SZU Entrance Exam Syllabus: The 21 Topics

In short. SZU publishes a free list of 21 topics for its English General Medicine exam. Six topics are biology, seven are general and organic chemistry, seven are biochemistry, and the last one is calculations. So about two-thirds of the list is chemistry or biochemistry. There is no physics, and no anatomy beyond blood groups. The test has 160 questions, 80 biology and 80 chemistry, in 150 minutes.

This guide covers the English General Medicine programme at the Slovak Medical University (SZU) in Bratislava. Comenius University, the other Bratislava school, works differently: its exam takes every question from two booklets.

What is on the SZU entrance exam syllabus?

• The list: 21 topics, published by SZU for the English programme. It is free: read SZU's topic list (PDF).
• The level: biology and chemistry "within secondary grammar school curriculum scope", SZU says. In plain words: school level.
• What SZU publishes: a list of topics. It is not a pool of questions like the Comenius booklets.

Some sites say SZU's questions come from booklets. That is how Comenius works, not SZU.

The test behind the topics

• Questions: 160, with 80 in biology and 80 in chemistry.
• Time: 150 minutes, so about 56 seconds a question on average.
• Where: in person in Bratislava, in English. You draw a code, and your test is marked under it.
• Points: 640 at most. That is 4 points a question on average, by our sums.
• What SZU does not say: how each question is scored, how many options it has, or if a wrong answer costs points.
• Your place (2026/27): it depends only on your test points.

Some sites describe two separate exams of 80 questions each. SZU's document describes one written test of 160 questions.

SZU's 21 topics, one by one

The topic names below are our short summary of SZU's list. For SZU's own wording, read the PDF.

Biology: topics 1 to 6

#	SZU's topic (our summary)	In plain words
1	Metabolism	How living things build up and break down substances, and use energy
2	Chemical make-up of the cell	What cells are made of
3	The cell: organelles, the cell cycle, mitosis, meiosis, gametogenesis, the embryo	The parts of a cell, how cells divide, how egg and sperm cells form, and early development
4	Nucleic acids: replication, transcription, translation	How DNA is copied, and how a gene becomes RNA and then a protein
5	Genetics, with the Hardy-Weinberg law and genetic diseases	How traits pass on, gene frequencies in a population, and inherited diseases
6	Blood groups and the Rh factor	Which blood group a person has, and the Rh factor

General and organic chemistry: topics 7 to 13

#	SZU's topic (our summary)	In plain words
7	Atomic structure, the quantum description of the atom, the periodic system, chemical bonds	What atoms are made of, how electrons are arranged, the periodic table, and how atoms bond
8	Kinetics and thermodynamics, with Gibbs energy	How fast reactions go, energy in reactions, and whether a reaction runs by itself
9	s, p and d elements: hydrides, halides, oxides	The groups of the periodic table, and their compounds with hydrogen, halogens and oxygen
10	Acids, bases, salts, pH, electrolytes	Acids and bases, pH, and substances that carry charge in water
11	Redox reactions, solubility product	Reactions that move electrons, and how much of a salt dissolves
12	Carbon and the classes of organic compounds, with inductive and mesomeric effects	How carbon bonds, how organic compounds are grouped, and how groups pull or push electrons
13	Derivatives of functional groups, with alkaloids and diazonium salts	Organic compounds by functional group, including two that SZU names: alkaloids and diazonium salts

Biochemistry: topics 14 to 20

#	SZU's topic (our summary)	In plain words
14	Saccharides	Sugars and carbohydrates
15	Lipids, with cholesterol, bile acids and steroids	Fats and the molecules related to them
16	Amino acids, proteins, enzymes	The building blocks of proteins, and how enzymes speed up reactions
17	Nucleic acids	DNA and RNA as molecules. Topic 4 covers them from the genetics side
18	Vitamins	Vitamins
19	Diffusion, osmosis, osmolarity	How particles and water move, and how to measure the particles in a solution
20	Metabolic pathways: glycolysis, the Krebs cycle, the electron transport chain, acetyl-CoA	How cells break down glucose and release energy

Calculations: topic 21

Topic 21 is calculation exercises. SZU lists these types:

• moles and concentrations;
• stoichiometry (the amounts in a reaction);
• enthalpy change (ΔH);
• pH;
• the solubility product;
• the equilibrium constant;
• osmolarity and osmotic pressure.

At about 56 seconds a question, a slow calculation takes time from the next questions. So practise each type until you can do it quickly.

SZU's documents do not say if you may use a calculator. Ask SZU, and practise both with and without one.

What is not on the list

• No physics. Neither the list nor the test has a physics part.
• No anatomy beyond blood groups. Topic 6, blood groups and the Rh factor, is as close as the list gets.
• No separate maths section. The test is biology and chemistry only. Maths comes in through the chemistry calculations in topic 21.
• No English section. SZU asks for no English certificate. But the test is in English, so it checks your English too.

What the list does not tell you

• How many questions each topic gets. SZU does not say.
• Which half the biochemistry counts in. The test is 80 biology and 80 chemistry questions. The list has 6 biology topics and 15 chemistry, biochemistry and calculation topics. So two-thirds of the topics is not two-thirds of the questions.
• How a question is scored, or how many options it has.

How to study from the list

This is our advice, not SZU's.

1. Print the list. Tick each topic you could explain to a friend without notes.
2. Start with chemistry and biochemistry. They are two-thirds of the list.
3. Do not skip biology. The test has 80 biology questions, so topics 1 to 6 matter, even though they are only 6 of 21.
4. Study the overlaps once. Nucleic acids come up in topics 4 and 17, and metabolism in topics 1 and 20. Learn them from both sides at the same time.
5. Drill topic 21. Do a few calculations of each type every week.
6. Train the pace. Our suggestion: reach question 80 by minute 75. Before exam day, sit a full set of 160 questions in 150 minutes.

Learned biology and chemistry in German? Our guide to both schools has key words from SZU's list in English and German, and so does the free checklist PDF.

Get ready for SZU

Our SZU practice (see the plan):

• runs full exams of 160 questions in 150 minutes;
• covers every topic on SZU's list, with calculations step by step;
• explains every question, and shows your score by topic.

Sources

• SZU: entrance exam topics, English programme (PDF)
• SZU: English-programme admission document, 2026/27 (PDF)
• SZU: Faculty of Medicine

Written by the SlovakiaMedPrep team (Prepalio International B.V., Rotterdam), and checked against SZU's own documents. We are independent and not part of the university. Last updated 11 October 2026.