Assen Zlatarov University Medicine Entrance Exam 2027: Complete Preparation Guide

Twenty-two official topic areas, grouped here into fifteen. Expect the recurring one-correct-statement or one-incorrect-statement format throughout, which rewards precision about definitions rather than general familiarity.

• Tissues: epithelial, connective, muscle and nervous tissue; classification of epithelium by layer and cell shape, the connective tissue types and their shared matrix, skeletal, smooth and cardiac muscle compared by control, location and organisation, neuron structure and glial support cells
• The digestive system: oral cavity, teeth, salivary glands, tongue, pharynx, oesophagus, stomach, small intestine, pancreas, liver and large intestine; mechanical versus chemical digestion, where each nutrient class begins to be digested, the major enzymes, bile production and emulsification, absorption at villi and microvilli
• The respiratory system: nasal cavity, pharynx, trachea and lungs; ciliated epithelium, mucus and cartilage rings, alveolar structure and gas exchange by diffusion, the mechanics of breathing, transport of oxygen and carbon dioxide in blood, external, internal and cellular respiration compared
• The urinary system and excretion: what excretion means and how it differs from defecation; kidney cortex, medulla and pelvis, the nephron as functional unit, glomerular filtration, tubular reabsorption and tubular secretion, regulation of water, salts and pH, ureters, urinary bladder and urethra
• The cardiovascular system and blood: heart chambers, valves and the path of blood, arteries, veins and capillaries compared by wall structure and pressure, pulmonary and systemic circuits, the cardiac cycle and conduction, plasma, erythrocytes, leukocytes and platelets, clotting
• Immunity: innate and acquired immunity side by side; physical and chemical barriers, inflammation, phagocytosis and complement; B lymphocytes, antibodies, T lymphocytes and antigen recognition; immune memory, vaccination, and active, passive, natural and artificial immunity
• The locomotor system and the skin: skull, vertebral column, thorax and limbs, axial and appendicular divisions, bone functions, joint types, tendons and ligaments, antagonistic muscle pairs and the properties of muscle; epidermis, dermis and subcutaneous tissue, glands, hair follicles and receptors, protection, thermoregulation, sensation and vitamin D synthesis
• The nervous system and the senses: neuron parts and the synapse, the reflex arc from receptor to effector, somatic and autonomic organisation with sympathetic and parasympathetic effects, spinal cord and the brain divisions; the visual system from cornea to optic nerve including retina, rods, cones and macula; the auditory system from outer ear to cochlea, and the vestibular apparatus
• The endocrine system: hormones as chemical messengers carried in blood; pituitary, thyroid, parathyroid, pancreas, adrenal glands and sex glands with their principal hormones; negative feedback, hypothalamic control of the pituitary, and target-organ effects on metabolism, growth, stress, calcium balance and reproduction
• Reproduction, growth and development: male and female reproductive systems and the paths of sperm and oocyte, spermatogenesis and oogenesis, the menstrual cycle, fertilisation site and zygote formation, cleavage, morula, blastocyst and gastrulation, the three germ layers, differentiation and post-embryonic development
• Biomolecules, viruses and prokaryotes: amino acids, peptide bonds and the levels of protein structure; enzymes as catalysts that lower activation energy and their sensitivity to temperature and pH; nucleotide components and DNA compared with RNA; virus capsid, nucleic acid and envelope, dependence on host cells, lytic and lysogenic cycles; bacterial wall, circular DNA, plasmids, capsule, pili, flagella and binary fission
• The eukaryotic cell and membrane transport: the fluid mosaic model and membrane selectivity; ribosomes, cytoskeleton, centrosome, endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi, lysosomes, peroxisomes and mitochondria classified as non-membranous, single-membrane and double-membrane; diffusion, osmosis, facilitated diffusion, active transport, endocytosis and exocytosis; the nucleus and chromosomes
• Cell metabolism and genetic processes: ATP and the purpose of catabolism; glycolysis in the cytosol, the Krebs cycle and oxidative phosphorylation in the mitochondrion, NADH and FADH2 as electron carriers; DNA replication; transcription and translation, codons and anticodons, the roles of mRNA, tRNA and rRNA, and the basics of the genetic code
• Cell division: the cell cycle; the phases of mitosis with cytokinesis; meiosis I and II as reduction division producing haploid gametes, crossing over in prophase I and independent assortment; mitosis and meiosis compared by chromosome number and genetic identity
• Heredity, variability and mutations: genotype, phenotype, allele, homozygous, heterozygous, dominant and recessive; monohybrid crosses; sex determination and differentiation, X-linked and Y-linked inheritance; linked genes, crossing over and recombination frequency; phenotypic and genotypic variability, gene mutations, structural and numerical chromosomal mutations and inherited human diseases

