SSST Medicine Entrance Exam 2027: Complete Preparation Guide

Most of the Grammar section is production rather than recognition (you rewrite, transform, correct and complete rather than pick an option), so practise producing the forms, not just identifying them.

• The verb system: rewriting sentences in the negative written out in full, answering questions in full sentences using a given verb, present simple versus present continuous, present perfect versus simple past, building simple-past questions that fit a given answer, supplying past, -ing and past participle forms, modals and semi-modals, conditionals, the passive, gerunds and infinitives, subject-verb agreement
• Words and structure: much, many, some and any, correcting wrong comparative and superlative forms, possessive adjectives versus possessive pronouns and whose versus who's, would, should, can and could, prepositions of time, place and movement including verb and adjective combinations, articles, determiners, pronouns, relative clauses, adverbs, word order and sentence correction
• Reading comprehension: one passage of roughly a page followed by about fifteen items in mixed formats, main idea and authorial purpose, locating explicit detail and paraphrase, inference from context, vocabulary in context, tone and function, and distinguishing fact, opinion, example, cause, result and contrast
• Essay writing: choosing one prompt from a small set and writing no more than one page (motivation prompts, opinion and argument prompts, ethics prompts on empathy, confidentiality, professionalism and fairness, and descriptive or personal prompts), with a clear thesis, body paragraphs, conclusion, linking words and sentence control
• Oral English exam: a 10 to 15 minute conversation with a member of the English Faculty worth 20 of the 100 English marks, covering background, education, academic strengths and weaknesses, motivation and study goals, assessed on fluency, accuracy and range rather than on the content of your answers

Derived from SSST's published 150-item bank, which is four options A to D throughout.

• Cell biology and cellular organisation: prokaryotic versus eukaryotic cells, animal versus plant cells, the nucleoid, organelles and their functions, plasma membrane and selective permeability, diffusion, osmosis and active transport, ion channels and electrical activity in neurons, tissues and differentiation, stem cells and potency, ATP as the cell's energy currency
• Biomolecules, enzymes and metabolism: monosaccharides, glucose and polysaccharides, lipids in storage and membranes, amino acids, peptide bonds and protein structure, nucleotides, enzymes and substrate specificity, competitive and allosteric inhibition, denaturation versus hydrolysis, the effect of temperature and pH, anabolism versus catabolism, homeostasis
• Genetics and inheritance: gene, allele, locus, genotype and phenotype, dominance and recessiveness, segregation and independent assortment, monohybrid and dihybrid crosses, Punnett square probability, autosomal recessive disease and carrier logic, X-linked recessive inheritance and affected sons, ABO blood group probability, codominance
• Molecular biology and biotechnology: DNA and RNA structure, complementary base pairing, semiconservative replication, helicase, DNA polymerase, leading and lagging strands and Okazaki fragments, transcription from one strand, translation on ribosomes, codons, anticodons and stop signals, gene expression and its regulation, miRNA, epigenetics, mutations and transposons, PCR, restriction enzymes, ligase and plasmids
• Cell division and reproduction: cell cycle phases G1, S, G2 and M, mitosis stage by stage and cytokinesis, meiosis and haploid gametes, homologous chromosomes versus sister chromatids, crossing over in prophase I, nondisjunction and the Down, Turner and Klinefelter syndromes, gametogenesis, fertilisation and the zygote, binary fission, budding and sporulation, apoptosis and its failure
• Human physiology (control): epithelial, connective, muscle and nervous tissue, neurons and glial cells, myelin, nerve impulses and the reflex arc, brain regions including cerebellum and hypothalamus, sympathetic and parasympathetic divisions, neurotransmitters, pituitary, thyroid, parathyroid, pancreas and sex hormones, insulin and glucagon, melatonin and the biological clock, feedback loops
• Human physiology (transport): heart chambers and the cardiac cycle, arteries, veins, capillaries and valves, blood components, haemoglobin and oxygen transport, clotting, anaemia, haemophilia and leukemia, trachea, lungs, alveoli, surfactant and gas exchange, peristalsis and digestion, liver and pancreas, kidneys, nephrons, filtration and urea excretion, bones, cartilage, tendons, ligaments, joints and skeletal muscle, the reproductive systems
• Microbiology, immunity and disease: bacteria, viruses, fungi and protozoa, cocci and bacilli, the bacterial capsule, modes of nutrition, sterilisation and infection control, antibiotic targets such as bacterial RNA polymerase and the ribosome, innate versus adaptive immunity, T and B lymphocytes, antibodies and antigens, vaccination and immune memory, autoimmune disease, HIV and CD4 T cells, the named infectious diseases from hepatitis and tuberculosis to malaria, and benign versus malignant tumours and metastasis
• Plants, ecology and evolution: photosynthesis and chlorophyll, xylem and phloem transport, plant tissues and cellulose, ecosystems and biotic and abiotic factors, energy flow and mineral cycling, deforestation, soil erosion and pollution indicators, evolution, adaptation, natural selection, speciation and phylogeny

