TL;DR
AMC exam pass rate: about 47% for the AMC Part 1 CAT MCQ and about 21% for the AMC Clinical exam, per the last widely reported AMC annual figures (2022–23).
The MCQ pass rate fell from the low 60s before 2020 to the mid-40s after, and has stayed there.
First-attempt candidates pass at a higher rate than the average; each further attempt does worse.
What moves your odds: studying to the blueprint, Australian management sources, one question bank finished, timed forward-only mocks, and not skipping ethics.
Hundreds of IMGs have passed AMC Part 1 with AMC Academic, the trusted AMC exam preparation platform for IMGs aspiring to work as doctors in Australia. Try 20 questions free and see your patient-group breakdown.
Roughly half of candidates pass the AMC CAT MCQ at each sitting, and roughly one in five passes the AMC Clinical examination. In the AMC’s 2022–23 annual report the MCQ pass rate was 47% across 4,468 examinations and the Clinical pass rate was 21% across 2,053 candidates. Those figures have been stable for a few years now. Here’s what they mean, why they’re lower than most doctors expect, and which of the factors behind them are yours to control.
The headline numbers
| Exam | Pass rate | Period | Volume |
|---|---|---|---|
| CAT MCQ | 47% | 2022–23 | 4,468 examinations |
| CAT MCQ | 46% | 2021–22 | Lower volume during the pandemic |
| CAT MCQ | 62.6% | 2018–19 | Pre-pandemic |
| Clinical | 21% | 2022–23 | 2,053 candidates across 142 exams |
| Clinical | 21% | 2021–22 |
Two things jump out. MCQ pass rates dropped from the low 60s to the mid-40s after 2020 and didn’t recover. And the Clinical has been one in five for years.
Two changes since could move the numbers: the AMC raised the MCQ pass standard slightly from 2026, which would push the MCQ rate down a touch, and it cut the Clinical threshold from 10 stations to 9, which should push that rate up. No post-change annual data yet.
Why the MCQ pass rate is under 50%
A sub-50% pass rate rattles doctors who’ve passed every exam they ever sat. Three reasons.
The standard is an Australian graduate. The AMC benchmarks the pass mark against graduating Australian medical students and reviews it with the medical schools. You’re being measured against people who trained on Australian guidelines in Australian hospitals.
Management is local. A large slice of the paper asks what to do next. First-line antibiotics, screening ages, immunisation schedules, referral pathways, prescribing restrictions: national decisions. A doctor with excellent knowledge from elsewhere bleeds marks here steadily unless they deliberately relearn the Australian version. The format is explained in What is the AMC CAT MCQ exam?.
The format punishes the unrehearsed. Adaptive, forward-only, no review. Doctors who’ve never practised under those conditions make pacing mistakes, run out of time, or second-guess themselves as the questions get harder. None of that is medicine.
Pass rates by attempt
The AMC’s country-of-training tables split candidates by first, second, third and fourth-or-later attempts, and the pattern is consistent across all of them: first-timers pass above the overall rate, and each subsequent attempt passes at a lower rate than the last. Third and fourth attempts do substantially worse than first.
The lesson isn’t comfortable. A resit isn’t a free second look. Candidates who fail and change nothing tend to fail again. Candidates who fail, read the content-area feedback in their result, and rebuild their preparation around it do better. We’ve seen that pattern up close.
Pass rates by country of training
The AMC publishes MCQ results by country of training in its annual report attachments, and rates range from well over 70% for some countries to under 30% for others. Countries whose curricula and clinical practice sit close to Australia’s do better; countries with different disease profiles, prescribing norms and exam styles do worse on the first attempt.
That isn’t a judgement on anyone’s doctors. It’s a measure of how far their default answers sit from the Australian ones, and that gap is exactly what preparation closes. Bangladesh, historically one of the largest source countries, has posted first-attempt rates above the overall average. Country-specific advice for the biggest cohorts is in The AMC exam for Indian and Pakistani doctors.
