Official topics · annotated
University of Debrecen Entrance Exam 2027: Full Topic List (Syllabus)
Debrecen's written entrance exam is Biology, which everyone sits, plus Chemistry or Physics, each official sample test with 20 five-option questions and written tasks, and an oral on the same two subjects follows. Everything the papers cover is on the university's three official topic lists for the medical programmes, quoted here in full: 16 Biology topics, 33 in Chemistry and 30 in Physics.
All 79 topics of University of Debrecen's official topic list, in its own words, each with what to know, the IvyTest lessons that teach it and the questions of our free sample test that test it. Tick a topic off when you have it; your ticks stay in this browser.
Based on "Exam topics and sample tests: Topics on Biology, Chemistry and Physics for Admission Test (Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy and BMC Programs)", the page on University of Debrecen's admissions site, as it read on 30 October 2026 (the page carries no date of its own). The official wording is quoted as printed; the notes and links are IvyTest's.
Before you start
How to use this list
The University of Debrecen's "Exam topics and sample tests" page links one topic list and one sample test per subject "for Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy and BMC Programs". Each list is a one-page PDF (all three created 11 May 2021) that names topics only, with no weighting, and closes with the textbook it is drawn from: Sadava et al., Life: The Science of Biology (8th edition); McMurry and Fay, Chemistry (6th edition, 2012); Serway, Faughn and Vuille, College Physics (9th edition, 2012). Biology numbers its 16 topics. Chemistry and Physics put one topic on each line under capitalised headings, without numbers, so each line is one topic here, numbered in the PDF's order and quoted as printed, slips included ("spring potentional energy", "Thermodinamics", "Kirchoff's laws"). You sit Biology and one of the other two: work through Biology and the subject you will choose a heading at a time, read the note, learn it from the lesson, then check yourself on the sample test's questions before you tick it.
The lessons are part of the University of Debrecen Complete Admissions System and open for students who have it; a lesson marked "members" links to the University of Debrecen guide, which says what it includes.
0 of 79 topics ticked
Debrecen Entrance Exam
What's not on the test
Mathematics, English and logic. The entrance-exam page sets "a written test (comprised of multiple-choice questions, definitions, calculations, etc.) in Biology (compulsory for all) and Chemistry or Physics (the applicant's choice)", then an oral in the same subjects, and the topics page offers Mathematics only "for Non-Medical BSc Programs". Your English is not a paper of its own: the Medicine page says it is "assessed at the compulsory entrance examination".
Nor do you sit all three sciences: only the Chemistry or the Physics list applies to you, whichever you choose. The Non-Medical BSc lists on the same page are for other programmes.
16 topics
Biology
Cell Structure and Function
What to know: The eukaryotic cell against the prokaryotic, and each organelle with its job: nucleus, ribosomes, rough and smooth ER, Golgi, lysosomes, mitochondria, chloroplasts, cytoskeleton and membrane.
Lesson (members): Cell theory, prokaryotes & eukaryotesLesson (members): Cell structure & organellesSample question 1Sample question 2
Metabolism and Enzymes
What to know: Glycolysis, the citric acid cycle and the respiratory chain (biological oxidation), the light and dark reactions of photosynthesis, and enzymes: active site, specificity, activation energy, inhibition.
Lesson (members): Proteins & enzymesLesson (members): ATP, redox & energy couplingLesson (members): Glycolysis & cellular respirationLesson (members): PhotosynthesisSample question 3Sample question 4
DNA, Replication and Protein Synthesis
What to know: The double helix (nucleotides, base pairing, antiparallel strands), the triplet code and its properties, and semi-conservative replication with its enzymes.
Lesson (members): Nucleic acids & nucleotidesLesson (members): DNA structure & replicationSample question 6
Cell Division
What to know: Chromatin and how it condenses into chromosomes, chromatids and centromeres, and what the chromosomes do in each phase of mitosis.
Cell Division
What to know: The two meiotic divisions, crossing-over and independent assortment, chromosome and chromatid numbers at each stage, and why meiosis matters: haploid gametes and variation.
Genetics and Inheritance
What to know: The vocabulary (genotype, phenotype, allele, homo- and heterozygous), monohybrid crosses and their ratios, dominance against co-dominance (the ABO groups), and the law of segregation.
Lesson (members): Mendelian geneticsLesson (members): Non-Mendelian & human geneticsSample question 10
Genetics and Inheritance
What to know: X-linked recessive traits (carriers, affected sons), dihybrid crosses and the 9:3:3:1 ratio, the law of independent assortment, and how linkage and crossing-over change the ratios.
Lesson (members): Mendelian geneticsLesson (members): Non-Mendelian & human geneticsSample question 9
DNA, Replication and Protein Synthesis
What to know: Transcription into mRNA, then translation on the ribosome: the roles of mRNA, rRNA and tRNA, codons and anticodons, initiation, elongation and termination.
