Exam guide
The NHRA exam, explained
The NHRA exam is the National Health Regulatory Authority's licensing assessment for doctors who want to practise in Bahrain. The NHRA is unusual among the Gulf regulators PassCurve covers: it is Bahrain's single national health regulator, covering both government and private care, where the UAE for instance licenses separately by emirate. For General Practitioners the exam is consistently described as around 150 multiple choice questions in about 3 hours, computer based through Prometric, in English.
Last checked 16 August 2026. The NHRA's own licensure exam page was not reachable when this page was checked. The figures above are corroborated by preparation industry sources. The NHRA publishes exam details, fees and booking on its own portal — that is where to confirm the current detail before you book.
How licensing in Bahrain works
Bahrain licenses its healthcare professionals through a single national body: the National Health Regulatory Authority, established in 2010 under Law No. 38 of 2009. That is a genuine contrast with the UAE, where separate authorities license Dubai, Abu Dhabi and the northern emirates — in Bahrain, one regulator covers registration and licensing across both government and private sector care.
How the exam is structured
No official format document from the NHRA was reachable when this page was checked. What preparation sources consistently describe: around 150 multiple choice questions in about 3 hours, computer based through Prometric, in English, using the single best answer format used across the region's licensing exams.
| Questions | Around 150 multiple choice questions — not confirmed on an NHRA page we reached; consistently described |
|---|---|
| Time | About 3 hours, in one sitting |
| Question type | Clinical vignettes asking for the single best answer |
| Language | English |
| Delivery | Computer based, at Prometric test centres |
| Pass mark | Not confirmed as published; commonly described around 60 to 65% |
Fees and booking are a genuine gap on this page: no fee figure for the NHRA exam turned up anywhere in the sources checked, official or preparation-industry. Confirm the current fee, and book, through the NHRA's own portal — do not trust a fee figure quoted by a third-party site.
What the exam covers
No published weighting was found for the NHRA exam. The paper is consistently described as covering the same four domains as the rest of the region: internal medicine, surgery, paediatrics, and obstetrics and gynaecology.
Expect the case mix to read a little differently from Bahrain's Gulf neighbours. Bahrain has the most balanced national-to-expatriate population of the Gulf states PassCurve covers, so the patient in front of you is less reliably assumed to be an expatriate than on some neighbouring exams. Haemoglobinopathies — sickle cell disease and thalassaemia — carry particular weight in Bahraini practice, with long-established premarital screening, alongside the cardiometabolic disease and screening-detected illness that run through the wider Gulf caseload.
How to prepare for the NHRA exam
- Practise vignettes, not summaries. Every question is a patient. Reading notes builds recognition; working through cases builds the decision making the exam actually measures.
- Rehearse the pace. About a minute per question, for roughly three hours. That pace has to be trained before exam day, not discovered on it.
- Cover all four domains. With no published weighting, the only safe plan is genuine coverage of medicine, surgery, paediatrics and obstetrics — with your revision tilted toward whichever is currently costing you marks.
- Revise against current guidelines. The correct answer is what the cited guideline supports today. Material that cannot name its source cannot tell you when it has gone stale.
- Confirm fees and booking early. With so little published in one place, give yourself time to reach the NHRA portal directly rather than relying on a single search result.
Questions about the NHRA exam
What is the NHRA exam?
The NHRA exam is the National Health Regulatory Authority's licensing assessment for doctors who want to practise in Bahrain. For General Practitioners it is consistently described as a computer based exam of around 150 multiple choice questions in about 3 hours, sat in English through Prometric.
Who regulates healthcare licensing in Bahrain?
A single national body: the National Health Regulatory Authority (NHRA), established in 2010 under Law No. 38 of 2009. That is a contrast with the UAE, where separate authorities license Dubai, Abu Dhabi and the northern emirates — in Bahrain, one regulator covers both government and private sector care.
How many questions are on the NHRA exam, and how long does it take?
Consistently described as around 150 multiple choice questions in about 3 hours. No official format document from the NHRA was reachable when this page was checked, so treat this as the widely described shape rather than a confirmed figure.
What is the passing score for the NHRA exam?
Not confirmed as published. Preparation sources commonly describe a pass mark around 60 to 65%. Treat any site quoting an exact figure as unverified until the NHRA confirms it directly.
Where do I find the current fee and how do I book the NHRA exam?
Through the NHRA's own portal. No fee figure for this exam was found in any source checked for this page, official or preparation-industry, so this page does not state one — confirm the current fee and booking process directly with the NHRA.
Where PassCurve fits
PassCurve's NHRA bank is built from single best answer vignettes set in Bahraini practice. Sessions balance the four clinical domains, then tilt toward whichever subject is currently costing you marks. Anything you miss returns on a spacing curve until it sticks, and every answer names the guideline it rests on and the date that source was last read.
Five questions a day are free, with no card required, and the review deck is free for good.
Sitting a different Gulf licensing exam? PassCurve also covers the KMLE exam in Kuwait and the DHA exam in Dubai, each with its own guide.
PassCurve is an independent revision tool. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or accredited by the National Health Regulatory Authority (NHRA), Prometric, or any exam authority. Where this page reports figures the NHRA has not published on a page we could reach, it says so. Always confirm current exam rules, fees and dates on the NHRA portal before applying.