Angola licensing: access and exit exams around the medical internship

Medical and health education in Angola

Angola's main public medical school is the Faculdade de Medicina of Universidade Agostinho Neto in Luanda, with other public and private universities opening medical, nursing and dental courses in recent years. The medical degree is a six-year programme taught in Portuguese. After the degree, a graduate enters the internato, a structured period of supervised hospital training that is the formal bridge to independent practice.

Nursing and allied health are trained in higher institutes and technical schools, and both degree-level and medium-level (técnico) qualifications are common. The distinction matters because registration categories and titles depend on the level of the diploma.

Many Angolans also study abroad, in Cuba, Brazil, Portugal and Russia. Portuguese-language training in Brazil or Portugal keeps the language advantage, while those who studied in Spanish or Russian face an additional adjustment. The link between graduation and registration therefore runs in two steps: the professional order registers you, and the internship decree governs your entry to and exit from the internato.

What the 2025 decree changes

The one Angolan exam we can describe from the decree text is the pair of tests around the medical internship. This is different from the model used in the Gulf or the United States, where a single national exam stands before a licence. In Angola the testing is attached to a training period.

• Access exam: document review plus a knowledge test, scored on a scale of 0 to 20.
• Exit exam: a curricular assessment, a practical test and a theory test (oral or written, up to two hours), each needing at least 10 out of 20.
• Prerequisite: the professional card of the Ordem dos Médicos de Angola.

Our data verifies these rules from the 2025 decree. It does not give the number of questions, the content weighting or the sitting calendar, and details may be set by a ministerial order. Ask the Ordem or the Ministry of Health for the current regulation.

1. Obtain your degree and have it recognised if it was awarded abroad.
2. Register with the Ordem dos Médicos de Angola and collect the professional card.
3. Apply for the internship access exam and submit the documents the decree requires.
4. Sit the knowledge test, scored 0 to 20.
5. Complete the internship, then sit the exit exam across its curricular, practical and theory parts.

Revision priorities for a Portuguese-language knowledge test

A test scored out of 20 with a pass at 10 is a different psychology from a percentile exam. Because each component must be passed, a strong theory result will not compensate for a failed practical. Revise broad core medicine, paediatrics, obstetrics, surgery and public health, with emphasis on diseases common in Angola: malaria, tuberculosis, HIV, cholera and typhoid, malnutrition, and complications of pregnancy. Learn the Portuguese-language terms used in national guidelines.

If you trained in a language other than Portuguese, build a glossary of drug names, anatomical terms and common clinical phrases and practise saying them aloud, because the theory component may be oral.

Nurses, midwives, pharmacists, dentists and physiotherapists

Our data lists registration by qualification for these groups, with a professional order or the Ministry of Health as the body, and no confirmed national MCQ exam. The entries are unverified. Foreign graduates should expect credential verification and may face a local assessment. The practical advice is the same as in other systems with limited published information: write to the regulator, state your qualification, and ask for the requirement in writing.

Practical points for graduates returning to Angola

A decree that sets an access exam and an exit exam creates two calendar risks: missing the access sitting, and having an incomplete file when you apply. Because the Ordem card is a prerequisite, the sequence matters, and an unrecognised foreign degree can delay everything.

• Start degree recognition early. The process for foreign diplomas runs through the education ministry and can take months.
• Ask the Ordem which documents are certified by an Angolan consulate if you studied abroad.
• Check whether the internship is allocated by merit rank in the access exam, since a higher score may widen your choice of hospital.
• Keep your logbook of procedures and rotations, which feeds the curricular part of the exit exam.

For public sector posts, your result and rank may matter for placement, so aim above the pass mark rather than at it. A candidate who needs the minimum 10 out of 20 on every component has little margin when one section goes badly.

Exam comparison

Language and recognition

Portuguese is the official language and the language of every exam described above. Umbundu, Kimbundu and Kikongo are widely spoken with patients, but they are not exam languages. Angola belongs to the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP), which supports cooperation, but it does not provide automatic recognition of licences. A graduate who wishes to work in Portugal or Brazil faces the host country's own process, for example Portugal's rules for foreign medical degrees, and should treat the Angolan internship as separate from those. Our Portugal page covers the European route.

Last reviewed October 2026