Twenty-five official topics grouped into twenty areas, eleven inorganic and nine organic. The paper takes exactly 15 items from each half, so the halves deserve equal preparation time even though the inorganic list is longer.

• Atomic structure (inorganic): nucleus, protons, neutrons and electrons by charge, mass and location, atomic and mass number, isotopes and isobars, atomic orbitals and quantum numbers at a conceptual level, electron configuration by the Aufbau principle, the Pauli exclusion principle and Hund's rule, ground and excited states
• Periodic law and the periodic table (inorganic): reading groups and periods to infer valence electrons and broad properties; trends in atomic radius, ionic radius, ionisation energy, electron affinity and electronegativity; metallic and non-metallic character; prediction of common ions and oxidation states; characterisation of an element from its position
• Chemical bonding and intermolecular forces (inorganic): ionic, covalent and metallic bonding and the donor-acceptor bond; sigma and pi bonds in single, double and triple bonds; polar bonds distinguished from polar molecules using electronegativity difference; hybridisation and simple molecular geometry; dipole-dipole forces, van der Waals interactions and hydrogen bonding
• Chemical elements and their reactions (inorganic): general characteristics and chemical nature of metals and non-metals; reactions with hydrogen, oxygen, metals, non-metals, acids, bases and salts; the activity series and displacement, including which metals release hydrogen from acids; amphoteric behaviour
• Oxides, hydroxides, oxoacids and salts (inorganic): composition, structure, types and properties; classification of oxides as basic, acidic, amphoteric or neutral; naming rules and the distinctions between sulfate and sulfite, nitrate and nitrite, carbonate and hydrogen carbonate; neutralisation products
• Thermochemistry (inorganic): thermal effects of reactions, exothermic and endothermic processes and the sign of the enthalpy change, where the enthalpy change comes from in bond terms, the thermochemical laws, Hess's law calculations by adding and reversing equations, standard enthalpy changes
• Chemical kinetics and catalysis (inorganic): reaction rate and the factors that change it, the law of mass action, reaction mechanisms, collision theory, temperature dependence, activation energy, energy diagrams and the Arrhenius equation; homogeneous, heterogeneous and enzyme catalysis, the alternative pathway, and why a catalyst changes rate but not equilibrium position
• Chemical equilibrium (inorganic): reversibility and dynamic equilibrium as equal forward and reverse rates, writing and interpreting the equilibrium constant, and Le Chatelier's principle applied to changes in concentration, pressure and temperature
• Solutions and colloid-dispersive systems (inorganic): dispersion systems and true solutions, dissolution and solubility, unsaturated, saturated and supersaturated solutions, colligative properties including vapour pressure lowering, boiling point elevation and freezing point depression, diffusion, osmosis and osmotic pressure; colloid formation, lyophilic and lyophobic colloids, particle structure, kinetic, optical and electric properties, the Tyndall effect, stability, coagulation and peptisation
• Oxidation, reduction and electrolysis (inorganic): oxidation as loss and reduction as gain of electrons, oxidising and reducing agents, assignment of oxidation numbers, balancing simple redox equations, metal activity and displacement, and electrolysis of molten salts compared with aqueous solutions where water competes
