A comprehensive guide on LEK (The Medical Final Examination) preparation in English as well as some tips and tricks to pass the exam in the first attempt.
The LEK Exam is feasible and not difficult at all especially after the changes made to the structure of the exam in July 2020 by the Polish parliament.
It consists of 200 MCQs with 5 options each with a single best answer in English and conducted by CEM (The Medical Examinations Center) biannually. The passing score is 56% of the valid questions (i.e. 112 out of 200 valid questions). LEK lasts for 4 hours without any breaks (although you can use the restroom after a certain time).
Read more about the LEK exam and its format here: LEK: The Final Medical Examination of Poland.
Table of Contents
First, when and how to apply for LEK?
LEK is conducted in February and September of each year by CEM and the application process closes on the 15th of July and 30th November respectively.
Find a detailed step-by-step guide to the LEK application: How to apply for LEK?
Is the LEK exam difficult?
No!!
LEK exam, by any means, is not a difficult exam and is very doable by systemic preparation.
Since the changes in the law governing overall medical education in Poland, the LEK exam has been transformed from a nightmare to a relatively easy exam especially for English Division students and graduates alike. These changes make sure that 70% of questions (i.e. 140 out of 200 questions) are directly taken from a database officially published by the CEM on its website (more on this below).
What books do I study?
Unfortunately, the CEM has not recommended any books in English due to lack of English translations of recommended books in the Polish language instead CEM has just stated “There is no list of recommended handbooks to prepare for LEK in English. Therefore, it is advisable to use handbooks used during the studies.” on its website.
If you are like me, this statement is not very helpful and you might be wondering what to do now!!
Read whole med school again!!
That would be outright outrageous to expect us to go through all those books again with that focus. I do not think that it is even humanly possible.
No need to panic, the good news is that we have some material to help us navigate through this exam.
If not books, then what else?
As mentioned earlier, 70% of LEK questions are from the CEM database aka ‘old questions’. As required by the law, the questions have to be directly (copy-paste) taken from the database. That means you already have 140 out of 200 questions in your hand, and your passing score is only 112 questions. That results in a wiggle room of 28 questions. I think that all of it makes LEK an achievable exam even without recommended books in English than it used to be.
What is the CEM database?
The CEM database consists of around 2000 questions in total and gets updated biannually.
CEM has not provided the official answers to the MCQs in the database. This causes a lot of confusion as at many times options given are too close to each other and has direct reference to recommended books in Polish. Even at times, the very few questions did not have their answers directly in recommended books. However, the collective effort of the Facebook group has answered most of the questions correctly but still quite a few have wrong answers, so please use with your own discretion.
Or
Alternatively, you can use many different paid or free website and their corresponding apps
Join the LEK Exam Preparation group on Facebook.
In my opinion, this is a great place to post and discuss the various questions that are doubtful and have wrong answers in different resources.
Can I pass by doing CEM database? Does CEM exactly repeat these questions?
Yes and Yes!!
As mentioned earlier, 140 questions of your LEK exam has to be directly (copy-paste) from the CEM Database (≈2000 questions). Although they exactly repeat questions, I still recommend doing these questions with explanations as that is the most effective way of studying. Moreover, this will also help in case of new questions and create a logical thought process in times of doubts regarding ‘old questions’.
Where can I find explanations and answers to the CEM database questions?
Due to language constraints, we have only a couple of providers, ranging from very expensive to outright free. Hence, I would simply suggest you follow the Facebook group as participants keep discussing different study platforms and their pros and cons. This way, you will have an updated list of all platforms and the best option for you at the time of your preparation.
Due to language constraints, we have only one provider who has answered and provided an in-depth explanation of the CEM database questions as well as LEP/LEK questions from 2008 onwards.
I have personally used ‘LekExam.pl‘ during my preparation and found it sufficient. It is a one-stop solution.
Here are my pros and cons of LekExam.pl.
Pros:
- CEM Database questions with answers and detailed explanations.
- Access to over 4500 LEK questions from 2008 onwards with detailed explanations
- All the explanations are from recommended books by CEM.
- You can comment and discuss the problems with individual questions and the admin actively supports these discussions.
