Free practice paper · 2027 format
65 questions in the mix set by Cattolica's 2027/28 call: 20 logical reasoning, 18 biology, 12 chemistry, 4 physics, 4 mathematics, 2 general culture and 5 ethics and religious culture, with the answer and a full explanation for every one. Written by IvyTest; it is not an official Cattolica paper.
Before you start
| Section | Questions | Time | Marks (Medicine and Surgery Admission Test) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Medicine and Surgery Admission Test | 65 | 65 min | +1 correct, -0.3 wrong, 0 blank |
Give yourself 65 minutes for all 65 questions, and answer on paper before opening any explanation. A wrong answer costs 0.25 points and a blank costs nothing, so leave a question blank rather than guess blindly. The real test then adds 7 reserve questions in 7 minutes, which count only if a question is withdrawn; this paper leaves them out.
Section 1 of 1
65 questions · 65 minutes
Which pair of words has the same relationship as THERMOMETER : TEMPERATURE?
Answer: B
A thermometer is an instrument that measures a quantity, temperature; a barometer is an instrument that measures a quantity, atmospheric pressure. A telescope and a microscope are instruments too, but they let you see an object rather than measure a quantity, and a scale is not defined by the kitchen it may sit in.
A hospital found that the wards with the most hand-sanitiser dispensers had the fewest infections, and concluded that installing more dispensers reduces infections. Which of the following, if true, most weakens this conclusion?
Answer: D
The conclusion assumes the dispensers explain the difference between wards. If those wards also had young, short-stay patients, who are less likely to catch an infection anyway, the patients rather than the dispensers could explain the lower rate. A fall across the whole hospital says nothing about why some wards did better than others, and the speed at which sanitiser works, if anything, supports the conclusion.
"Lucia will pass the admission test, because she has studied every topic on the syllabus." Which assumption does this argument rely on?
Answer: C
The argument moves from "she studied every topic" to "she will pass"; that step only works if studying every topic is enough to pass. Whether she studied more than others, or has passed before, is not needed for the argument. A test with topics outside the syllabus would weaken the argument, not support it.
Which word is closest in meaning to EPHEMERAL?
Answer: D
Ephemeral means lasting only a short time, so short-lived. Eternal is its opposite. Ethereal (light, delicate, heavenly) looks and sounds similar, which is the trap; fragile describes how easily something breaks, not how long it lasts.
Only patients who have fasted can have the blood test. No patient on Ward B has fasted. Which of the following must be true?
Answer: C
"Only patients who have fasted can have the test" means having the test requires having fasted. Nobody on Ward B has fasted, so nobody on Ward B can have it. The first option reverses the rule: fasting is necessary for the test, not a guarantee of it. Nothing is said about the other wards, and the second option does not follow because patients elsewhere may not have fasted either.
Which statement is the negation of "Every exam room has a clock"?
Answer: B
To make "every room has a clock" false, a single room without a clock is enough, so the negation is "at least one exam room has no clock". "No exam room has a clock" is the tempting answer, but it says far more than the negation: it would also be false if just one room had a clock.
If it rains, the match is cancelled. The match was not cancelled. What follows?
Answer: E
Rain always leads to cancellation, so if there was no cancellation there cannot have been rain (denying the consequent, modus tollens). "It may or may not have rained" would be right only if we had been told the match was cancelled, since a match can be cancelled for other reasons. The fourth option is the converse of the rule, which is not given.
All cardiologists are doctors. Some doctors are researchers. Which conclusion can be drawn?
Answer: A
The doctors who are researchers may or may not include any cardiologists: the two statements are consistent both with some cardiologists being researchers and with none being. So neither "some cardiologists are researchers" nor "no cardiologist is a researcher" follows, and nothing is said about researchers who are not doctors.
In a class of 40 students, 25 study French, 18 study Spanish and 7 study both. How many study neither language?
Answer: B
Students studying at least one language: 25 + 18 − 7 = 36, since the 7 who study both are counted twice when the two groups are added. That leaves 40 − 36 = 4 who study neither. Forgetting to subtract the overlap gives 43, more than the class, which is a sign of the error.
