Iran's healthcare exams: a Persian-language ladder from student to specialist

Medical and health education in Iran

General medicine in Iran is a seven-year degree: roughly two and a half years of basic sciences, a comprehensive exam, about two years of physiopathology, then an externship and a final internship in teaching hospitals. Dentistry and pharmacy take six years, and nursing is a four-year bachelor’s. Most students study at the universities of medical sciences run by the Ministry of Health and Medical Education (MOHME), which also sets curricula and oversees accreditation. Teaching is in Persian, although some international programmes in English exist.

Because MOHME runs both the schools and the health service, the progression is tightly linked. Passing the comprehensive basic-sciences exam gates entry to clinical years, and after graduation doctors generally owe a period of compulsory service (tarh) in the public system before receiving their full licence. The Medical Council of the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRIMC) is the professional body that issues the licence. Specialty training is entered through the national residency exam (Azmoon Dastyari), run by the Ministry’s assessment centre. Iranians with foreign degrees go through an equivalency process and an examination. Confirm current rules with MOHME.

Iran is a Persian-language system with its own national exam ladder

Few exam systems in this region are as self-contained as Iran's. Candidates are trained in Persian, assessed in Persian, and ranked in Persian. There is no English-language track that substitutes for the national exams, and there is no equivalent of the Gulf's Dataflow-plus-Prometric model. If you are an English-medium candidate expecting an international format, this is a different world.

It is also a ladder, not a single test. A student meets the comprehensive exams while still enrolled, then the residency entrance competition after graduation. Foreign-trained Iranians enter the same ladder via an equivalency exam.

Who needs a licensing exam in Iran

Locally trained students. Medicine, dentistry and pharmacy students take comprehensive exams set at the national level: a basic science exam and a pre-internship exam in medicine, with comparable comprehensive exams in dentistry and pharmacy. Passing them is a condition of progressing and graduating.

Iranians with foreign degrees. They sit a comprehensive equivalency exam. A published study of transfer students and graduates from countries such as Ukraine, Armenia, Romania and Russia found low pass rates in the basic medical sciences national exam; pharmacy was lowest at 15.8 per cent and dentistry highest at 38.9 per cent. Those figures cover 1998 to 2008 and should not be read as current, but they signal how demanding the exam is for people trained abroad.

Nurses, midwives and physiotherapists. Registration follows qualification, via the ministry and the relevant organisation. We found no national licensing exam.

Doctors: comprehensive exams and the residency entrance exam

Regulators. MOHME and its Medical Education Council set the comprehensive exams. The ministry's Medical Sciences Education Assessment Center (often called Sanjesh) runs the National Residency Entrance Exam. The Medical Council of the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRIMC) handles professional registration and licensing.

Format and language. Multiple-choice, in Persian. We did not find current question counts or schedules on a page we could open.

The two stages.

1. Basic science comprehensive exam, taken after the preclinical years.
2. Pre-internship comprehensive exam, taken before the internship.
3. Graduation and general practice licence through the ministry and IRIMC.
4. National Residency Entrance Exam, if you want a specialty. It is high-stakes, with a large cohort, and ranks candidates for specialty places.

Dentists and pharmacists

Both follow the same pattern as medicine. Local students take a dental or pharmacy comprehensive exam, foreign-trained graduates take the equivalency version, and a postgraduate residency entrance exam exists for those seeking specialisation. Format is MCQ in Persian. Because the research rows are unverified, check the current regulations on the MOHME website for the number of attempts and the allowed timeframe.

Exams at a glance

Language and recognition

Persian is the only exam language we found. That is a deciding fact for foreign candidates: unlike a UK or Gulf pathway, no English paper exists to fall back on. Non-Persian speakers who want to practise in Iran must reach clinical fluency before any exam step.

For Iranian graduates who want to practise elsewhere, the situation reverses. Primary-source verification of Iranian degrees and the exams of the destination country (for example PLAB, Gulf licensing tests or other national exams) are separate hurdles, and document routes can be slow. Start the paperwork early, and prepare in English for those later exams while retaining Persian course notes for the domestic ones.

Study approach for Persian MCQ exams

• Use national past-paper style questions from official sources as a format guide, not as a shortcut to memorising answers.
• Work in blocks. Residency entrance preparation is measured in months, not weeks.
• Review weak topics weekly, then retest within seven days.
• Keep bilingual notes. Terminology in Persian for the domestic exam, English for any international plan.

What is still unconfirmed

The Iranian rows in our directory were drawn from background knowledge, with no official page opened. Treat the structure here as reliable in outline, the details as to be checked. We plan to replace this note with verified citations as soon as official sources are available to us.

How the staged exams change your timeline

Because the comprehensive exams sit inside the degree, a failed attempt can delay progression. A student who misses the basic science exam may not move into clinical years on schedule, and a failure at the pre-internship stage can delay the internship. This is different from a post-graduation licensing test, where a failure costs you a sitting but not a year of training. Plan around the number of attempts allowed and the dates published by MOHME.

For foreign-trained Iranians, the equivalency exam has an additional administrative layer: your degree must be recognised as eligible, your documents verified, and your place in a sitting confirmed. The earlier published research suggests many candidates trained abroad struggle with the exam style, so treat it as a full preparation project and not a formality.

The residency entrance exam as a ranking exam

As in the Maghreb, the residency entrance exam ranks candidates for a limited number of specialty places. Popular specialties fill at the top of the rank list. Candidates commonly prepare for many months, and some sit more than once. Your first decision is which specialties you will accept. Your second is how to organise a calendar of subject blocks, mock exams and revision loops that peaks on exam day.

Because we could not open an official Sanjesh page, we do not state the exam's subject weights or number of questions. Use the official guide for your year.

Dentistry and pharmacy specifics

The same ladder applies, but the content differs. Dental candidates face basic sciences followed by clinical dentistry subjects such as restorative, endodontics, periodontics, oral surgery and orthodontics. Pharmacy candidates face pharmacology, pharmaceutics, pharmacognosy, medicinal chemistry and clinical pharmacy. Study in Persian using the textbooks the ministry's syllabus references, and use practice questions in the same style.

Last reviewed October 2026