Free practice paper · 2027 format

Semmelweis Entrance Exam Sample Test 1, with Answers

Four tests of 20 questions, as on the day: Medical Biology, Medical Chemistry, General English and Biomedical English, with the answer and a full explanation for every question. Written by IvyTest on the topics of Semmelweis's official list; it is not an official Semmelweis paper.

Before you start

How to sit this paper

Questions
80
Time
20 minutes + 20 minutes + 20 minutes + 20 minutes
Options per question
4 (A to D)
Sections
4, each timed separately
SectionQuestionsTimeMarks (Entrance Examination)
Medical Biology2020 min+1 correct, 0 blank; a wrong answer loses an unpublished fraction
Medical Chemistry2020 min+1 correct, 0 blank; a wrong answer loses an unpublished fraction
General English2020 min+1 correct, 0 blank; a wrong answer loses an unpublished fraction
Biomedical English2020 min+1 correct, 0 blank; a wrong answer loses an unpublished fraction

Sit the four tests in order, each against its own 20-minute clock: on the day, time left over in one test is not added to the next. Answer each question before moving on and do not go back, as the online test does not let you return to an earlier question; use a calculator only in Medical Chemistry. Semmelweis subtracts a fraction of a point for a wrong answer without publishing how much, so the tally at the end counts correct answers only. It does not publish how many options each question has either; this paper uses four.

Section 1 of 4

Medical Biology

20 questions · 20 minutes

Question 1

Medical Biology · Biomolecules · Foundation

Haemoglobin is made of two α and two β polypeptide chains. The way these four chains fit together is the protein's

Show answer and explanation

Answer: D

Quaternary structure is the arrangement of several polypeptide chains (subunits) in one protein, as in haemoglobin's α₂β₂ tetramer. Primary structure is a chain's amino acid sequence, secondary its local α-helices and β-sheets, and tertiary the folding of a single chain in three dimensions.

Question 2

Medical Biology · Biomolecules · Standard

An allosteric activator increases an enzyme's activity by

Show answer and explanation

Answer: A

Allosteric regulators bind to a regulatory (allosteric) site distinct from the active site and change the enzyme's conformation, making it more or less active. A molecule that occupies the active site in place of the substrate is a competitive inhibitor, not an allosteric regulator.

Question 3

Medical Biology · Biomolecules · Foundation

A triglyceride consists of

Show answer and explanation

Answer: A

Each of glycerol's three hydroxyl groups forms an ester bond with a fatty acid, giving a triacylglycerol, the body's main energy store. Glycerol with two fatty acids and a phosphate group is a phosphoglyceride, the main lipid of membranes; sphingosine is the backbone of sphingolipids.

Question 4

Medical Biology · Biomolecules · Standard

Which vitamin is the precursor of the coenzymes NAD⁺ and NADP⁺?

Show answer and explanation

Answer: C

Niacin (nicotinic acid and nicotinamide) provides the nicotinamide ring of NAD⁺ and NADP⁺. Riboflavin is the precursor of FAD and FMN, thiamine of thiamine pyrophosphate, and cobalamin is itself a coenzyme for a few reactions such as methionine synthesis.

Question 5

Medical Biology · Enzymes and Molecular Genetics · Standard

A reversible competitive inhibitor affects an enzyme's kinetics by

Show answer and explanation

Answer: A

A competitive inhibitor competes with the substrate for the active site, so more substrate is needed to reach half-maximal velocity (a higher apparent Km). Enough substrate outcompetes it, so Vmax is unchanged. Lowering Vmax with Km unchanged is the pattern of non-competitive inhibition, and permanent covalent binding is irreversible inhibition.

Question 6

Medical Biology · Enzymes and Molecular Genetics · Standard

Bacteria grown for many generations in ¹⁵N medium are moved to ¹⁴N medium and allowed to replicate their DNA once. What does each daughter DNA molecule contain?

Show answer and explanation

Answer: B

Replication is semiconservative: each parental strand serves as a template and stays paired with its new partner, so after one round every molecule is a hybrid of one old (¹⁵N) and one new (¹⁴N) strand. This is what Meselson and Stahl found. The first option describes conservative replication and the last dispersive replication, both ruled out by that experiment.

Question 7

Medical Biology · Enzymes and Molecular Genetics · Foundation

In eukaryotic cells, genes that code for proteins are transcribed into mRNA by

Show answer and explanation

Answer: B

RNA polymerase II transcribes protein-coding genes into pre-mRNA. RNA polymerase I makes most ribosomal RNA (in the nucleolus) and RNA polymerase III makes tRNA and the small 5S rRNA. DNA polymerases replicate DNA; they do not transcribe it.

