MedAT · Medicine & Dentistry
Medizinaufnahmetest (MedAT-H / MedAT-Z)
For anyone applying to study human medicine or dentistry at MedUni Vienna, MedUni Graz, MedUni Innsbruck or the medical faculty of JKU Linz.
MedAT is Austria's standardized admission test for medical studies, run jointly for the four Austrian medical faculties: MedUni Vienna, MedUni Graz, MedUni Innsbruck and the medical faculty of JKU Linz. It comes in two variants, MedAT-H for human medicine and MedAT-Z for dentistry, which share most of the same structure. Admission works by ranking (Reihung), not a fixed pass mark: places go to the highest-ranked applicants within separate quota pools for Austrian citizens, EU/EEA citizens and applicants from third countries, until the available places are filled. Not everyone who registers actually ends up sitting the test, though.
The test is held once a year, in July. It's also one of the most competitive entrance exams in Austria: for the 2026 sitting, 16,880 people registered and 13,248 actually sat the test (about 78%), competing for around 1,950 combined places in human medicine and dentistry.
- Format
- Once yearly, multiple-choice, weighted sections, ranking-based admission (no fixed pass mark)
- When
- Held in July each year
- Sections and weights
- BMS 40%, KFF 40%, TV 10% (MedAT-H) / manual-skills test 10% (MedAT-Z), SEK 10%
- Test-day length
- Approximately 6–8 hours including breaks (varies by test location)
- Places
- Around 1,950 combined places (2026 figure)
What the four sections test
- BMS (Basiskenntnistest), 40%: a multiple-choice knowledge test on biology, chemistry, physics and mathematics
- KFF (cognitive ability), 40%: multiple-choice subtests, including Figuren zusammensetzen (spatial assembly), Merkfähigkeit (memory encoding and recall), Zahlenfolgen (number sequences), Wortflüssigkeit (verbal fluency) and Implikationen erkennen (logical implication)
- TV (Textverständnis), 10%, MedAT-H only: multiple-choice reading comprehension; MedAT-Z replaces this section with a manual-skills test (wire-bending and mirror-image drawing tasks)
- SEK (social-emotional competence), 10%: multiple-choice subtests on regulating emotions, recognizing emotions and social decision-making
How to prepare
- Start with medizinstudieren.at's own free official practice materials before paying for any commercial course
- Cover BMS content at the level of the standard Austrian AHS biology, chemistry, physics and math curriculum: together with KFF, it's the most heavily weighted section
- Drill the KFF cognitive subtests specifically under timed conditions: they follow a fixed format that rewards repeated practice
- Don't neglect TV/manual skills and SEK just because each is weighted lower individually: together they still make up 20% of the score
- Treat commercial prep courses (MedAT-Vorbereitung, MEDBREAKER, medgurus and others) as optional supplements, not a requirement: official and ÖH materials cover the same ground
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between MedAT-H and MedAT-Z?
MedAT-H is for human medicine, MedAT-Z is for dentistry. They share the same BMS, KFF and SEK sections; MedAT-Z replaces the TV reading-comprehension section with a manual-skills test (wire-bending and mirror-image drawing), and unlike MedAT-H, MedAT-Z has no quota system.
Is there a pass mark I need to reach?
No fixed pass mark is published. Admission works by ranking: your weighted score across all sections determines your place in the ranking, and places are filled from the top down within separate quota pools until the available seats run out.
Are there quotas for non-EU applicants?
Yes. MedAT-H uses three separate ranking pools: for Austrian citizens, for EU/EEA citizens, and for applicants from third countries (outside the EU/EEA). Only a small share of places, commonly cited as around 5%, is reserved for the third-country pool (we couldn't verify the exact current percentage against MedUni's own quota page). MedAT-Z has no quota system.
How long does the test day actually take?
Roughly 6 to 8 hours including breaks, based on third-party prep-site estimates rather than an official minute-by-minute schedule; exact timing varies by test location and year.
How competitive is MedAT?
Very. For the 2026 sitting, 16,880 people registered and 13,248 sat the test, competing for around 1,950 combined places across human medicine and dentistry.
Sources
Section names, weights and the ranking-based admission model above come from medizinstudieren.at's own official pages. Test-day duration (approximately 6–8 hours) is a third-party prep-site estimate, not an official published figure, and the quota share for non-EU applicants (commonly cited as around 5%) comes from a student-run reference source rather than MedUni's own quota page: treat both as approximate.
Trainer in progress
We're building the practice trainer for MedAT · Medicine & Dentistry. Get notified on Telegram as soon as it launches.