Medicine in Milan, Italy - International Medical School

Hello,
I get that this thread is really old and me posting on here may be an inconvenience and i'm sorry about that!
But i can't seem to find any help with this.
I've done some past papers and have marked them accordingly, but i can't find the entry requirements for the IMAT for each specific year for the different universities.
For example in some years when the test was harder a score of 38.0 may have been accepted in University of Milan, however if the test was overall easier a score of 40.0 may have been required. I can't seem to find any grade boundaries or thresholds which could put my results in perspective a bit....
Is there anywhere i can look to find this?
Thanks in advance.

Has anyone managed to register for this year's IMAT yet?

Important update for 2016/17 Entry - See links at the bottom.

The following article was written by me back when I was a first year student, for the year 2011/12. It is a subjective article, based around my personal experience. Following many changes (including moving of the facilities in 2014 away from Humanitas, and Changes to IMAT protocols), some of it may not be as relevant today, but I am leaving it as it does still serve a purpose of informing people about my personal experience of what it was like to move to Italy, and some aspects of the program itself.

I am currently a student studying medicine in Milan, Italy, and am writing this to help any prospective students in their decision-making process! I will be talking a lot more subjectively on this topic, my personal decision-making process, and some general info with regards to my experience thus far.

The program I am enrolled on is the Medicine and surgery (medicina e chirurgia) program in English. It is a program run by the University of Milan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Milan) and is called the International Medical School (IMS), with everything being based at istituto clinico Humanitas.

Why I chose this course

The course is a 6 year degree in medicine, and all lectures are in English. I am currently a first year, with no previous knowledge of Italian.

Having researched the University itself, I found that the University of Milan has an international reputation - something important in my eyes when considering the future - It is considered one of the best in Italy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Milan). The degree is recognised in the UK (http://www.gmc-uk.org/doctors/registration_applications/eea_evidence_italy.asp), and so I thought "Why not; the exam entrance fee is cheap, course is in English and is in Milan, Italy, rather than somewhere possibly more obscure - works to my advantage when applying internationally after graduating. What, tuition fees are no more than 4000 euros a year?!"

On the course, the lecturers are excellent (I have previously studied at Bristol and Nottingham - I graduated with an Msc in Immunology) in comparison with other top universities. The class sizes are small (50 in our year), and very international - we have about 15 Italians, 10 Israelis and 10 Brits, with others coming from Lebanon, Taiwan, South Korea, Germany, Sweden - you get the idea. The small class definitely helps in terms of student-professor rapport; we really get to know each other. This is almost unique in terms of the professor getting to know each student (Does not happen in the UK).

Literally today, one of our coursemates went and watched a surgery to fix an aortic aneurysm: again, does not happen in the UK. However, with Italy being a catholic country, dissections are illegal. Instead, as first year students, we already have our white coats, are shadowing doctors and sitting in at consultations (yes, knowing Italian is a benefit). Students have the option to go visit the ER over the weekends. All in all, it is very exciting (albeit the majority of our time is spent in lectures or studying in the library).

The course is moulded around other international models (e.g. Stanford etc etc), and I really do get the feeling that they have made an effort rather than just port over the Italian system and Googletranslate everything (I have heard other courses in English are doing this...). The lecturers are excellent, the material is theoretically challenging (as you would expect any decent medical school to be), proper patient interaction starts in the THIRD year, and the facility is amazing.

Lunches are subsidised (3 euros for a really good meal), we all have our own lockers, the teaching staff for our PBLs are all very experienced physicians, everything is pristine clean, and there seems to be one or two international conventions happening every week, and as students we are welcome to view them. State of the art equipment (e.g. really powerful PET scans), and the concept that if you contact the doctors beforehand, they will be more than happy to accommodate for one extra student on their rounds - some of the benefits of being a medical student here.

The hospital itself - Istituto clinico Humanitas (ICH) - is one of the best in Italy. It is a private hospital, with the capability to accommodate for patients on the national health service. With that being said, it has some of the best doctors and facilities around. I have been told that there is a 2:1 ratio of student to physician tutors (paid to be tutors). All the doctors I have met thus far have been more than supportive (a la coursemate today, who was asked whether he wanted to sit in on the aortic aneurysm surgery).
I have so far met intern residents from the US and the Netherlands, who have been saying the facilities here (e.g. nuclear medicine department, where he is an intern) are truly state-of-the-art, and that was an important factor in them coming here.

Our classes are held in one classroom, with our professors coming to us. Since we are so few, you really get to meet everybody intimately. Our class has already been on skiing trips together, visited Nice over the weekends, and even invited friends over for Christmas/New years/Easter back to the UK!
On top of all this, we frequently go out together to the very cosmopolitan city that is Milano; sushi all-you-can-eat-buffets, coffee and drinks at any number of bars, karaoke, football, and apertivos!

The entrance exam

This is what happened last year.

I took the IMAT test (BMAT equivalent) in September having signed up, and waited two weeks for the results to be published online. There were 100 people taking the exam in London, and a further 500 Odd taking it in Milan, for 30 Eu places and 20 non-eu places.

NB they advertise a minimum mark of 20; this is NOT what you should be aiming for. This was only the second year, and the competition for places in the eu category was much harder than for the non-eu.

After the results are published online and you place within the top 30, ZOOM you should pack and get out to Milan asap and start looking for an apartment - Last year the entrance exam was on the 9th of September, results were published on the 1xth, and we had to be here for registration by the 23rd or so. It happens very quickly, and they expect you to pay the first instalment at an Italian branch of Intesa Sanpaolo (I made the mistake of going to the Intesa Sanpaolo branch in London but they dont deal with private payments). First date of term was the following monday (26th I believe).

