Please note that some pages are only available in French.
Admission exams may be required once your application has been evaluated. For example, if your training is deemed partially equivalent to a bachelor’s degree in Quebec. The purpose of these exams is to enable you to obtain a full equivalence of training.
This page also contains information about filling these gaps with training activities and courses.
Entrance examinations are intended for people whose training is not equivalent and who have certain gaps. If this is your case, you will receive an e-mail once your admission application has been assessed. You can then register for the next exam session in the required fields, or find a training activity deemed equivalent by the OIQ. The dates of these exams are listed on the website, in the Activities Calendar.
The exams are held in Montreal twice a year, during the first two weeks of May and November. It is not recommended to register for more than three exams per session. You must take them in French (except in exceptional cases). To find out the dates and times of the following admission exams, visit the OIQ’s activities page.
You must pay a registration fee for each exam, even if it is a repeat after a failure. Consult our fee schedule to find out the costs. If you are absent from an exam for any reason, the OIQ will not reimburse you for these fees even if you have notified us. Also, fees that have already been paid cannot be carried over to pay for your registration for a future exam. If you choose to take equivalent courses at a university, then the university’s registration fees apply.
Admission exam sessions last three hours. Remember to arrive half an hour early with your identification. Before you take the exam, the proctor will give you instructions on how to proceed. If you do not follow these instructions or are caught plagiarizing, you may be subject to penalties ranging from a failure to a denial of your engineering permit.
Materials allowed: • Textbooks • personal notes • non-programmable calculators (see the list below) Prohibited materials: • computers • cell phones • programmable calculators (see the list below) • other electronic devices (including electronic dictionaries)
The passing grade for the OIQ’s entrance exams is 50%. You will receive your results by email as soon as possible. Typically, results for the May session are sent by June 24, and results for the November session by December 24. The OIQ will not answer any questions about your results until they are released.
The OIQ provides you with two tools: (1) a description of the admission exams with a bibliography by subject or field of engineering and (2) past exams by subject or field of engineering. These past exams are provided as examples and do not contain the answers, only the questions. The type and number of questions may vary from exam to exam. (The documents can be downloaded below).
The OIQ and its academic partners have designed a training program for people who have not acquired the minimum number of engineering design credits in their academic or professional career.
This training includes a theoretical and a practical component, which are explained below.
The following documents (in french) will help you and your supervisor understand the expectations for the various stages of the training and assessment process.
It consists of self-taught learning of the engineering design methodology done by the reading of one of these 2 books:
Once your self-study is complete, the OIQ will validate your knowledge with an exam. To register for the engineering design methodology exam, fill out the form below.
Once you have passed this exam, you will be able to begin the practical component of the engineering design training.
The practical component consists of carrying out an engineering design project to demonstrate that you are capable of applying the principles of the design methodology independently.
To help you succeed in this practical component, the OIQ has developed guides in specific major engineering fields (see below). We strongly recommend that you consult these guides to obtain additional information on engineering design and see different design project examples.
Please note that this engineering design training has been developed in collaboration with the following academic institutions:
List of design training guides by domain
These courses have been approved by the Admission to Practice Committee. Therefore, if you pass the equivalent courses you are required to take, you will fill the gap and will not need to pass the OIQ exam. For your course to be considered as such, you must:
Below are tables of equivalent courses by exam type. If you are looking for a course that does not appear in the tables and you think it fills a gap in your file, send us its description and the name of the institution offering it to [email protected]. Our Admissions Committee will let you know if it is approved or not.
Failing the exam will not prevent you from obtaining your credential, but you must still meet the deadlines and take the appropriate steps to retake the exam.
Regardless of the reason, your absence will not count as a failure. Please note that the registration fee will not be refunded, even if you have informed us of your absence in advance. You will not be able to use the registration fee you have already paid to pay for a future exam.
If you do not pass the exams within the allotted time, your application to the OIQ will be automatically closed. It can be reopened under certain conditions.
You can also request an extension. To do so, fill out the review form and send it along with the fee, and your file will be reviewed. Explain why you could not take your exams and specify the time necessary to fulfill this obligation. Feel free to attach supporting documentation to substantiate your request to the Admissions Committee.
Please note that if you take an exam at the last session before the deadline (registration alone is not enough), you will automatically be granted an additional six months.
If you don’t agree with a grade, you can request a review. You must send your request within 30 days of receiving the notification of your failing grade. To do so, complete and send the file review request form along with the required fee. If you wish to request a review for more than one exam, you will be required to pay this fee for each request. (This fee may be refunded if you are successful. If this is the case, we will inform you.)
To request a revision, you can ask for a copy of your exam booklet, so that you can give your comments and arguments to the person who is grading. You can also submit your detailed point of view in a letter accompanying the review form.
If you have new information to submit following a decision by the Admissions Committee, you can request a review. To do so, you must complete and submit the “Review Form.”
If you disagree with a decision by the Admissions Committee and have no new facts to submit, you must, do so within 30 days of the date of receipt of the decision, complete and submit the “Review Form” along with the review fee.
If you disagree with a decision of the Admissions Committee and have no new facts to submit, you must, within 15 days of the date of receipt of an unfavorable decision rendered by the Committee, complete and submit the “Review Form” along with the file review fee.
To request the reopening of your file, fill out our form and send it along with the permit application fee.
Note that this is a new permit application: your file will be processed according to the regulations, admission requirements, and evaluation policy for candidates to the engineering permit in effect at the time of reopening. The OIQ may therefore refuse your application for a permit or require you to take a new exam.
If you have reopened your file and failed any exam, the Admission to Practice Committee will ask you to retake them in addition to any new exam.
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Any fraud or attempted fraud may result in either the closure of your file or the denial of your application for admission.
Contact us if you have any questions about these exams or obtaining your training equivalencies.