FMGE 2025 Passing Strategy: How Many Questions to Attempt to Safely Pass

You have studied for months. You know the material of the FMGE. Do people not give a straight answer to this question: How many questions do you actually need to get right to pass the FMGE? The passing mark is 150 out of 300.

This is math that means you need to get 50 percent of the questions right. The strategy for the exam is not that simple. The difference between getting 148 marks and 152 marks in the FMGE is not about knowing the material of the FMGE. 

QUICK ANSWER

To pass the FMGE safely, you should try to answer 220 to 240 questions that you're really sure about. You should get 65 to 70 percent of these questions right. Since there are no marks taken away for answers, you should try to answer all 300 questions. Even if you are not about 60 to 80 questions, try to make an educated guess. This can actually add 15 to 20 marks to your score.

A good way to make sure you pass is to get 160 questions right that you are sure about and then get 15 to 20 more right from your guesses. This will give you 175 to 180 marks. This is 25 to 30 marks, than what you need to pass, so it is a safe goal to aim for.

FMGE 2025 RELEVANCE

FMGE December 2024 saw 44,392 candidates appear, with only 13,149 passing (29.6% pass rate). The fixed passing mark of 150/300 doesn't change regardless of difficulty. Most failures cluster between 130 and 149 marks—students who knew enough but lacked strategy. Understanding the math transforms borderline candidates into comfortable passers.

The Basic Math You Must Know

Before any strategy, let's establish the numbers:

• Total questions: 300 MCQs
• Passing marks: 150 (exactly 50%)
• Negative marking: None
• Time available: 5 hours (300 minutes total)
• Time per question: 1 minute average

The absence of negative marking changes everything. In exams with negative marking, skipping questions makes sense. In FMGE, skipping is mathematically foolish.

Here's Why: Even a completely random guess on a 4-option MCQ has a 25% chance of being correct. If you leave 50 questions unanswered, you're throwing away approximately 12-13 marks statistically. Those marks could be the difference between 145 and 157.

Rule #1: Attempt all 300 questions. Always.

The Accuracy-Attempt Matrix

Let me show you how different accuracy rates translate to final scores:

The table reveals something important: if you're attempting fewer than 300 questions, you need higher accuracy on the ones you do attempt. But since there's no penalty for wrong answers, why not attempt everything?

The Safe Pass Formula

When we look at people who have passed the FMGE and how the exam is usually structured, we can get an idea of what it takes to pass safely.

Tier 1: Confident Answers (Target: 180-200 questions)

• These are the kinds of questions where you read the question and the options. You immediately know the answer. There is no hesitation; you do not need to eliminate any options. 
• Expected accuracy on Tier 1: 85-90%
• If you get 180 questions with 85 percent accuracy, that means you will get 153 marks.

Tier 2: Reasoning-Based Answers (Target: 40-60 questions)

These questions need you to think about the information. You might not know the answer right away, but you can figure out the answer to these questions by:

• Eliminating obviously wrong options
• Applying clinical reasoning
• Connecting concepts from different subjects
• Expected accuracy on Tier 2: 60-70%

If you answer 50 questions and you get 65 percent of them right, that is like getting 32 to 33 marks. This means that the test is scored in a way that 50 questions with 65 percent accuracy will give you 32 to 33 marks. 

Tier 3: Educated Guesses (Target: 60-80 questions)

These are questions where you do not know the answer. You can make smart guesses based on the information about the questions. You have to use what you know about the questions to make a guess. The questions are like puzzles. You have to figure them out by using the clues about the questions.

• Eliminating 1-2 wrong options
• Pattern recognition from similar questions
• Logical deduction from the question stem
• Expected accuracy on Tier 3: 40-50%
• If you answer 70 questions with 45% accuracy = 31-32 marks

Also Read: FMGE 2025 Paper 1 vs Paper 2: Where to Score More

Total Safe Pass Projection

This projection shows a 218 mark score—68 marks above passing. Even if your confident answers drop to 150 questions and accuracy falls across all tiers, you're still comfortably passing.

Subject-Wise Attempt Strategy

FMGE isn't evenly distributed. Some subjects contribute more questions than others. Your attempt strategy should reflect this.