Derived from SSST's published 150-item bank: the most format-varied section of the exam, and the one where reading a drawn structure is a real skill rather than an optional extra.

• Matter, measurement and the mole: pure substances versus mixtures, elements versus compounds, physical versus chemical properties and changes, empirical and molecular formulas and what each does and does not tell you, formula and molecular mass, the mole and Avogadro's number, mass-to-mole conversion, density, and reading chemical symbols, coefficients, subscripts and ionic charges
• Atomic structure and the periodic table: atomic and mass number, protons, neutrons, electrons and isotopes, cations and anions, electron configuration, shells, subshells, orbitals, valence electrons and noble-gas configurations, groups and periods, the main families from alkali metals to noble gases, metalloids and nonmetals, and periodic trends in atomic radius, electronegativity, ionisation energy, electron affinity and metallic character
• Chemical bonding and molecular structure: ionic, covalent, polar covalent and metallic bonding, Lewis symbols and reasonable Lewis structures, multiple bonds, bond polarity versus molecular polarity, the diatomic elements and their exceptions, like dissolves like, and the solubility of salts, iodine and organic solutes in polar and non-polar solvents
• Nomenclature, ions and formulas: naming and writing formulas for ionic and covalent compounds, Roman numerals for transition-metal oxidation states, the common polyatomic ions from nitrate and sulfate to cyanide and arsenate, deducing an ion's charge from a formula, and identifying the incorrect formula-name pair
• Reactions, redox and stoichiometry: balancing equations by coefficient with atom counts preserved, classifying combination, decomposition, single replacement, double replacement, neutralisation, combustion and redox reactions, assigning oxidation numbers including zero and highest states, identifying oxidation and reduction from electron transfer, endothermic versus exothermic classification, and mole, mass and volume conversions
• Acids, bases, salts and pH: acids as producers of H+ and H3O+ and bases as producers of OH−, strong versus weak acids and bases, salts and neutralisation, classifying a compound as acid, base or salt, pH and pOH, acidic, neutral and basic solutions, hydronium and hydroxide concentrations in powers of ten, the effect of dilution on pH, and indicators such as litmus
• Solutions and concentration: solute, solvent, aqueous and saturated solutions, which phases can act as solvent, electrolytes versus non-electrolytes and ionic dissociation, molarity as moles per litre, finding moles, volume or concentration, dilution with C1V1 = C2V2, converting grams to moles through molar mass, and the density of a prepared solution
• Organic chemistry: alkanes, alkenes, alkynes and cycloalkanes, IUPAC naming and alkyl substituents, reading a drawn structural formula and naming it or finding its molecular mass, numbering substituents on a chain, structural and cis-trans isomerism, alcohols, thiols, ethers, aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acids, esters and amines, the carbonyl and carboxyl groups, primary, secondary and tertiary alcohols and amines, esterification and saponification
• Biochemistry: monosaccharides, glucose as blood sugar, the polysaccharides cellulose, glycogen, amylose and amylopectin, triacylglycerols, steroids and waxes and their hydrophobic character, amino acids and peptide bonds, protein denaturation versus hydrolysis, enzymes as proteins with a substrate and an active site, and the optimum temperature for human enzymes

Derived from two of SSST's published Physics papers, of 45 and 25 items. None of its five published Physics papers contains magnetism or electromagnetic induction, so neither does this list, but electricity and simple circuits do appear, and are examinable.