Lesson (members): Transcription, RNA & translationSample question 5
Respiration and Circulation
What to know: The airways and alveoli, the mechanics of breathing, gas exchange and partial pressures, how blood carries oxygen and carbon dioxide, and how breathing is regulated.
Lesson (members): Respiratory system & gas exchangeSample question 12
Respiration and Circulation
What to know: The heart's chambers and valves, the cardiac cycle, the pulmonary and systemic circuits, arteries, veins and capillaries, and blood pressure.
Lesson (members): Cardiovascular system & bloodSample question 11
Digestion and Excretion
What to know: The tract from mouth to anus in order, the glands and their secretions (saliva, gastric juice, bile, pancreatic juice), what digests what, and absorption in the small intestine.
Lesson (members): Digestive system & nutritionSample question 13
Digestion and Excretion
What to know: The kidney and the nephron: filtration, reabsorption and secretion along the tubule, urine formation, and the hormones that adjust it (ADH, aldosterone).
Lesson (members): Urinary system, kidney & osmoregulationSample question 14
Nervous and Endocrine Regulation
What to know: Central and peripheral, somatic and autonomic divisions, the neuron, the resting and action potential, synapses and reflexes, and the nervous system's part in homeostasis.
Lesson (members): Nervous system & sensory physiologySample question 15
Nervous and Endocrine Regulation
What to know: The endocrine glands and their hormones, hypothalamic and pituitary control, negative feedback (thyroid, blood glucose) and the female cycle's hormones.
Lesson (members): Endocrine system & hormonesLesson (members): Integrated physiology & homeostatic controlSample question 16
Muscle and Locomotion
What to know: The muscle fibre and the sarcomere, the sliding filament mechanism with calcium, troponin and ATP, and how muscles, bones and joints produce movement.
Lesson (members): Muscular systemLesson (members): Skeletal system, bones & jointsSample question 17Sample question 18
Immunity and Defence
What to know: Innate defences, then adaptive immunity: B cells, plasma cells and antibodies (humoral), T cells (cellular), memory, and active against passive immunity.
Lesson (members): Innate & adaptive immunityLesson (members): Infection, vaccination & host defenceSample question 19Sample question 20
18 topics
Chemistry: General Chemistry
Measurement and Classification of Matter
What to know: The SI base units, prefixes from nano to mega, and converting between units (g/dm³ to mg/cm³, cm³ to dm³).
Lesson (members): Measurement, quantities & the moleSample question 21
Measurement and Classification of Matter
What to know: Pure substances (elements and compounds) against mixtures, homogeneous against heterogeneous, and how mixtures are separated.
Measurement and Classification of Matter
What to know: The symbols of the common elements and what an element is, as against a compound.
Atomic Structure and the Periodic Table
What to know: Protons, neutrons and electrons, atomic and mass number, isotopes and ions.
Lesson (members): Atomic structure & electronic configurationSample question 22
Stoichiometry and Mass Relationships
What to know: Relative atomic and molecular mass, the mole and Avogadro's number, molar mass, and converting between mass, moles and particles.
Lesson (members): Measurement, quantities & the moleSample question 26
Stoichiometry and Mass Relationships
What to know: Balancing equations and calculating amounts from them, including the limiting reactant and yield.
Lesson (members): Stoichiometry & chemical equationsSample question 27
Atomic Structure and the Periodic Table
What to know: The four quantum numbers, s, p, d and f orbitals, the Aufbau order, Pauli's principle and Hund's rule, and writing configurations.
Lesson (members): Atomic structure & electronic configuration
Atomic Structure and the Periodic Table
What to know: Groups and periods, and the trends in atomic radius, ionisation energy, electron affinity and electronegativity, with their exceptions.
Lesson (members): Periodic table & periodic trendsSample question 23
Chemical Bonding and Intermolecular Forces
What to know: Ionic, covalent (polar and non-polar) and metallic bonds, and how electronegativity difference decides which forms.
Chemical Bonding and Intermolecular Forces
What to know: Drawing Lewis structures, predicting shapes and bond angles from electron pairs, molecular polarity, and sigma and pi bonds with hybridisation.
Lesson (members): Chemical bonding & molecular structureSample question 24
Chemical Bonding and Intermolecular Forces
What to know: London forces, dipole-dipole forces and hydrogen bonds, and how they set boiling points and solubility.
States of Matter and Gas Laws
What to know: Boyle's, Charles's and Gay-Lussac's laws and pV = nRT, molar volume in reaction calculations, and the kinetic-molecular model behind them.
Lesson (members): States of matter & gas lawsSample question 28
States of Matter and Gas Laws
What to know: Properties of liquids and the types of solid, melting, boiling and sublimation, and reading a phase diagram.
