The IMAT exam will be held on the 13th of September 2022, in one of the available test centres either within Italy or abroad. We have previously detailed all specifications about the 2022 IMAT exam in another article. In this article we will take an in-depth look at the exam itself and it’s detailed syllabus.
On July 1st 2022, the Minister of Education Cristina Messa signed the new Ministerial Decree regulating the procedures regarding the IMAT exam, which allows the admission to the courses of Medicine and Surgery in English in Italy.
The main attachment illustrating precisely all of the information in Italian can be found here.
General Guidelines for IMAT
The admission test will be a multiple choice exam of sixty questions, each of them with five possible answers of which only one will be correct. The topics will divided as following:
- 10 General Knowledge Questions
- 10 Logical Reasoning and Problem Solving Questions
- 15 Biology Questions
- 15 Chemistry Questions
- 10 Physics and Maths Questions
The students will have 100 minutes to complete the test, which will start at 12.00 in Italy and at different times in the test centres abroad.
Breakdown of scoring in the IMAT
For the evaluation of the test, the maximum score will be 90, and the following criteria will be taken into consideration:
- 1.5 points awarded for every correct answer
- 0.4 points will be subtracted for every wrong answer
- 0 points will be assigned for every blank answer.
Regarding the students from EU and “non-EU countries residing in Italy”, only those who have a score of 20 or more will appear in the ranking. Whereas, for the students residing abroad, a score of 0 will be enough to enter the ranking. It is important to understand how the IMAT ranking and scrolling works.
In the case of a tie among students in the rankings, scores that have more significance (so higher in the ranking) are, in decreasing order:
- General knowledge
- Logical reasoning
- Biology
- Chemistry
- Physics and mathematics
Priority is also given to students with English language certificates submitted by the candidate at the time of registration to the test. In case of parity among two or more candidates, of which one with a percentage of disability equal to or greater than 66{bb8d53cabbfbfa48737bbedab9cb9b55bf5183c8f56cc8e5fd88b7a4065b00a7}, or with a medical certificate referring to the law 104 of 1992, article 3 comma 3, this last candidate will prevail. In case of further parity (equal scores), the younger candidate will have priority.
Detailed IMAT Syllabus (2022)
There are the topics and necessary skills listed for each discipline in the official attachment of the degree, translated into English. Original File can be found here.
General Knowledge and Logical Reasoning
- Assessment of capabilities to use the language in different contexts, and to correctly complete logical reasoning, in a way that must be coherent with the premises enunciated in a symbolic or verbal form by ruling out the prepositions, and the conclusions that are wrong or less likely to be correct.
- Answer questions on scientific or narrative essays of classical or contemporary authors, or articles about current events published in papers or specific magazines. They will deal with abstract problems, and their solutions require the employment of different forms of logical reasoning.
- Questions about general knowledge that the candidates are expected to know from their previous educational experience, or awareness of current times.
- Regarding the historical part, the questions might deal with the aspects that characterized the history of the 21st century and the actual scene (industrialization and post-industrial society, conquest of fundamental rights, new subjects and movements, crises, globalization processes and conflicts of the global world).
- Regarding the social and institutional field, in coherence with the national indications and the guidelines and the activities that are carried out for “Citizenship and Constitution”, the questions may regard, among others, the Constitution, the communication and the means of mass communication, the organization of the economy and political life, the different forms of State and governments.
For a detailed discussion on what it takes to get full marks on the general knowledge section of the IMAT, we recommend you watch this interview with a student who did so.
Biology
- Chemistry of living beings.
- The importance of weak interactions.
- Organic molecules present in organisms and their functions.
- The role of enzymes.
- The cell as the basic unit of life.
- Cellular theory. Cellular sizes. Prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells, animal and vegetal. Viruses.
- Cell membrane: structure and functions- membrane transport.
- Cell structures and their specific functions.
- Cell cycle and cell reproduction: mitosis and meiosis- chromosomal constitution and maps.
- Bioenergetics.
- The energy currency of cells: the ATP.
- Oxidoreduction reactions in the living beings.
- Energetic processes: photosynthesis, glycolysis, aerobic respiration and fermentation.
- Reproduction and inheritance.
- Life cycles. Sexual and asexual reproduction.
- Mendelian genetics: Mendel laws and their application.
- Classical genetics: chromosomal theory of inheritance- models of inheritance.
- Molecular genetics: structure and duplication of the DNA, the genetic code, protein synthesis. Prokaryotic DNA. Structure of eukaryotic DNA. Genes and regulation of the genetic expression.
- Human genetics: transmission of the mono and polyfactorial characters; hereditary autosomal or X-linked diseases.
- Biotechnology: technologies of the recombinant DNA and its applications.
- Inheritance and environment.
- Mutations. Natural and artificial selection. Evolutionary theory. Genetic bases of evolution.
- Anatomy and Physiology of animals and humans.
- Animal tissues.
- Anatomy and Physiology of the systems and apparatuses in humans and the relative interactions.
- Homeostasis.
Chemistry
- Constitution of matter: the aggregation statuses of matter, heterogeneous systems and homogeneous systems, compounds and elements.
- Law of perfect gasses.
