, ‘Writing a Text (Essay),’ which lasts 90 minutes.

How is the IMS exam graded?

After a certain period of time, your children will receive the results of the IMS exam. The exam grade is composed of 50% of the exam grade in mathematics and 50% of the exam grade in German, whereby the exam grade in German is in turn composed of 50% of the exam grade from the German exam section ‘Writing a text (essay)’ and 50% from the exam grade for the German exam section ‘Language analysis and text comprehension’. 

If the preliminary grade counts, the overall grade for the IMS exam is made up of 50% of the exam grade and 50% of the preliminary grade. If the preliminary grade does not count, the overall grade corresponds to the exam grade. 

If your children have achieved an average grade of at least 4.5 (with preliminary grade) or 4.25 (without preliminary grade), they have passed the exam and may continue their school career at the IT secondary school.

The aptitude test for the IT secondary school

Before taking the central entrance examination, students who wish to attend IMS must take the Multicheck aptitude test ‘Computer Scientist EFZ Application Development for Computer Science Secondary Schools (IMS)’ and achieve at least 50 points in both the “Potential” and ‘Job-Specific Skills’ sections. Without achieving this minimum score on the Multicheck, candidates will not be admitted to the IMS exam.