Sofia Medical University Entrance Exam 2027: Complete Preparation Guide

Twenty questions, triple weight in the competition score. Nine derived areas, grouping the headings of the external topic list.

• Biological macromolecules: nucleotides, phosphate, pentose and nitrogenous base, purines and pyrimidines, the DNA double helix, antiparallel strands and complementary base pairing, mRNA, tRNA and rRNA and their differences from DNA, information storage, complementarity and directionality, amino acids and peptide bonds, primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary protein structure, hydrogen bonds, ionic and hydrophobic interactions and disulfide bridges, protein functions in catalysis, transport, structure, signalling, immunity and movement, denaturation
• Cell structure and transport: viral capsid, nucleic-acid genome, envelope and host specificity, DNA and RNA viruses, bacteriophages, lytic and lysogenic cycles, why viruses are acellular, the prokaryotic cell wall, membrane, cytoplasm, nucleoid, ribosomes, plasmids, capsule, pili and flagella, binary fission, prokaryotic versus eukaryotic cells, the fluid mosaic model with phospholipid bilayer, cholesterol, membrane proteins and carbohydrates, simple and facilitated diffusion, osmosis and water potential, active transport pumps and carrier proteins, endocytosis and exocytosis, rough and smooth endoplasmic reticulum, the Golgi complex, lysosomes and the secretion pathway, phagocytosis and pinocytosis, mitochondria and chloroplasts
• Cellular energy and metabolism: the purpose and cellular location of glycolysis, pyruvate formation, ATP yield and reducing equivalents, the Krebs cycle in the mitochondrial matrix, carbon dioxide release and NADH and FADH2 formation, the link between carbohydrate breakdown and ATP production, ATP as the immediate energy currency, electron carriers and the electron transport chain of the inner mitochondrial membrane, the proton gradient and ATP synthase, oxidative phosphorylation, aerobic versus anaerobic ATP production
• Molecular genetics: the nuclear envelope, nucleoplasm, nucleolus and chromatin, chromatids, centromere, telomeres and homologous pairs, autosomes and sex chromosomes, diploid and haploid sets, karyotype reading and common numerical abnormalities, semiconservative replication, the replication fork, template strands, leading and lagging strands and Okazaki fragments, helicase, DNA polymerase and ligase, proofreading and the link between replication error and mutation, template strand and RNA polymerase, promoter, initiation, elongation and termination, capping, poly-A tailing and splicing, ribosome structure and rRNA, codons and anticodons, start and stop codons, the genetic code as triplet, universal, degenerate and non-overlapping
• Inheritance and mutation: genes, alleles, genotype, phenotype, homozygous and heterozygous, dominant and recessive inheritance, Punnett squares, the law of segregation and the law of independent assortment, monohybrid and dihybrid ratios, test crosses and probability, XX and XY sex determination, X-linked recessive and dominant patterns, why sex-linked traits differ in frequency between the sexes, pedigrees for simple sex-linked traits, genes on the same chromosome and deviation from independent assortment, crossing over in prophase I, recombinant versus parental gametes, recombination frequency and gene distance, substitution, insertion, deletion and frameshift, silent, missense and nonsense mutations, deletion, duplication, inversion and translocation, nondisjunction, aneuploidy and polyploidy
• Cell division: interphase G1, S and G2, cell growth and DNA replication, prophase, metaphase, anaphase and telophase, cytokinesis and genetically identical daughter cells, the importance of mitosis in growth, repair and asexual reproduction, meiosis I versus meiosis II, reduction from diploid to haploid, synapsis, crossing over and independent assortment, the production of genetically different gametes, the comparison of mitosis and meiosis
• Reproduction and development: spermatogenesis from spermatogonia to spermatozoa, oogenesis from oogonia to ova and polar bodies, haploid gametes and the role of meiosis, differences between male and female gamete formation, gamete recognition and fusion, restoration of the diploid chromosome number, zygote formation and activation of development, prevention of polyspermy, cleavage divisions, morula and blastula or blastocyst, gastrulation and the formation of ectoderm, mesoderm and endoderm, organogenesis in outline, landmarks of early human development
• Immunity: barriers, inflammation, phagocytes and natural killer cells as innate defences, antigens and antibodies, B cells and humoral immunity, T cells and cell-mediated immunity, the primary and secondary immune response, memory cells and vaccination
• Evolution: the fossil record and transitional forms, homologous, analogous and vestigial structures, embryological and biogeographical evidence, molecular evidence from DNA and protein similarity, variation arising from mutation and recombination, natural selection, genetic drift and gene flow, adaptation, reproductive isolation and speciation, evolution as change in allele frequencies

Twenty questions, triple weight. Ten derived areas, in the source's own sequence: inorganic foundations first, then organic chemistry.