Question 8

Medical Biology · Enzymes and Molecular Genetics · Standard

Which of the following is NOT part of the processing of eukaryotic pre-mRNA?

Show answer and explanation

Answer: D

Pre-mRNA is capped at its 5′ end, given a poly(A) tail at its 3′ end and spliced to remove introns before it leaves the nucleus. The AUG start codon is kept: translation begins at it, in the cytoplasm.

Question 9

Medical Biology · Energy Metabolism · Standard

In working skeletal muscle short of oxygen, pyruvate is reduced to lactate. The main purpose of this reaction is to

Show answer and explanation

Answer: B

Glycolysis reduces NAD⁺ to NADH. Without oxygen the respiratory chain cannot reoxidise NADH, so lactate dehydrogenase uses it to reduce pyruvate to lactate, regenerating the NAD⁺ glycolysis needs to keep making its 2 ATP. The reaction itself makes no ATP and releases no CO₂; lactate is turned back into glucose in the liver (the Cori cycle), not in the muscle.

Question 10

Medical Biology · Energy Metabolism · Foundation

Where in a eukaryotic cell does the citrate cycle take place?

Show answer and explanation

Answer: A

The enzymes of the citrate (Krebs) cycle are in the mitochondrial matrix, apart from succinate dehydrogenase, which is bound to the inner membrane. Glycolysis is the part of glucose oxidation that happens in the cytosol.

Question 11

Medical Biology · Energy Metabolism · Challenging

During oxidative phosphorylation, ATP synthase is driven directly by

Show answer and explanation

Answer: D

The respiratory chain uses the energy of electron transfer to pump protons from the matrix into the intermembrane space. ATP synthase lets them flow back, and that proton flow turns the enzyme and drives ATP synthesis (chemiosmosis). Electrons do not pass through ATP synthase, and oxygen is the final electron acceptor at complex IV, not a ligand of the synthase.

Question 12

Medical Biology · Cell Origins and Compartmentation · Standard

The "RNA world" hypothesis about the origin of life rests mainly on the fact that RNA

Show answer and explanation

Answer: A

RNA can store information in its base sequence and, as ribozymes (including the peptidyl transferase of the ribosome), catalyse reactions, so a world based on RNA alone could have both copied and run itself before DNA and proteins took over those roles. RNA is in fact less stable than DNA, is found in every cell, and contains uracil, not thymine.

Question 13

Medical Biology · Cell Origins and Compartmentation · Foundation

What is the main function of the nucleolus?

Show answer and explanation

Answer: D

The nucleolus is where rRNA genes are transcribed and the rRNA is combined with proteins into the small and large ribosomal subunits, which then leave the nucleus. Lipids are made in the smooth endoplasmic reticulum, and glycosylation takes place in the ER and the Golgi apparatus.

Question 14

Medical Biology · Cell Origins and Compartmentation · Standard

The hydrolytic enzymes inside lysosomes

Show answer and explanation

Answer: C

Lysosomal enzymes are acid hydrolases: a proton pump keeps the lysosome at about pH 5, where they work best. This also protects the cell, because enzymes that leak into the cytosol (pH about 7.2) are much less active. They are made on the rough ER and sent to lysosomes through the Golgi apparatus.

Question 15

Medical Biology · Genetics, Signalling and the Cell Cycle · Standard

A disease caused by a mutation in mitochondrial DNA is typically passed on

Show answer and explanation

Answer: B

Mitochondria are inherited through the egg; the sperm's mitochondria do not normally survive in the embryo. So an affected mother passes the mutation to all her children, sons and daughters, while an affected father passes it to none. How severely each child is affected can vary, because cells carry different proportions of mutant mitochondria.

Question 16

Medical Biology · Genetics, Signalling and the Cell Cycle · Foundation

Which protein can stop the cell cycle in G1 when DNA is damaged, earning it the name "guardian of the genome"?

Show answer and explanation

Answer: D

p53 is a transcription factor that accumulates when DNA is damaged; it switches on genes that halt the cycle at the G1 checkpoint (so the damage can be repaired) or, if the damage is too great, trigger apoptosis. Many cancers carry mutations in the gene for p53.

