The IMAT is the entrance test for English-taught Medicine and Surgery at Italy's public universities. It has 60 multiple-choice questions in 100 minutes, scored +1.5 for a correct answer, ?0.4 for a wrong one and 0 for a blank, for a maximum of 90. The official 2027 date isn't out yet. The 2026 test was on 29 September, and the ministerial decree that sets the 2027 date usually arrives in July or August, so plan for late September 2027. You register on Universitaly, the fee in 2026 was €130, and non-EU students living abroad choose one university and compete only in that university's ranking. India has had a test centre in New Delhi, with Chennai added in some years. There is no national minimum score for non-EU applicants abroad (any score above zero is ranked), but real admission scores in 2025 ran from about 50 to about 73 out of 90 depending on the university. This guide takes you from the first decision to the final document.
Last updated 27 October 2026. Written by the Acharya Educare academic team, GTB Nagar, Delhi.
IMAT 2027 in one table
Sources: Universitaly, Leap Scholar on marking, ApplyAZ. Everything marked "2026" is from the D.M. 1005/2026 cycle; the 2027 decree will confirm each item.
1. What is the IMAT exam?
Short answer: It's a national admission test run for the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR) that ranks applicants to English-taught medical degrees. It tests science knowledge and reasoning under time pressure.
A few details that shape how you prepare:
It's one test for many universities. You sit the same paper as everyone, but where you get a seat depends on your rank at the university you chose.
It rewards accuracy more than volume. With 0.4 marks lost per wrong answer, spraying guesses costs you. A blind guess among five options has an expected value of about ?0.02 marks, so break-even is roughly a 21% chance of being right.
It mixes school science with reasoning. Biology is the biggest section, but 15% of the paper (9 questions) is logical reasoning and general knowledge, which most NEET-trained students haven't practised.
The marks are spread like this: Biology up to 34.5 points, Chemistry 22.5, Physics & Maths 19.5 and Logical Reasoning plus General Knowledge 13.5 (60 questions × 1.5 = 90).
Italian-language medicine changed in 2025. Italy reformed admission to its Italian-taught medicine programmes from 2025/26, but the reform doesn't apply to English-taught degrees, which still use this national exam (Wikipedia).
If you want the competition and cutoff side first, read IMAT 2027: competition, cutoffs and difficulty.
2. When is the IMAT, and what's the timeline for IMAT 2027?
Short answer: Expect the exam in late September 2027, registration in late August to early September, and the Universitaly pre-enrolment phase well before that. Dates become official only when the 2027 decree is published.
What's known and what isn't:
Not yet published: the exam date, registration window, seats and any format change.
Pattern from 2026: the decree (D.M. 1005) was signed on 6 August 2026, registration ran 26 August to 9 September, and the exam was held on 29 September.
Visa deadline for 2027/28: 31 October 2027, though some universities set earlier internal dates.
A working timeline for IMAT 2027
If you sat IMAT 2026, your results are already out, and you can retake in 2027. The official sequence is the university's own lists on its site.
3. What is on the IMAT 2027 syllabus?
Short answer: Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Maths at the level of Italian high-school science, plus logical reasoning and general knowledge. The topic lists below are the current official syllabus topics; the 2027 decree may adjust them, though trackers reported no change between 2024, 2025 and 2026.
Biology (23 questions, the biggest section)
Chemistry (15 questions)
Physics and Maths (13 questions combined)
Logical Reasoning (5) and General Knowledge (4)
These nine questions aren't science. They test reading and reasoning from short passages and general culture, and they're the most under-practised part of the paper for Indian students.
Which topics deserve the most hours?
Biology carries 38% of the questions, Chemistry 25%, Physics & Maths 22% and reasoning plus general knowledge 15%. Because Physics and Maths is often the weakest section for NEET-trained students, a fair starting split of a 10-hour week is Biology 3.5, Chemistry 2.5, Physics & Maths 2.5, Logical Reasoning & General Knowledge 1.5, adjusted after your diagnostic.