• Electrolytes, acids, bases and pH (inorganic): electrolytes and non-electrolytes, dissociation mechanisms, degree of dissociation, strong and weak electrolytes, the dissociation constant and conductivity; the electrolytic dissociation and Brønsted-Lowry acid-base theories, dissociation of water, pH and pOH calculation, ion exchange reactions and salt hydrolysis
• Structure, hybridisation and isomerism (organic): molecular, structural and condensed representations, carbon tetravalency, the theory of chemical structure, sp3, sp2 and sp hybridisation and the geometry that follows, chain, position and functional-group isomerism, geometric isomerism, and the elements of systematic naming
• Alkanes and alkenes (organic): homologous series, names, isomerism, structure, properties and preparation; the general formulae CnH2n+2 and CnH2n; combustion, free-radical substitution, cracking and isomerisation of alkanes; addition of hydrogen, halogens, hydrogen halides and water to alkenes, polymerisation, and decolorisation tests
• Alkynes and arenes (organic): the general formula CnH2n-2, the sigma and two pi bonds of the triple bond, linear geometry, addition reactions and the acidity of terminal alkynes; benzene structure and aromatic stability from the delocalised pi system, electrophilic substitution by nitration, halogenation, sulfonation and alkylation, homologues such as toluene and xylene, isomerism and preparation
• Alcohols and phenols (organic): classification as primary, secondary and tertiary, names, isomerism, structure, physical properties and preparation; oxidation of primary alcohols to aldehydes and acids and of secondary alcohols to ketones, with tertiary alcohols resistant; esterification with carboxylic acids; phenols as weak acids that undergo ring substitution
• Aldehydes and ketones (organic): the carbonyl group in aldehydes compared with ketones, classification, names, isomerism, structure and preparation, physical properties, oxidation of aldehydes to carboxylic acids and the resistance of ketones to mild oxidation, the silver mirror or Tollens test, reduction to alcohols and nucleophilic addition
• Carboxylic acids, derivatives and fats (organic): classification and names, saturated monocarboxylic acids, fatty and aromatic acids, acidity, salt formation, esterification and reduction; derivatives including acid halides, anhydrides, esters and amides; fats and oils as triesters of glycerol and fatty acids and their hydrolysis
• Amines (organic): classification as primary, secondary and tertiary, naming, structure, preparation and properties; basicity arising from the nitrogen lone pair, salt formation with acids, and aniline as an aromatic amine weaker in basicity than simple alkylamines
• Amino acids, peptides and proteins (organic): composition, structure, types, names, isomerism and properties of amino acids; amphoteric behaviour and the zwitterion; peptide bond formation by condensation; hydrolysis of peptides and proteins to a mixture of alpha-amino acids
• Carbohydrates (organic): classification as monosaccharides, disaccharides and polysaccharides, glucose as an aldose and fructose as a ketose, sucrose as a disaccharide, starch and cellulose as glucose polymers differing in linkage and digestibility, and their biological roles in energy supply, storage and structure

Pass/fail only, at 25 of 50, and it does not enter the ranking score. The university publishes the three-block structure but no topic syllabus; the areas below follow that published structure.