Of 60 patients, 34 have hypertension, 21 have diabetes and 12 have neither condition. How many have both?
Answer: D
60 − 12 = 48 patients have at least one condition. Adding the two groups gives 34 + 21 = 55, which counts the patients with both twice, so 55 − 48 = 7 have both.
All A are B. No B is C. Which of the following must be true?
Answer: E
A lies entirely inside B, and B shares nothing with C, so A cannot share anything with C either: no A is C. "Some B are not A" is tempting, but A could be the whole of B, in which case every B is an A. "All B are A" reverses the first statement.
A price rises by 20% and then falls by 20%. Compared with the original price, the final price is
Answer: A
The two changes multiply: 1.20 × 0.80 = 0.96, so the final price is 96% of the original, 4% lower. The fall is 20% of the higher, already-raised price, which is why the two changes do not cancel out.
One tap fills a tank in 6 hours and a second tap fills it in 3 hours. With both taps open, how long does it take to fill the empty tank?
Answer: D
Add the rates, not the times: the first tap fills 1/6 of the tank an hour and the second 1/3, so together they fill 1/6 + 2/6 = 1/2 an hour, and the tank is full in 2 hours. Averaging the two times (4.5 hours) is the common mistake; with both taps open it must take less than the faster tap alone.
The average of five numbers is 12. When a sixth number is added, the average becomes 13. What is the sixth number?
Answer: C
The five numbers add up to 5 × 12 = 60. Six numbers averaging 13 add up to 6 × 13 = 78, so the sixth number is 78 − 60 = 18.
A train leaves at 09:40 and covers 210 km at an average speed of 84 km/h. When does it arrive?
Answer: B
Time = distance ÷ speed = 210 ÷ 84 = 2.5 hours, which is 2 hours 30 minutes. 09:40 plus 2 hours 30 minutes is 12:10. Reading 2.5 hours as 2 hours 50 minutes gives 12:30.
Which letter comes next in the series B, E, I, N, …?
Answer: C
The gaps grow by one each time: B to E is +3, E to I is +4, I to N is +5, so the next step is +6. N is the 14th letter of the alphabet and the 20th is T.
A square sheet of paper is folded in half, and then folded in half again. A single hole is punched through all the layers. How many holes are there when the sheet is unfolded?
Answer: E
Each fold doubles the number of layers: one fold gives 2 layers, two folds give 4. A hole punched through all the layers therefore makes 4 holes in the unfolded sheet. 8 would need a third fold.
Three medical schools report their applicants and places. School X: 1,200 applicants for 60 places. School Y: 900 applicants for 30 places. School Z: 2,000 applicants for 125 places. Which school has the fewest applicants per place?
Answer: D
Divide applicants by places: X has 1,200 ÷ 60 = 20, Y has 900 ÷ 30 = 30 and Z has 2,000 ÷ 125 = 16 applicants per place. Z has the most applicants in total but the fewest per place, which is the trap in looking only at the first number.
A clinic saw 240 patients in January and 300 in February. 20% of January's patients and 15% of February's were under 18. Which statement is correct?
Answer: A
January: 20% of 240 = 48 patients under 18. February: 15% of 300 = 45. So February had 3 fewer, even though it saw more patients overall: a lower percentage of a larger total can still be a smaller number.
Anna, Bruno and Carla are a doctor, a nurse and a pharmacist, not necessarily in that order. The pharmacist is the youngest of the three. Carla is older than Bruno. Anna is older than Carla, and Anna is not the nurse. Who is the nurse?
Answer: E
From the ages, Anna is oldest, then Carla, then Bruno. The pharmacist is the youngest, so Bruno is the pharmacist. Anna is not the nurse, so Anna is the doctor, which leaves Carla as the nurse.
What holds the two strands of a DNA double helix together?
Answer: A
The two strands are held together by hydrogen bonds between paired bases: two between A and T, three between G and C. Phosphodiester bonds are the tempting answer, but they link nucleotides along each strand, forming its sugar-phosphate backbone, not across the two strands. Peptide bonds join amino acids, and disulfide bridges are found in proteins.
In which form do human liver and muscle cells store glucose?