• Units and measurement: SI units, prefixes and unit conversion including squared units such as km² to m², scientific notation, dimensional consistency and which quantities may legitimately be added, scalars versus vectors, vector addition in one and two dimensions, right-triangle trigonometry for components and angles, and graph interpretation by slope, area under the curve and proportionality
• Kinematics: distance versus displacement and average speed versus average velocity, acceleration, uniform and uniformly accelerated rectilinear motion, the conditions under which the standard equations apply, free fall, introductory projectile motion, and reading velocity-time and position-time graphs
• Dynamics, circular motion and equilibrium: Newton's three laws, inertial reference frames, net force and the resultant of two forces, mass versus weight, friction including the force holding a car on an unbanked curve, gravitational force, centripetal acceleration and angular velocity and how they scale with speed, translational equilibrium, torque and rotational equilibrium such as a balanced lever, and moment of inertia at recognition level
• Work, energy, power and momentum: work by a constant force and the units work may be expressed in, kinetic energy, gravitational potential energy, conservation of mechanical energy, power, linear momentum and impulse, momentum computed from a weight rather than a mass, collisions and conservation of momentum, and relating momentum to kinetic energy to recover a mass
• Fluids: density, pressure and hydrostatic pressure, balancing columns of two liquids, Archimedes' principle and what the buoyant force does and does not depend on, floating versus submerged bodies, Pascal's principle, the continuity equation relating speed to cross-sectional area, Bernoulli's principle and efflux speed from a spout, and laminar flow
• Heat and thermodynamics: heat as energy flow due to a temperature difference versus temperature itself, Celsius and Kelvin, specific heat capacity and heat-transfer calculation, changes of state and latent heat, the ideal gas law with Boyle's and Charles's laws, the first law with internal energy, heat added and work done by a gas, isothermal, adiabatic and isochoric processes, and radiation with Stefan-Boltzmann proportional reasoning
• Oscillations, waves and sound: simple harmonic motion, the pendulum period and its dependence on gravity, block-spring oscillation and finding the spring constant from an elongation, wavelength, frequency, period, amplitude and wave speed, transverse versus longitudinal waves, sound requiring a material medium, and energy transport by waves without bulk flow of the medium
• Electricity and circuits: electric charge, conductors and insulators, Coulomb's law, voltage, current and resistance, Ohm's law in direct calculation, resistors in series and parallel, equivalent resistance, current and voltage division, and electric power and energy in simple circuits
• Optics and electromagnetic radiation: reflection, refraction and refractive index, the speed, frequency and wavelength of light in different media, total internal reflection and fibre optics, converging and diverging lenses, focal length from object and image heights, real versus virtual images, magnification, the visible wavelength range and recognition of X-rays
• Atomic and nuclear physics: the Bohr model, hydrogen energy levels and emission spectra, quantum numbers, shells and subshells and notation such as 3p⁴, the Pauli exclusion principle and the model it belongs to, the photoelectric effect, photons and the de Broglie wavelength, isotopes and nuclear notation, alpha, beta, gamma and positron emission, neutrinos, radioactive decay and nuclear reactions, mass defect, binding energy and E = mc²

SSST publishes no competency framework and no question list. This grouping is recommended preparation structure built from themes common to medical-school admissions interviews, not an official SSST document.

• Format and core competencies: the six things an interviewer listens for (motivation for medicine, academic maturity, communication, empathy, professionalism and self-awareness), how this 30 to 45 minute interview differs from the English oral, a four-part answer framework of direct answer, example, reflection and connection, and assembling evidence for each competency in advance
• Motivation and personal profile: why medicine, why SSST and why study in English, given specifically rather than generically, a sixty-second personal introduction, strengths and credible weaknesses with an improvement plan, an achievement you are proud of, specialty interests, and a realistic picture of the profession
• Study skills and resilience: how you study difficult scientific material, organising a heavy workload across a six-year degree, handling stress before and during exams, an example of academic resilience, and reflecting honestly on a mistake and what changed afterwards
• Teamwork and professionalism: a time you worked in a team, handling conflict or disagreement with a colleague, responsibility, honesty and punctuality, an example of helping someone, and why inventing clinical experience is a professionalism failure rather than merely a risky tactic
• Medical ethics: what empathy means in practice, patient confidentiality and its limits, dignity and privacy, informed consent, honesty with patients, fairness in access to healthcare, breaking bad news, and discussing a contested issue calmly and from more than one side
• Healthcare awareness: the qualities that make a good doctor, challenges facing doctors today, one current healthcare issue understood at a basic level, doctor-patient communication, and the difference between what a school leaver can reasonably claim to understand and what they cannot

