Syllabus overview

OMPT-A syllabus

OMPT-A is the entry-level admission test, focused on the core algebra and pre-calculus skills most Dutch university programs expect on day one.

Topics covered

The OMPT-A syllabus is organised into 8 chapters covering 176 individual topics. Each chapter below is listed in the order it is usually taught.

1. 1.NumbersFractions, powers, roots, absolute values and order of operations — the arithmetic everything later in the syllabus is built on.
2. 2.AlgebraExpanding, factorising and simplifying expressions, and rearranging formulas to isolate a variable.
3. 3.Linear formulas and equationsStraight-line formulas, slope and intercept, solving linear equations and reading them off a graph.
4. 4.Systems of linear equationsTwo or more linear equations solved together by substitution or elimination, and what it means when there is no solution.
5. 5.Quadratic equationsSolving by factorising, completing the square and the quadratic formula, plus the discriminant and the shape of a parabola.
6. 6.FunctionsDomain and range, function notation, composition and inverses, and reading behaviour off a graph.
7. 7.Exponential functions and logarithmsGrowth and decay, the laws of exponents and logarithms, and solving equations where the unknown sits in the exponent.
8. 8.DifferentiationDerivatives of standard functions, the product, quotient and chain rules, and using them to find slopes, maxima and minima.

OMPT-A exam format and timing

OMPT-A runs for 120 minutes and contains 52 questions drawn from 8 topic areas, which works out at roughly 2.3 minutes per question if you spread the time evenly. Questions are answered on screen, and the paper mixes short computational items with longer, multi-step problems.

That 2.3-minute average is the number worth rehearsing against. Most people who run out of time on OMPT-A do so because two or three early questions ate a disproportionate share of it, not because the paper is too long. Practising with a clock, and skipping forward when a question stalls, is usually worth more marks than another round of revision.

How to prepare for OMPT-A

We suggest budgeting around 80 hours of study for OMPT-A if you are starting from a rusty but not absent grounding. Spread over eight weeks that is about 10 hours a week — enough to cover every chapter once and revisit the two or three that give you trouble.

1. Read through all 8 chapters above and mark the ones you could not explain to someone else. That list, not the full syllabus, is what your study time should go on.
2. Work the OMPT-A practice test with the widest coverage first, untimed. It touches the whole topic range, so it turns the list above into a ranked set of weak spots.
3. Only once the weak spots are closed, sit the exam-level generation under the full 120-minute limit. That is your rehearsal, and it is worth more when it is not also your diagnosis.

This overview is written by Examify to summarize the general scope of the OMPT-A admission test at a glance. It is an independent study aid and is not an official publication of any test provider or university.

New to this test? Read our complete guide to what OMPT is and how to prepare for it.