If you are applying to Charles University Third Faculty of Medicine (LF3) in Prague, the entrance exam is the single biggest variable in your acceptance. The application process is otherwise relatively simple. The exam decides everything. And yet the actual content of the exam is one of the more poorly documented things on the internet, especially for English-language applicants. This article fixes that. Below is a real, topic-by-topic breakdown of what shows up, drawn from the official syllabus, the questions that have appeared on past exams, and the curriculum we use to prepare students every year.

The Format in One Paragraph

The LF3 entrance exam is an in-person multiple-choice test held in Prague each spring (typically June). It covers two subjects, Biology and Chemistry, with a roughly equal number of questions per subject. The total is around 100 questions split across the two subjects. You sit the exam in person on the Charles University campus. The questions are written in English for international applicants. Each question has multiple answer choices; some questions have a single correct answer, and some allow multiple correct answers (read the instructions carefully). Calculators are not permitted.

You have a fixed time block, typically 2 hours, to complete both sections. There is no separate writing or essay component on the entrance exam itself. The interview is a separate stage that follows for applicants who pass the written exam.

Biology: Topic-by-Topic

The Biology section is the more wide-ranging of the two. The official syllabus covers a standard secondary-school biology curriculum, but with several topic areas that get more weight than American AP Biology students might expect.

Heavily emphasized:

  • Human anatomy and physiology by organ system: cardiovascular, respiratory, digestive, excretory (kidney/nephron), nervous system (CNS, PNS, autonomic), endocrine system, reproductive system, integumentary, sensory organs, skeletal and muscular systems. Expect detailed questions on each.
  • Cell biology and molecular biology: cell organelles, membrane transport, cell signaling, the cell cycle, mitosis and meiosis, DNA replication, transcription, translation, gene expression, gene regulation.
  • Genetics: Mendelian inheritance, dihybrid crosses, codominance, incomplete dominance, X-linked inheritance, Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, single-gene disorders, chromosome disorders, karyotypes, genetic counseling concepts.
  • Microbiology and virology: bacterial structure and classification, bacterial genetics, antibiotics, virus structure, viral lifecycles, HIV, parasitology basics, medical mycology.
  • Evolution and population biology: natural selection, genetic drift, speciation, the origin of life, endosymbiotic theory, human evolution timeline.
  • Ecology: ecosystems, food webs, eutrophication, ozone depletion, the greenhouse effect. This is meaningfully more emphasized than on the MCAT.
  • Plant biology and botany: photosynthesis, plant structure, plant reproduction. Often surprises American applicants because US science curricula spend less time here.
  • Biochemistry: bioenergetics, enzymes, fermentation, ATP, basic metabolic pathways.
  • Histology and embryology: tissue types, germ layers, morphogenesis, differentiation.

Less emphasized but tested:

  • Biotechnology and DNA technology basics
  • Stem cells and cell differentiation
  • Classification and taxonomy
  • Ethology (animal behavior)
  • Scientific method and research design fundamentals

Chemistry: Topic-by-Topic

The Chemistry section is more predictable in scope but goes deep on a few areas. The total topic count is smaller than Biology, but the depth per topic is greater.

General Chemistry:

  • Atomic structure (electron configuration, quantum numbers, isotopes)
  • The Periodic Table and periodic trends
  • Chemical bonding (ionic, covalent, hydrogen, intermolecular forces)
  • Stoichiometry and moles, including limiting reagents
  • States of matter and gas laws (ideal gas, partial pressures)
  • Solutions and concentration (molarity, molality, dilutions, colligative properties)
  • Acids, bases, and pH (Bronsted-Lowry, buffer systems, titrations)
  • Chemical equilibrium and kinetics (Le Chatelier, rate laws, reaction order)
  • Thermochemistry (enthalpy, entropy, Gibbs free energy, calorimetry)
  • Redox reactions and electrochemistry (galvanic cells, electrolysis)
  • Nuclear chemistry and radioactivity (half-life, decay types)

Organic Chemistry:

