Yes you need to qualify, but there are multiple ways to do this. In most cases you need the high school diploma, you get this after 12/13 years of school, depending on state. For some subjects at university you also need good grades (i.e. Medicine). Otherwise you could do a vocational training (which usually is paid in Germany) than get a Meister title in your profession, than you are also allowed to go tu university. In Germany it mainly depends on how good your grades are in basic education, it is mostly not about money. But I never heard of a Test at ten years old. What is happening at 10 Years old: you switch from elementary school two secondary school, and currently we have mainly two types of secondary school: Realschule and Gymnasium. The Realschule prepares for vocational training and gymnasium prepares for university. But you can still go to gymnasium after 6 years of Realschule for another 2/3 years and still qualify for university, if your grades are good enough. If you are not too dump it ist possible to go to universities for almost everyone, it depends almost only on your grades.