Answer: E
Animals store glucose as glycogen, a highly branched polymer of glucose, mainly in the liver and skeletal muscle. Starch is the plant storage polysaccharide, cellulose is the structural polysaccharide of plant cell walls, chitin builds fungal cell walls and insect exoskeletons, and sucrose is a disaccharide, not a storage polymer.
The primary structure of a protein is
Answer: D
The primary structure is the order of amino acids, joined by peptide bonds. α-helices and β-sheets are secondary structure, the overall folding of one chain is tertiary structure and the association of several chains, as in haemoglobin, is quaternary. The gene's nucleotide sequence determines the primary structure but is not part of the protein.
During which phase of mitosis do sister chromatids separate and move towards opposite poles of the cell?
Answer: C
In anaphase the cohesion between sister chromatids is broken and the spindle pulls each chromatid to an opposite pole. In metaphase the chromosomes line up at the equator but have not yet separated; in telophase new nuclear envelopes form around the two sets. DNA is copied in interphase, before mitosis begins.
A human red blood cell is placed in distilled water. What happens to it?
Answer: A
Distilled water is hypotonic to the cell's cytoplasm, so water moves into the cell by osmosis. A red blood cell has no cell wall to resist the swelling and can burst (haemolysis). Shrinking (crenation) happens in a hypertonic solution, such as concentrated salt water.
Which of these is found in a prokaryotic cell?
Answer: D
Prokaryotes such as bacteria have ribosomes (smaller ones, 70S, than the 80S ribosomes in eukaryotic cytoplasm), because every cell has to make proteins. What they lack are membrane-bound organelles: a nucleus, mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi apparatus are all found only in eukaryotic cells.
Facilitated diffusion differs from active transport because facilitated diffusion
Answer: A
Facilitated diffusion is passive: substances move down their concentration gradient through channel or carrier proteins and no ATP is spent. Using membrane proteins is not the difference, since active transport uses carrier proteins (pumps) too. Moving against a gradient is what active transport does, and lipid-soluble molecules cross the bilayer by simple diffusion without any protein.
What is the net yield of ATP from glycolysis for each molecule of glucose?
Answer: B
Glycolysis makes 4 ATP per glucose but uses 2 ATP in its early steps, so the net yield is 2 ATP (with 2 NADH and 2 pyruvate). 4 is the gross yield, the usual trap; figures in the 30s are for complete aerobic respiration, including the Krebs cycle and oxidative phosphorylation.
The oxygen released during photosynthesis comes from
Answer: E
In the light-dependent reactions water is split (photolysis) to replace the electrons lost by chlorophyll, and its oxygen is released as O₂. Experiments with water labelled with the isotope oxygen-18 showed this. The oxygen atoms of carbon dioxide end up in the sugars made in the Calvin cycle, not in the gas released.
For a gene with complete dominance, two heterozygous plants (Aa × Aa) are crossed. What proportion of the offspring is expected to show the recessive phenotype?
Answer: B
The cross gives AA, Aa and aa in the ratio 1 : 2 : 1. Only aa shows the recessive phenotype, so the expected proportion is 1/4. 3/4 is the proportion showing the dominant phenotype (AA and Aa together).
Haemophilia A is inherited as an X-linked recessive trait. A man with haemophilia A and a woman who is neither affected nor a carrier have a son. What is the probability that the son has haemophilia A?
Answer: E
A son receives his X chromosome from his mother and his Y chromosome from his father. The mother carries no haemophilia allele, so the son cannot inherit the condition: the probability is 0. Every daughter of this couple, however, receives the father's X and will be a carrier.
Which tRNA anticodon pairs with the mRNA codon 5′-AUG-3′?
Answer: D
Codon and anticodon pair in antiparallel orientation by complementary bases: A with U and G with C. Opposite 5′-A-U-G-3′, the anticodon reads 3′-U-A-C-5′. Written 5′-UAC-3′ the orientation is wrong, and T (thymine) does not occur in RNA.
A mother with blood group A and a father with blood group B have a child with blood group O. What are the parents' genotypes?