• Atomic structure and the periodic table: protons, neutrons and electrons, atomic number, mass number and isotopes, electron shells, subshells and configuration, valence electrons and chemical reactivity, relative atomic mass and the connection to the mole, groups, periods and blocks, metals, non-metals and metalloids, trends in atomic radius, ionisation energy, electron affinity and electronegativity, valency and oxidation-state patterns across the table, reactivity trends in the major groups
• Chemical bonding: ionic, covalent and metallic bonding, polar and non-polar covalent bonds, electronegativity difference, molecular shape at basic VSEPR level, hydrogen bonding, dipole-dipole interactions and dispersion forces
• Inorganic substances and reactions: simple substances versus compounds, metals versus non-metals, oxides, acids, bases and salts, naming and classification, typical reactions of important inorganic substances, amphoteric behaviour of relevant oxides and hydroxides
• Redox and electrolysis: oxidation numbers, identifying oxidation and reduction, oxidising and reducing agents, balancing simple redox equations, electrolysis with anode and cathode products, simple applications of electrolysis
• Reaction rate and equilibrium: collision theory and activation energy, the effects of concentration, temperature, pressure, surface area and catalysts, homogeneous versus heterogeneous catalysis, energy profiles and how catalysts lower activation energy, dynamic equilibrium and the equilibrium constant, Le Chatelier's principle, the effects of concentration, pressure and temperature, equilibrium shifts in simple gas and solution reactions
• Solutions and electrolytes: solutions, suspensions, emulsions and colloids, solute, solvent and solubility, saturated and unsaturated solutions, mass percent, molar concentration and dilution calculations, factors affecting solubility, strong and weak electrolytes, electrolytic dissociation, acids, bases and salts in aqueous solution, pH and neutralisation, ionic equations and hydrolysis of salts, conductivity and its relation to ions in solution
• Structure of organic compounds: carbon tetravalency, chains, rings and functional groups, homologous series and general formulas, structural, positional and functional isomerism, basic IUPAC naming principles for the common organic families
• Hydrocarbons: the alkane general formula, sigma bonds and sp3 carbon, methane and the homologous series, physical-property trends, combustion, substitution, halogenation and cracking, chain isomerism and simple naming, the alkene double bond and sp2 carbon, addition by hydrogenation, halogenation, hydration and hydrohalogenation, polymerisation, qualitative unsaturation tests and simple oxidation, the alkyne triple bond and sp carbon, ethyne as the key example, benzene structure, delocalised electrons and aromatic stability, electrophilic substitution by halogenation, nitration and alkylation, aromatic substitution versus alkene addition
• Functional group derivatives: primary, secondary and tertiary alcohols, the properties of ethanol and hydrogen bonding, oxidation, dehydration and esterification of alcohols, phenol acidity and reaction with bases, primary, secondary and tertiary amines, amine basicity and salt formation with acids, the carbonyl group and the difference between aldehydes and ketones, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and acetone, oxidation and reduction patterns, Tollens' and Fehling's tests, the carboxyl group, acidity and carboxylate salts, esterification and hydrolysis, esters, amides, acid chlorides and anhydrides at recognition level
• Amino acids and carbohydrates: molecules carrying both amino and carboxyl groups, alpha-amino acids, zwitterions and amphoteric behaviour, peptide bond formation and hydrolysis, the connection to proteins and biological function, the monosaccharides glucose and fructose and their aldehyde or ketone classification, the disaccharides sucrose, maltose and lactose, the polysaccharides starch, glycogen and cellulose, biological roles in energy supply, storage and structure

Ten questions on an English reading text, per Article 154. No detailed official English syllabus exists in accessible public sources, so the four areas below are derived from practical preparation scope and should be re-examined once the real item format is published.