4. How to register for the IMAT 2027 exam
Short answer: Registration happens only on Universitaly, in a window that opens in late August. You create an account, choose one university, pick a test centre, pay the fee and keep the confirmation.
Based on the 2026 process (Leap Scholar, Universitaly):
Create a Universitaly account early, using your name exactly as it appears on your passport.
Complete pre-enrolment for your chosen university in the spring and summer window (see section 7).
Wait for the 2027 decree to confirm dates and the registration window.
When registration opens, select your university, choose your test centre and pay the fee. In 2026 the window ran from 26 August to 9 September and closed at 3:00 PM (Italian time) on the last day.
Pay the fee online with an international card. The fee was €130 in 2026, which trackers convert to roughly ?12,000 to ?14,500 depending on the day's rate. It's non-refundable per attempt.
Save and print your confirmation emails and receipt. You'll need them at the test centre.
Two traps to avoid:
Registering late. Test centre seats can fill fast, and the deadline doesn't move.
Name mismatches. A difference between Universitaly and your passport can cause trouble at the centre.
5. How to study for the IMAT 2027
Short answer: Start with a diagnostic, build content by weightage, add reasoning early, then move to timed practice. Treat the clock and the ?0.4 penalty as skills to train.
A 10-month outline (October 2026 to September 2027)
How to think about marks
So a score near 60 needs roughly 42 right at about 84% accuracy on the questions you attempt, while a score near 70 needs about 48 right. That is why accuracy per attempted question matters more than attempting everything.
Habits that matter
Weight your hours by marks, not by which subject you enjoy.
Practise skipping. At about 100 seconds per question, a three-minute problem can cost you two others.
Guess only after eliminating. Five options, ?0.4 penalty. One eliminated option moves a guess from slightly negative to positive.
Rebuild Maths early if it's weak. It's 22% of the paper, with Physics.
Do real reasoning practice. Short passages, inference questions and general knowledge, a little every day.
6. How to use past IMAT papers to prepare
Short answer: Use them in three stages (by topic, by section under time, then full papers), score them with the current marking scheme, and save the most recent papers for the end.
Past papers are published on the Italian Ministry/Universitaly side, and several prep sites host them, so use an official source where you can.
Stage 1, by topic (Jan to Mar). Pull questions on the topic you're studying. Don't time them. The goal is to see how the topic is asked.
Stage 2, by section (Apr to Jun). Do a full section under its share of the time (for example Biology's 23 questions in about 38 minutes). Track accuracy and attempts separately.
Stage 3, full papers (Jul to Sept). Sit the full 100 minutes on paper, and mark with +1.5, ?0.4 and 0.
Rules that keep the exercise honest:
Re-score older papers with the current scheme. Marking changed in recent years and cutoffs shifted by 15 to 25 points, so raw old scores aren't comparable.
Keep the last two or three years for the final two months, so they behave like real mocks.
Write one line on every error: concept, careless, time or guess.
Don't memorise questions. Topics repeat; question text doesn't.
Count your blanks. A paper with 20 blanks and 95% accuracy tells you something different from one with no blanks and 70%.
7. Documents you need and what pre-enrolment means
Short answer: Pre-enrolment is the step where a non-EU student abroad picks their one Italian university on Universitaly and uploads their documents. It comes before the exam, and you'll need it again for the visa.
What pre-enrolment does
You choose one university on Universitaly. Your IMAT score counts only there (ApplyAZ).
It generates a summary that consulates later ask for in the visa process.
Each university may have its own pre-enrolment window and extra requirements, so check the university's own page.
Documents to prepare (typical for Indian applicants; confirm with your university and the decree)
Start the credential process early. It's the part that takes weeks, while the exam itself takes an afternoon.
8. IMAT 2027 test centres
Short answer: In India the test has been held in New Delhi and, in some years, Chennai, through British Council venues. The official list comes with the 2027 decree, so confirm it during registration.
What the sources say (Leap Scholar, Collegedunia):
New Delhi is the consistent centre across years, hosted via the British Council or BC Education India.
Chennai appears in 2026 listings as a second Indian centre. Older guides list Delhi only, so the list can change.
Students from other cities travel to the nearest centre.
