1. The certificate of birth, age, parentage, &c. (This is called the Nationale.)
2. The Curriculum Vitæ, (an account of the circumstances of the candidates’s past life, his education, employment, &c., &c.)
3. The certificate that he has already passed through a previous examination (the Tentamen,) held by the authorities of the division school.
4. A certificate of conduct during his stay at the division school.
5. A military drawing (Croquis,) with an attestation given by his instructor that it is the candidate’s own doing.
This examination, like the preliminary one, is partly on paper and partly oral. General directions are given that the examiners in both cases shall look mainly to the question whether the candidate has sufficient positive knowledge of his subjects, and capacity to explain and express himself, that mere lapses of memory shall not be regarded, and that natural endowments shall be principally looked to.
In the written examination, the candidate has four questions given him in what is called the knowledge or theory of arms (Waffenlehre,) including under that term all kinds of ammunition; three in tactics; one question in the rules and regulations which touch the duty of a subaltern officer; two questions in permanent and two in field fortification; one exercise in surveying, to test his acquaintance with the common instruments, and one to try his knowledge of the principles of plan drawing (Terrain-Darstellung;) while his general skill in military drawing is proved by his either copying a plan placed before him, or drawing one from a relief model of a mountainous district (nach Bergmodellen.)
There is a vivâ voce examination in all the subjects.
The commission meets once every month to consider the examinations held since their last meeting. The result is announced under the form of the predicates or epithets already more than once referred to. Honorable mention is accorded to an excellent examination, and mention to a good one. If there has been an unsatisfactory result in one of the subjects, the candidate may compensate for it by superiority in other subjects, but can only in this case be qualified as satisfactory (befriedigend,) and an adequate knowledge of “arms” and tactics is regarded as indispensable in candidates for the infantry or cavalry, and in “arms” and fortification in those for the artillery and engineers. No superior work in other subjects is allowed to make up for a deficiency in these.