Sofia University Medicine Entrance Exam 2027: Complete Preparation Guide

Thirty official topics, grouped here into ten areas, each topic landing in exactly one of them.

• The eukaryotic cell (topics 21-23): structural and functional characteristics of the eukaryotic cell, plasma membrane structure, transport of substances through the plasma membrane, endocytosis and exocytosis, cytoplasmic organelles and their types, structure and function, and the role and structure of the nucleus
• Molecular biology (topics 16-19): DNA structure, functions and replication and the application of DNA analysis in medicine, RNA types, structure, functions and transcription, protein structure, functions and translation, enzyme structure and mechanism of action, regulation of enzyme activity, and the application of enzymes in medical and biological practice
• Cell division and gametogenesis (topics 24 and 29): the cell life cycle and cell division, the phases and biological significance of mitosis and meiosis, chromosomes and the human karyotype, gametogenesis including spermatogenesis and oogenesis, and fertilization
• Genetics and heredity (topics 25-28): inheritance of traits, monohybrid, dihybrid and analytical crosses, mutational variability and the classification of gene, chromosomal and genomic mutations, methods of genetic analysis in human genetics, and hereditary diseases in humans
• Microbiology and immunity (topics 20 and 30): viruses and bacteria as infectious agents, their structure, distribution and medical importance as causes of human disease, homeostasis and its types, the immunological mechanisms of homeostasis, immunity, and the cell-mediated and humoral immune response
• Tissues and the musculoskeletal system (topics 1-3): structural organization of the human organism, structure and functions of epithelial, connective, muscle and nervous tissue, bones and joints and their structure, types and functions, and muscles and their structure, types and functions, each with the associated health knowledge
• Blood, circulation and respiration (topics 4-6): the internal fluid environment of the human organism, blood and blood groups, blood clotting and transfusion, the heart and cardiac activity, blood vessels and circulation, and the structure and functions of the respiratory system, with the health knowledge attached to each
• Digestion and excretion (topics 7-8): structure and functions of the human digestive system, structure and functions of the human excretory system, and the health knowledge attached to each
• Neuroendocrine control, senses and skin (topics 12-15): the human nervous system and the spinal cord, the endocrine system and the types of endocrine gland, the vision and hearing analyzers, and the skin, each treated as structure, functions and health knowledge
• Reproduction and human development (topics 9-11): structure and functions of the male reproductive system, structure and functions of the female reproductive system, embryonic and post-embryonic human development, and the health knowledge of human reproduction and development

Twenty-six official topics in two blocks (inorganic at topics 1-15 and organic at topics 16-26), grouped here into nine areas.

• Atomic structure and the periodic table (topic 1): elementary particles, atomic and mass number, isotopes, electron configuration and the arrangement of electrons in shells and subshells, together with the periodic trends that follow from it
• Chemical bonding and complex compounds (topics 2 and 8): the chemical bond, ionic, covalent and metallic bonding, bond polarity and electronegativity, intermolecular forces, and complex compounds with their central atom, ligands and coordination number
• Redox processes and electrolysis (topics 3-4): redox processes, oxidation number, identifying the oxidised and reduced species and the oxidising and reducing agents, balancing redox equations, electrolysis and the reactions at each electrode
• Inorganic compound classes (topics 5-7 and 15): basic, acid and amphoteric oxides, hydroxides and oxoacids, salts, and acids, bases and salts as classes, including neutralisation and the behaviour of amphoteric species
• Kinetics, catalysis and equilibrium (topics 9-11): rates of chemical reactions and the factors that change them, catalysis and what a catalyst does and does not do, and chemical equilibrium and the response of a system to a disturbance
• Solutions, dissociation and colloids (topics 12-14): solutions and ways of expressing concentration, the mole in solution calculations, colloid-dispersed systems, and the theory of electrolytic dissociation with the behaviour of strong and weak electrolytes
• Organic foundations and hydrocarbons (topics 16-19): the theory of the structure of chemical compounds and structural theory, isomerism, alkanes, alkenes and alkynes, arenes, halogen derivatives of hydrocarbons, and the substitution-versus-addition contrast that separates the families
• Oxygen and nitrogen compounds (topics 20-23): hydroxyl derivatives of hydrocarbons including alcohols and phenols, amines, carbonyl derivatives including aldehydes and ketones, carboxylic acids, and the oxidation sequence that links them
• Acid derivatives and biomolecules (topics 24-26): functional derivatives of carboxylic acids including acid halides, anhydrides, esters and amides, aminocarboxylic acids and their amphoteric character, and carbohydrates with their classification and structure

It is a single combined written exam with two components, Biology and Chemistry, used to select candidates for Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski's English-taught Medicine programme. It runs for three astronomic hours, is sat entirely in English at secondary-school level, and each component carries four-option multiple-choice items plus a short written-answer task.