It is the Sarajevo School of Science and Technology's own admission process for its English-taught Medicine and Dentistry programmes, three components sat on the same day: a 90-minute English Language paper, one combined Biology/Chemistry/Physics test of 90 minutes, and a Candidate Interview lasting 30 to 45 minutes. Everything runs in English, starting at 10:00.

No. There is no shared national medical entrance exam behind it. SSST is a private university that sets and administers its own process, and its three-component structure (a separate English paper, one combined science paper and a suitability interview) is different in shape from the pure-science papers most schools in the region run.

On site by default, at University SSST, Hrasnička cesta 3a in Sarajevo, starting at 10:00. An online procedure exists for candidates resident outside Bosnia and Herzegovina. The calculator policy is not published, so prepare to calculate by hand: the physics items are the most calculation-heavy on the paper.

The English component is scored out of 100 as Grammar 40, Reading 20, Essay 20 and Oral 20, with a published pass mark of 61%. For the combined science paper, SSST publishes no item count, no pass mark and no statement about whether a wrong answer is penalised. IvyTest models +1 for a correct answer and 0 otherwise, and labels that an estimate. Either way, answer everything: with no penalty a random guess is worth +0.25 raw marks on a four-option item, and even under the standard correction-for-guessing penalty it would be worth exactly 0: neutral, never negative. A blank is never the better option.

It genuinely varies, and SSST does not fix one count. Its 150-item Biology bank is four options A to D throughout, while its 15-question Biology sample uses five, A to E. In Physics, its 45-item set for General Medicine and Dentistry uses five options A to E, and its four 2014 papers use three to five. Its Chemistry bank is the most varied: most items carry four options a) to d), fifteen also carry a fifth option e), some are combination items listing four numbered statements, and a handful are classification tasks with no options at all where you write the answer yourself.

One pass mark is published, and only for English: 61% of the 100-mark English component. There is no published pass mark for the combined science paper, none for the interview, and no published statement of how the three components weigh against each other; SSST's 2026/2027 call says only that candidates are selected on their entrance-exam results and their grades in the subjects relevant to the programme. The 61% threshold is worth mapping exactly: perfect Grammar plus a perfect Oral is 60 marks, one short of passing, so Reading and the Essay cannot be written off; and perfect Reading, Essay and Oral is also 60, so Grammar cannot be written off either.

English throughout: the English paper, the combined science paper and both oral components. No Bosnian language requirement applies to the entrance exam itself. The later clinical years are a separate question that SSST does not address in its admissions pages, so ask what it expects of international students on the wards before you commit.

SSST's call for 2026/2027, published on 10 June 2026, sets 70 places for General Medicine and 30 for Dentistry. SSST publishes no applicant volume and no acceptance rate, so any competition figure quoted elsewhere is an estimate rather than a university number. What is published is the structure of the opportunity: around twelve sittings a year, individual dates on request, results within five days, and an explicit right to re-sit.

Yes. SSST states the right to re-sit explicitly, and with around a dozen sittings a year plus individual dates on request, a second attempt is genuinely available rather than theoretical. One caveat: new applicants may apply for a scholarship if they have an excellent school record, pass the exam and score well at the interview (SSST's posted due dates are from 2020), so a weak first attempt can cost the chance of funding even where it does not cost a place.