High-Volume Subjects (Target: 90% Attempt Rate with High Confidence)

These five subjects alone contribute 140-160 questions. If you're confident in 80% of these, you're already at 112-128 marks from just five subjects.

Medium-Volume Subjects (Target: 75% Attempt Rate with Confidence)

These subjects add another 85-105 questions, contributing potentially 65-80 confident marks.

Also Read: FMGE Paper Difficulty Prediction: 5-Year Analysis

Lower-Volume Subjects (Target: 60% Attempt Rate with Confidence)

These "minor" subjects contribute 55-80 questions, adding 30-50 marks.

Total projected confident attempts: 180-220 Total projected confident marks: 150-180

The remaining 80-120 questions go into your reasoning and guessing tiers, adding another 40-60 marks.

The Elimination Strategy for Guessing

When you don't know the answer, elimination is your friend. Here's how accuracy changes with elimination:

If you can eliminate even one option on uncertain questions, your guessing accuracy jumps from 25% to 33%. On 70 guessed questions, that's the difference between 17.5 and 23 marks — potentially 5-6 marks from elimination alone.

Elimination Red Flags:

Certain options are more likely to be wrong:

• Options with absolute terms ("always," "never," "all," "none") are frequently incorrect
• Options that are completely unrelated to the question stem
• Options with values that are clearly too high or too low
• Some options go against the principles of how our bodies work.
• These options contradict physiological principles that we know are true for the human body. For example, the human body has needs that must be met for it to function properly, and some options do not meet these needs; thus, they contradict basic physiological principles.
• The options that contradict physiological principles of the human body are not good choices.

Elimination Green Flags

• You can tell the answers by looking at certain patterns. These patterns suggest what the correct answers are. Certain patterns are really helpful because they show you the answers.
• Options that are more detailed or specific than others
• There are options that have exceptions or conditions.  We have to look at the options that include exceptions or conditions carefully. 
• We should look at options that follow the rules we have now or the usual ways we do things. These are the options that align with guidelines or protocols. We need to find options that align with guidelines or protocols so we can do things the right way.
• Middle values in numerical options (not always, but often)

Also Read: FMGE 2025 Important Topics: High-Weight Subjects

Why Aiming for 150 is Dangerous

The Confidence Illusion

• You think you got a question right. You did not. Every student thinks they are doing better than they really are. They think they are getting questions right more than they actually are. This means that students usually think they are doing about 10 to 15 percent better than they really are.
• For example, if you think you scored 155, you probably really scored 135 to 140. This is what happens with Student scores: they are not always what you think they are. The student's score is usually lower than what the Student thinks it is.

The Difficulty Spike

• The Foreign Medical Graduate Examination is not the same every time. Some test papers are pretty easy to handle. Others are really tough. If you are trying to get 150 marks and the test paper turns out to be harder than you thought, then you have no extra marks to fall back on with the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination.

The Stress Factor

• When it's exam day, people get really stressed out. This stress can make your performance worse by 5 to 10 percent. You know how sometimes you study for an exam. You feel like you know all the answers at home. Then you get to the exam room, and you see the questions, and they seem really confusing. The exam day stress makes it hard for you to think clearly and answer the questions that you would normally get right if you were at home.

The Safe Target

You should always try to get 175-200 marks. This gives you a 25-50 mark buffer, for:

• I was really sure I got these questions correct. It turns out I did not.
• The questions I thought I got right but did not are the ones that I need to review
• Questions you thought you got right but did not can be pretty frustrating.
• When I look at the questions I thought I got right but did not, I realize where I went wrong.
• I will make sure to go over the questions I thought I got right but did not, so I can learn from my mistakes.
• I find that some games have tough parts that come out of nowhere. These difficult parts can be really surprising.

Stress-induced errors

• Silly mistakes (marking the wrong option, misreading the question)

Also Read: How to Crack FMGE in One Go: Expert Strategy Guide

The Two-Pass Exam Strategy

The Foreign Medical Graduate Examination gives you 2 hours and 30 minutes for each part, which is 150 questions. You have 150 minutes to complete 150 questions, so that is 1 minute for each question. But the thing is, not all Foreign Medical Graduate Examination questions are equally important, so they do not all deserve the same amount of time.