Why the Clinical pass rate is so much lower
The MCQ tests whether you know what to do. The Clinical tests whether you can do it, in eight minutes, with a simulated patient, while an examiner watches. Communication, structure, examination technique and reasoning, scored live. Plenty of doctors who cruise the MCQ have never been assessed on Australian-style consultation skills and underestimate the difference.
There’s a selection effect too. Every Clinical candidate has already passed the MCQ, so the cohort is stronger, and the pass rate is still lower. That tells you it’s a different exam. Details in the AMC Clinical exam guide.
What doesn’t move your odds
The month you sit. The CAT is calibrated for consistent difficulty across events. There’s no easy month. AMC exam dates are in AMC exam dates, booking and results.
The venue. Australian and overseas centres use the same events and the same item pool.
More textbooks. Past a threshold, breadth doesn’t help. Most people who fail knew enough medicine.
Recalls. Reconstructed questions with unreliable answers don’t raise your ability estimate. See AMC recalls and past papers.
What does
Studying to the blueprint. 30% adult medicine, 20% surgery, 12.5% each for the rest. Candidates who allocate time that way outperform candidates who study by instinct.
Australian sources for management. eTG, the RACGP Red Book, the Immunisation Handbook. This is the gap the country tables reveal.
One question bank, finished, with every option explained. Understanding why four options are wrong is what the distractors test.
Full, timed, forward-only mocks. Two or three of 150 questions before the real one. The only way to learn whether you can hold 84 seconds a question. See AMC mock exams: how to use them.
Treating population health and ethics as a subject. Nineteen questions of learnable facts, skipped by most.
Reading the feedback if you fail. It tells you exactly where the next three months go.
So, is the AMC exam hard?
For a doctor in clinical practice who studies to the blueprint with Australian resources for three to six months, the MCQ is a fair exam that most will pass. For a doctor who studies broadly from overseas texts and walks in without a timed mock, it’s a coin flip, which is what the overall number is telling you. The Clinical is hard in a different way and rewards deliberate practice of consultation skills, not more reading.
Everything in the “what does” list is what AMC Academic was built to do, by IMGs who passed on the older, harder way. 2,800+ questions scoped to the AMC blueprint and to current exam topics from 2025 and 2026. An explanation on every option, checked against Australian guidelines, so the management gap closes. Three high-yield mocks (the first is free) and seven month-specific mocks, all 150 questions, forward-only and timed, scored by patient group and topic. Astra reads your results and tells you where you’re weak instead of leaving you to guess. IELTS Academic is in the same subscription. Hundreds of IMGs have passed AMC Part 1 and their English exam with it; their words are on the site. Try 20 questions free, no account, and see your patient-group breakdown before you decide anything. Plans: USD 39 a month, 29 a month for three months, 19 a month for six, with a five-day free trial and a money-back guarantee.
Frequently asked questions
What is the AMC exam pass rate? About 47% for the CAT MCQ and 21% for the Clinical in the most recent widely reported AMC annual figures.
What is the pass mark for the AMC MCQ? 250 on a 0–500 scale. It’s an ability estimate, not a percentage, and the AMC raised the underlying standard slightly from 2026.
Does the AMC pass rate vary by country? Yes, widely. The gap reflects how close a country’s practice is to Australian guidelines, and it narrows with targeted preparation.
Is the pass rate higher for first attempts? Yes. First-attempt candidates pass above the average and each further attempt does worse.
Where is official AMC pass rate data? The AMC’s annual reports and attachments at annual-report.amc.org.au.
What to do this week
Look up the AMC’s most recent table for your country of training.
Sit 20 questions cold and compare your breakdown to the blueprint weights.
Put a full timed mock in your calendar four weeks out.
If you’ve failed before, reread your content-area feedback before opening a textbook.
Do you want to pass the AMC? AMC Academic makes it happen.