There’s good news and bad news: the good one is that there is no required minimum IMAT score to gain admission into an English medical school in Italy. BUT the cut off score for each university changes massively year on year, as it is a dynamic number based on that years rankings, instead of a static number that is predetermined by the university. Of course there are ranges of scores that will help your chances quite a bit, so in this article we want to explain how the scores and minimum cut off points actually work, what score you should aim for, and what your general approach to studying for the IMAT should be in order to maximise your chances of becoming an International medical student in Italy.
How Do the IMAT Scores Actually Work?
A minimum score for entry in medicine in Italy does not exist, as it’s not the universities that determine the threshold for admission into medicine in English. Instead, all candidates are ranked against one another from the highest scoring candidate to the lowest scoring one. If a university has 50 seats, the top 50 people are sent an admission offer, and the score of the 50th person in the ranking becomes the new minimum cut off for that year.
This means that if one year the exam was exceptionally easy, and the top students achieved higher scores the new cut off can be significantly higher, or in converse if the exam was exceptionally difficult there will usually be a drop in scores across the board lowering the minimum cut-offs for that year. This is why it’s impossible to give a concrete required score as, if for example everyone performs exceptionally well and the top 45 EU candidates apply to Milan with scores of 80-90, the new minimum score will become 81. It’s why point predictions for the IMAT exam and exact answers of what the minimum scores are all false news meant to grab clicks or views.
So the determinant of whether the scores will be higher or lower from year to the other have a lot of factors that can effect it. The number of candidates that apply that year to the IMAT, the overall difficulty of the paper, and even if the previous years scores went up or down so that people change their first choices etc. can all impact it which is also why we don’t like doing “predicted points” articles and videos. Historically there has been a trend of ever increasing minimum scores and this makes sense as the number of candidates that partake in the IMAT has been significantly increasing year on year, even though the number of seats has been steadily increasing. With more and more students trying out the exam, there is going to be a natural increase in the range of scores on both ends as more and more students with a diverse set of abilities will be included in the ranking.
Important Note for EU Candidates on Minimum Score
EU students have the complicated ranking scrolling system, that also massively changes minimum cut off points week by week. We really recommend reading how the EU IMAT Scrolling works article to fully get a grasp on how the ranking changes effects the cut off scores. Additionally EU candidates must score a minimum of 20 points to even be allowed into the ranking to have a chance in the scrolling. Unfortunately any candidate that scores below 20 won’t even have their names included in the ranking list.
How Many Points Should You Aim for?
The tough answer to hear is as high as possible. Unfortunately there are no guarantees anymore from year to year on how scores and admission standards will change. However, based on historic data which we’ve summarised in the table below, a non-EU score of 50-55, and an EU candidate score of 45-50 would have given you a chance for entry into most if not all of the universities you would put as your first choice. If we look at the minimum scores from all of the previous years and see how they in regards to max score ever recorded (for both eu and non-eu) we can see that there is a range of “safe scores” that aiming for can put you at ease. So while we don’t recommend going for a number score goal, you can track your progress for practice exams based on this data below.
| UNIVERSITY | EU HIGHEST SCORE | NON-EU HIGHEST SCORE |
|---|---|---|
|
MILANO STATALE |
47.9 (2016) |
54.2 (2019) |
|
BICOCCA |
44.6 (2020) |
49.2 (2022) |
|
LA SAPIENZA |
46.7 (2020) |
53.1 (2021) |
|
TOR VERGATA |
42.1 (2020) |
47.7 (2021) |
|
PAVIA |
46.2 (2016) |
49.4 (2021) |
|
BOLOGNA |
47.2 (2020) |
51.5 (2022) |
|
PADOVA |
45.1 (2020) |
50.7 (2022) |
|
TURIN |
42.3 (2020) |
50.1 (2022) |
|
FEEDERICO II |
41.8 (2020) |
44.4 (2022) |
|
PARMA |
35.4 (2021) |
41.9 (2022) |
|
MESSINA |
38.5 (2020) |
42.9 (2022) |
|
LUIGI VANVITELLI |
40.4 (2016) |
41.9 (2022) |
|
BARI |
40.9 (2016) |
42.6 (2022) |
|
MARCHE |
32.8 (2022)* |
34.5 (2022)* |
|
SIENA (DENTISTRY) |
36.9 (2020) |
44.9 (2022) |
|
LA SAPIENZA (DENTISTRY) |
32.6 (2022)* |
46.3 (2022)* |
|
* only one year on record |
As a big believer in mindset, and healthy thinking making all the difference in performance based goals, I still feel like attaching a number based goal is an incorrect approach, and instead a thorough personal analysis of your risk profile and a strategy built around this makes a lot more sense to maximise your score. You are then not obsessed with an arbitrary number that can change from year to year and is out of your control with how other people will perform, but instead just focused on improving yourself as much as possible. If you’re not sure what this means, I’ll include a few lines about how to approach this at the end of the article.
What Is a Good Score on the IMAT?
Historically a score of 50 would have been considered excellent, however the trend is moving towards that being almost a minimum especially if you’re non-eu applying for a competitive university. Recently, with the popularity of medicine in Italy exploding, especially given its prestigious universities and very reasonable tuition fees, a lot more candidates are applying every year.
Given current trends, I would say that 50 is still an excellent score, with over 60 being unbelievable. I don’t think that means you should get upset if your average exam scores are coming out lower than that, as remember that given enough time and proper preparation anyone can improve a score. It’s not usually a lack of intelligence of a candidate to perform an exam as at the end of the day, with almost all things in life, a lot comes down to strategy and preparation as well as massive luck.
As a big fan of atomic habits and other productivity advice, I really recommend the idea of process oriented goals instead of output dependent goals. It’s really difficult to set targets for things out of your control like a number you will receive on an anxiety filled day with factors out of your control. However practicing strategy and how much work you put into the process are much more manageable and within your direct effect.
How to Approach the IMAT then?
We’ve made an in depth video as the first of a series on how to properly approach the IMAT which we believe will give you a good foundation as a starter.
A good start to creating a working strategy is to figure out your exam style and risk profile. What I mean by this is that you need to understand how risk tolerant you are with your decisions. Are you willing to risk the -0.4 points score if you’re not sure about your answer without guilt, or are you the type of person that will spend the rest of the month upset that you made a guess and it wasn’t correct? Would you rather minimise your incorrect answers to guarantee your score with correct answers, or would you rather risk it all to gain a few more points? There is no right or wrong answer to this, it just completely depends on your personality.
Another good strategy to nail down is how you want to approach your time management. Would you prefer to just answer every question in a serial manner working through the paper, or give a quick glance at every question first? Again while there has been some research into the efficiency of different exam approaches, at the end of the day the best strategy is the one that you’ve practiced with and will stick to on the day. In the rest of our series we’ll dive into these concepts more in depth, but for now just focus on what you think you can handle risk/time wise, and continuously drill questions and exams in the same way. Practice makes perfect.
A more in depth article for exam preparation is coming soon, but for now we really do recommend checking out our videos on the matter.
In Conclusion
Italian Medical Schools don’t determine a minimum score, but there is a range of minimum scores you can aim for to maximise your chances of entry. Figure out the type of person you are, what strategies work for you, and start setting process oriented goals to reach your targets. Remember not to compare yourself to others, as comparison is the thief of joy, and if you’re too busy trying to see how others are doing, you’ll neglect what you need the most. Best of luck future doctors!