HUMAT · Free guide

HUMAT Test Guide 2027: free PDF download

Checked against Humanitas's official documents on 18 October 2026. The 2027/28 call is not out yet; figures are from 2026/27.

Key figures

questions, five options each
60
in three timed sections
120 min
subjects, ten questions each
6
maximum score
960

Everything you need to start preparing for the HUMAT, Humanitas University's admission test for Medicine and Surgery and MEDTEC: the format, the 2027 syllabus, how it is scored, a strategy and three sample questions with worked answers. Read it here or download it as a PDF. It follows Humanitas's own 2026/27 call and Syllabi 2027; the 2027/28 call is not out yet.

Download the free PDFThe same guide as this page, printed: free, no sign-up.

In short

  • 60 multiple-choice questions, five options each, in English, sat online from home under remote invigilation, without a calculator.
  • Three sections, each with its own clock: Scientific Thinking & Academic Literacy (45 minutes), Biology & Chemistry (35), Mathematics & Physics (40).
  • A correct answer is worth +10 to +22 points depending on the section and the ranking; a wrong one costs a quarter of that; a blank scores 0.
  • Every section has a minimum (88, 64 and 40 for Medicine and Surgery): miss one and you are not ranked, whatever your total.
  • Two rounds a year, and only your better score counts.

What the HUMAT is

The HUMAT is Humanitas University's own admission test, the HU Admission Test in its calls, for its two English-taught medical degrees in Milan: Medicine and Surgery, and the MEDTEC School run with Politecnico di Milano. It is not the national IMAT. EU and non-EU candidates sit the same test and are ranked on separate lists.

Humanitas says the test's aim is "not to evaluate previous knowledge, but to measure the skills and abilities relevant to undertaking highly scientific courses of study". In practice a third of the paper is reasoning and reading, and the science questions reward applying a principle more than recalling a fact.

Format: three sections, 60 questions, 120 minutes

SectionSubjectsQuestionsTime
1Scientific Thinking, Academic Literacy10 + 1045 min
2Biology, Chemistry10 + 1035 min
3Mathematics, Physics10 + 1040 min
TotalSix subjects60120 min

You can finish a section early but never go back to one you have closed. Six reserve questions, one per subject, follow the 60 with 12 more minutes; they count only if one of the 60 is withdrawn.

The 2027 syllabus at a glance

Humanitas posted Syllabi 2027 on 1 October 2026. Shortened, subject by subject:

  • Scientific Thinking: interpreting graphs and formulae, orders of magnitude, following a procedure or flow chart, testing data against a theory, three-dimensional and visual reasoning.
  • Academic Literacy: scientific texts of about 700 words at C1 level; critical thinking, scanning, skimming and how paragraphs relate.
  • Biology: the chemistry of living things, the cell, bioenergetics (new: the Krebs cycle, oxidative phosphorylation, fermentation), inheritance (new: ABO and Rhesus blood groups), molecular genetics, human physiology.
  • Chemistry: atomic structure and the periodic table, bonding, reactions and stoichiometry, equilibrium (new: Le Chatelier, osmosis), acids and bases (new: Henderson-Hasselbalch), redox, introductory organic chemistry.
  • Mathematics: algebra and functions, analytic geometry and trigonometry, logic, probability (new: conditional probability and Bayes' theorem) and statistics.
  • Physics: kinematics and dynamics, fluids (new: gauge and absolute pressure) and optics, thermodynamics, electricity and magnetism.

Scoring and the section minimums

The same 60 answers are marked twice, once for each ranking, with different weights. A wrong answer always costs a quarter of a correct one in that section, so the maximum is 960 on both.

Points for a correct / wrong answer; a blank scores 0. From the 2026/27 call.

SectionMedicine and SurgeryMEDTEC SchoolMinimum (Medicine / MEDTEC)
Scientific Thinking & Academic Literacy+22 / −5.5+10 / −2.588 / 40
Biology & Chemistry+16 / −4+16 / −464 / 64
Mathematics & Physics+10 / −2.5+22 / −5.540 / 88

A strategy that fits the scoring

  1. 01

    Respect the section clocks

    Each section closes for good. Practise every section on its own timer: 2 minutes 15 seconds a question in the first, 1 minute 45 in the second, 2 minutes in the third.

  2. 02

    Guess only after ruling options out

    With five options and a quarter-point penalty, a blind guess is worth nothing on average. Rule out one option and a guess gains; rule out two and it gains a lot.

  3. 03

    Never leave a section weak

    A section below its minimum takes you off the ranking, so a strong total cannot rescue it. For Medicine, the first section carries the most points and the highest minimum.

  4. 04

    Cover what is new in 2027

    Bioenergetics, blood groups, Le Chatelier, buffers, conditional probability and Bayes' theorem joined the syllabus; photosynthesis and combinatorics left it.

  5. 05

    Sit full papers, then review every miss

    Take the free practice paper under real timing, then go through every wrong answer and every lucky guess before the next one.

  6. 06

    Use both rounds

    Only your better score of the two rounds counts, so the first round is also your best rehearsal.

Three sample questions with answers

  1. 01

    Biology

    In aerobic respiration, which stage produces the most ATP per molecule of glucose? A) Glycolysis B) The link reaction C) The Krebs cycle D) Oxidative phosphorylation E) Alcoholic fermentation. Answer: D. Oxidative phosphorylation makes most of the ATP, using the NADH and FADH₂ from the earlier stages; glycolysis and the Krebs cycle make two each, the link reaction none, and fermentation is not part of aerobic respiration.

  2. 02

    Mathematics

    A test is positive in 90% of people with a condition and in 10% of people without it. 10% of a group have the condition. A person from the group tests positive: how likely is it that they have it? A) 9% B) 10% C) 50% D) 81% E) 90%. Answer: C. Positives with the condition are 0.1 × 0.9 = 0.09 of the group, positives without it 0.9 × 0.1 = 0.09, so half of all positives have it (Bayes' theorem).

  3. 03

    Scientific Thinking

    Kinetic energy is E = ½mv². If an object's speed doubles and its mass halves, what happens to E? A) It halves B) It stays the same C) It doubles D) It quadruples E) It increases eightfold. Answer: C. ½ × (m/2) × (2v)² = ½ × (m/2) × 4v² = 2 × ½mv².

Questions

Is the HUMAT Test Guide PDF free?

Yes. The PDF is free to download from this page, with no account or sign-up. It holds the same text as the page.

Does Humanitas publish an official HUMAT PDF?

Humanitas publishes the call, Syllabi 2027 (the official topic list), the scoring tables and a technical guide as PDFs, but no past papers or sample test. This guide and IvyTest's practice paper are IvyTest's own, written to that syllabus and format.

Is the guide up to date for 2027?

It follows Syllabi 2027, posted on 1 October 2026, and the 2026/27 call. The 2027/28 call, with the dates and any change to the format, was not out when this guide was last checked; when it is, the guide is updated.

Official sources

Every figure on this page was read on the source itself on the date above. (18 October 2026)

Practise in the real format

The free practice paper has 60 questions in the current three-section format, every answer explained. When you want more, the IvyTest Humanitas package adds a full simulator, the study guide and lessons.

Take the free HUMAT practice testSee Humanitas preparation

The HUMAT, one question at a time

Also on IvyTest