Solutions and Chemical Equilibrium
What to know: Concentration as molarity and mass or volume percent, dilution, solubility, and strong, weak and non-electrolytes.
Lesson (members): Solutions, solubility & concentrationSample question 29
Solutions and Chemical Equilibrium
What to know: Dynamic equilibrium, writing K from an equation, and Le Chatelier's principle for concentration, pressure and temperature changes.
Acids and Bases
What to know: Brønsted-Lowry acids and bases, pH and pOH of strong acids and bases, Ka and Kb, and the pH of a weak acid or base solution.
Lesson (members): Acids, bases, pH & buffersSample question 31Sample question 32
Thermochemistry
What to know: Exothermic and endothermic reactions, internal energy, work and enthalpy, and reaction enthalpies from enthalpies of formation or Hess's law.
Lesson (members): Thermochemistry & thermodynamicsSample question 33
Oxidation and Reduction
What to know: Assigning oxidation states, oxidising and reducing agents, what the activity series predicts, and balancing redox equations by electrons.
Lesson (members): Redox & electrochemistrySample question 34
6 topics
Chemistry: Inorganic Chemistry
Inorganic Chemistry
What to know: Hydrogen and oxygen as elements, water and hydrogen peroxide, oxides and hydrides.
Lesson (members): Inorganic compounds & properties of elements
Inorganic Chemistry
What to know: Group 17's trend in reactivity, displacement reactions between halogens and halides, hydrogen halides and halide salts.
Lesson (members): Inorganic compounds & properties of elementsSample question 35
Inorganic Chemistry
What to know: Group 18: full outer shells, why they are so unreactive, and their uses.
Lesson (members): Inorganic compounds & properties of elements
Inorganic Chemistry
What to know: Ammonia, the nitrogen oxides and nitric acid, phosphoric acid and phosphates, and the sulfur oxides, sulfuric acid and sulfides.
Lesson (members): Inorganic compounds & properties of elementsSample question 36
Inorganic Chemistry
What to know: Diamond, graphite and the fullerenes, carbon monoxide and dioxide, carbonic acid and carbonates.
Lesson (members): Inorganic compounds & properties of elements
Inorganic Chemistry
What to know: The alkali and alkaline-earth metals and aluminium, their reactions with water and acids, and the transition metals' variable oxidation states and coloured ions.
Lesson (members): Inorganic compounds & properties of elements
9 topics
Chemistry: Organic Chemistry
Hydrocarbons and Aromatics
What to know: Carbon's four bonds, single, double and triple bonds with their sp³, sp² and sp geometry.
Hydrocarbons and Aromatics
What to know: Naming and properties of each family, substitution in alkanes and addition to alkenes and alkynes (the bromine-water test).
Lesson (members): Hydrocarbons & aromatic compoundsSample question 37
Hydrocarbons and Aromatics
What to know: Benzene's delocalised ring, why it substitutes rather than adds, and rings containing nitrogen or oxygen such as pyridine.
Functional Groups and Derivatives
What to know: Primary, secondary and tertiary alcohols and their oxidation, phenol's greater acidity, and ethers.
Lesson (members): Alcohols, phenols, ethers & thiolsSample question 38Sample question 39
Functional Groups and Derivatives
What to know: The carbonyl group, how aldehydes and ketones are made and named, and the tests that tell them apart.
Functional Groups and Derivatives
What to know: The carboxyl group and its acidity, and substituted acids such as hydroxy, keto, halogenated and amino acids.
Functional Groups and Derivatives
What to know: Esterification and ester hydrolysis, amides and the peptide bond, and acid anhydrides.
Functional Groups and Derivatives
What to know: Primary, secondary and tertiary amines and their basicity, amides, and nitrogen heterocycles.
Isomerism
What to know: Chain, position and functional-group isomers, cis-trans isomers about a double bond, and chiral carbons and enantiomers.
Lesson (members): Isomerism & stereochemistrySample question 40
8 topics
Physics: Mechanics
Kinematics and Vectors
What to know: Displacement, velocity and acceleration, the equations of uniformly accelerated motion, motion graphs, and free fall with g.
Kinematics and Vectors
What to know: Adding and resolving vectors, relative velocity, and projectile motion as two independent motions.
Lesson (members): Measurement, units, scalars & vectorsLesson (members): KinematicsSample question 42
Newton's Laws and Forces
What to know: Newton's three laws, free-body diagrams, action-reaction pairs, and static and kinetic friction.
Lesson (members): Forces & Newtonian dynamicsSample question 43Sample question 44
Work, Energy and Momentum
What to know: Work and power, kinetic, gravitational and elastic potential energy, the work-energy theorem, and conservation of mechanical energy.