Question 17

Medical Biology · Genetics, Signalling and the Cell Cycle · Standard

Steroid hormones such as cortisol act mainly by binding to

Show answer and explanation

Answer: A

Steroids are lipid-soluble, so they cross the plasma membrane and bind receptors in the cytoplasm or nucleus; the hormone-receptor complex binds DNA and changes the transcription of target genes. Water-soluble hormones such as adrenaline or glucagon cannot cross the membrane and use cell-surface receptors and second messengers instead.

Question 18

Medical Biology · Human Physiology · Foundation

Where is the heartbeat normally initiated?

Show answer and explanation

Answer: A

The sinoatrial node in the wall of the right atrium depolarises spontaneously fastest, so it sets the heart rate (the pacemaker). The impulse spreads across the atria, is delayed in the atrioventricular node, then travels down the bundle of His and the Purkinje fibres to the ventricles.

Question 19

Medical Biology · Human Physiology · Standard

In skeletal muscle, calcium ions released from the sarcoplasmic reticulum start contraction by binding to

Show answer and explanation

Answer: C

Ca²⁺ binds troponin C; the troponin complex then shifts tropomyosin away from the myosin-binding sites on actin, so cross-bridges can form. Tropomyosin is the tempting answer, but it is moved by troponin rather than binding calcium itself. (In smooth muscle, calcium acts through calmodulin instead.)

Question 20

Medical Biology · Reproduction, Immunity and Viruses · Standard

Retroviruses such as HIV use the enzyme reverse transcriptase to

Show answer and explanation

Answer: C

Reverse transcriptase is an RNA-dependent DNA polymerase: it copies the viral RNA genome into DNA, which another viral enzyme, integrase, inserts into the host cell's genome. Making RNA from DNA is ordinary transcription, done by the host's RNA polymerase.

Section 2 of 4

Medical Chemistry

20 questions · 20 minutes

Question 21

Medical Chemistry · Atoms, Bonds and Water · Foundation

What is the ground-state electron configuration of a sodium atom (Z = 11)?

Show answer and explanation

Answer: B

Sodium has 11 electrons: 2 fill 1s, 2 fill 2s, 6 fill 2p and the eleventh goes into 3s. That single 3s electron is easily lost, which is why sodium forms Na⁺. A 2p subshell holds at most six electrons, so 2p⁷ is impossible; 3s² would describe magnesium.

Question 22

Medical Chemistry · Atoms, Bonds and Water · Foundation

Water boils at a much higher temperature than hydrogen sulfide (H₂S), although its molecules are lighter. The main reason is that

Show answer and explanation

Answer: A

Oxygen is far more electronegative than sulfur, so the O–H bonds are strongly polar and water molecules form hydrogen bonds with one another; more energy is needed to separate them. Covalent bonds hold atoms together within a molecule, not molecules to each other, and dispersion forces are weaker in water than in the larger H₂S.

Question 23

Medical Chemistry · Atoms, Bonds and Water · Foundation

At 25 °C, the ionic product of water, Kw = [H⁺][OH⁻], equals

Show answer and explanation

Answer: C

Water self-ionises slightly: in pure water at 25 °C, [H⁺] = [OH⁻] = 1 × 10⁻⁷ mol/L, so their product is 1 × 10⁻¹⁴. 10⁻⁷ is each ion's concentration (giving pH 7), not their product; pH + pOH = 14 follows from Kw but is not Kw itself.

Question 24

Medical Chemistry · Solutions, Acids and Equilibrium · Foundation

How much glucose (M = 180 g/mol) is needed to make 500 mL of a 0.20 mol/L solution?

Show answer and explanation

Answer: B

Moles needed: 0.20 mol/L × 0.500 L = 0.10 mol. Mass: 0.10 mol × 180 g/mol = 18 g. Forgetting to halve for 500 mL gives 36 g.

Question 25

Medical Chemistry · Solutions, Acids and Equilibrium · Challenging

The solubility product of silver chloride is Ksp = 1.6 × 10⁻¹⁰. What is its molar solubility in pure water?

Show answer and explanation

Answer: C

AgCl ⇌ Ag⁺ + Cl⁻, so if s mol/L dissolves, Ksp = s × s = s². Then s = √(1.6 × 10⁻¹⁰) ≈ 1.3 × 10⁻⁵ mol/L. Taking Ksp itself as the solubility, or halving it, forgets that two ion concentrations are multiplied.

Question 26

Medical Chemistry · Solutions, Acids and Equilibrium · Foundation

What is the pH of a 0.010 mol/L sodium hydroxide solution at 25 °C?

Show answer and explanation

Answer: D

NaOH is a strong base, so [OH⁻] = 0.010 = 10⁻² mol/L and pOH = 2. At 25 °C pH = 14 − pOH = 12. pH 2 would be the answer for a 0.010 mol/L strong acid.

