Page 9 - THE ORACLE MAGAZINE SUMMER'23 EDITION

This article is meant for anyone who is considering
applying for a medical school in the Czech Republic, as
it is quite a lengthy procedure to understand. I will
try my best to provide you with all the necessary
information and possible guiding tips to be able to
sufficiently prepare for the exams.
Czech medical universities are known for their
difficulty and prestige. They also have quite low
acceptance rates, however with enough preparation
there is a high chance of getting in with an ease.
In this article I will mainly focus on Charles University
as that is the most common and best rated one in
Prague. Charles University also has medical faculties
in Plzeň and Hradec Králové, however the selection
tests are on a similar basis.
The selection test for the Czech branches of the
medical faculties are multiple choice papers from
physics, chemistry and biology. Although that is very
manageable for students from Czech schools, it can
sound challenging for people studying IB where there
is the option to study a maximum of two subjects
from the natural sciences.
H O W T O E F F E C T I V E L Y
P R E P A R E F O R M E D I C I N E
Different Faculties
In Prague there are three faculties from Charles
University and in this segment I will briefly discuss the
main differences between them. Firstly, I would like to
mention that although the teaching styles between the
faculties might vary, the outcome is always a medical
degree. First and Second faculties of medicine are more
compatible with the Czech learning system as they don't
work with interconnecting topics which is common for
the IB Diploma. On the other hand The third faculty of
medicine has a module - based curriculum, similar to
those taught in universities outside of Czech republic,
and therefore more compatible with IB.
How to prepare
My first recommendation is to choose to study a
combination of two subjects from IB biology, chemistry
and physics, as the Czech and IB curriculums overlap in
many areas within the sciences. This will then save you
time when preparing for the actual exams.
Secondly I would highly advise you to purchase past
papers from the desired faculty as that will give you a
more concise vision of what is expected for the exams.
The past papers are called 'modelové otázky' in Czech
and are available at Karolinum or online.
What I personally found really helpful were online
seminars from the first faculty of medicine from Charles
University as there was a brief overview of all the content
that is taught at Czech high schools and therefore is
examined in the selection tests.
When to start preparing
As I mentioned, choosing to study two of the IB sciences
is a very good start that will help you to study more
efficiently for the exams. For the one science subject that
you won't study in school I would definitely recommend
finding some tutoring. There are plenty of online or in-
person tutors and organisations that are specialised for
exactly this job and therefore I would advise to do some
research and potentially invest in those courses.
For this tutoring I think it would be beneficial to begin at
the end of year twelve as there is quite a lot of content
that needs to be covered. In spite of that don't put
pressure on yourselves and take it step by step and try to
primarily focus on your IB studies.
Since IB exams usually take place from April to May and
the exam selection procedure for Charles University, as
well as other Czech medical universities is in June, there
will be a time frame of almost a month where you will
have space to go through the past papers.
M A G D A L E N A H A V L Í K O V Á
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