Answer: A
A child with group O has genotype ii, so each parent must have passed on an i allele. The mother (group A) must therefore be Iᴬi and the father (group B) Iᴮi. A parent who was IᴬIᴬ or IᴮIᴮ could not pass on i, and parents who were ii would themselves be group O.
Natural selection acts directly on
Answer: A
Selection acts on what organisms are and do, their phenotypes: individuals whose traits suit the environment survive and reproduce more. Genotypes change in frequency only indirectly, through the phenotypes they produce, and a mutation that is not expressed is invisible to selection. Characteristics acquired during life are not inherited, which is why Lamarck's view was abandoned.
Which vessels carry oxygenated blood from the lungs to the heart?
Answer: C
The pulmonary veins carry oxygenated blood from the lungs to the left atrium. They are the exception to the rule that veins carry deoxygenated blood, just as the pulmonary arteries, which carry deoxygenated blood from the right ventricle to the lungs, are the exception for arteries: the names follow the direction of flow relative to the heart, not the oxygen content.
Insulin lowers the concentration of glucose in the blood mainly by
Answer: D
Insulin, from the β-cells of the pancreatic islets, makes muscle and fat cells take up glucose (by moving GLUT4 transporters to their membrane) and stimulates glycogen synthesis in the liver and muscle. Glycogen breakdown and new glucose synthesis in the liver are what glucagon stimulates, raising blood glucose. Glucose appears in the urine only when the blood level exceeds what the kidney can reabsorb.
In a healthy kidney, where is most of the filtered glucose reabsorbed?
Answer: B
Practically all the filtered glucose is reabsorbed in the proximal convoluted tubule, by sodium-glucose cotransport. The glomerulus is where blood is filtered, not where anything is reabsorbed. The distal tubule and collecting duct fine-tune water and salt balance under hormonal control.
Which cells secrete antibodies?
Answer: A
Antibodies are secreted by plasma cells, which develop from activated B lymphocytes. Helper T cells help activate B cells but make no antibodies; cytotoxic T cells kill infected cells directly; neutrophils and macrophages are phagocytes.
A neutral atom of chlorine-37 (atomic number 17) contains
Answer: E
The atomic number gives the protons: 17. The mass number, 37, counts protons and neutrons together, so there are 37 − 17 = 20 neutrons. A neutral atom has as many electrons as protons: 17.
Two isotopes of the same element differ in
Answer: A
Isotopes have the same number of protons (the same atomic number, so they are the same element in the same place in the periodic table) but different numbers of neutrons, and so different mass numbers. Their neutral atoms have the same number of electrons, which is why their chemical properties are almost identical.
Which element has the highest electronegativity?
Answer: D
Electronegativity increases across a period and decreases down a group, so fluorine, at the top right of the periodic table (noble gases aside), is the most electronegative element (4.0 on the Pauling scale). Oxygen comes second; sodium, an alkali metal, is among the least electronegative.
Which of these molecules is polar?
Answer: C
Water's O–H bonds are polar and the molecule is bent, so the bond dipoles do not cancel and the molecule is polar. CO₂ also has polar bonds, but it is linear and its two dipoles cancel; CH₄ and CCl₄ are symmetrical tetrahedra, and N₂ has no polar bond at all.
What is the mass of 0.25 mol of calcium carbonate, CaCO₃? (Ca = 40, C = 12, O = 16)
Answer: B
The molar mass of CaCO₃ is 40 + 12 + 3 × 16 = 100 g/mol, so 0.25 mol has a mass of 0.25 × 100 = 25 g. Dividing instead of multiplying (100 ÷ 0.25) gives 400 g.
In the reaction 2H₂ + O₂ → 2H₂O, how many moles of water are formed from 3 mol of oxygen with hydrogen in excess?
Answer: E
The equation gives 2 mol of water for every 1 mol of oxygen. With hydrogen in excess, oxygen limits the reaction, so 3 mol of O₂ gives 2 × 3 = 6 mol of H₂O.
4.0 g of sodium hydroxide (NaOH, M = 40 g/mol) is dissolved in water to make 250 mL of solution. What is its concentration?