- Cross-Platform: lekexam.pl has good and improved Android and iOS apps with its website. You can switch to any of the above and start where you left.
- You can categorise and filter questions based on many options like topics, subtopics and years etc.
- New added features such as Flashcards, which are based on spaced repetition method (like ANKI). You can generate your deck of flashcards, and the system will show them to you in such an interval that you will remember them for as long as possible.
- One more feature would be Courses: Here, you can generate your personalized course based on the CEM Database or all past LEK questions. You can choose the subjects, and the number of questions to go through each day as a target.
- Flashcards for Polish Medical Language for the aspirants who are planning to go through it.
Cons:
- The biggest one is seldom translation errors and with wrongly marked answers which get corrected by bringing it to admin.
- Recently admin has been more active in responding to the individual comments and also Team has expanded, but it can still use a bit of extra push.
- There is no way of knowing if someone has commented on the thread you have commented on before.
- No Offline support: You have to be always online in order to use it.
Get Your Subscription of LekExam.
How long does it take to prepare for LEK?
Ideally, if you are non-working, then it should not take more than 4 to 6 weeks to finish through the CEM database thoroughly with in-depth explanations. You can easily go through these questions again and again around 5 times (passes). Moreover, I recommend going through the database at least 3 to 5 times for good results. However, 3 times is the absolute minimum in my opinion (to be confident enough) and 5 times is the perfect sweet spot.
Keeping in mind, different people have different paces of studying, it can vary from person to person, so please adjust the average study time accordingly to your conditions.
How to study the CEM database questions?
These are my recommendation which is also a very popular way of learning by ‘old questions’.
- Understand the questions and the answers from the database as well as why other options are incorrect.
- Do not simply memorise the questions rather focus on understanding and learning the explanations.
- CEM loves guidelines, so please give extra focus to them whenever they come across in the ‘explanation section’.
- Make daily targets of number questions you need to complete before you go to bed each day.
- Mark the questions you answered incorrectly on the first pass and unmark them on the subsequent passes. Keep doing that for all the passes, and in the end, you will be left with the questions that you are getting repeatedly wrong. Do them just in the morning before going to the exam.
- LEK is a 4 hours long exam, so I do not think that time management will be an issue for the majority of students. Contrarily, I have heard from others that we have more than enough time to answer the questions peacefully.
What can I expect on the day of LEK exam?
As already mentioned, the LEK exam is an MCQ-based exam in English with a single best answer and is on paper, which most of you used to mark your answers in university exams. You get 4 hours to answer and fill in all your responses by darkening the squares related to individual questions.
LEK exam in English is just an exact translation of the Polish version of the exam. Moreover, your question booklet will have, firstly, the questions in the English language in a bigger font and then the original polish version with a smaller font.
Read More on:- What to expect on the LEK Exam-Day and Final Checklist?
Summary: How to study for LEK Exam?
LEK is a very doable exam and no need to fear it. Just keep in mind these points:
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Do not start studying from textbooks.
They have too much information and are not suited for the MCQ style exam.
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Join the Facebook group for LEK preparations.
Actively participate in it and make the best out of the hive mind of this group.
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Optionally, you could join a study platform, which could be paid or free to use.
This is the best way to study systematically and in an organised way. Hence, follow the Facebook group to get informed about the best available options.
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Set a target of questions per day
It proportionally depends on how many days you are taking for the preparation. I would strongly recommend you to go through the database at least thrice and ideally 5 times.
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Look up the references, if possible.
If you are unsure and have a doubt regarding the answer, then please check references and also try to do your research in quest of finding the right answer.
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Keep marking the questions you are getting wrong.
This will save your time going through everything once again and on exam-day, you can just go through the marked ones.
Do you still have doubts and thoughts about this article, then please share them in the comment section?
Disclaimer: The information presented here is provided to the best of my knowledge and should be used for general informational purposes only. I do not guarantee its accuracy or completeness and disclaim any liability for errors. It is essential to conduct your own research through official channels to make informed decisions. Additionally, any product recommendations are based on my personal opinions, and this post may contain affiliate links or coupons, which could result in a small commission for me at no extra cost to you. Your use of this information is at your own risk, and I am not responsible for any consequences that may arise.
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