Question 27

Medical Chemistry · Solutions, Acids and Equilibrium · Standard

Which mixture forms a buffer solution?

Show answer and explanation

Answer: C

A buffer is a weak acid with its conjugate base (or a weak base with its conjugate acid): acetic acid neutralises added base and acetate ions take up added acid, so the pH changes little. A strong acid or base with its salt cannot buffer, because the strong acid is fully dissociated and its anion is too weak a base to take up H⁺.

Question 28

Medical Chemistry · Redox and Electrochemistry · Foundation

What is the oxidation number of manganese in potassium permanganate, KMnO₄?

Show answer and explanation

Answer: D

K is +1 and each O is −2, so +1 + x + 4(−2) = 0, which gives x = +7. That high oxidation state is why permanganate is such a strong oxidising agent; in acid it is reduced to Mn²⁺.

Question 29

Medical Chemistry · Redox and Electrochemistry · Standard

The standard reduction potentials are E°(Zn²⁺/Zn) = −0.76 V and E°(Cu²⁺/Cu) = +0.34 V. What is the standard potential of a galvanic cell built from these two half-cells?

Show answer and explanation

Answer: B

Copper has the higher reduction potential, so Cu²⁺ is reduced at the cathode and zinc is oxidised at the anode. E°cell = E°cathode − E°anode = 0.34 − (−0.76) = +1.10 V. A working galvanic cell has a positive potential; 0.42 V comes from adding the two values without changing a sign.

Question 30

Medical Chemistry · Redox and Electrochemistry · Standard

In functional haemoglobin, the iron that binds oxygen is in which oxidation state?

Show answer and explanation

Answer: A

Oxygen binds reversibly to iron(II), Fe²⁺, held in the heme ring. When the iron is oxidised to Fe³⁺ the protein becomes methaemoglobin, which cannot carry oxygen, which is why that oxidation is harmful.

Question 31

Medical Chemistry · Thermodynamics and Kinetics · Foundation

A reaction with a negative enthalpy change (ΔH < 0)

Show answer and explanation

Answer: B

ΔH < 0 means the products have less enthalpy than the reactants, so the difference is released as heat: the reaction is exothermic. Whether a reaction is spontaneous depends on ΔG = ΔH − TΔS, not on ΔH alone, and exothermic reactions still need activation energy to start.

Question 32

Medical Chemistry · Thermodynamics and Kinetics · Standard

A reaction is spontaneous at every temperature when

Show answer and explanation

Answer: D

ΔG = ΔH − TΔS. With ΔH negative and ΔS positive, both terms make ΔG negative whatever the temperature. With ΔH > 0 and ΔS < 0 the reaction is never spontaneous; in the other two cases the sign of ΔG depends on the temperature.

Question 33

Medical Chemistry · Thermodynamics and Kinetics · Foundation

A catalyst speeds up a reaction because it

Show answer and explanation

Answer: B

A catalyst, such as an enzyme, offers an alternative reaction pathway with a lower activation energy, so more collisions have enough energy to react. It speeds up the forward and reverse reactions equally, so it changes neither the equilibrium position nor ΔH.

Question 34

Medical Chemistry · Organic Chemistry Foundations · Foundation

Which of these compounds is aromatic?

Show answer and explanation

Answer: C

Benzene is a planar ring of six carbons with six delocalised π electrons, which is what makes it aromatic and unusually stable. Cyclohexane and hexane are saturated, and cyclohexene has one isolated double bond, not a delocalised ring system.

Question 35

Medical Chemistry · Organic Chemistry Foundations · Standard

Mild oxidation of a primary alcohol such as ethanol first gives

Show answer and explanation

Answer: A

Oxidising a primary alcohol removes two hydrogens and gives an aldehyde (ethanol gives ethanal, acetaldehyde); further oxidation gives the carboxylic acid. Secondary alcohols are oxidised to ketones, tertiary alcohols resist oxidation, and losing water (dehydration) rather than hydrogen would give an alkene.

Question 36

Medical Chemistry · Organic Chemistry Foundations · Standard

Pyruvic acid (CH₃–CO–COOH), the end product of glycolysis, contains which two functional groups?

Show answer and explanation

Answer: C

The middle carbon carries a C=O bonded to two other carbons, a ketone (oxo) group, and the end carbon is a carboxyl group, so pyruvic acid is an α-keto acid. An amino group and a carboxyl group together would make an amino acid; transamination indeed turns pyruvate into alanine.