Answer: E
Moles of NaOH: 4.0 ÷ 40 = 0.10 mol. Concentration is moles per litre of solution, and 250 mL is 0.250 L, so 0.10 ÷ 0.250 = 0.40 mol/L. Forgetting to convert millilitres to litres, or stopping at the number of moles (0.1), are the usual slips.
For the exothermic equilibrium N₂(g) + 3H₂(g) ⇌ 2NH₃(g), which change shifts the equilibrium towards ammonia?
Answer: E
There are 4 mol of gas on the left and 2 on the right, so raising the pressure favours the side with fewer gas molecules, ammonia (Le Chatelier's principle). The forward reaction is exothermic, so raising the temperature shifts the equilibrium back towards nitrogen and hydrogen. A catalyst speeds up both directions equally and does not move the equilibrium.
What is the pH of a 0.001 mol/L solution of hydrochloric acid?
Answer: D
HCl is a strong acid and dissociates completely, so [H⁺] = 0.001 = 10⁻³ mol/L, and pH = −log[H⁺] = 3. A pH of 11 would be the answer for a 0.001 mol/L solution of a strong base such as NaOH.
In the reaction Zn + Cu²⁺ → Zn²⁺ + Cu, which species is reduced?
Answer: D
Reduction is gain of electrons. Cu²⁺ gains two electrons to become Cu, so it is reduced (and acts as the oxidising agent). Zinc loses two electrons to become Zn²⁺: it is oxidised and acts as the reducing agent.
Which compound is a structural isomer of butane, C₄H₁₀?
Answer: C
Isomers have the same molecular formula but different structures. 2-methylpropane (isobutane) is also C₄H₁₀, with a branched chain. Propane is C₃H₈; but-1-ene and cyclobutane are both C₄H₈, two hydrogens short; butan-1-ol, C₄H₁₀O, contains oxygen.
A carboxylic acid reacts with an alcohol, with an acid catalyst. What are the products?
Answer: A
This is esterification: the acid and the alcohol condense to an ester, losing a molecule of water. Ethanoic acid and ethanol, for example, give ethyl ethanoate and water. An amide forms from an acid (or its derivative) and an amine, not an alcohol.
A car starts from rest and accelerates uniformly to 20 m/s in 5 s. How far does it travel in that time?
Answer: B
With uniform acceleration from rest, the average speed is (0 + 20) ÷ 2 = 10 m/s, so the distance is 10 × 5 = 50 m. Using the final speed for the whole time gives 100 m, twice the true distance; 4 is the acceleration in m/s², not a distance.
A 2 kg object is lifted vertically through 3 m. By how much does its gravitational potential energy increase? (g = 10 m/s²)
Answer: D
The increase in gravitational potential energy is mgh = 2 × 10 × 3 = 60 J. 6 J leaves out g; 30 J would come from halving the result, as if using the ½ of the kinetic-energy formula.
An ideal fluid flows at 0.4 m/s through a pipe with a cross-section of 6 cm². The pipe then narrows to a cross-section of 2 cm². How fast does the fluid flow in the narrow section?
Answer: D
By the continuity equation, named in the 2027/28 physics syllabus, the flow rate Q = A × v is the same in every section of the pipe: 6 × 0.4 = 2 × v, so v = 1.2 m/s. The cross-section falls to a third, so the speed triples. 0.13 m/s divides by 3 instead of multiplying; 0.4 m/s assumes the speed does not change; 2.4 m/s multiplies the speed by the area.
Two 6 Ω resistors are connected in parallel across a 12 V battery. What current flows from the battery?
Answer: C
Two equal resistors in parallel have half the resistance of one: 6 ÷ 2 = 3 Ω. The current is V ÷ R = 12 ÷ 3 = 4 A (2 A through each resistor). Treating them as in series, 12 Ω, gives 1 A.
What is (2⁵ × 2³) ÷ 2⁶?
Answer: E
When multiplying powers of the same base, add the exponents; when dividing, subtract them: 2⁵⁺³⁻⁶ = 2² = 4. 2¹⁴ comes from adding all three exponents.
For which values of x is x² − 5x + 6 < 0?
Answer: B
x² − 5x + 6 = (x − 2)(x − 3), which is zero at x = 2 and x = 3. The parabola opens upwards, so it is negative only between its roots: 2 < x < 3. "x < 2 or x > 3" is where the expression is positive.