• Reading comprehension (items 1-10): two general, non-specialist texts with five questions each, in multiple-choice or True/False form; facts and opinions stated directly or implied by context, nuance of words and word combinations, drawing conclusions, vocabulary in context, and distractors that are partly true but too broad, too narrow or unsupported by the text
• Vocabulary and collocations (items 11-30): gapped sentences with four options; collocations, set phrases and word combinations, high-frequency phrasal verbs, word formation across noun, adjective, adverb and verb forms, and confusable words
• Tenses, voice and reported speech (items 31-50): present simple and continuous, past simple and continuous, present perfect and future forms; the passive voice across common tenses; reported speech with tense backshift, reporting verbs, reported questions and commands
• Modals and conditionals: can, could, may, might, must, have to, should and would with their meanings of ability, permission, obligation and deduction; zero, first and second conditionals and recognition of the basic third conditional
• Articles, prepositions and relative clauses: a, an, the and the zero article with general plurals, abstract nouns and proper nouns; prepositions of time, place and movement together with adjective and verb preposition patterns including preposition plus -ing; relative clauses with who, which, that, where and whose, defining and non-defining
• Word order and comparison: sentence word order and subject-verb agreement, question formation, comparatives and superlatives, degree structures such as enough, too, so and such, and correction of the common errors these produce

Three separate 60-minute tests, sat on a single day and all online under remote proctoring, for the university's English-taught Medicine programme in Burgas: Biology (31 questions, 36 points, from an official list of 22 topic areas), Chemistry (30 questions, 70 points, from 25 official topics, with 15 inorganic and 15 organic items) and an English B1 diagnostic (50 questions, 50 points). Only the two science tests contribute to your ranking score.

Neither. Bulgaria runs no shared national medical entrance test and every school writes its own paper. Assen Zlatarov's three-test single day 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 Sofia University runs one combined three-hour exam. The university also operates a separate domestic Bulgarian-citizen route with its own essay-style Biology and Chemistry papers of 2.5 hours each, a different exam entirely from the one described here.

Online, all three of them, under remote proctoring with webcam video, audio, screen share and instant messaging. In the 2026/2027 campaign the sequence ran Biology at 10:00, Chemistry at 13:00 and English B1 at 15:00 EEST. The tests may be sat in English, and the two science tests may also be sat in Bulgarian.

No, and this is the most consequential misreading of this exam. The ranking formula does not use the raw point ceilings at all: it takes a grade from each test and multiplies both by three: (3 × Biology) + (3 × Chemistry) + your diploma language grade, to a maximum of 42. Biology and Chemistry each contribute up to 18 of those 42 points, identically. Splitting your revision two-to-one in Chemistry's favour would follow the point ceilings rather than the formula that actually decides your place.

No. It is a pass/fail gate with a published pass mark of 25 out of 50, and its result does not enter the ranking formula at all. Candidates who hold an accepted English certificate are exempt and never sit it. It is worth noting that this is the only numeric cut-off published anywhere in the whole admission process: the two tests that do count publish no minimum raw score.

For the English B1 diagnostic the rule is published: one point per correct answer and no penalty for a wrong one, so with four options on items 11 to 50 a blind guess is worth +0.25 points and a blank is worth 0. For Biology and Chemistry, no penalty rule and no rule on the option count are published (the university's sample tests use four options), so no honest expected value can be computed for them. What pays under every possible scheme is eliminating an option before you answer, so make that the habit rather than relying on a guessing rule the university has never stated.

24 out of 42 on the ranking formula, and it is confirmed: the university's Ranking score page states that the maximum is 42 and the minimum 24, and its admission regulation says the same in the paragraph specifically governing foreign candidate-students studying in English. Score below it and you do not enter the ranking regardless of your raw Biology or Chemistry points. A separate minimum of 25 appears in the same article for the domestic Bulgarian-citizen track, which uses a different formula; that figure is not yours.

Nobody outside the university can tell you, because the table converting raw points into the grade that enters the formula is not published. What can be worked out is the grade arithmetic: with a top diploma language grade, the two science grades need to sum to 6.00, an average of 3.00 each; with the lowest language grade on the scale the formula implies, they need to sum to about 7.33, an average of roughly 3.67 each. A full swing in your language grade therefore moves the science average you need by only about 0.17 of a grade point, because the language grade enters at ×1 and each science at ×3.

The university publishes no seat count, applicant volume or student numbers for the English-taught programme, so any acceptance rate quoted elsewhere is an estimate. For scale, the Faculty of Medicine was established in 2019 and the earliest English-track timetables point to a first intake in 2023/24. Clinical practicals take place at hospitals in Burgas (the timetables list UMHAT and the Bulgarian Cardiac Institute).

