Undergraduate Thesis Step by Step: Structure and Formal Checklist

A thesis (szakdolgozat in Hungarian universities) becomes endless when you try to “just write it.” Split the work into three parts: structure, formal rules, and understanding the literature. This post gives templates for all three.

Important: we will not write the thesis for you. Your faculty / department guide is authoritative. What follows is a common university skeleton. If it conflicts with your official PDF, the official PDF wins.

1. Typical structure (BA/BSc-style)

Many Hungarian guides ask for chapters close to this list. Check yours line by line:

• 1. Title page
• 2. Originality statement (if required)
• 3. Table of contents
• 4. Introduction (aim, rationale, question / hypothesis)
• 5. Literature review
• 6. Methods
• 7. Your analysis / results
• 8. Discussion, limits, suggestions
• 9. References
• 10. Appendices (if needed)

In the introduction, write one sentence anyone can understand: what you study and why it matters. If you cannot say it without notes, the later chapters will drift.

2. Formal checklist (always against your faculty template)

Copy and tick using your guide:

• [ ] Font and size (often Times New Roman 12 pt; verify yours)
• [ ] Line spacing and margins
• [ ] Length in characters or pages, with/without appendices
• [ ] Where page numbering starts
• [ ] Citation style (APA, Harvard, footnotes…)
• [ ] Figure / table numbering and sources
• [ ] Title-page required fields
• [ ] Submission format (PDF / DOCX) and deadline
• [ ] Consultation count / signatures

If your faculty provides a Word template, use it. Do not invent prettier typography.

One public example (yours may differ):

• BGE thesis content and formal requirements: https://uni-bge.hu/hu/hallgatoknak/szakdolgozat/diplomamunka/zarodolgozat-tartalmi-es-formai-kovetelmenyek
• Your own faculty PDF / Moodle guide (find this first)

3. A practical sequence

• 1. Topic + question (one page).
• 2. 10–20 key sources. Do not make week one a 200-PDF download sprint.
• 3. Notes per source. Half a page in your words + three questions.
• 4. Outline with chapter titles before long paragraphs.
• 5. Methods agreement with your supervisor.
• 6. Ugly full draft.
• 7. Formal pass with the checklist.
• 8. Reader pass with another person (not only spellcheck).

Step 3 is the one students skip. That is where understanding happens.

4. How to learn the literature before you write

Take one PDF article. Close it. From memory write:

• Research question?
• Method?
• One-sentence result?
• Main limit?

Open and check. Turn misses into three cards or questions. That is active recall on the reading list. Same logic as exam study (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006; Dunlosky et al., 2013).

Do not paste paragraphs into the thesis “to paraphrase later.” Understand first, then write in your own structure.

5. What this post deliberately does not do

• It does not generate submission text for you.
• It does not teach plagiarism tricks.
• It does not replace your supervisor.
• It does not promise a grade.

Where ScienceIQ fits (and how we differ)

You write the thesis yourself in a word processor. ScienceIQ helps only with understanding and self-testing the reading-list PDFs (summaries, quizzes, flashcards, mind maps) — not with producing the submitted text.

As of October 2026:

• Summaries, quizzes, flashcards, mind maps from PDFs. Use that to learn the reading folder before drafting.
• Hungarian UI. You can study English papers in Hungarian from your uploads if that is how you think. Several large English study apps (StudyFetch, Quizlet, Mindgrasp, Turbo AI) had no Hungarian UI in our October 2026 walks.
• A free plan with monthly limits. Enough for a handful of key papers. Knowt free AI was roughly one generation per month; Turbo free was one lesson; Astra hit a daily wall quickly. See pricing.

Start with your faculty PDF

Download your programme’s guide today. Tick the formal checklist. Write your research question in one sentence. Then run active recall on the first three sources.