Seats fill on a first-come basis, so register on the first day if you can.
The venue address and reporting time arrive by email one to two weeks before the exam, and you carry your original passport plus printed confirmations.
The test is held in person. One tracker describes it as paper-based, so practise on paper to be safe.
If you live outside Delhi, plan travel and a night's stay early. Don't wait for the admit email to find out.
9. IMAT minimum admission scores
Short answer: There's no official minimum that gets you a seat. The ministry sets only an eligibility floor, and the real cutoff is the last admitted score at your university.
The official floor
Source: D.M. 1005/2026 as summarised by Leap Scholar and ApplyAZ. The floor only puts you on a list. Your seat depends on your position among applicants to the same university.
Real last-admitted scores (non-EU, 2025, out of 90)
Different trackers measure and round these differently, so treat them as bands:
One compilation reports a narrower 51 to 68 range for the same year, probably because it measures "last admitted" differently. For exact figures, use each university's own published ranking.
Seats
For 2026/27, ApplyAZ sums the decree tables to 845 places for non-EU applicants living abroad at 16 public universities for medicine. Other trackers quote totals around 1,360 to 1,380, probably because they count more courses. Check Table B of the 2027 decree when it appears, since seats at individual universities (Milan has had as few as 15, Pavia 40) change what a given score is worth.
For the full competition picture, see IMAT 2027: competition, cutoffs and difficulty, and for money, how much medicine abroad actually costs.
10. Wrapping up
The IMAT is a clear exam with a hard road around it. The test itself is 100 minutes, 60 questions and a published marking scheme. The harder parts are the ones around it: choosing one university, finishing documents in time, and building speed under a penalty. Start with a diagnostic, weight your hours by marks, rebuild Physics and Maths early, add reasoning practice from the beginning, and use past papers in stages. If you're coming from a NEET attempt, you aren't starting over: your Biology and Chemistry carry across, and the real work is the format.
Prepare for IMAT 2027 at Acharya Educare, GTB Nagar
Acharya Educare's IMAT 2027 batch follows the plan in this guide: a diagnostic first, a weightage-based study schedule, Physics and Maths from the ground up, daily logical reasoning, timed sectional tests and full 100-minute mocks marked with the real scheme, each followed by review. We'll also walk you through choosing your one university and preparing your documents.
? Acharya Educare, GTB Nagar, Delhi
Join the IMAT 2027 batch | Book a free diagnostic test
IMAT 2027 FAQs
What is the IMAT exam?
It's the entrance test for English-taught Medicine and Surgery at Italian public universities: 60 multiple-choice questions in 100 minutes, scored out of 90.
When is IMAT 2027?
The official date hasn't been announced. The 2026 exam was on 29 September, and the 2027 decree usually appears in July or August, so expect late September 2027.
What is the IMAT marking scheme?
+1.5 for a correct answer, ?0.4 for a wrong answer and 0 for a blank, with a maximum of 90.
What is on the IMAT syllabus?
Biology (23 questions), Chemistry (15), Physics & Maths (13), Logical Reasoning (5) and General Knowledge (4). Topic lists are in section 3 above.
How do I register for IMAT?
Only on Universitaly. Create an account, complete pre-enrolment for one university, pay the fee when the window opens (€130 in 2026) and keep the confirmations.
What documents do I need?
A valid passport, a digital photo, your school certificates, a comparability statement or Declaration of Value where required, an international payment card and printed confirmations. Check your university's page for specifics.
Where is the IMAT held in India?
New Delhi has been the consistent centre, and Chennai appeared as a second centre in 2026. The official list comes with the decree.
Is there a minimum IMAT score?
For non-EU candidates living abroad, any score above 0 is ranked. EU candidates and non-EU candidates in Italy need 20. Your actual seat depends on your rank at your chosen university.
Can I apply to more than one university?
Non-EU candidates abroad choose one university, and their score counts only there.
Do I need NEET for IMAT?
No.
How long should I prepare for IMAT 2027?
Ten months from now is comfortable. Many students manage with six to eight months of focused work if their Biology and Chemistry are already strong.