TestAS Digital vs Paper: What Actually Changed

If you're preparing for TestAS in 2026, the first question isn't "how do I prepare" — it's "which version am I even taking." TestAS now exists in two formats, and they're structured differently enough that prepping for the wrong one wastes real time.

The short version

Digital TestAS is the current, primary format — taken on a computer at a test centre. Paper-based TestAS is the older format, still offered a few times a year (traditionally April and October), but being phased out as test centres move to digital.

Unless your specific test centre or target university's deadline requires paper, prepare for Digital. It's what almost every applicant sits now.

Structure: Core Module

The Digital Core Module has three subtests, 20 items each, 25 minutes each:

• Figure Sequences — spot the transformation rule (rotation, fill, count, shape) and continue the sequence
• Mathematical Equations — the only Core subtest that isn't purely single-choice
• Latin Squares — deduce a missing symbol where every symbol appears exactly once per row and column

The Paper Core Test is structured entirely differently: four subtests over 110 minutes — Solving Quantitative Problems, Inferring Relations (verbal analogies), Completing Patterns, and Continuing Numerical Series. Even where the underlying reasoning skill overlaps (pattern recognition shows up in both formats, just under different names and formats), the actual item structure and timing don't transfer directly.

Structure: Subject Module

Both formats add one Subject Module matched to your intended degree — Engineering, MINT, Economics, Humanities, Life Sciences, or Medicine. On Digital, this is testlet-based: 90 minutes, 10–15 testlets, each presenting a stimulus (text, graphics, a table) followed by several applied questions. Paper subject modules use their own named subtests instead — for Engineering, that's Formalising, Analysing, and Understanding technical relationships.

Evaluation time

Digital results typically take about three weeks to evaluate; paper-based results take about four. Not decisive on its own, but worth factoring in if you're racing an application deadline.

Which should you actually prepare for?

If you have a choice, Digital. It's the format TestAS is standardizing on, it's what most test centres default to, and the item types are what you'll find in most current prep material (including our own practice tools). If your only available sitting is Paper — some regions and some deadlines still route through it — practice the paper-specific item types directly rather than assuming Digital practice transfers cleanly; the reasoning skills are related, but the exact format isn't.

For the full structural breakdown of both formats, see our TestAS overview or the dedicated Digital and Paper pages. Sources: testas.de digital structure, testas.de paper structure.