  • Hydrocarbons (alkanes, alkenes, alkynes)
  • Aromatic compounds and benzene chemistry
  • Functional groups: alcohols, phenols, ethers, aldehydes, ketones, carboxylic acids and derivatives
  • Nitrogen compounds (amines, amides, nitriles)
  • Heterocyclic compounds (often surprises applicants)
  • Sulfonic acids and carbonic derivatives
  • Polymers and reaction mechanisms
  • Isomerism (structural, stereoisomerism, E/Z, R/S)

Biochemistry (treated as part of chemistry on this exam):

  • Amino acids and proteins (structure, function, classification)
  • Saccharides (mono-, di-, polysaccharides)
  • Lipids (fatty acids, phospholipids, steroids)
  • Nucleic acids (DNA, RNA, nucleotides)
  • Metabolic biochemistry overview (glycolysis, citric acid cycle, electron transport chain)
  • Enzyme classification and mechanisms

Inorganic Chemistry:

  • Inorganic nomenclature
  • Descriptive inorganic chemistry by group/period

What Surprises American Applicants

Three things consistently catch first-time American test-takers off-guard.

First, the breadth of plant biology and ecology. US high school and AP curricula spend relatively little time on these topics. The LF3 exam treats them as core. If you skip preparing them, you will leave 10 to 15 questions on the table.

Second, the heterocyclic chemistry coverage. Pyridine, pyrimidine, purine ring systems, the aromaticity of these heterocycles, their basicity, and their biological relevance all appear. American organic chemistry courses often introduce these only in passing.

Third, the question style. The questions are written by Czech faculty translating Czech secondary-school exam conventions into English. The phrasing can be more formal and less conversational than the SAT or AP exams. Some questions have multiple correct answers, and the test instructions specify how to handle these. Read every question stem carefully.

Sample Question Types

You can expect three main question formats:

  • Single-best-answer multiple choice: pick one of four or five options. The most common format.
  • Multiple-correct-answer multiple choice: more than one option may be correct, and you must mark all correct ones. Partial credit rules vary by exam year.
  • Calculation questions: stoichiometry, gas law, dilution, pH, and Hardy-Weinberg problems requiring quick mental math (or pencil-and-paper). No calculator allowed.

The questions are short. The exam is more about breadth and recognition than long passages. This is meaningfully different from the MCAT, which uses long science-heavy passages followed by question clusters.

How to Actually Prepare

Three things matter, in order:

1. Cover the entire syllabus. The exam rewards breadth over depth. A student who knows 80 percent of the syllabus at 70 percent depth will outscore a student who knows 50 percent of the syllabus at 95 percent depth. Plan your study schedule against the topic list, not against your favorite subjects.

2. Practice in the question format. The way the LF3 exam asks questions is specific. Generic AP Biology or AP Chemistry practice questions help with content but not with format. The fastest way to acclimate is to do questions written in the LF3 style. Our LF3 QBank has 1,000+ questions tagged by the topics above, with detailed explanations.

3. Take a full-length mock exam under timed conditions at least once. Stamina matters. Sitting for two hours under pressure with no calculator is a different skill from doing 20 questions a day at your kitchen table. Our 60-question mock exam is free and timed to match the real format.

If you are early in the prep cycle (six months out or more), spend the first half of your time on content review and the second half on questions and timed practice. If you are inside three months, shift to a question-bank-heavy approach with content review only on topics where you are missing systematically.

The Honest Truth on Difficulty

The LF3 entrance exam is passable for any motivated student with a strong high-school science foundation. It is not the MCAT. It is not designed to filter for the absolute top 1 percent of test takers. It is designed to confirm that you have a solid command of secondary-school biology and chemistry and can handle a six-year medical curriculum taught in English.

Students who fail the exam usually do so for one of three reasons: they underestimated the breadth of the syllabus, they did not practice in the actual question format, or they did not take a timed mock exam. All three are fixable.

If you put in the time on the right material, with the right format of practice, you will pass.

What Comes After

If you pass the entrance exam, you are typically invited to a brief interview, also held in person in Prague (or in some years, accommodated remotely for international applicants). The interview is conversational rather than testing-oriented. Your written exam score is the primary admission factor. Then you receive an admission decision and begin visa and enrollment paperwork.

For the bigger picture of the application timeline and what to expect after acceptance, see 5 Things I Wish I Knew Before Applying to Charles University. For a real cost breakdown of the full 6-year program, see Charles University Tuition and Total Cost in 2026.