How the Saudi licensing exams are built: questions, parts and timing

The numbers

• 200 multiple-choice questions.
• Two parts of 100 questions, with 120 minutes for each part.
• A scheduled 30-minute break between the two parts.
• Four options per question; you choose the one best answer.
• Up to 10% pilot questions, which do not count toward your score.
• Computer-based, sat at SCFHS-approved Prometric centres in Saudi Arabia and abroad.

These figures are word for word the same in the SMLE and SNLE guides. What separates the two exams is the content and the pass mark, not the shape.

Pilot questions, and what they mean for you

Up to 10% of the paper — as many as 20 questions — may be pilot items, included to measure how those questions perform rather than how you do. They do not count toward your score.

There is no way to tell which they are. They are not marked and do not look different. Anyone trying to guess which question "doesn’t count" spends attention they need and loses real marks. Treat every question as scored, because that is the only safe assumption available.

Two kinds of question

Both guides state that the paper contains recall questions that test knowledge directly and scenario questions that test other skills: interpretation, analysis, decision-making, reasoning and problem-solving.

That is the practical reason memorising is not enough. Half of what is measured is not "do you know this" but "what do you do now", and the only way to train it is to work scenario questions and review why each wrong answer was wrong — the method is in the question-bank guide.

The arithmetic of the clock

120 minutes across 100 questions is 72 seconds per question on average. That is arithmetic on the published figures, not an estimate. Spend two minutes on one question and you have borrowed the time from two others.

The practical rule is one fast pass in which you answer what is straightforward and flag what is not, then a second round for the flagged ones. Never leave a question blank: there is no penalty for a wrong answer on this exam, so a blank is a guaranteed loss where a guess is not.

A rehearsal before the real thing

SCFHS offers an official practice or mock test built on the same blueprint and sampled from the exam’s own item bank, requested through its website. It is the closest thing to the real paper available before the day.

To start now with no fee, read the openly published questions, each with a written explanation.

Where this comes from

Every figure on this page is transcribed from the SMLE and SNLE applicant guides, published by the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties, in the edition on the Commission’s website, read on 31 August 2026.

SCFHS revises these guides from time to time. Before you apply, open the current guide on the Commission’s site and check for yourself: the official PDF. Any page on the internet, this one included, can lag behind the official document, and this is not a substitute for it.

SQB is an independent educational platform, not affiliated with the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties or with Prometric.