NB - the application procedure is not easy takes time - start well in advance of the application deadline, but in the worst case scenario, contact the medical school as shown on www.mimed.it

In summary
Pros: Environment (small classes, excellent teaching staff, facilities), early clinical experience (tasters in the first 2 years followed by proper patient contact in the third year), course taught in English (but must learn Italian), top university in Italy, top hospital in Italy, and cheaper tuition than UK. Food is great in general!

Cons: Having to learn Italian within 2 years (I intend to study over the summer holidays), no dissections, had a really tough time getting all the paperwork together (Italian consulate blew 2 separate confirmed appointments with me, then lost my paperwork...)
With this being a new course, sometimes things dont go as smoothly as you would like, but having chatted with the year above, things are definitely improving. I assume it will get even better in years to come (Means some of this information may be outdated soon)

Possible pros or cons (depends on how you look at it): the hospital is not actually in the city of Milan; rather it is several kilometres to the south. However, there is a shuttlebus that runs every 20 minutes from morning till 8pm every day to Milan, and it takes about 15 minutes.
The lecture timetable is not as intense as in the UK. Its not 9-5 everyday, but with more time allocated to "self-study". We have on average 4-5 hours a day of lectures (just quick-maths involved here), which may be less intense than in the UK, but the students then go off to study at their own pace by themselves.

I hope this helps - I myself was daunted last year when faced with the prospect of this mysterious course. I would strongly recommend people to come and investigate (as some people have already done) -it's only Milan and costs under a hundred pounds to come and investigate for yourself!

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As of 2014, a few changes to the following article.
In short - The International medical school is now moving from Humanitas, Rozzano where it has been located thus far.
1) The preclinical 2 years will be based at LITA-Interdisciplinary Laboratory of Advanced Technologies, Segrate
2) The clinical 4 years will be based at the Sacco hospital campus (and others around Milano)
3) The intake this year is undefined as yet.
4) The IMAT exam is 60 total questions - 2 general knowledge, 20 logic, 18 biology, 12 chemistry, 8 physics and maths combined.
5) There are no extra marks for English certificates.

Unfortunately, I myself have never visited either of the new facilities above, and therefore cannot comment. All the best to those applying this year!

For those interested - Some useful websites:
Last year's IMAT scores: http://accessoprogrammato.miur.it/2015/IM_RI.html
Official websites: http://www.imschool.it/,
Registration for IMAT (will open closer to September - keep checking this link!): www.universitaly.it

As far as entry requirements: you need this thing called a DV (declarazione di Valore - certificate of equivalency).

4 step process: You take your GCSE and A-level certificates and take them to a local solicitor asking for "certified copies". This does not take long - maybe 2 hours at max.

Take these Certified copies and send them off to somewhere in Milton Keynes to get them "Apostilled". This takes about 2 weeks, if you're lucky.

With your apostilled certified copies, together with your original certificates (God knows why) and many passport photos (you will need loads of these later - make em pretty ones) you take them down to the Italian consulate in London (136 Buckingham Palace Road), to get the Apostille Stamped and the DV. This final step should "take you about 30 days"...

Requirements for the DV (for Brits) is to show that you have been in full time education for 13 years. I cannot remember seeing anywhere that minimum grades were required - but I assume the entrance test accommodates for this.

Somewhere along the line, you need your certificates translated into Italian to bring with you to registration in Italy.

General theme throughout: Start early as hiccups are bound to happen, and make many passport photos and photocopies and bring these with you to Italy for registration.

As far as entry requirements: you need this thing called a DV (declarazione di Valore - certificate of equivalency).

4 step process: You take your GCSE and A-level certificates and take them to a local solicitor asking for "certified copies". This does not take long - maybe 2 hours at max.

Take these Certified copies and send them off to somewhere in Milton Keynes to get them "Apostilled". This takes about 2 weeks, if you're lucky.

With your apostilled certified copies, together with your original certificates (God knows why) and many passport photos (you will need loads of these later - make em pretty ones) you take them down to the Italian consulate in London (136 Buckingham Palace Road), to get the Apostille Stamped and the DV. This final step should "take you about 30 days"...

Requirements for the DV (for Brits) is to show that you have been in full time education for 13 years. I cannot remember seeing anywhere that minimum grades were required - but I assume the entrance test accommodates for this.

Somewhere along the line, you need your certificates translated into Italian to bring with you to registration in Italy.

General theme throughout: Start early as hiccups are bound to happen, and make many passport photos and photocopies and bring these with you to Italy for registration.

If anyone gets in this year from England and enjoys it/has any tips please hit me up with a pm because I'm hoping to apply next year. Got AAB in my A Levels this year so missed my offer and really don't want to do Biomed so I'm exploring my options. Any tips at all of different pathways are very much appreciated. Thanks, Gez x

Are you taking a gap year this year then? Also what subjects did you take at A levels?

My advice would be to do as much as you can, and start quite early since the syllabus is large.

What I did (I did chem, bio, double maths to a-level and economics to AS, followed by medical related sciences up till an msc in immunology, so a lot of my prev work was relevant...)

I studied for about 2 months before the exam to recap a-level chemistry, and try self-teach myself a-level physics (obviously not really possible). I'd recommend you study the sciences - they do come up, and for the physics section a lot of mechanics questions came up.

Then, I studied as many bmat/gamsat etc questions as i could find. BMAT is very similar to IMAT, and so any bmat book and practice should be relevant for the IMAT.

As for schedule - it was all hail-mary for me, as I thought I remembered my chemistry. It was too late, and self-teaching myself physics was too much haha ^^;; but remember - try and keep thing medically relevant if possible. e.g. em spectrum questions are far less relevant for medical physics, and so many medical physics questions came up.