- Atomic structure: elementary particles, atomic number and mass number, isotopes, electronic structure of the atoms and of the various elements.
- Periodic system of the elements: groups and periods, transition elements.
- Periodic properties of the elements: atomic radius, ionization potential, electronic affinity, metallic characteristics. Relations between the electronic structure, the position in the periodic system and the properties of the elements.
- Chemical bond: ionic bond, covalent and metallic bonds. Bond energy. Polarity of the bonds. Electronegativity. Intramolecular bonds.
- Fundamentals of inorganic chemistry: nomenclature and main properties of the inorganic compounds – oxides, hydroxides, acids and salts.
- Chemical reactions and stoichiometry: atomic mass and molecular mass, Avogadro’s number, concept of mole and its application, elementary stoichiometric calculations, balancing simple reactions, and different types of chemical reactions.
- Solutions: solvent properties of water, solubility, main ways to express the concentration of solutions.
- Equilibrium in watery solution.
- Elements of chemical kinetics and catalysis.
- Oxidation and reduction: oxidation number, concept of oxidizing and reducing. Balancing simple reactions.
- Bases and acids: concept of acid and base. Acidity, neutrality and basicity of watery solutions. The pH. Hydrolysis. Buffer solutions.
- Fundamentals of organic chemistry: bonds between carbon atoms, structural and empirical formulas, concept of isometry. Hydrocarbons, aliphatics, alicyclic and aromatics. Functional groups: alcohols, ethers, amines, aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acids, esters, amides.
- Nomenclature elements.
Physics
- Measurements: direct and indirect measurements, fundamental and derived quantities, physical dimensions of the quantities, knowledge of the metric decimal system and of the Systems of the Measuring Units CGS, Technical (or practical) (ST) and International (SI), of the measuring units (names and relations between fundamental and derived units), multiples and submultiples (names and values).
- Kinematics: Kinematic quantities, various motions with particular emphasis on the rectilinear uniform motion and uniformly accelerated motion, uniform circular motion, harmonic motion (for all the motions: definition and relations among the connected kinematic quantities).
- Dynamics: vectors and operations on the vectors. Forces, momentum of a force in respect to a point. Momentum of a pair of forces. Vectorial composition of forces. Definitions of mass and weight. Gravity acceleration. Density and specific weight. Law of universal gravitation, 1st, 2nd and 3rd principles of dynamics.
- Work, kinetic energy, potential energy. Principle of conservation of energy. Impulse and quantity of motion. Principle of conservation of motion.
- Pressure fluid mechanics and its measuring units (not only in the international system). Archimedes principle. Pascal’s principle. Stevinos law.
- Thermology, thermodynamics: thermometry and calorimetry. Thermic capacity and specific heat. Modalities of heat propagation. Change of state and latent heats. Law of perfect gasses. First and second principles of thermodynamics.
- Electrostatics and electrodynamics: Law of Coulomb. Field and electric potential. Dielectric constant. Condenser. Condenser in series and in parallel. Continuous current. Ohm’s law. Kirchhoff’s principles. Electrical resistance and resistivity. Electrical resistances in series and in parallel. Work, Power. Joule effect. Generators. Electromagnetic induction and alternating currents. Effects of electrical currents (thermical, chemical and magnetic).
Mathematics
- Numerical sets and algebra: natural, whole, rational and real numbers. Orders and comparison; orders of magnitude and scientific notation. Operations and their properties. Proportions and percentages. Exponentiation with whole and rational exponents and their properties. Radicals and their properties. Logarithms (in base 10 and “e”) and their properties. Outlines of combinatory calculus. Algebraic expressions and polynomials. Products of algebraic calculus, potence to the nth number of a binomial, factorization of a polynomial. Algebraic fractions. Algebraic equations and inequations of first and second grade. Systems of equations.
- Functions: fundamental notions on functions and their graphic representations (domain, codomain, sign study, continuity, maximals and minimals, progression and degression, etc.). Elementary functions: algebraic whole and fractionated, exponential, logarithmic, goniometric functions. Composite and inverse functions. Goniometric equations and inequations.
- Geometry: polygons and their properties. Circumference and circle. Measurements of length, surfaces and volumes. Isometries, similitudes and equivalence on a plane. Geometrical places. Measurements on angles in degrees and radians. Sine, cosine, tangent of an angle and their notable values. Goniometric formulas. Resolution of the triangles. Cartesian reference system on a plane. Distance between two points and from an average point of a segment. Equation of a straight line. Conditions for parallelism and perpendicularity. Distance between a point and a straight line. Equation of a circumference, of the parabola, hyperbole, ellisses and their representation on the cartesian plane. Pythagorean theorem. Euclides’s theorems (first and second).
- Probability and statistics: distribution of the frequencies depending on the type of character and main graphical representations. Notion of random experiment and event. Probability and frequency.
Further Preparation for Exam day
Cambridge website has a more detailed breakdown of section 1 questions which are about problem solving and logical reasoning. We recommend reading our other articles on the IMAT exam to understand other details such as scrolling, how to apply, and access to past exams. There is also a playlist on our youtube channel about medicine in Italy that has information about the IMAT timeline, as well as other preparation tips.