What SSST itself states: its Sarajevo Medical School is registered in the World Directory of Medical Schools, and its students may sit USMLE Step 1 after completing the second year. The World Directory confirms the listing (FAIMER School ID F0003742), and its ECFMG note makes students and graduates from 2014 to the present eligible to apply for ECFMG Certification. The rest is general guidance, not an SSST statement. Bosnia and Herzegovina is an EU candidate country, not a member, so a graduate wanting to practise in an EU member state goes through that country's own procedure for recognising a non-EU qualification, case by case. UK-bound graduates go through UKMLA registration, and US-bound graduates need ECFMG certification (USMLE Step 1, Step 2 CK and an English-proficiency requirement), like every international medical graduate. Within Bosnia and Herzegovina, licensing is administered separately by the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, by Republika Srpska and by Brčko District.

Yes. The IvyTest simulator runs SSST-format practice (timed 90-minute combined-science papers across biology, chemistry and physics in the option formats SSST actually uses, plus full English papers scored against the real 40/20/20/20 split and the 61% threshold) in timed, tutor and review modes, with a free diagnostic available without payment.

Yes, both. SSST's Entrance Exams page links free PDFs to download: four of its own Biology entrance exams from April and May 2014 (30 questions, 90 minutes each) and four Physics entrance exams from May and June 2014 (16 to 25 questions), plus a 15-question Biology sample, 150-question Biology and Chemistry practice sets, a 45-question Physics set and four English Language sample papers. None comes with an answer key. The 2014 Biology exams were separate 90-minute tests; today Biology shares one 90-minute paper with Chemistry and Physics, so use them for content, not timing.

SSST had not published its 2027 dates when IvyTest checked on 12 October 2026. For 2026/2027 entry it offered two sittings a month from April to September 2026, at 10:00 in Sarajevo, plus individual dates on request. Registration is online: SSST's call of 10 June 2026 took applications only through ssst.edu.ba, from 10 June to 15 September 2026, with the Application Form for Medical School. To book a sitting, choose one of the published dates or ask admissions@ssst.edu.ba for an individual one; candidates living outside Bosnia and Herzegovina can ask the Registry Office about the online procedure.

Its 2026/2027 call says it does. Candidates are selected on their entrance-exam results and their grades in the subjects relevant to the programme, and the preliminary rank list (rang-lista) of admitted and registered candidates is published on SSST's website and notice board at the latest two days after the last day of the entrance exam. Written objections go to the faculty's teaching and scientific council within three days, and it decides within three days; its decision is final. Separately, SSST emails each candidate's results and the admission decision within five days of the sitting.

SSST's 2026/2027 call is open to candidates with four years of secondary school in Bosnia and Herzegovina, or a school-leaving qualification from abroad recognised through nostrification or equivalence. You may apply and sit the exam before that recognition, but to enrol you need it, or proof that it is under way. With the online application you upload scans of your school certificates for each year, your diploma, your birth certificate and a certificate of citizenship, with court-certified translations for documents still being recognised. Late or incomplete applications are not considered, and every applicant must pass the English test at 61%.

Tuition for Medicine and for Dentistry is €13,200 a year for students who are not citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina and €7,900 for citizens (KM 25,816.95 and KM 15,451.05 in the 2026/2027 call), and SSST says it covers the required course materials and books. Student loans arranged with banks in Bosnia and Herzegovina are repaid after graduation, with a grace period of up to four and a half years. New applicants may apply for a scholarship if they have an excellent school record, pass the exam and score well at the interview (SSST's posted due dates are from 2020). SSST publishes no application fee.

Medicine at SSST is a twelve-semester (six-year) programme in English leading to a Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree. SSST's course list starts with Medical Biology, Medical Physics and Biophysics, Medical Chemistry and Biochemistry, Anatomy, and Medical English and Medical Terminology in year one, moves through Histology, Physiology, Pathology and Pharmacology to the clinical subjects of years four and five, and ends with clinical rotations in year six. Clinical training takes place at the Clinical Centre of the University of Sarajevo (KCUS) and other partner institutions, plus 75 hours of summer practice.

SSST is short for Sarajevo School of Science and Technology. Its brochure says it opened in October 2004 in Sarajevo as the first private university in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Its Faculty of Medicine, Sarajevo Medical School, introduced the six-year Medical Doctor programme in English in 2014/2015 and now also runs Dentistry, Pharmacy and Health Studies. The campus is at Hrasnička cesta 3a, Sarajevo.