Question 37

Medical Chemistry · Organic Chemistry Foundations · Standard

Amines behave as bases because

Show answer and explanation

Answer: A

The nitrogen of an amine has a non-bonding electron pair, which can take up H⁺ to form an ammonium ion (R–NH₃⁺); that is a Brønsted base by definition. Amines contain no OH⁻ to release, and a carboxyl group would make the molecule acidic.

Question 38

Medical Chemistry · Bioorganic Chemistry · Foundation

Neighbouring nucleotides in a strand of DNA or RNA are linked by

Show answer and explanation

Answer: D

A phosphate group forms ester bonds with the 3′ carbon of one sugar and the 5′ carbon of the next, a phosphodiester bond, making the sugar-phosphate backbone. The glycosidic bond attaches each base to its sugar, and hydrogen bonds pair bases between strands.

Question 39

Medical Chemistry · Bioorganic Chemistry · Standard

A disulfide bridge in a protein forms between

Show answer and explanation

Answer: A

Two cysteine thiol (–SH) groups are oxidised to a disulfide (–S–S–) bond, which stabilises the tertiary or quaternary structure, as in insulin and antibodies. Methionine contains sulfur too, but as a thioether that cannot form disulfides.

Question 40

Medical Chemistry · Biochemical Building Blocks · Foundation

Which of these nucleobases is a purine?

Show answer and explanation

Answer: C

Adenine and guanine are purines, with a double ring; cytosine, thymine and uracil are pyrimidines, with a single ring. In the double helix a purine always pairs with a pyrimidine (A with T, G with C), which keeps the helix the same width throughout.

Section 3 of 4

General English

20 questions · 20 minutes

Question 41

General English · Reading Comprehension · Foundation

According to the passage, what changed researchers' view of sleep in the 1950s?

Show answer and explanation

Answer: A

The first paragraph says the view began to change when recordings revealed recurring periods of rapid eye movement during which the brain was "almost as active as when awake". The memory experiments come later, in the second paragraph, and the third paragraph says that learning from night-time recordings failed.

Question 42

General English · Reading Comprehension · Foundation
Show the passage · The quiet work of sleep

For a long time, sleep was regarded as a passive state, a pause in the brain's activity during which nothing of importance happened. That view began to change in the 1950s, when researchers recording the electrical activity of sleeping volunteers noticed recurring periods of rapid eye movement, during which the brain was almost as active as when awake.

Since then, a large body of evidence has linked sleep to memory. In a typical experiment, volunteers learn a list of word pairs in the evening and are tested the next morning; those who slept between learning and testing generally recall more than those who stayed awake for the same length of time. The effect appears to depend less on the total amount of sleep than on particular stages of it.

None of this means that learning can be done in one's sleep. Attempts to teach people new material by playing recordings during the night have repeatedly failed. Sleep seems to strengthen what was learned while awake, not to replace the effort of learning it.

In the experiment described in the second paragraph, the volunteers who slept between learning and testing

Show answer and explanation

Answer: D

The passage says that "those who slept between learning and testing generally recall more than those who stayed awake for the same length of time". Nothing is said about how fast they learned.

Question 43

General English · Reading Comprehension · Foundation
Show the passage · The quiet work of sleep

For a long time, sleep was regarded as a passive state, a pause in the brain's activity during which nothing of importance happened. That view began to change in the 1950s, when researchers recording the electrical activity of sleeping volunteers noticed recurring periods of rapid eye movement, during which the brain was almost as active as when awake.

Since then, a large body of evidence has linked sleep to memory. In a typical experiment, volunteers learn a list of word pairs in the evening and are tested the next morning; those who slept between learning and testing generally recall more than those who stayed awake for the same length of time. The effect appears to depend less on the total amount of sleep than on particular stages of it.

None of this means that learning can be done in one's sleep. Attempts to teach people new material by playing recordings during the night have repeatedly failed. Sleep seems to strengthen what was learned while awake, not to replace the effort of learning it.

The word "recurring" in the first paragraph is closest in meaning to

Show answer and explanation

Answer: B

Recurring means happening again and again, so repeated. The context supports it: periods of rapid eye movement return several times during a night's sleep.

Question 44

General English · Reading Comprehension · Standard
Show the passage · The quiet work of sleep

For a long time, sleep was regarded as a passive state, a pause in the brain's activity during which nothing of importance happened. That view began to change in the 1950s, when researchers recording the electrical activity of sleeping volunteers noticed recurring periods of rapid eye movement, during which the brain was almost as active as when awake.