Work, Energy and Momentum
What to know: Momentum and impulse, conservation of momentum, and elastic against inelastic collisions.
Lesson (members): Momentum, impulse & collisionsSample question 45
Rotational Motion and Gravitation
What to know: Angular displacement, velocity and acceleration, centripetal acceleration and force, and Newton's law of universal gravitation with orbits.
Rotational Motion and Gravitation
What to know: Torque, the two conditions for equilibrium (no net force, no net torque), balancing about a pivot, and moment of inertia.
Lesson (members): Statics, equilibrium & gravitationLesson (members): Forces & Newtonian dynamicsSample question 47
Solids and Fluids
What to know: Density, pressure in a fluid and gauge pressure, buoyancy by Archimedes' principle, and when an object floats.
Lesson (members): Fluid statics & dynamicsSample question 48Sample question 49
3 topics
Physics: Thermodinamics
Thermodynamics
What to know: Temperature scales and thermal equilibrium, the gas laws and the kinetic model of a gas, and linear and volume expansion.
Lesson (members): Gases & molecular physicsLesson (members): Heat & thermodynamics
Thermodynamics
What to know: Heat against internal energy, Q = mcΔT, latent heat, and mixing problems in an insulated container.
Thermodynamics
What to know: The first law (ΔU = Q - W), work done by a gas at constant pressure, the second law, heat engines and their efficiency, and entropy.
3 topics
Physics: Vibrations and Waves
Vibrations and Waves
What to know: F = -kx, elastic potential energy, simple harmonic motion and the periods of a mass on a spring and of a simple pendulum.
Vibrations and Waves
What to know: Transverse and longitudinal waves, v = fλ, superposition, constructive and destructive interference, and standing waves.
Lesson (members): Oscillations, waves & soundSample question 52
Vibrations and Waves
What to know: Sound as a longitudinal wave, its speed, pitch and loudness, intensity, and the Doppler shift for a moving source or observer.
Lesson (members): Oscillations, waves & soundSample question 53
7 topics
Physics: Electricity and Magnetism
Electricity and Circuits
What to know: Charge and its conservation, conductors and insulators, Coulomb's law and the inverse square, and the electric field of a point charge.
Electricity and Circuits
What to know: Potential and potential difference, capacitance C = Q/V, the parallel-plate capacitor and the energy it stores.
Electricity and Circuits
What to know: Current, resistance and resistivity, Ohm's law, electrical power, and how a metal's resistance rises with temperature.
Electricity and Circuits
What to know: Series and parallel combinations, Kirchhoff's current and voltage laws, and how a capacitor charges and discharges through a resistor.
Lesson (members): Current, circuits & electrical powerSample question 54Sample question 55
Magnetism and Induction
What to know: Magnetic fields of magnets and currents, the force on a moving charge (F = qvB) and on a current, and circular motion of a charge in a field.
Lesson (members): Magnetism & electromagnetismSample question 56
Magnetism and Induction
What to know: Magnetic flux, Faraday's and Lenz's laws, the emf of a moving conductor, and self-inductance.
Magnetism and Induction
What to know: Alternating current and voltage, peak against rms values, and how resistors and capacitors behave in an AC circuit.
3 topics
Physics: Light and Optics
Light and Optics
What to know: Light as an electromagnetic wave, the law of reflection, Snell's law and refractive index, and the critical angle.
Lesson (members): Geometrical & physical opticsSample question 58
Light and Optics
What to know: What polarised light is, polarising filters and Malus's law, and polarisation by reflection.
Light and Optics
What to know: Images in a flat mirror, converging and diverging lenses, ray diagrams, the thin-lens equation and magnification.
Lesson (members): Geometrical & physical opticsSample question 57
6 topics
Physics: Modern Physics
Modern Physics
What to know: The speed of light in a vacuum, about 3 × 10⁸ m/s, the same for every observer.
Modern Physics
What to know: The two postulates of special relativity and their consequences: time dilation, length contraction and E = mc².
Modern Physics
What to know: Emission and absorption spectra from energy levels, the photon energy E = hf, and how the exclusion principle builds the periodic table.
Modern Physics
What to know: Mass defect and binding energy, alpha, beta and gamma decay, half-life and activity.
Lesson (members): Nuclear physics & radiationSample question 60
Modern Physics
What to know: Why both fission of heavy nuclei and fusion of light ones release energy, read from the binding energy per nucleon curve, and chain reactions.
Lesson (members): Nuclear physics & radiationSample question 59
Modern Physics
What to know: Quarks and leptons, protons and neutrons as made of quarks, antiparticles, and the four fundamental forces.
Next step
Test yourself on the list
The free sample test sets 60 questions in the exam's own format, every one explained. The Debrecen Entrance Exam guide has the format, dates and scoring in full.