Two fair six-sided dice are rolled. What is the probability that the two scores add up to 7?
Answer: D
There are 6 × 6 = 36 equally likely outcomes, and 6 of them add up to 7: (1,6), (2,5), (3,4), (4,3), (5,2) and (6,1). The probability is 6/36 = 1/6. Counting each pair only once, (1,6) and (6,1) as one outcome, gives the wrong 3/36 = 1/12.
What is the value of sin 30° + cos 60°?
Answer: E
sin 30° = 1/2 and cos 60° = 1/2, so the sum is 1. The two are equal because 30° and 60° are complementary angles, and the sine of an angle equals the cosine of its complement.
In which city does the World Health Organization have its headquarters?
Answer: C
The WHO, the United Nations agency for health, has its headquarters in Geneva. Rome hosts the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), another UN agency, which makes it the tempting wrong answer; New York hosts the UN's own headquarters, and Brussels the main institutions of the European Union.
When did the Constitution of the Italian Republic come into force?
Answer: C
The Constitution came into force on 1 January 1948, after the Constituent Assembly approved it in December 1947. 2 June 1946 is the referendum that chose the republic (and the day the Assembly was elected); 25 April 1945 is Liberation Day, and 1 January 1958 the date the treaty creating the European Economic Community took effect.
Dignitas personae (2008), the Instruction on certain bioethical questions on Cattolica's reading list, was issued by
Answer: B
Dignitas personae is an Instruction of the Congregation (now the Dicastery) for the Doctrine of the Faith, approved by Pope Benedict XVI and dated 8 September 2008. It updates the Congregation's earlier Instruction Donum vitae (1987) in the light of new biomedical techniques. The Pontifical Academy for Life studies bioethical questions but does not issue doctrinal instructions.
According to Dignitas personae, from what moment is the human being to be respected and treated as a person?
Answer: A
The Instruction restates the principle that the human being is to be respected and treated as a person from the moment of conception, and that the dignity of a person must be recognised in every human being from conception to natural death. The other moments are thresholds proposed in secular bioethical debates, such as the fourteen-day limit on embryo research, which the Instruction does not accept.
Which of the following does Dignitas personae consider morally acceptable?
Answer: C
The Instruction judges the use of adult stem cells licit when they are obtained without serious harm to the person they are taken from, and it encourages such research. It rejects producing embryos for research, the cryopreservation of embryos, preimplantation diagnosis aimed at discarding embryos, and human cloning, because each of these treats the embryo as a means rather than as a person.
In Catholic moral teaching, giving a dying patient painkillers that may, as a side effect, shorten their life is
Answer: E
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (2279) teaches that using painkillers to relieve the sufferings of the dying, even at the risk of shortening their days, can be in conformity with human dignity if death is not willed as an end or a means, only foreseen and tolerated. This is the principle of double effect: the act aims at relieving pain. Hastening death at the patient's request would be euthanasia, which the same teaching rejects.
The encyclical Caritas in veritate (2009), on integral human development, was written by
Answer: D
Caritas in veritate is Benedict XVI's social encyclical, signed on 29 June 2009. It takes up and updates Paul VI's Populorum progressio (1967), on the development of peoples, arguing that development must be integral, of the whole person and of every person, and grounded in charity and truth. Rerum novarum (1891) is Leo XIII's founding social encyclical.
About this paper
Università Cattolica publishes no past papers for its English-taught Medicine and Surgery test. Its Entrance exam page offers free PDFs instead: the topics to study for the science questions, a database of 3,000 logic-type questions compiled in 2015 by Selexi, its test partner, without answers by design, and a guide with worked solutions to a selection of them, written for the 2016 test. Paying the €210 application fee unlocks an online simulator of about 3,000 questions from previous years' tests; the real test draws none of its questions from it. The practice paper on this page is IvyTest's own.
This paper keeps the format of the 2027/28 call (65 five-option questions in the official subject mix, scored +1, −0.25 and 0) and the kinds of logic question Cattolica's own free materials show. Every question on it is new, and every one has its answer explained.
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