• Reading comprehension: short academic and scientific texts, main idea and supporting detail, inference, vocabulary in context, accurate reading of biological and chemical descriptions, working at speed under time pressure
• Grammar and accuracy: verb tenses and aspect, subject-verb agreement, the passive voice, conditionals, modals, relative clauses, articles, prepositions, comparatives and superlatives, sentence structure
• Vocabulary and word formation: academic vocabulary, common medical, biology and chemistry terms, prefixes and suffixes, noun, adjective and verb forms, synonyms and antonyms, false friends, precision in scientific English
• Sentence completion and correction: gap-fill items, multiple-choice cloze, sentence correction, matching tasks, short text questions, terminology recognition in a scientific register

It is the combined entrance exam the Medical University of Sofia uses to select international candidates for its English-taught Medicine programme: 50 questions in two hours across three components: 10 multiple-choice questions on an English reading text, a Biology exam of 20 questions and a Chemistry exam of 20 questions, all set out in Article 154 of the university's own Academic Council-approved Regulations.

Neither. Bulgaria has no shared national medical entrance exam, and Medical University of Sofia is a different institution from Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski", Bulgaria's first institution of higher education. That university's Faculty of Medicine, founded in 1917, was split off in 1950 and became today's Medical University of Sofia; Sofia University re-established a Faculty of Medicine of its own in 2003, with its own separate admission process (the 2021/2022 edition of its programme page admitted the first 50 candidates in its ranking). The two names are easy to confuse; check which one your application is actually for.

Remotely. MU-Sofia officially confirms the exam as remote and delivered in English. What it does not publish is the delivery platform, whether the paper is written or computer-based, or whether aids such as a calculator or a periodic table are permitted, so confirm those directly, and prepare on the assumption that you will not have them.

Your rank is set by the competition-score formula in Article 156: your English mark, plus three times your Biology mark, plus three times your Chemistry mark, to a maximum of 42.00. Each component is graded on the Bulgarian 2.00-to-6.00 scale, which is exactly why the maximum is 42.00 (6.00 + 18.00 + 18.00) and why the lowest arithmetically possible score is 14.00 rather than zero. How raw correct answers convert into those component marks is not published anywhere.

Neither is published. IvyTest checked Articles 154 to 161 of MU-Sofia's Regulations, the foreign-candidates page and the combined-entrance-exam page directly on 21 September 2026, and none of them states an option count or a penalty. Four options is our regional working default rather than a fact, and a weak one, since MU-Plovdiv's own official documents confirm a genuine three-option exception on one block of its paper. On the working assumptions of four options and no penalty, a blind guess is worth +0.25 marks against 0 for a blank; at three options it is +0.33. Both readings say the same thing: do not leave items empty.

None is published. Article 156 gives the formula and a maximum of 42.00 and states no minimum, and there is no cut-off anywhere in the Regulations' 230 articles. Article 59 separately defines a university-wide "positive grade" as not lower than 3 on the 2-6 scale, which is the nearest thing to a definition of the "successfully passed" in the component rule, and on that reading three marks of exactly 3.00 would compute to 21.00 of 42.00. MU-Sofia does not state that as a threshold, so IvyTest does not present it as one.

You fail the exam. This is the one eligibility rule MU-Sofia states plainly and officially: English, Biology and Chemistry must each be passed, and failing a single component means the whole exam is failed. It is why the ten-question English component matters far more than its 14.3% share of the competition score suggests: it cannot win you a place, and it can lose you one on its own.

Yes. All three components are delivered in English, including the Biology and Chemistry papers, and no Bulgarian is needed to sit it. Bulgarian becomes relevant later: teaching is in English but clinical work is not, and IvyTest's MedApply dataset records local-language requirements starting around the fourth year.

For 2026/2027, MU-Sofia's Bulgarian foreign-candidates page sets 70 Medicine places for third-country (non-EU/EEA) candidates and 250 for EU/EEA candidates, each including those who completed its preparatory year; the English page leaves these figures blank. The 2026 lists admitted more non-EU candidates than the 70: 84 with a score in the main ranking, and 19 more in the additional round. MU-Sofia does not explain the difference, and it publishes no applicant volume or acceptance rate, so treat competitiveness as an open question rather than a settled one.

Within the EU, yes: automatically, as a standard Bulgarian medical degree, since Bulgaria is an EU member state. There is no separate national board exam afterwards: Bulgaria's state exam is built into the final year of the six-year degree itself, and registration in the National Register of the Bulgarian Medical Association is free and, once granted, indefinite. EU/EEA/Swiss nationals need a professional-qualification-recognition certificate from Bulgaria's Ministry of Health as part of that registration. Outside the EU recognition isn't automatic as a rule, but the UK is an exception. Under the Medical Act 1983 (section 21B, as in force on 12 October 2026), a Bulgarian medical degree is a 'relevant European qualification', so a graduate who applies to the GMC with one, whatever their nationality, is not asked to show the knowledge and skills other international graduates prove through PLAB/UKMLA; evidence of English is still required, and the rule is UK policy that can change. US-bound graduates need ECFMG certification via USMLE Step 1 and Step 2 CK, the same requirement every international medical graduate faces.

