AMC Exam FAQ

The AMC exam is how the Australian Medical Council checks that an international medical graduate is ready to practise in Australia. It comes in two parts. Part 1 is the MCQ, a 3.5-hour computer adaptive test of 150 multiple-choice questions. Part 2 is the Clinical exam, an OSCE-style assessment you can sit only after passing Part 1; some candidates do a workplace-based assessment instead. Get through both and you receive the AMC Certificate, which you take to the Medical Board of Australia when you apply for registration. Read our AMC MCQ (CAT) guide.

AMC Part 1 runs for 3.5 hours and has 150 questions, each with one best answer out of five. It's a computer adaptive test, so the next question gets harder when you're right and easier when you're wrong, and no two candidates see the same paper. You answer in order, can't skip, and can't go back. There's no negative marking. The 150 questions are spread across adult medicine (30%), adult surgery (20%), and 12.5% each for women's health, child health, mental health, and population health and ethics. Read our AMC MCQ (CAT) guide.

You need three accounts, and the AMC asks you to set them up in a fixed order. First, check that your medical school, degree title and graduation year are eligible, using the AMC's checker. Second, create a MyIntealth account with ECFMG (your MyIntealth ID arrives in about three business days) and establish an EPIC portfolio inside it. That's where you upload your medical degree for primary source verification and nominate the AMC to receive the report. Third, create your AMC account, enter your MyIntealth ID, and establish your AMC portfolio (AUD 642), which the AMC reviews within five business days. Verification itself runs alongside all this and goes to the university that awarded your degree, so start it early; it's usually the slow part. From there, you apply in your AMC account for an MCQ authorisation (AUD 2,920, valid for 12 months) and book your date and venue with Pearson VUE. See the booking section of our exam dates guide.

Not to sit it. The AMC says plainly that English language proficiency is a requirement of the Medical Board of Australia, not of the AMC, so you can book and sit the MCQ without a test result. You will need one to register as a doctor, unless the Board grants you an exemption, and the AMC advises sorting your proof before you apply for any assessment pathway. The Board's English Language Skills Registration Standard sets out the accepted tests and scores; those tests are currently IELTS Academic, OET, PTE Academic and TOEFL iBT, so you're not limited to IELTS. AMC Academic has the full IELTS Academic course built into the same platform as its AMC question bank, so you can prepare for both without a second subscription.

The exam itself is AUD 2,920: that's the MCQ authorisation you buy from the AMC. Before you can buy it, you'll have paid AUD 642 to establish your AMC portfolio, plus roughly USD 315 to ECFMG for the verification side at its fees from 1 April 2026: a MyIntealth account (USD 110, which includes online notarisation of your identification form), an EPIC portfolio (USD 35), verification of your medical degree (USD 110) and the report to the AMC (USD 60). All up, reaching AMC Part 1 costs around AUD 4,000 depending on the exchange rate, and more if your university charges its own verification fee. The Clinical exam later is AUD 3,000 in person or AUD 3,400 online. The AMC dropped its card surcharge on 1 October 2026. See every fee in AUD, INR and PKR.

The AMC MCQ runs monthly from February to November, with no sittings in December or January. Each month's event is a Monday-to-Saturday week at Pearson VUE centres, and the dates are the same whether you sit in Australia or overseas. Booking closes about three weeks before each event, and you can change your date or venue free of charge until then. The Clinical exam has its own calendar. Our exam dates guide lists every MCQ sitting through to September 2027 with its closing date and results date.

AMC Part 1 is sat in person at a Pearson VUE test centre; there's no at-home option. Pearson VUE delivers it in Australia and in many other countries, and you pick the venue when you book. One thing to know: Pearson VUE has to follow US sanctions, so candidates whose primary residence is in a sanctioned country may not be able to book. Since 8 September 2026 that includes residents of Iran unless they can prove residence elsewhere. The Clinical exam is the exception: it can be sat in person or online. Sitting from India or Pakistan.

At 4:00 pm Australian eastern time on the Friday three weeks after your exam week. Results go into your AMC account, under AMC assessments and then MCQ Results, with a transcript and feedback on your performance. The AMC releases them, not Pearson VUE. It won't give them over the phone, and it no longer re-checks MCQ results on request. Results dates for every sitting.

The pass mark is 250 on a 0 to 500 scale. That number isn't a percentage: the test adapts to you, so the AMC estimates your ability from how hard the questions you got right were. From 2026 the AMC nudged the standard behind that 250 slightly higher, without touching the format or content. As for difficulty, roughly half of candidates pass: 47% in the AMC's 2022–23 annual report and 51% in 2023–24. The questions lean on common conditions and clinical reasoning in an Australian setting rather than rare facts, which is where most well-trained IMGs lose marks. That gap is the reason AMC Recalls exists: free practice questions every month. Read our AMC MCQ (CAT) guide.

Give it three months if you can study four to five hours a day, or four to six months around a job. In the first six weeks, pick one question bank and finish it rather than hopping between three, keep a gap log of every topic you get wrong, start the RACGP Red Book early, and weight your hours by the blueprint (adult medicine alone is 30% of the paper). From week seven to fourteen, run one recall-and-mock cycle a month and drill the weak areas your mock breakdown shows. In the last three to four weeks, sit at least three full-length timed mocks, debrief every wrong answer against the guideline itself (Therapeutic Guidelines, the Red Book, the Australian Immunisation Handbook), and practise pacing at 84 seconds a question. Our guide to passing AMC Part 1 on your first try sets out the whole plan, and the monthly recall sets are free.