Medical University of Lublin admission · Qualification Test
Every candidate for Medicine in English at the Medical University of Lublin sits the Qualification Test, whichever admission path they follow, and it is worth 100 of the 500 points. It is short (20 questions in 20 minutes in 2026/27) and it tests terminology: the key terms and concepts of the life and mathematical sciences. Lublin publishes no topic list for it, only a reading list of six textbooks. This page sets out what the test is, what to study from that reading list, and a 20-question practice set to sit against a 20-minute clock.
Qualification Test
Medical University of Lublin admission · Qualification Test
With no topic list, the reading list is the official guide to scope: Campbell and Reece's Biology, Purves's Life: The Science of Biology, Solomon's Biology and his Introduction to Human Anatomy and Physiology, Junqueira's Basic Histology, and Patton, Thibodeau and Hutton's Anatomy and Physiology. Lublin adds that the list 'is not comprehensive'. The blocks below are IvyTest's grouping of the terms those books teach; know each well enough to define it in a sentence and pick it out among four look-alikes.
The organelles and what each does (nucleus, ribosome, rough and smooth endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi apparatus, lysosome, mitochondrion, centriole), membranes and transport (diffusion, osmosis, active transport, endocytosis, exocytosis), and the words for cells in solutions (hypotonic, isotonic, hypertonic).
The cell cycle and division: interphase, mitosis and its phases, cytokinesis, meiosis, haploid and diploid.
Gene, allele, locus, genotype, phenotype, homozygous, heterozygous, dominant, recessive, codominant; DNA, RNA, codon, anticodon, transcription, translation, mutation, and the words for chromosome changes (trisomy, deletion, translocation).
The four tissue types (epithelial, connective, muscle, nervous) and their main kinds; directional and body-plane terms (anterior, posterior, proximal, distal, sagittal, transverse); and the vocabulary of each organ system, from systole and diastole to nephron, alveolus and synapse.
Medical word parts are fair game: prefixes such as hyper-, hypo-, tachy-, brady- and suffixes such as -itis, -ectomy, -otomy, -ostomy, -pathy and -scopy.
Bacteria, viruses, fungi and protozoa told apart; pathogen, host, vector, antibiotic, antiviral; antigen, antibody, innate and adaptive immunity, B and T lymphocytes, vaccination and immunological memory.
Atom, ion, isotope, covalent and ionic bond, pH, acid, base, buffer; the biomolecules (carbohydrate, lipid, protein, nucleic acid) and their monomers; enzyme, substrate, active site.
The 'mathematical sciences' side is vocabulary too: units and prefixes (milli-, micro-, nano-), percentage, ratio, proportion, mean, median and range, and basic physics words such as force, energy, pressure and frequency.
Medical University of Lublin Entrance Exam
In 2026/27 the test was 20 multiple-choice questions in 20 minutes, one correct answer each, online with your camera and microphone on, taken in one sitting after an identity check; the invitation and link arrived one or two days before, and the Zoom interview followed straight after. The 2027/28 conditions keep the test for every candidate and set the minimum at 50 of 100, but say its details will be announced by 15 December 2026, so check them then.
A minute a question leaves no time to work things out from first principles: the test rewards terms you know on sight. Learn them actively, by writing a one-line definition and an example for each, and practise against the clock.
Qualification Test
One set in the test's 2026/27 format: 20 questions, one correct answer each, 20 minutes. They are IvyTest's, written for this page and different from the 20 in the practice paper; none is an official question. The answers and explanations are open below each one; cover them while you work.
Which organelle is the site of protein synthesis?
Answer: A
Ribosomes join amino acids into polypeptides, reading the mRNA. Lysosomes digest material, centrioles organise the spindle in animal cells, vacuoles store substances, and peroxisomes break down fatty acids and hydrogen peroxide.
A solution with a lower solute concentration than the cytoplasm of a cell is described as:
Answer: B
A hypotonic solution has less solute than the cell, so water moves into the cell by osmosis; a red cell placed in it swells and may burst. A hypertonic solution has more solute (the cell shrinks), an isotonic one the same. Saturated means no more solute will dissolve; a colloid is a mixture with particles larger than in a true solution.
A change in the base sequence of DNA is called a:
Answer: C
A mutation is any change in the DNA sequence. A codon is a triplet of bases coding for an amino acid, ligation is the joining of DNA fragments, a locus is a gene's position on a chromosome, and a chromatid is one of the two copies of a replicated chromosome.
The complete set of a cell's chromosomes, photographed and arranged in pairs by size, is its:
Answer: D
A karyotype shows a cell's chromosomes arranged in homologous pairs by size and shape; it is used to find abnormalities such as trisomy 21. A pedigree is a family tree of a trait, the phenotype is the observable traits, and a haplotype is a set of alleles inherited together on one chromosome.
