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Entrance exam for medical studies: a total of 12,442 candidates

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(Wien/Graz/Innsbruck/Linz/Salzburg, 14 August 2020) Out of 17,599 applicants who had originally registered, a total of 12,442 people took part in Friday’s MedAT joint entrance exam for a place at the medical universities of Vienna, Innsbruck and Graz and the Medical Faculty of Johannes Kepler University (JKU) in Linz. The exams were held under strict prevention and safety precautions and in consultation with the competent authorities.

In strict compliance with the requirement to protect everyone involved against the COVID-19 infection risk, the entrance exams were held at several locations throughout Austria. The MedUni Vienna exams were held at Messe Wien and Salzburg Exhibition Centre, the Innsbruck exams in Innsbruck Exhibition Centre, the Graz exams in Graz Exhibition Centre and the Linz exams in the Design Center Linz and Wels Exhibition Centre. The main elements of the safety strategy for the entrance exams were the wearing of facemasks, maintaining of social distances and carefully regulated procedures on entry to and exit from the exam venues.

Temperature screening of candidates entering the exam venues only found one person to have an elevated temperature. After further measurement and expert examination by the Red Cross triage team, this person was cleared so that no suspected cases of COVID-19 were found at any of the venues.

Participant numbers in detail:
-    A total of 6,116 candidates took part in the entrance exam for MedUni Vienna – 4,362 in Vienna and 1,754 in Salzburg. The original number of applications was 8,620.
-    A total of 2,793 candidates sat Friday’s entrance exam for the Medical University of Innsbruck. Originally, 4,008 people had registered online by the end of March.
-    Out of the 3,139 originally registered, a total of 2,320 candidates sat the exam for MedUni Graz on Friday.
-    In Linz (Medical Faculty of JKU Linz) 1,213 candidates sat the exam (Design Center Linz: 614; Wels Exhibition Centre: 599) – 1,832 had originally registered their interest by the time online applications closed at the end of March 2020. 

Content of the MedAT-H and MedAT-Z entrance exams
The entrance exam for human medicine (Med-AT-H) is a multi-part, written exam comprising the following elements:

  • Basic knowledge test for medical studies:  checking existing knowledge from school in the areas of biology, chemistry, physics and mathematics.
  • Text comprehension:  checking reading ability and understanding of texts.
  • Cognitive skills and abilities:  this part of the test consists of five groups of exercises (assembling figures, numerical sequences, language proficiency, memory and retention and recognising implications) and covers basic cognitive skills and abilities.
  • Social and emotional skills:  this part of the exam consists of a group of exercises on Reading Emotions and Social Decision-Making, covering important aspects of social and emotional skills.


The entrance exam for dentistry (MedAT-Z) is largely identical to MedAT-H, except that the "Text Comprehension" section of the test is replaced by "Manual Skills" and the group of exercises on "Understanding Implications” is replaced by "Wire Bending" and "Reproducing Shapes".

60 more university places in Linz – 1,740 in total
There are a total of 1,740 university places available for human medicine and dentistry for the 2020/21 academic year, 740 of these at the Medical University of Vienna, 400 at the Medical University of Innsbruck, 360 at the Medical University of Graz and 240 at the Medical Faculty of JKU Linz (as against 180 in 2019). At least 95% of the university places are reserved for EU citizens and those with equivalent rights of access to education and at least 75% of places for applicants with an Austrian school leaving certificate. This quota system only applies to the allocation of university places for human medicine.