First Pass (90 minutes for 150 questions)

• My goal is to answer all the questions that I know the answer to with confidence. I will do my best to provide helpful responses to all the questions I am familiar with. The idea is to answer all the questions that I'm sure about.
• Read each question quickly.
• If you know the answer right away, mark it down and move on. This should only take 20 to 30 seconds.
• When you need to think about something, you should mark it for review. Then skip it for a little while, like five seconds.
• Don't spend more than 45 seconds on any question in the first pass
• My goal for the round is to answer between 90 and 110 questions with confidence. I want to make sure I get a number of questions right, so I am aiming for questions in the range of 90 to 110 that I can answer without any doubt. The target is to answer these 90 to 110 questions and feel good about my answers.

Second Pass (45 minutes)

Goal: Work through marked questions using reasoning.

• Return to marked questions
• Apply the elimination strategy
• Use clinical reasoning
• Take up to 90 seconds per question if needed
• Target for second pass: 30-40 additional questions answered with reasoning

Third Pass (15 minutes)

Goal: Make educated guesses on remaining questions.

• Answer every remaining question
• Eliminate any obviously wrong options
• Choose the most logical remaining option
• Never leave anything blank

Target for third pass: All remaining questions attempted

Time Management by Section

The new pattern has sections that you have to finish on time. The FMGE pattern is made up of parts. Each part may be divided into sections. These sections of the FMGE pattern have strict time limits.

Section-Level Strategy Within each section:

Minutes 1-30: First pass through all 50 questions

• I will answer all the questions that I'm sure about. There should be 25 to 35 of these confident questions. The confident questions are the ones that I will answer.
• Mark the uncertain questions for review

Minutes 30-42: Second pass

• Work through marked questions
• Apply reasoning and elimination

Minutes 42-48: Third pass

• Guess on all remaining questions
• Quick elimination where possible
• Minutes 48-50: Review buffer
• Check for unanswered questions
• Verify marked answers haven't been left blank

Also Read: Most Common Mistakes Students Make in FMGE

Mock Test Performance vs Actual Exam

A common question: "If I'm scoring 160 in mocks, will I score 160 in the actual exam?"

Usually, no. Here's the realistic conversion:

Target mock score for safe pass: 175-180

If you're consistently scoring 175+ in quality mock tests, you're likely to pass the actual exam. If you're scoring 150-160 in mocks, you're in the danger zone.

The Numbers Game: Score Ranges and Outcomes

Understanding score distribution helps set realistic targets:

Score 200+

• Comfortable pass with excellent buffer
• Eligible for a good impression in an internship application
• Indicates strong conceptual understanding
• 5 to 10 percent of the people who pass actually achieve this. The passing candidates make up a group, and only a few of them, around 5 to 10 percent, are able to achieve this.

Score 175-200

• Safe pass with a healthy buffer
• Handles exam-day variations well
• Indicates solid preparation
• Target range for serious candidates

Score 150-174

• Pass but with minimal buffer
• Any calculation error could be fatal
• Indicates adequate but not optimal preparation
• A lot of people who are looking for a job fall into this category. Many candidates do not make it past this point. The fact is that many candidates fall here.

Score 130-149

• Fail but close
• Usually 1-2 subjects away from passing
• Needs focused revision, not a complete overhaul
• Most common fail range

Score Below 130

• Significant gaps in preparation
• Needs comprehensive revision
• Should consider structured coaching

The 80-20 Rule for FMGE

This is something that's really important to know: most of your grade, about 80 percent of it, actually comes from a small part of what you are studying, which is only about 20 percent of the syllabus. The syllabus is a thing, but the truth is that the syllabus has some parts that are more important than others, and this 20 percent of the syllabus is what really matters when it comes to your score, your final grade, and the syllabus.

The things that people keep talking about and that are really popular are:

• Cardiology (ECG, MI, heart failure)
• Endocrinology (diabetes, thyroid)
• National Health Programs
• Antepartum hemorrhage
• Immunization schedule
• Drug classifications
• Tumor markers

If you want to do well, you should focus on the important parts. Mastering these parts can get you a lot of marks, around 100 to 120 marks. The rest of the marks, which are around 30 to 50 marks, come from knowing a little bit about everything else. Mastering these high-yield areas is really helpful because it can get you a score.