Since then, a large body of evidence has linked sleep to memory. In a typical experiment, volunteers learn a list of word pairs in the evening and are tested the next morning; those who slept between learning and testing generally recall more than those who stayed awake for the same length of time. The effect appears to depend less on the total amount of sleep than on particular stages of it.

None of this means that learning can be done in one's sleep. Attempts to teach people new material by playing recordings during the night have repeatedly failed. Sleep seems to strengthen what was learned while awake, not to replace the effort of learning it.

Which statement best summarises the last paragraph?

Show answer and explanation

Answer: C

The paragraph rejects learning in one's sleep ("attempts ... have repeatedly failed") and ends: sleep seems to strengthen what was learned while awake, "not to replace the effort of learning it". The first and last options say the opposite of what the paragraph reports.

Question 45

General English · Grammar and Sentence Structure · Standard

If I ___ the results earlier, I would have told you.

Show answer and explanation

Answer: B

This is a third conditional, about an unreal situation in the past: if + past perfect (had known), then would have + past participle (would have told). "Knew" belongs in a second conditional (If I knew, I would tell you).

Question 46

General English · Grammar and Sentence Structure · Standard

Neither the students nor the teacher ___ aware of the change.

Show answer and explanation

Answer: B

With neither ... nor, the verb agrees with the nearer subject. "The teacher" is singular and the sentence is in the past, so "was". (Neither the teacher nor the students were aware would be correct, because "the students" would then be the nearer subject.)

Question 47

General English · Grammar and Sentence Structure · Standard

By the time the inspector arrived, the samples ___.

Show answer and explanation

Answer: C

The analysis was finished before another past event (the inspector's arrival), so the past perfect is needed, and since the samples did not analyse anything themselves, it must be passive: had already been analysed. The other options are active, which would make the samples do the analysing.

Question 48

General English · Grammar and Sentence Structure · Foundation

She has been working in this laboratory ___ 2019.

Show answer and explanation

Answer: B

With the present perfect, "since" introduces the starting point (since 2019) and "for" a length of time (for six years). "From" needs an end point (from 2019 to 2023), and "during" refers to a period within which something happens.

Question 49

General English · Grammar and Sentence Structure · Foundation

Which sentence is grammatically correct?

Show answer and explanation

Answer: D

"Each" is singular, so the verb is singular (has), while "of the" is followed by a plural noun (of the patients). "Each" directly before a noun takes the singular: each patient.

Question 50

General English · Grammar and Sentence Structure · Foundation

This is the hospital ___ my sister was born.

Show answer and explanation

Answer: A

"Where" introduces a relative clause about a place, standing for "in which" (the hospital in which my sister was born). "Which" alone would need a preposition, "who" refers to people, and "what" cannot introduce a relative clause after a noun.

Question 51

General English · Grammar and Sentence Structure · Standard

The surgeon said, "I am tired." In reported speech: The surgeon said that she ___ tired.

Show answer and explanation

Answer: B

After a reporting verb in the past (said), the tense usually moves one step back: present simple "am" becomes past simple "was". "Is" can be used when the statement is still true at the time of reporting, but it is not among the options; "is being", "will be" and "has been" change the meaning.

Question 52

General English · Vocabulary and Word Formation · Foundation

The new drug was not ___ in reducing pain.

Show answer and explanation

Answer: B

After the verb "to be" an adjective is needed: effective. "Effect" is a noun, "effectively" an adverb, and "affect" a verb (to affect something).

Question 53

General English · Vocabulary and Word Formation · Foundation

Which word means "impossible or very hard to read"?

Show answer and explanation

Answer: C

The negative prefix in- becomes il- before a word starting with l: legible, illegible (likewise legal, illegal; logical, illogical). The other forms do not exist.

Question 54

General English · Vocabulary and Word Formation · Standard

The results were ___, so the experiment had to be repeated.

Show answer and explanation

Answer: A

Inconclusive results do not settle the question, which is why the experiment had to be repeated. Indifferent describes a lack of interest, inevitable means bound to happen and inhabited means lived in; none of them explains the need to repeat it.

Question 55

General English · Vocabulary and Word Formation · Foundation

To alleviate a patient's pain means to

Show answer and explanation

Answer: C

To alleviate is to relieve or lessen: painkillers alleviate pain. It does not mean removing the pain completely, only making it less severe.

Question 56

General English · Vocabulary and Word Formation · Foundation

The research team ___ a series of experiments on the new compound.

