The LEK question base — what is actually in it

The Centre for Medical Examinations publishes an open question base, and 70% of every LEK paper is drawn from it — 140 of the 200 questions you will sit. Below: how many questions each field holds, what reading it is written from, and the catch that costs the English-language cohort about 23 points.

From the base: 70%
On the paper: 140/200
Questions: 2,465
Fields: 10

Where the 70% rule came from

The open base is the result of an agreement reached on 8 February 2018 between the Minister of Health and the Residents' Agreement of the OZZL, written into law by the amendment of 16 July 2020. Residents wanted the entire exam drawn from published questions; the settlement was 70%. The base has been in force since the spring 2021 session.

In practice 140 questions on your paper come from a set you can work through in advance, and the remaining 60 are new and unpublished. Against a pass mark of 56% — 112 points — the base alone is enough to pass comfortably, provided you understand the answers rather than memorising letters.

Field by field

CEM splits the base into 10 fields and publishes each as a separate list. The counts below are questions in the current single-best-answer format — one correct option out of 5.

Internal medicine The largest field in the entire base — cardiology, pulmonology, gastroenterology, nephrology, endocrinology, haematology and rheumatology. 494 questions Obstetrics and gynaecology Antenatal care and labour, pathology of pregnancy, conservative and oncological gynaecology, gynaecological endocrinology. 337 questions Paediatrics Child development and nutrition, childhood diseases, the Polish immunisation schedule, health checks, paediatric emergencies. 358 questions General surgery The acute abdomen, gastrointestinal surgery, trauma, clinical nutrition, fitness for surgery. 335 questions Family medicine Primary care, prevention and screening, practical vaccinology, management of chronic disease. 259 questions Emergency medicine and intensive care Resuscitation and ERC guidelines, life-threatening emergencies, triage, ventilation and fluid therapy. 235 questions Psychiatry Diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders, psychopharmacology, involuntary measures and the Polish Mental Health Act. 184 questions Bioethics and medical law The Polish Code of Medical Ethics, consent, medical confidentiality, patients rights, medical experiments, forensic medicine. 111 questions Public health Organisation and financing of Polish healthcare, epidemiology, health promotion, health policy. 79 questions Medical certification Certifying incapacity for work, sick leave, social insurance benefits, certification paperwork. 73 questions

2,465 in total · the full CEM listing runs to 3,045 entries including the older format

The catch, if you sit the exam in English

The base is published in Polish. So is most of the required reading — CEM names the specific textbooks each field is written from, and the canonical ones (Interna Szczeklika, Bręborowicz, Gałecki) have no English edition.

The exam itself is translated for you. The preparation material is not. In the spring 2026 session candidates sitting in English averaged 133.65 points against a national 157.09, and 18.3% of them failed against 3.2% nationally. That gap is not about ability.

One thing works in your favour, and it is why this is a solvable problem: in each of the last three sittings more than nine out of ten questions had already appeared in an earlier session. The set is finite and knowable.

See the spring 2026 results in full Take the free mock exam

The Spring 2026 paper is already free in English, in CEM's own wording. Our wider bank and the study platform are still in Polish and we are working through them — the same questions, the same keys.

Will the base be abolished?

The Ministry of Health has drafted a bill (UD384) that would end the open base and make all 200 questions secret. It has not been passed and has no commencement date; the 70/30 rule stands until it is. We keep this page updated.

Figures counted from the question lists published by the Centre for Medical Examinations (LEK question base) and the official reading list (CEM textbooks), as at August 2026. Polska wersja tej strony .