No, they are different institutions in the same city. Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, founded in 1888, is Bulgaria's first institution of higher education. Its original Faculty of Medicine, founded in 1917, was removed from it in 1950 and became what is now the Medical University of Sofia; the university re-established its own Faculty of Medicine in 2003, and the 2021/2022 edition of its programme page admitted the first 50 candidates in the ranking. The Medical University of Sofia is a separate, dedicated medical school with its own admissions process and its own exam. The confusion is not harmless: at least one widely circulated claim about this exam's format appears to come from conflating the two, and dates quoted for 'Sofia' medicine admissions frequently belong to the other school.

Neither. Bulgaria runs no shared national medical entrance test and every school writes its own paper. Sofia University's single combined three-hour exam is structurally unlike its neighbours: Varna runs two 90-minute papers with five sections each, Pleven runs a multiple-choice Part A plus a written Part B in each subject, and Assen Zlatarov in Burgas runs three separate 60-minute tests on one day. Sofia University also operates a separate domestic Bulgarian-citizen admission route of its own, ranked on state matriculation grades rather than on this exam.

The official programme page does not say. It gives the exam dates and requires application documents to be submitted in person, or through a representative, at the university's central building, but it states nothing about where or how the exam itself is sat. Confirm the format for your cycle directly with the Faculty rather than assuming either.

What is published is the weighting (50% Biology, 50% Chemistry) and not the arithmetic. The university states no marks-per-question figure and no rule on whether wrong answers are penalised; its own past-exam specimens show no sign of negative marking. IvyTest works from the neutral assumption of one mark for a correct answer and nothing for a wrong one, under which a blind guess across the confirmed four options is worth +0.25 marks and a blank exactly 0, so there is no item worth leaving empty. If a penalty were later confirmed, eliminating one option before answering would still pay.

No numeric score is published for this track. The published rule is structural: only applicants who have passed both components are eligible for ranking, and the mark that constitutes a pass is stated nowhere. You may find a figure of 24 out of 36 on uni-sofia.bg; that, together with a Medicine-specific addendum on the same domain, describes the domestic Bulgarian-citizen route, which ranks on state matriculation grades and quotes fees in Bulgarian leva. IvyTest re-read the official programme page on 12 October 2026 and found no threshold published for the English-taught programme.

Yes, candidates may sit it once or twice within the admission window, and the higher result is used for ranking. That makes the first sitting effectively free if a second is still available, so the practical mistake is delaying the first attempt until you feel completely ready and leaving no room for the second. The sources do not say whether you can combine a Biology result from one sitting with a Chemistry result from the other, so assume the higher whole result is what counts.

They are weighted identically (50% each), and no, one cannot rescue the other. Only applicants who have passed both components enter the ranking, so a failed Biology component ends the candidacy however strong the Chemistry result is. Because the two hurdles multiply, balance is worth more here than a peak: at an 80% chance of passing each, the chance of clearing both in a sitting is 64%, and lifting each to 90% raises that to 81%.

The 2026/2027 programme page states no number. Its 2021/2022 edition admitted the first 50 candidates from the ranking list. Applicant volume is not published, so no acceptance rate can be quoted honestly. What the page does state is how places are given: candidates are ranked in descending order of their admission-exam grades, and a candidate who sat on both dates is ranked on the higher grade.