Within the EU, yes: automatically, as a standard Bulgarian medical degree. There is no separate national board exam afterwards: 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. Because this is a young programme, it is worth confirming its current accreditation status directly before committing.

Yes. The IvyTest simulator runs three separately clocked 60-minute mocks (Biology, Chemistry and English B1) in timed, tutor and review modes, with a free diagnostic available without payment.

No past papers: the university states that the content of its online exams is confidential and forbids candidates to share or publish any part of it. Its Entry exams and fees page does offer two free PDFs: a sample Biology test (21 four-option questions and a six-pair matching task) and a sample Chemistry test (30 four-option questions), each with its answers, next to the two official syllabi. Once your fee is received, the exam system also lets you solve mock tests.

The 2027/2028 dates were not published when this guide was checked on 11 October 2026. In the 2026/2027 campaign documents were accepted from 4 March 2026 and the tests ran online on three days, 30 July, 20 August and 8 September 2026, each with its own deadline: online until 28 July, 18 August and 6 September, in person until 24 July, 14 August and 2 September. An additional round sat the tests on 6 October 2026. Non-EU applicants needing a type D visa had to complete their documents by 11 September 2026.

The university publishes no pass rate or applicant numbers, so its difficulty cannot be put in figures. Its sample tests are single-answer questions on the official syllabi, the Biology one headed "Mark the ONE correct/incorrect answer". What makes the exam awkward is its arithmetic: Chemistry items are worth 1.5, 2.5 or 3.0 points (no page says which items carry which value), and raw points become a grade through an unpublished table. The bar to enter the ranking is 24 of 42.

The Enrollment page lists €5,000 per term for Medicine taught in English, so €10,000 a year, and €3,800 for the course Learning Bulgarian language for foreigners; both figures are marked TBC (to be confirmed). Applying costs €450: €300 for the Biology, Chemistry and English B1 tests and €150 for document processing. Applicants holding Bulgarian and a non-EU citizenship who finished school abroad can pay 50% of the foreign-student fee, the Common Terms page says.

Secondary education that gives you the right to enter university in the country where you completed it, shown by an eligibility letter and recognised by Bulgaria's NACID; for non-EU citizens, a grade in the official-language matriculation exam of at least 62% of that country's maximum. Documents are legalised or apostilled, translated into Bulgarian and uploaded at st.uniburgas.bg. You pass the Biology and Chemistry tests and show English at B1: an accepted certificate, the B1 test, or citizenship of a country where English is the official language. Non-EU students need a type D visa.

Bulgaria's National Assembly decided to open the Faculty of Medicine on 10 May 2019, and the faculty calls itself the only faculty of medicine in South-Eastern Bulgaria. The degree takes six years, ten semesters and a pre-graduate internship with state exams, and leads to a Master's degree with the qualification Doctor; the faculty's page publishes the 2024 curriculum and the syllabi for years one to three. The 2026/2027 academic year opened on 5 October 2026, and weekly timetables and exam-session dates are posted for each semester.

The university quotes no league-table position on the pages read. What it states is that it is the only state university in South-Eastern Bulgaria, founded in 1963, and that for the quality of its scientific research it is ranked among the first in Bulgaria according to the Hirsch system. It publishes no student reviews, and it says no company or person is authorised to recruit students for it, so an agency's review is not the university's word.

Yes. By decision of Bulgaria's 51st National Assembly on 21 February 2025, Prof. Dr. Assen Zlatarov University was renamed Burgas State University "Prof. Dr. Assen Zlatarov" (BSU), the name its admission pages now use. It is in Burgas, on Bulgaria's Black Sea coast; the international students' office is in Student Dormitory Block 1 at 1 Prof. Yakim Yakimov Str., 8010 Burgas.