DHA Exam Syllabus, Pattern, and Questions: What to Expect

Does the DHA Publish an Official Syllabus?

The Dubai Health Authority does not publish a fixed chapter-by-chapter syllabus document for its licensing examination the way university examinations do. Instead, the DHA exam for each profession is built around internationally recognised competency frameworks and clinical guidelines, weighted towards the scope of practice most relevant to healthcare in Dubai.

For medical doctors, the examination content broadly maps to the clinical disciplines within your declared specialty. For a general practitioner or medical officer, this means the full breadth of outpatient and emergency medicine. For a specialist, the examination is weighted towards that specialty with supporting questions from adjacent disciplines.

An official DHA exam syllabus PDF specific to each profession and specialty is not publicly available for download - any website claiming to offer an official DHA syllabus PDF should be treated with caution. The authoritative source for content guidance is the Prometric blueprint for your specific examination, which Prometric provides to registered candidates upon scheduling their examination.

DHA Exam Pattern for Doctors

The DHA licensing examination for medical doctors follows this structure:

• Format: Multiple-choice questions (MCQs), single best answer
• Number of questions: 100 questions
• Time allowed: 120 minutes (2 hours)
• Passing score: 60% (60 out of 100 correct)
• Negative marking: None - unanswered questions score zero
• Delivery: Computer-based, at an authorised Prometric test centre

The examination is adaptive in structure - questions span easy, moderate, and difficult difficulty levels and are drawn from a large item bank. You will not see the same questions as another candidate sitting the examination on the same day.

DHA Exam Syllabus by Subject - General Practitioner

For GP and general medical officer examinations, the DHA exam syllabus covers the following clinical areas, approximately weighted by examination prevalence:

• Internal Medicine (25-30%): Cardiology, respiratory medicine, gastroenterology, nephrology, endocrinology (diabetes is heavily tested), neurology, haematology, rheumatology, infectious diseases
• Surgery (10-15%): Surgical emergencies, perioperative care, common surgical conditions presenting in primary care
• Obstetrics and Gynaecology (10-15%): Antenatal care, common gynaecological presentations, contraception, menstrual disorders
• Paediatrics (10-15%): Common childhood illnesses, immunisation schedule, neonatal care, growth and development
• Psychiatry (8-10%): Mood disorders, anxiety, psychosis, substance use, suicide risk assessment
• Dermatology (5-8%): Common skin presentations, dermatological emergencies
• Emergency medicine (8-10%): Acute presentations, triage, resuscitation principles
• Preventive medicine and community health (5-8%): Screening, occupational health, public health principles relevant to UAE
• Ophthalmology and ENT (5%): High-yield clinical presentations

What Do DHA Exam Questions Look Like?

DHA exam questions are presented as clinical vignettes - a brief patient scenario followed by a question and five answer options. A typical question describes a patient's age, presenting complaint, key history findings, examination findings, and relevant investigation results, then asks you to identify the most likely diagnosis, the next best investigation, the most appropriate management, or the drug of choice.

Example structure: A 52-year-old male with known hypertension and type 2 diabetes presents with sudden onset chest pain radiating to the left arm, associated with diaphoresis. His ECG shows ST elevation in leads II, III, and aVF. What is the most appropriate immediate management?

Questions test clinical reasoning and prioritisation - not rote memorisation of isolated facts. A candidate who can work through a clinical scenario systematically, eliminate unlikely options, and identify the single best answer will outperform one who has simply read textbooks without clinical application practice.

High-Yield Topics for the DHA Exam

Based on candidate recall and examination patterns, the following topics are particularly high-yield for the DHA GP examination:

• Management of acute coronary syndrome and heart failure
• Diabetes management including insulin regimens and hypoglycaemia
• Hypertension - drug choice in special populations (pregnancy, renal disease, diabetes)
• Asthma and COPD management and stepwise therapy
• Acute abdomen and surgical emergencies
• Paediatric fever, respiratory infections, and vaccination schedules
• Thyroid disorders - diagnosis and management
• Depression, anxiety, and psychosis - first-line drug treatment
• UAE-specific public health priorities including hepatitis, TB, and communicable disease reporting

How to Prepare for the DHA Exam

• Practise clinical vignette MCQs daily. The DHA exam rewards clinical reasoning above all else. A QBank with vignette-format questions and detailed explanations is the most efficient preparation tool available.
• Cover all subjects, not just your strongest ones. A low score in any single domain can pull your total below 60%. Balanced preparation across all subject areas is essential.
• Time your practice. With 100 questions in 120 minutes, you have 72 seconds per question. Regular timed practice ensures exam-day time pressure does not cause you to rush and make avoidable errors.
• Review every explanation. Whether you got the question right or wrong, reading the explanation builds the pattern recognition that produces consistent performance on exam day.

Start Your DHA Exam Preparation on HighYield

HighYield's DHA QBank gives you access to clinical vignette MCQs across all the disciplines tested in the DHA licensing exam, with detailed explanations for every question. Use Tutor mode to consolidate knowledge during preparation and Timed mode to simulate real exam conditions as your exam date approaches. Your first 50 questions are free.