In anatomy, the term 'anterior' means:
Answer: E
Anterior (also ventral, in humans) means towards the front of the body; posterior (dorsal) means towards the back. Inferior means towards the feet, distal further from the trunk along a limb, and lateral towards the side.
Which structure attaches a skeletal muscle to a bone?
Answer: A
Tendons, made of dense regular connective tissue, attach muscle to bone. Ligaments join bone to bone at a joint, cartilage covers joint surfaces and forms parts of the skeleton, the synovial membrane lines a joint cavity and secretes synovial fluid, and the periosteum is the membrane covering a bone's outer surface.
What is the functional unit of the kidney called?
Answer: B
The nephron, about a million in each kidney, filters the blood and forms urine. The alveolus is the gas-exchange unit of the lung, the neuron the cell of the nervous system, the sarcomere the contractile unit of muscle, and the hepatocyte the main cell of the liver.
A substance that the immune system recognises and that triggers the production of antibodies is called an:
Answer: C
An antigen is any molecule the immune system recognises as foreign, usually a protein or polysaccharide on a pathogen's surface, that stimulates antibody production. An antibiotic kills or inhibits bacteria, an antiseptic kills microbes on living tissue, an antitoxin is an antibody that neutralises a toxin, and an enzyme is a biological catalyst.
Bacteria with a spherical shape, such as Staphylococcus, are called:
Answer: D
Cocci are spherical (staphylococci in clusters, streptococci in chains). Bacilli are rod-shaped, vibrios comma-shaped, and spirilla and spirochaetes spiral.
A substance that speeds up a chemical reaction without being used up by it is a:
Answer: E
A catalyst lowers the activation energy and is regenerated at the end of the reaction; enzymes are biological catalysts. Reactants are used up and products formed, a solvent dissolves the other substances, and an inhibitor slows a reaction.
Glucose is classified as a:
Answer: A
Glucose, C₆H₁₂O₆, is a monosaccharide, a single sugar unit. Sucrose and lactose are disaccharides (two units), starch and glycogen polysaccharides; lipids and nucleotides are different classes of biomolecule.
At 25 °C, a solution whose pH is below 7 is described as:
Answer: B
Below pH 7 at 25 °C a solution is acidic, with more H₃O⁺ than OH⁻; pH 7 is neutral and above 7 alkaline (basic). Isotonic refers to equal solute concentrations, and saturated to a solution that can dissolve no more solute.
The SI unit of energy is the:
Answer: C
Energy and work are measured in joules (1 J = 1 N m). The watt is the unit of power (joules per second), the newton of force, the volt of potential difference and the kelvin of temperature.
When a set of values is put in order, the middle value is called the:
Answer: D
The median is the middle value of the ordered data (or the average of the two middle values when there is an even number). The mean is the sum divided by the count, the mode the most frequent value, the range the spread from smallest to largest, and the standard deviation a measure of spread around the mean.
A patient with bradycardia has:
Answer: E
'Brady-' means slow: bradycardia is a heart rate below the normal range, usually under 60 beats per minute in an adult at rest. A fast heart rate is tachycardia, high blood pressure hypertension, chest pain angina when it comes from the heart, and shortness of breath dyspnoea.
In a word such as 'appendectomy', the suffix '-ectomy' means:
Answer: A
'-ectomy' means surgical removal: an appendectomy removes the appendix. Inflammation is '-itis', examination with an instrument '-scopy', a surgical incision '-otomy', a surgically made opening '-ostomy', and disease '-pathy'.
A disease that starts suddenly and usually lasts a short time is described as:
Answer: B
Acute means sudden in onset and usually short. Chronic means long-lasting, benign not cancerous, congenital present from birth, and idiopathic of unknown cause.
Programmed, controlled cell death is called:
Answer: C
Apoptosis is programmed cell death: the cell dismantles itself in an orderly way without causing inflammation. Necrosis is uncontrolled death from injury, which does cause inflammation; mitosis is nuclear division, cytokinesis the division of the cytoplasm, and hypertrophy the growth of cells in size.
Different forms of the same gene, such as the A, B and O forms of the ABO blood-group gene, are called:
Answer: D
Alleles are alternative versions of a gene at the same locus. Chromatids are the copies of a replicated chromosome, codons the base triplets of mRNA, exons the coding parts of a gene, and loci the positions of genes on chromosomes.
In a right-angled triangle, the side opposite the right angle is called the:
Answer: E
The hypotenuse is opposite the right angle and is the longest side; by Pythagoras' theorem its square equals the sum of the squares of the other two sides. 'Adjacent' and 'opposite' name the other two sides relative to a chosen acute angle.
Medical University of Lublin admission · Qualification Test
Lublin's own conditions for both cycles, and IvyTest's full paper.
The new cycle: recruitment opens on 22 February 2027, minimums of 50%, the test's details due by 15 December 2026.
Biology, all three additional subjects and a second 20-question Qualification Test, every answer explained.
Dates, the 500-point structure, the interview, fees and places.