Show answer and explanation

Answer: D

In English, experiments are carried out (or conducted, performed, done). "Make an experiment" is a common error, often carried over from other languages.

Question 57

General English · Vocabulary and Word Formation · Foundation

What is the noun formed from the verb "to analyse"?

Show answer and explanation

Answer: B

The noun is analysis (plural analyses), from Greek like diagnosis and synthesis. The other words do not exist.

Question 58

General English · Scientific Sentence Patterns · Standard

Which sentence makes the most cautious claim, as a scientific report should when the evidence is limited?

Show answer and explanation

Answer: B

"Suggest" and "may" are hedging words: they present the finding as likely rather than certain, which is right when evidence is limited. The other sentences state the effect as universal or proven.

Question 59

General English · Scientific Sentence Patterns · Foundation

The drug lowered blood pressure; ___, it made some patients dizzy.

Show answer and explanation

Answer: C

The second clause adds a drawback that contrasts with the benefit in the first, so a contrasting linker is needed: however. "Therefore" would present dizziness as a result of lowering blood pressure, and "because" and "so that" cannot follow a semicolon like this.

Question 60

General English · Scientific Sentence Patterns · Standard

Which sentence expresses the cause and the effect correctly?

Show answer and explanation

Answer: D

Contamination is the cause and discarding the results the effect, so "because" must introduce the contamination. The other three sentences reverse cause and effect.

Section 4 of 4

Biomedical English

20 questions · 20 minutes

Question 61

Biomedical English · Core Biology Terminology · Foundation

In "hyperglycaemia", the prefix hyper- means

Show answer and explanation

Answer: B

Hyper- means above or excessive: hyperglycaemia is a blood glucose level above normal. Its opposite is hypo- (hypoglycaemia, below normal); peri- means around and a- or an- without.

Question 62

Biomedical English · Core Biology Terminology · Foundation

The suffix -itis, as in "appendicitis" or "hepatitis", means

Show answer and explanation

Answer: A

-itis means inflammation: appendicitis is inflammation of the appendix and hepatitis of the liver. Surgical removal is -ectomy (appendectomy), enlargement -megaly (hepatomegaly) and a tumour -oma.

Question 63

Biomedical English · Core Biology Terminology · Foundation

A unicellular organism

Show answer and explanation

Answer: B

Uni- means one, so a unicellular organism consists of one cell, like an amoeba or a bacterium. Lacking a nucleus describes prokaryotes, which are all unicellular, but many unicellular organisms, such as amoebae and yeasts, do have a nucleus; living inside another organism describes a parasite or symbiont.

Question 64

Biomedical English · Core Biology Terminology · Foundation

Which word refers to the heart?

Show answer and explanation

Answer: C

Cardiac (from Greek kardia) refers to the heart. Hepatic refers to the liver, renal to the kidney and pulmonary to the lungs.

Question 65

Biomedical English · Molecular Biology and Genetics Terminology · Foundation

A mutation is

Show answer and explanation

Answer: A

A mutation is a heritable change in the DNA sequence, from a single base to a whole chromosome. Making protein from mRNA is translation, and exchange between homologous chromosomes in meiosis is crossing over.

Question 66

Biomedical English · Molecular Biology and Genetics Terminology · Foundation

An individual who is homozygous for a gene has

Show answer and explanation

Answer: C

Homo- means same: a homozygote carries two identical alleles (AA or aa). Two different alleles (Aa) make a heterozygote (hetero-, different), and a homozygote can just as well carry two recessive alleles.

Question 67

Biomedical English · Molecular Biology and Genetics Terminology · Foundation

An organism's phenotype is

Show answer and explanation

Answer: A

The phenotype is what can be observed or measured, from eye colour to blood group or enzyme activity, produced by the genotype together with the environment. The full set of genes is the genotype (or genome).

Question 68

Biomedical English · Molecular Biology and Genetics Terminology · Foundation

Transcription is the process in which

Show answer and explanation

Answer: D

To transcribe is to copy into another form: in transcription, RNA polymerase makes RNA from a DNA template. Copying DNA into DNA is replication, making protein from mRNA is translation, and removing introns is splicing.

Question 69

Biomedical English · Physiology Terminology · Foundation

Tachycardia means

Show answer and explanation

Answer: C

Tachy- means fast: tachycardia is a resting heart rate above normal, usually over 100 beats per minute. A slow heart rate is bradycardia (brady-, slow), an irregular one an arrhythmia, and a heart attack a myocardial infarction.

