Kuwait MOH exam 2026: pass marks, format and attempts

Each Kuwait licensing exam is 150 multiple-choice questions taken on computer at a Prometric centre, in 170 minutes with a 10-minute break in between. Kuwait's specification covers nine exams - Registered Nurse, General Practitioner, Internal Medicine, Ophthalmology, Critical Care, Anesthesia, Dermatology, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Lab Technician - each with a published blueprint, pass mark and reading list.

The pass mark is 60% for Registered Nurse and General Practitioner. Internal Medicine is set by grade: 65% at Registrar level and 70% at Senior level.

Kuwait has not published specifications for its other professions - pharmacists, dentists and most nursing and allied-health titles - in any document we could verify, so figures you see quoted for those exams come from third-party sites rather than the Ministry. Confirm yours with the MOH Medical Licensing Department before you book.

The 150 questions split into four sections. Nursing Fundamentals, 30 questions: fundamentals of nursing (12), physical assessment (9), pharmacology (6) and clinical nutrition (3). Adult Nursing, 60: medical (15), surgical (15), critical care (11), community (12) and mental and psychiatric nursing (7). Maternal-Child Nursing, 45: maternity (17), gynecology (3), neonatal (6), pediatric medical (12) and pediatric surgical (7). Nursing Management and Leadership, 15: resources and coordination of care (3), quality and safe patient care (6), teams and interprofessional relations (3), and nursing informatics (3).

Adult and maternal-child nursing make up 105 of the 150 questions, so they deserve most of your time. Our Kuwait MOH exam guide for nurses covers the reading list, and you can test yourself against the same domains with the free Registered Nurse mock test or practise at length with the Registered Nurse question bank.

The GP exam spans four disciplines: Medicine, 45 questions (cardiology, pulmonary, gastroenterology and hepatology, nephrology, infectious diseases, endocrine, hematology, rheumatology, neurology, oncology, critical care, geriatrics, psychiatry, patient safety, ethics and preventive medicine); Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 38; Pediatrics, 37, with neonatology, ambulatory care and acute care among its sub-sections; and Surgery, 30, including trauma and acute care surgery. Every discipline includes patient safety, ethics and preventive questions.

Because obstetrics, gynaecology and pediatrics together make up half the paper, a medicine-only revision plan will not pass it. Practise across all four with the GP question bank or start with the free GP mock test.

The Internal Medicine exam covers cardiovascular (16 questions), pulmonary diseases (16), gastrointestinal diseases (15), infectious diseases (17), hematology (9), oncology (7), nephrology (14), rheumatology (9), endocrinology (14), neuroscience (9), emergency medicine (12), patient safety (6) and professionalism and ethics (6). Registrars pass at 65% and Seniors at 70%. See the Internal Medicine question bank and free mock.

Kuwait's Medical Licensing Department requires its Prometric exam for the professions in its published specification, and it sets the exam level by your grade. Its published guidance says the Senior exams are for Consultant, Senior Specialist, Specialist and Senior Registrar levels, and the Registrar exams are for the Registrar level only.

The specification gives pass marks of 65% (Registrar) and 70% (Senior) for the physician specialty exams, which is why we list both grades. We could not find a published list of who is exempt from the exam. If you hold a board certificate or a licence elsewhere, ask the department in writing before you assume a waiver. Our GCC exam exemptions guide covers how other authorities handle waivers, which is not evidence of Kuwait's position.

Pharmacy has its own department in Kuwait and is not covered by the licensing specification. See the Kuwait MOH licence requirements for professions we could not verify.

Beyond Registered Nurse, General Practitioner and Internal Medicine, the specification publishes six more exams, each with 150 multiple-choice questions: Ophthalmology, Critical Care, Anesthesia, Dermatology, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Lab Technician.

The physician specialty exams pass at 65% for Registrar and 70% for Senior. Lab Technician passes at 60%. Duration is 170 minutes with a 10-minute break, except Anesthesia, which runs 190 minutes. Ophthalmology allows two attempts rather than three. Lab Technician covers microbiology, clinical chemistry, haematology and blood bank (30 questions each), immunology and serology (23) and histology and cytology techniques (7).

Our question banks do not yet cover every one of these titles, so check availability for yours.

The exam is one step of the MOH licence alongside DataFlow verification and your employer's file. Our Kuwait MOH licence requirements, 2026 licensing rules and MOH hospital jobs for nurses guides cover the rest, and you can track your file with the licence status check guide.

Applications go through the Medical Licensing Department's online portal, and the exam is booked at a Prometric centre. The department publishes the contact email [email protected], answered Sunday to Thursday, 8am to 2pm, and says its exams are available at Prometric centres worldwide.

Our Kuwait licensing guide describes the sequence as an employer-initiated file, document preparation, DataFlow verification, the Prometric exam and then the licence. That is our own summary; we could not open the ministry portal to confirm each step or give you official timelines. Kuwait publishes no processing times.

Run the licensing timeline calculator to plan around DataFlow and the six-week retake gap, or get a personal check through our eligibility assessment.

Our licensing guide describes DataFlow primary source verification as part of the Kuwait route. Kuwait's exam specification does not mention it, and we could not open the ministry portal to confirm the current requirement, so confirm with the department before paying.

DataFlow charges its own fee and Kuwait publishes no amount. See the DataFlow fees guide, the cost calculator and the report reuse guide. A negative report can stall the whole file, so start it early.

Three attempts, with at least six weeks between each, for every exam in the specification except Ophthalmology, which allows two. Kuwait states that the blueprint, the share of questions and the number of attempts can change after departmental review, so check the current rule before you book.

The specification does not say what happens after your last attempt, or whether failed attempts reset. It does not say whether your attempts are counted across employers either. Ask the department. If you have already failed, our comeback guide shows how to use the six weeks.

Kuwait's specification gives the pass mark but not the result format, how soon results arrive, or how long a pass remains valid. Do not rely on a quoted validity period for your pass without the department's confirmation.

The same gaps apply to the oral interview stage that some sources mention. The specification does not describe one, so we cannot confirm it.

Kuwait does not publish the exam fee in its specification, and we could not open any official fee page. You see the amount when you book with Prometric.

Total cost also depends on DataFlow, document attestation and translation, which Kuwait does not itemise. Treat any complete fee table on a third-party site with caution, because we found no official source for one.

• Preparing for the wrong grade: Registrar and Senior pass marks differ.
• Revising medicine only for the GP paper, when obstetrics, gynaecology and paediatrics make up half of it.
• Booking a retake before the six-week gap has passed.
• Using a prep site's fee or pass mark for a profession Kuwait has not published.
• Missing the changed attempts rule: Ophthalmology allows two.

Use the published blueprint for your exam to weight your revision, and practise 150 questions in 170 minutes. Start with a free timed mock test, then work through the question banks and the rest of our exam prep range.

The specification also lists the reference books for each exam, such as Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine for Internal Medicine, so use those as your reading list.