History of Medical Education
Hungary has been in the center of “European Medical Education,” in a sense that it has a plenty of supports toward those students coming from Germany, Norway, Sweden, and Spain, not to mention the other group of students from Iran, Israel, China, Japan, and Korea.
This is mostly due to this country has continued its historical emphasis on the higher educational values of fundamental sciences, especially medical science and its applied fields, together with a handful of “Nobel prize winners as well as nominees” throughout its history. In practice, considering its major “source of national income” also lies on the tourism as well as its university programs, in English and in German languages, no one can have a curiosity or doubt about its quality of academic contents and capability, specifically for its English programs, not to mention English medical universities teaching general medicine, dentistry, and pharmacy.
Unless meeting the qualification requirements from the other member states of European Union, apart from the other countries from which almost half of the entire active students are coming, these English (and German) medical universities of Hungary may not have been able to survive for more than 30 years of their academic careers at all. Therefore, it is highly natural that you can give your full credit to the medical (and other) university degree programs of Hungary, with a reasonable tuition and living cost. Simply, you will NOT have to spend more than 30~40% of what other American medical schools and British medical universities charge, in general. Also, the security and safety issues are quite “well satisfactory” as long as you do stay “on track” during your years of medical studies in this country.
Admission Features
The overall admission process regarding Hungarian medical schools(*specifically University of Pécs, University of Szeged, and University of Semmelweis) in the academic year of 2020-2021 lasts from Feb through mid-June. Still, the basic principle is “First Come, First Served,” meaning that you have higher chances to get accepted in the first few weeks of this admission period. Also, considering you can apply for the same university at least 1 more time during the same admission period, you are strongly recommended to submit your application and take the 1st exam before the end of Mar. The admission steps are as below:
The Entrance Exam is comprised of mainly two different sections as “Written Exams” and “Oral Exams(personal interview + oral presentation on given topics).” The Written Exams consist of Biology, Chemistry (or alternatively Physics for Szeged University), General English, and Medical English, and all applicants must take this written part of the exams for two hours and thirty minutes, or for 150 minutes.
On the other hand, the Oral Exams consist of “Personal Interview” and “Oral Presentation” sections, which naturally examines both English language proficiency and academic knowledge based on the Written Exams, not to mention a part of criterion also inspect a few basic presentation skills such as making plots/notes, effective reasoning to provide key points to a given question/topic, and a proper usage of academic terminology, specifically regarding a scientific terms with precise/proper definition acknowledgement (*this is one of the quintessential and most critical part of oral examination in order to differentiate the level of knowledge and preparation of individual applicants as well as with a purpose to succinctly prohibit any misuse of similar but different scientific terms by the applicants.) In general, this oral part of the exams may take up to 20~40 minutes, depending on each applicant. However, there is NO guarantee or proof that “longer exam time reflects better scores.”
English Matters – Language Skills
For non-native English speakers, it may seem to be quite disadvantageous when it comes to take “the Oral Exams” together with the other native English speakers, at a first glance. Fortunately, however, all examiners who are professors/instructors teaching in English language at the medical universities are already familiar with the expected fluency level of English language spoken by different student groups from various countries and find no practical and academic difficulty in adjusting their expectation on different English speakers. In other words, the examiners may find “more faults with native English speaking applicants” in case of misuse of terminology. Rather, the non-native English speakers may receive a few of “grace points” when it comes to a “unique pronunciation of terminology” and other minor mistakes in English Grammar usage.
Still, this is only to apply a philosophy of egalitarianism to each individual applicant, apart from his or her linguistic ability unless it is obviously far lower than average applicants. Based on this policy regarding the language used in instruction at medical universities, the applicants have an option to submit their English language certificates such as the official score reports from TOEFL/IELTS tests and/or any equivalent official English language tests certifying a level of B2 or above: in practice, the EU Meducation® strongly advises the non-native English speaking applicants to reach the final score of 100 or above from iBT TOEFL and/or 7 or above from IELTS at one’s discretion, in order to efficiently and productively study medicine in English language. Again, this is an “option” to file in together with your other optional documentation such as “letter of recommendation” and “letter of motivation.”
All these optional documents may not be considered as a vital/critical factor in terms of evaluation of applicants. However, if only the documents successfully and effectively provide more and truthful information of an applicant, there is still a very good reason to hand them in for the sake of the applicant.
*Optional Feature: AP and IB score reports need Biology and “Chemistry or Physics.”
Even if it is NOT mandatory at all, some of the applicants may have accomplished AP courses in the U.S. and in Canada (along with those international secondary schools governed by these two countries) as well as IB diploma programs in any of internationally recognized secondary educational institutions. Officially, these two academic achievements by the applicants are not considered as a part of admission assessment of individual applicants. In practice, however, it is one of the well-known facts that the students with any of these advanced level of studies during their high school years have a higher chance to show a longevity and competence in terms of studying medicine in English language for a various reasons. Therefore, it is still highly recommended for a younger student of 15 or 16 years of age to take it into consideration to first apply for either of the two acceleration programs (*specifically regarding Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and other mathematics) at the level of secondary education in English language, which will reasonably establish more profound academic knowledge as a form of “premedical studies.”
In summary, the skills to present your academic knowledge are one of the most important qualities required for the applicants preparing the Entrance Exams of Hungarian medical universities.
That is to say, these presentation skills are repeatedly and continuously examined all through the years of studying (and practicing) medicine, with a variation of types of languages used. Therefore, even though the language proficiency may have a certain degree of limitation for an applicant, especially if the language is not his or her mother tongue, the overall qualities of presenting one’s scientific/medical knowledge are expected to be developed and improved after a series of practices with different topics, in the end. Therefore, for non-native English speaking students, it is not really a recommended method to depend mostly on the published materials in their own languages unless it is unavoidable to make use of these materials for a limited time.
Here are a few recommended textbooks written in English language, by the EU Meducation® for the applicants of any Medical Universities teaching in English language. Try to make your own notes based on the topic lists provided here(click), together with referring to other supplementary online sources as well. Please contact us if you wish to receive a few other recommended study resources personally.
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