Question 70

Biomedical English · Physiology Terminology · Foundation

Hypotension is

Show answer and explanation

Answer: A

Hypo- means below and tension here means blood pressure, so hypotension is low blood pressure; high blood pressure is hypertension. Low body temperature is hypothermia, and low blood glucose hypoglycaemia.

Question 71

Biomedical English · Physiology Terminology · Foundation

The renal arteries supply blood to the

Show answer and explanation

Answer: D

Renal refers to the kidney (Latin ren). The liver's arterial supply is the hepatic artery, the lungs receive the pulmonary arteries and the brain the carotid and vertebral arteries.

Question 72

Biomedical English · Physiology Terminology · Standard

Haematopoiesis is

Show answer and explanation

Answer: C

Haemato- means blood and -poiesis making, so haematopoiesis is the formation of blood cells, mainly in the red bone marrow in adults. Breakdown of red blood cells is haemolysis, clotting is coagulation and blood loss haemorrhage.

Question 73

Biomedical English · Immunology and Infection Terminology · Foundation

A pathogen is

Show answer and explanation

Answer: A

Patho- means disease and -gen producing: a pathogen is anything that causes disease, such as a bacterium, virus, fungus or parasite. Antibodies are made by plasma cells, and a drug that kills bacteria is an antibiotic (bactericidal).

Question 74

Biomedical English · Immunology and Infection Terminology · Foundation

An antigen is

Show answer and explanation

Answer: B

An antigen is any molecule, or part of one, that antibodies or T- and B-cell receptors recognise, often a protein or polysaccharide on a microbe. The protein made by B cells (plasma cells) to bind it is the antibody, which is the mix-up the first option tests.

Question 75

Biomedical English · Immunology and Infection Terminology · Standard

A nosocomial infection is one that is

Show answer and explanation

Answer: A

Nosocomial (from Greek nosokomeion, hospital) means acquired during care in a hospital, also called a hospital-acquired or healthcare-associated infection. Infection passed from mother to child is vertical or congenital, and infection carried by insects is vector-borne.

Question 76

Biomedical English · Chemistry and Biochemistry Terminology · Foundation

A hydrophobic substance

Show answer and explanation

Answer: A

Hydro- means water and -phobic fearing: hydrophobic substances, such as fats and the tails of membrane lipids, are non-polar and do not mix readily with water. Substances that dissolve easily in water are hydrophilic, and breaking a bond with water is hydrolysis.

Question 77

Biomedical English · Chemistry and Biochemistry Terminology · Foundation

Catabolism refers to

Show answer and explanation

Answer: C

Catabolic pathways break molecules down, as glycolysis breaks down glucose, and release energy, much of it captured as ATP. Building large molecules from smaller ones is anabolism; together the two make up metabolism.

Question 78

Biomedical English · Chemistry and Biochemistry Terminology · Standard

A solution that is isotonic to a cell

Show answer and explanation

Answer: D

Iso- means equal: an isotonic solution exerts the same osmotic pressure as the cell, so water moves in and out equally and the cell keeps its volume. 0.9% saline is isotonic to red blood cells. A hypertonic solution draws water out and a hypotonic one lets it flow in.

Question 79

Biomedical English · Scientific Language Functions · Foundation

Which expression introduces an example?

Show answer and explanation

Answer: D

"For instance" (like "for example" or "such as") introduces an example. "In contrast" and "nevertheless" introduce a contrast, and "consequently" a result.

Question 80

Biomedical English · Scientific Language Functions · Foundation

"The enzyme is inhibited by high concentrations of ATP." Here, "inhibited" means

Show answer and explanation

Answer: D

To inhibit is to slow down or prevent an activity. The sentence describes feedback inhibition: when ATP is plentiful, an enzyme of an ATP-producing pathway is slowed down. The opposite would be "activated" or "stimulated".

About this paper

Semmelweis Entrance Exam past papers

Semmelweis publishes no past papers. What it offers instead is a free sample version of the online test on its Moodle, 10 questions in 10 minutes, with the logins given on its entrance-exam page; like the real tests, it runs only in Safe Exam Browser. The same page links the official topic list and four recommended textbooks. The practice questions on this page are IvyTest's own, written in the same format.

This paper keeps the format Semmelweis describes (four tests of 20 questions, one correct answer each, taken in order) and the topics on its official Medical Biology and Medical Chemistry list. Every question on it is new, and every one has its answer explained.

Next step

How did you do?

One paper shows where you are today. Take the free diagnostic next, or read the Semmelweis Entrance Exam guide for the syllabus, dates and scoring in full.