Strategic implication: If you're short on time, depth in high-yield topics beats breadth in low-yield areas.

Also Read: All about the Foreign Medical Graduate Screening Exam (FMGE)

High-Yield Points for FMGE Passing Strategy

• You should try to answer all 300 questions. Since there is no marking, not answering a question will mean you lose marks. Attempting all the questions is an idea because skipping them will cost you marks. You will lose marks if you do not attempt all 300 questions.
• To be safe, we should aim for a score of 175 to 180 marks. If we get 150 marks, that is too risky. We need to get more than 150 marks to feel safe about passing. So let us target 175 to 180 marks for the test. Expect 180-200 confident attempts, 40-60 reasoning-based, and 60-80 educated guesses
• When you take the test, the first part should be the questions you're really sure about, and you should try to finish these in about ninety minutes.
• The second part is for the questions that make you think, so you will use your reasoning skills to answer them.
• Then you do the part, which is for the questions you are not so sure about, and you will have to make a guess.
• Eliminating even one option improves guessing accuracy from 25% to 33%
• When people take the exam, their scores usually go down by around 10 to 15 percent. This is because they feel stressed. The mock scores do not really show how well they will do in the exam. The actual exam scores are lower because of the stress people feel when they take the exam. Mock scores are not the same as exam scores.
• Target 175+ in mocks for comfortable actual exam passing
• The subjects that have a lot of questions, like Medicine, Surgery, OBG, Pediatrics, and PSM, are really important. These subjects, Medicine, Surgery, OBG, Pediatrics, and PSM, have around 140 to 160 questions.
• When you see time-bound sections, that means you have to answer everything in those sections before you can move on to the next part. You cannot go back to time-bound sections once you have moved on. Time-bound sections are, like a test, you have to do everything in them. Then you can go to the next thing
• Most failures cluster at 130-149 marks — a strategic 10-15 mark improvement changes outcomes

Frequently Asked Questions

How many questions should I attempt in FMGE?

All 300. With no negative marking, leaving questions unanswered is mathematically incorrect. Even random guessing gives 25% accuracy. Educated guessing after elimination reaches 33-50% accuracy. Those extra marks from guessed questions often determine pass or fail.

What accuracy do I need to pass FMGE?

On 300 attempted questions, you need exactly 50% accuracy (150 correct) to pass. However, realistically target 55-60% overall accuracy (165-180 marks) to account for exam-day stress, calculation errors, and difficulty variations. This translates to roughly 220 confident attempts with 70% accuracy plus strategic guessing on the rest.

Is 150 marks enough to pass FMGE?

Yes, 150 is the exact passing mark. However, targeting exactly 150 is dangerous because you have zero buffer for errors. Students who target 150 and score 148 fail. Target 175-180 instead. The extra preparation for 25-30 marks is minimal compared to the security it provides.

How many marks should I target from guessing?

With strategic guessing (eliminating 1-2 options), expect 35-45% accuracy on 70-80 uncertain questions. This adds approximately 25-35 marks. Combined with confident attempts, this buffer often determines outcomes. Never leave questions unanswered, hoping to "avoid wrong answers" — that logic doesn't apply without negative marking.

What if I'm scoring 140-145 in mocks?

You're in the danger zone. A 140 mock score typically translates to 125-135 in the actual exam. Focus on: (1) improving weak subjects identified in mock analysis, (2) increasing confident attempt count through focused revision, and (3) practicing time management to attempt all questions. A 10-15 mark improvement is achievable in 2-3 weeks of targeted preparation.

How do I handle questions I've never seen before?

Read the question stem carefully for clues. Eliminate obviously wrong options. Look for patterns from similar questions. If nothing helps, apply general principles: avoid absolute terms, prefer specific answers over vague ones, and trust clinical logic. Then mark your best guess and move on. Spending 3 minutes on an unknown question steals time from questions you could answer correctly.

CLINICAL PEARL

"FMGE isn't won by the smartest student—it's won by the most strategic one." Two students with identical knowledge can score 145 and 165 based purely on exam strategy. Attempt everything, eliminate wisely, manage time ruthlessly, and target 25 marks above passing. The math doesn't lie: 150 is passing, but 175 is safe.