Yes. The IvyTest simulator runs MU-Sofia-format practice in the confirmed 10 English + 20 Biology + 20 Chemistry shape at the real two-hour length, in timed, tutor and review modes, with per-component reporting built around the rule that one failed component fails the exam, and a free diagnostic available without payment. Items are written at four options as a working default, since MU-Sofia publishes no option count.

No. MU-Sofia publishes no past papers and no free sample test to download as a PDF. What it offers is a Training Manual for self-preparation in Biology and Chemistry, sold for €15.34 at the cashier's office in the Rectorate; its Regulations call it the Self-study Guide the exams follow. Its combined-entrance-exam page links only the results of the 2018 sitting. The sample questions on this page are IvyTest's own.

The 2027/2028 dates are not published yet. In 2026/2027, documents were accepted from 27 July to 31 August 2026, the exam ran on 3 September for EU/EEA citizens and 9 September for everyone else, and results and the ranking came out on 11 September. An extension round then took documents until 25 September and sat on 2 October. Results are posted on MU-Sofia's results page as lists of admitted candidates, by reference number and score, and are final.

You need completed secondary education that lets you apply to university in the country where you completed it. Submit the application form in English and Bulgarian, your legalised diploma with a certified Bulgarian translation, a NACID certificate recognising it, a document confirming your right to continue to higher education, proof of citizenship, two photos and a signed declaration. Documents go in person, or through someone with a power of attorney, to the Rectorate at 15 Acad. Ivan Geshov Blvd, 1431 Sofia; fax, email and post are refused. Then you sit the combined exam.

Medicine in English costs €9,950 a year, paid in two instalments at the start of each semester (Dental Medicine €10,000, Pharmacy €8,000). Applying costs €55 for submitting documents and €210 for the entrance exam, and exam fees are non-refundable; the Training Manual is €15.34. A preparatory year in English at the Department of Language Training and Sports costs €4,800. Bank charges and exchange-rate differences are the student's.

Six years in three stages. Year 1 covers Anatomy and Histology, Cytology, Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Medical Ethics and Latin; year 2 adds Biochemistry, Physiology and Microbiology; clinical training starts in year 3. Years 4 and 5 run in modules across the clinical specialties, and year 6 adds rotations in the university hospitals. The final state examination has five exams: Internal Medicine, Surgery, Pediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Hygiene and Ecology. English-taught students also study Bulgarian for six semesters.

Teaching in English for new students in 2026/2027 starts on 19 October 2026. Each year's Regulations set the calendar: in 2025/2026, first-year English-taught students had their winter semester from 20 October 2025 to 6 February 2026 and their exams from 9 to 20 February; the summer semester ran from 23 February to 5 June 2026, the June session from 9 June to 10 July. Sixth-year students began their pre-graduation internship on 16 March 2026. MU-Sofia's English pages give no 2026 graduation ceremony date.

On its own pages, MU-Sofia says it came first in all five of its fields (Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Public Health and Healthcare) in the Bulgarian Ministry of Education's university ranking for 2024. Its international rankings page lists QS World University Rankings 2022 at 601 and Times Higher Education 2022 at 601-800, but neither ranking's own 2022 world table lists MU-Sofia. THE's World University Rankings first list it in 2024, at 1201-1500, and at 1501+ in 2026; QS's World University Rankings from 2020 to 2026 do not list it; ShanghaiRanking's Clinical Medicine table puts it at 401-500 from 2024 to 2026. It was founded in 1917 as the Faculty of Medicine of Sofia University.

The content is school Biology and Chemistry plus an English reading text, 50 questions in two hours, so the clock is generous. The hard parts are the rule that one failed component fails the exam, and a crowded top: on MU-Sofia's 2026/2027 lists of admitted candidates for Medicine, 94 of the 196 EU candidates scored the maximum 42.00 and the lowest scored 30.75; on the non-EU list, 18 of the 84 with a score had 42.00 and the lowest had 22.50.