The MIR exam

Miguel Ángel Pollino

Coordinator of LegalSpain

30/12/2022

The training process lasts between four and five years. The current law makes it essential to obtain the title of Specialist Physician and to practice Medicine in any of the centers of the National Health System. It is one of the exams that agglomerate the FSE tests.

The MIR exam (Resident Internal Physician) is the test required of doctors, Spanish or foreign, to access a position as a specialist doctor in training in the National Health System in Spain. The MIR exam is one of the Specialized Health Training (FSE) tests. In this post we will explain all the information you need to know about this selective process.

This exam is held annually and takes place between the months of January and February, normally the last week of January and the first week of February.

The MIR exam

The MIR is a medical exam with 210 multiple-choice questions, in which 200 questions are taken into account for the evaluation and 10 are reserve questions. Each correct question will be worth 3 points and each wrong question will subtract one point. Blank questions do not add or subtract. The exam questions include images to lead to mini clinical cases.

A maximum of 4 hours and 30 minutes is allowed to complete the exam. There is no official agenda, since it is considered that anything related to or belonging to medicine could be asked. However, an ‘informal’ syllabus is available for preparing the exam, based on previous exams. The mark obtained in the exam (90% of the final mark) together with the evaluation of the scale or academic record (10% of it) allow ordering all those presented from highest to lowest score.

After the exam, the most outstanding opponents choose the specialty and the hospital where they will carry out the residency in a selection act. The exam assesses the medical knowledge of between 8,000 and 25,000 physicians per call.