MIR

Overview

The MIR (Médico Interno Residente) exam is Spain's national entrance test for specialty medical residency training. It is run by the Ministerio de Sanidad as part of the yearly Formación Sanitaria Especializada (FSE) process, which also covers residencies for nursing (EIR) and other health professions. Passing the MIR exam does not by itself grant a residency place: it produces a score, combined with the candidate's academic transcript, that ranks every candidate so they can, in turn, choose a vacant residency post in a specialty and hospital across Spain's public health system.

The exam is open to both Spanish-trained and foreign-trained doctors, including non-EU graduates whose degree has been formally homologated, which makes it the single gateway into specialist medical training in Spain regardless of where the candidate studied.

Who can apply

• Hold a university degree in Medicine. Graduates of Spanish universities, or of EU/EEA universities under mutual-recognition rules, qualify directly with their degree and academic transcript.

• Graduates of non-EU universities must have their foreign medical degree formally homologated by the competent Spanish Ministry (homologación) before the end of the registration period — a request still "in process" is not accepted. In practice this homologation process commonly takes nine months to two years, well beyond the six-month legal target, so candidates trained outside the EU need to start it far in advance of the exam they plan to sit.

• A Spanish-language requirement applies to foreign-trained candidates, except when the Medicine degree was obtained after studying in Spanish, at a Spanish university or a university in a Spanish-speaking country.

• Non-EU candidates without Spanish residency compete within a separate quota, commonly reported at 10% of the places on offer, rather than against the full open list.

• Registration requires the degree (or homologation decision) and an official academic transcript showing the candidate's grade average on a 0-10 scale, or its converted equivalent for foreign transcripts.

Exam pattern

A single sitting of multiple-choice questions, taken on paper at assigned exam centres across Spain.

For 2026/2027 sittings, the subjects most heavily represented year over year are General and Digestive Surgery (commonly the single most-questioned subject), followed by Cardiology, Endocrinology, Nephrology and Traumatology; Infectious Diseases, Neurology and Paediatrics have also carried significant weight in recent exams. There is no single published official syllabus for the exam — candidates and preparation academies build study plans from the pattern of previous years' papers.

Marking and results

Each correct answer scores 3 points; each incorrect answer subtracts 1 point; an answer left blank scores 0. With 200 scored questions, the maximum raw score is 600 points.

A candidate whose raw exam score does not clear a minimum threshold — reported as roughly 25% of the average of the ten highest exam scores in that year's sitting — is marked "Eliminado" (failed) and is not ranked for residency placement, regardless of their academic transcript.

For candidates who clear that threshold, the final ranking score combines the exam and the academic transcript:

• The exam result counts for 90% of the final score.

• The academic transcript (baremo académico) counts for the remaining 10%. It is built from the candidate's degree grade average, scored on a scale from 5 to 10 (candidates with a "cum laude" doctoral thesis can add further points, up to a reported maximum of 11).

Both components are normalised against the top scorers of that year before being combined, so the same raw exam mark can translate to a different final score from one year's cohort to the next. The final combined score fixes each candidate's position in the single national order of merit, which decides the sequence in which candidates are called to choose a residency place.

Important dates

The FSE cycle runs once a year on a calendar fixed by a Ministerial order published in the BOE. For the 2027 cycle (Orden SND/854/2026, published in the BOE on 10 August 2026):

• Registration window: 1 to 14 September 2026, through the Ministry's electronic headquarters.

• Exam date: Saturday, 23 January 2027, starting at 14:00 (13:00 in the Canary Islands), across 26 exam venues.

• Results and the order of merit are published some weeks after the exam, followed by the residency-place selection (adjudicación) process in the following spring.

Exact dates move every year and the window has previously been extended by a few days, so candidates should always check the current year's BOE order and the Ministry's FSE portal before planning around a specific date.

Fees

The standard 2026/2027-cycle registration fee reported for the Medicine (MIR) exam is €31.10 (the parallel Nursing/EIR exam fee is lower, reported at €23.33). Fee exemptions are available for victims of terrorism, members of large families (familia numerosa), candidates with a recognised disability of 33% or more, and candidates registered as unemployed, subject to the conditions set in each year's call.

How to apply

1. Register online using official form 790 through the Ministerio de Sanidad's electronic headquarters (sede electrónica) during the registration window; candidates with a Spanish DNI or NIE must register electronically rather than on paper.

2. Upload the required documents in PDF: the Medicine degree (or the homologation decision for non-EU degrees) and the official academic transcript showing the grade average used for the baremo académico.

3. Pay the registration fee, or submit the supporting documents for a fee exemption.

4. Sit the exam at the assigned centre on the scheduled date.

5. Check preliminary and final results, and the published order of merit, once released.

After the exam

Once the final order of merit is published, candidates take part in the residency-place selection (acto de adjudicación de plazas), run in strict order of final score: candidates with the highest combined score are called first to choose from the full list of residency vacancies still available, across public hospitals, specialty programmes and locations throughout Spain, and each choice removes that vacancy from the list before the next candidate is called. Selection can be done electronically, using a digital certificate or the Cl@ve identification system, or in person at the Ministry's premises in Madrid. Candidates who do not take up, or later resign, an assigned place can see it offered again in a further round (readjudicación) to candidates further down the order of merit.

Preparation tips

• Practise full-length past papers under timed conditions: 200 questions in 4 hours 30 minutes rewards pacing and triage as much as raw knowledge.

• Weight study time toward the subjects that recur most heavily year after year — General and Digestive Surgery, Cardiology, Endocrinology, Nephrology, Traumatology, Infectious Diseases, Neurology and Paediatrics — without ignoring the rest of the specialties.

• Build image-reading practice deliberately (chest X-rays, ECGs, basic CT/MRI findings, skin and histology photographs); the image-based block is a fixed and sizeable part of every sitting.

• Since there is no single official syllabus, use question banks and commented past exams from recent years to learn the pattern of what gets asked, rather than studying a textbook from cover to cover.

• If trained outside the EU, start the degree homologation process as early as possible — it can take close to two years in practice — since it must be fully granted, not just submitted, before the registration deadline.

• Keep the academic transcript in mind too: although it is only 10% of the final score, it is fixed and cannot be improved after graduation, so it is worth confirming the transcript and its conversion to a 0-10 scale are correctly recorded well before registering.

FAQs