Medical school in Egypt: what each of the five years tests

Medical school in Egypt is a five-year integrated academic programme followed by two years of clinical internship. It is known as the 5+2 system. It replaced the old model of six academic years and one internship year. The new curriculum started with first-year students in September 2018.

A 2023 paper in BMC Medical Education describes how the reform moved one year from the student phase to the internship phase. The same paper reports that the old discipline-based curriculum became a modular integrated model. It is built on a national competency-based framework and uses a credit system.

The paper describes what the new curricula share:

• Modules: mostly organ or function modules lasting 3 to 6 weeks.
• Vertical courses: the modules are supplemented by vertical courses that run by semester.
• An introductory module: most schools added one in Year 1 to prepare students for the rest of the programme.
• Early clinical teaching: almost all schools added it mainly through clinical skills labs and early experience with patients in different clinical settings.
• Research and electives: research methodology was introduced into all curricula and all schools added elective modules.

The internship is the +2. A 2026 multicentre study in BMC Medical Education describes it as two years of clinical internship (house officer training) after five years of academic study that integrates basic and clinical sciences from the early stages. It also reports that all Egyptian medical schools had implemented the new system by the time it collected data.

The system is large. In 2017 Egypt had 28 medical schools, most of them public, according to the 2023 paper. The 2026 multicentre study cites official figures (CAPMAS) of approximately 73,000 Egyptian medical students in the 2022/2023 academic year.

The reform is still young. The first students on the new programme graduated in 2023. A 2026 nationwide evaluation in BMC Medical Education surveyed teaching staff across 27 Egyptian medical schools and received 10,728 responses. Overall satisfaction was borderline to moderate (a mean score of 2.99 on a 5-point scale).

Year 1 and Year 2 test the basic sciences through integrated modules rather than one subject at a time. In our bank, behavioural sciences leads Year 1 with 950+ questions and anatomy leads Year 2 with 1,500+.

Year 1

The Year 1 basic science questions total 7,000+. After behavioural sciences, the largest subjects are biochemistry (450+), immunology (350+), pathology (400+), physiology (1,000+), and foundational sciences (150+). Anatomy (450+), evidence-based medicine (150+), microbiology (550+), and parasitology (150+) come next. Histology (350+), embryology (100+), and pharmacology (150+) complete the list.

Evidence-based medicine starts early: our bank has 150+ Year 1 questions on it. The 2023 paper reports that research methodology was introduced into all the new curricula.

Year 2

The Year 2 questions led by anatomy total 6,000+. Anatomy (1,500+) comes first, followed by physiology (700+), genetics (400+), and pathology (350+). Immunology (90+), pharmacology (450+), and behavioural sciences (250+) come next. Biochemistry (200+) and neuroscience (350+) follow.

Year 3 is where clinical subjects take the lead. In our bank internal medicine has 3,000+ Year 3 questions, ahead of pathology (550+) and surgery (900+).

The Year 3 internal medicine and pathology questions total 7,500+. Microbiology adds 350+, pharmacology 250+, evidence-based medicine 100+, and physiology 200+.

The basic sciences do not disappear. Pathology peaks in Year 3 at 550+ questions. That makes it the subject to keep warm from Year 1 onwards.

Year 4 and Year 5 are the last academic years before the two-year internship. In our bank Year 4 is led by paediatrics (1,500+), evidence-based medicine (1,000+), and obstetrics and gynaecology (1,500+). Year 5 is led by surgery (2,000+) and internal medicine (4,000+).

Year 4

The Year 4 paediatrics and obstetrics questions total 7,000+. Surgery adds 350+. Evidence-based medicine has more questions in Year 4 than in any other year of the bank.

Year 5

The Year 5 surgery and internal medicine questions total 13,000+. After the two leaders come evidence-based medicine (100+), behavioural sciences (1,000+), pathology (650+), ophthalmology (400+), ENT (350+), and microbiology (350+).

Year 5 mixes the two largest clinical subjects with smaller specialties such as ophthalmology and ENT. It also carries pathology, microbiology, and behavioural sciences over from earlier years. The bank covers the five academic years rather than the two internship years.

Pathology carries the furthest. It is one of the largest subjects in Years 1, 2, 3, and 5 of our bank, while physiology sits mostly in Years 1 and 2 (1,000+ and 700+ questions) with 200+ more in Year 3.

Topics taught in more than one year count in each year. That is why one subject can appear in several years. These subjects are among the largest in at least two years:

• Pathology: Year 1 (400+), Year 2 (350+), Year 3 (550+), and Year 5 (650+).
• Evidence-based medicine: Year 1 (150+), Year 3 (100+), Year 4 (1,000+), and Year 5 (100+).
• Behavioural sciences: Year 1 (950+), Year 2 (250+), and Year 5 (1,000+).
• Microbiology: Year 1 (550+), Year 3 (350+), and Year 5 (350+).
• Physiology: Year 1 (1,000+), Year 2 (700+), and Year 3 (200+).
• Pharmacology: Year 1 (150+), Year 2 (450+), and Year 3 (250+).
• Surgery: Year 3 (900+), Year 4 (350+), and Year 5 (2,000+).
• Internal medicine: Year 3 (3,000+) and Year 5 (4,000+).
• Anatomy, biochemistry, and immunology: Year 1 and Year 2.

A subject missing from a year's list may still have a few questions in that year. The lists show only the subjects with the most questions.

Use the overlap. If a Year 3 pathology topic feels shaky, the Year 1 and Year 2 pathology questions make a good warm-up. Our guides on how to study pathology and how to study physiology go deeper on each subject.

Test yourself from memory in every year and spend most of your question time on the subjects that year tests most. The table below shows where that time goes in each year.

The workload is real. In a 2026 multicentre study of 984 Egyptian medical students under the integrated curriculum, high to severe academic-related stress was the most common type of stress at 82.6%. That is a reason to study more efficiently rather than for longer hours.

• Year 1 and Year 2: answer short mixed sets after each module and read why every option is right or wrong. If your exams use single best answer papers, our guide to what an SBA question is covers the format.
• Year 3: learn each disease from mechanism to management in one pass. Then test the clinical question together with its pathology and microbiology.
• Year 4 and Year 5: sit timed papers that mix subjects. Rehearse clinical skills out loud with the 300+ clinical skills guides in the bank and our OSCE study plan.
• Every year: run a weekly loop of questions, a miss log, and re-tests on widening gaps. Our guide on how to study for medical exams sets it out step by step.