This preparatory year aims at achieving or strengthening the following scientific and technical competences of the student:

• Improving his or her ability to conceive simple computer systems, by further developing his or her sense of reasoning and abstraction.
• Mastering the necessary mathematical techniques and skills to perform such reasoning.
• Acquiring a know-how that is sustainable and adaptable to the constant evolutions in computer science.
• To learn how to learn and stay up-to-date with these evolutions.

To summarize, the preparatory year allows to consolidate and deepen the student's knowledge of the basics in computer science and to get acquainted with the more rigorous and conceptual way of thinking that is typical to university degrees.

Making the transition from non-university level higher education (hautes écoles) to university is not easy.  The intellectual approach adopted at university is much more abstract and rigorous, and thus requires a different way of thinking.  you need to get accustomed to guiding and justifying your design choices based on underlying theoretical foundations and concepts.  For example, when implementing a software system, it does not suffice to know that a system works, you need to be able to justify why it works and that it has been well designed according to state-of-the-art development practices.

It is highly recommended to review your mathematics from secondary school (and the theory of integrals in particular), for example by enrolling in one of the summer courses that are organized near the end of August.

Some courses rely on the Oz programming language, which is taught to bachelor students in computer science.  It is therefore recommended that you read the book "Concepts, Techniques and Models of Computer Programming" by Peter Van Roy and Seif Haridi (ISBN 0-262-22069-5), which also serves as reference book for the course LINGI1131.

Students having obtained a university degree in another discipline but with a sufficient background in computer science could also consider to reorient themselves towards a master in computer science via this preparatory year.

See the general admission requirements

Specific procedures :

The English course to be followed depends on the level of the student.  To evaluate his or her level of English, a test will be organised at the start of the academic year.