San Raffaele International MD 2027 test: structure and syllabus

When students look up the structure of the San Raffaele International MD test, they usually want to know a handful of things. How many questions there are, which subjects come up, how long it lasts, how it is scored and whether there is an official syllabus.

This guide answers each of those using the official call. The 2027/28 call is not out yet (as of 24 October 2026; UniSR usually publishes it around mid-December), so the structure described here is the one in the 2026/27 call.

How the test is structured

The admission test for the International MD Program at Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele is a multiple-choice test, entirely in English, taken online from home with remote proctoring.

The 7 reserve questions come after the 80 minutes and do not count towards your score.

This is a different test from the one for Medicine and Surgery in Italian at UniSR, which has its own call and structure.

The two blocks of questions

The call splits the 60 questions into two blocks:

That is all the call says about the distribution. It does not state how many of the 36 are logic, problem solving or reading comprehension, nor how many of the 24 come from each science subject.

This matters when you read about the test elsewhere. If a site or a course gives you an exact number of biology or physics questions, that number is an estimate, not an official figure. The TestBuddy simulator also has to divide the questions by subject so that you can practise and track each one; that split is our choice for practice, not something UniSR has published.

The proportions themselves are clear, though. 36 questions out of 60 are on reasoning and reading, so the first block is the larger part of the test. Science is 24 questions shared between four subjects.

Scoring system

The maximum score is 60 points.

There is no minimum score to be ranked. Admission depends on your position in the ranking compared with the places available, and EU and non-EU candidates are ranked separately.

Because wrong answers cost a quarter of a point, a blind guess has a cost. Leaving a question blank is sometimes the better choice, and getting a feel for when to answer is part of the preparation.

Timing

80 minutes for 60 questions works out at 1 minute and 20 seconds per question on average.

In practice the time is not spread evenly. Reading comprehension passages take longer than a short calculation, and some logic questions can be solved in seconds while others need a careful look. Training with full timed tests is the only reliable way to find your own pace.

How the test is delivered

The test is held online from home, with remote proctoring run by an external provider, Selexi S.r.l. The questions are owned by UniSR and drawn at random from its question bank.

There are two sessions and you can take both: the better score is the one used. In 2026/27 the sessions were on 14 February and 14 March 2026 for EU candidates, and on 11 February and 4 March 2026 for non-EU candidates. The 2027 dates have not been announced yet.

Is there an official syllabus?

No detailed syllabus is published for this test. The reference is article 5 of the call, which sets out the two blocks above and lists the four science subjects: biology, chemistry, mathematics and physics.

UniSR has not published past papers either. It sells its own online simulator, with a free 20-question demo, which is the closest official example of the question style.

In the absence of a topic list, the safest approach is to prepare the standard secondary school programme in the four science subjects, in English, and to give regular time to logic, problem solving and reading comprehension. When the 2027/28 call comes out, check article 5 in case anything has changed.

Why the structure comes first

Knowing the shape of the test changes how you study.

36 reasoning and reading questions out of 60 means this block cannot be left to the end.

The 24 science questions cover four subjects with no fixed split, so no subject can be safely dropped.

Negative marking changes how you answer, not only what you know.

80 minutes for 60 questions means pace has to be trained, not guessed.

Practising with the TestBuddy simulator for the San Raffaele International MD test lets you work under the same timing and scoring as the official test and see where you lose points.

More San Raffaele International MD guides: complete guide, simulations, how to prepare.

Official references

Call for Admission 2026/27, EU candidates (English), article 5

International MD Program admissions page