Within the EU, the programme page states that the curriculum satisfies Directive 2005/36/EC, the EU directive on recognising doctors' professional qualifications, as well as Bulgaria's Unified State Requirements for the Medical Doctor degree. As general guidance rather than a Sofia University statement: there is no separate national board exam afterwards, since Bulgaria's state exam is built into the final year of the six-year degree itself, followed by free and indefinite registration in the National Register of the Bulgarian Medical Association (BLS). 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 Sofia University-format practice (four options, both components inside one timed three-hour sitting, scored per component so each hurdle shows separately) in timed, tutor and review modes, with a free diagnostic available without payment.

Yes, four. Under 'Past exams – tests', the programme page links four free PDFs: Biology example 1 and 2 and Chemistry example 1 and 2, each with 25 multiple-choice items of four options (Biology example 1 adds a written item 26). They are undated and carry no answer key. The same page links the Biology and Chemistry exam programmes (the syllabi) as PDFs too. The practice questions on this page are IvyTest's own.

The 2027/2028 dates are not published yet: on 12 October 2026 the programme page still showed the 2026/2027 cycle. That cycle took applications from 10 August to 4 September 2026, held the exam on two dates, 10 and 16 September 2026, published results on 14 and 21 September, the ranking on 23 September and enrolment from 24 to 28 September, and the year began on 1 October 2026. IvyTest updates this guide when the next calendar appears.

Completed secondary education with grades in Biology and Chemistry, and a pass in both components of the entrance exam. The programme page lists the documents: the application form, your legalised diploma and supplement officially translated into Bulgarian, NACID's certificate of recognised secondary education with your grades converted to the Bulgarian scale, a legalised and translated document showing you may enter university in your own country, an ID copy, 2 photographs and the receipts for the application and exam fees, handed in at the university's central building. No English certificate, interview or motivation letter is listed. The university's EU-applicants page says EU citizens apply under the requirements for Bulgarians, not as foreign applicants, so EU candidates should confirm their documents with the Admission Office.

Tuition is €8,000 a year for 2026/2027 on the programme page, the same figure as the university's fee tables for non-EU students for 2025/2026 and 2026/2027, paid in two equal halves at the start of each semester. The application fee is €50, paid by bank before the exam dates; a separate exam fee is paid by bank transfer, but no page states its amount. The Faculty's optional two-day preparatory course cost €300 in 2026. If you withdraw after enrolment, the fees page says 80% of the fee can be refunded only if you ask before 1 October.

Six years, or 12 semesters, built on Bulgaria's Unified State Requirements for the Master's degree in the specialty Medical Doctor with the qualification of General Practitioner, and on Directive 2005/36/EC, as the programme page states. The Faculty's presentation page adds that it has seven departments and teaches in its own auditoriums and laboratories and those of the Biology, Physics, and Chemistry and Pharmacy faculties, with clinical subjects at University Hospital Lozenetz and the Military Medical Academy. The Faculty's English pages publish no year-by-year study plan.

Yes, both as an institution and for Medicine itself. Bulgaria's National Evaluation and Accreditation Agency (NEAA) granted Sofia University subsequent institutional accreditation on 25 July 2024, with an overall score of 9.47 out of 10, valid for six years; the university's international pages still quote the previous score, 9.61 from 2018. For Medicine, NEAA's Accreditation Council granted the Master's programme accreditation on 30 April 2026, valid until the next programme accreditation under the national schedule, with a capacity of 800 students and a score of 8.01 out of 10 (7.98 when granted, recalculated on 18 June 2026); the Faculty's presentation page still cites only an accreditation valid through 8 September 2017. The programme page adds that the curriculum meets Bulgaria's Unified State Requirements and Directive 2005/36/EC.

Sofia University publishes no ranking for Medicine on its own. University-wide, its news of 19 June 2026 places it 751-761 in the QS World University Rankings 2027, among the top 50% of the 1,504 universities ranked, a table it has been in since 2013. The university says it is considered the largest and most prestigious educational and scientific centre in Bulgaria, and NEAA's 2024 institutional accreditation scored it 9.47 out of 10. Neither figure measures the Medicine programme on its own.

The content is not the hard part: both official syllabi are short (30 Biology and 26 Chemistry topics) and cover secondary-school material, and the four past tests read at that level. What makes it demanding is the structure: both components must be passed, no pass mark or question count is published, the paper includes short written answers as well as multiple choice, and places go by grade among the candidates who pass. Two sittings, with the higher grade counting, soften it.