NRE Guide
The National Registration Examination (NRE) is PM&DC’s licensing exam for medical graduates seeking registration to practise in Pakistan — sometimes still called the NLE, its older name. They’re the same exam. It runs in two stages, Step 1 and Step 2. 3,032 MCQs below for Step 1.
NRE Step 1
A written, MCQ-based exam covering the core clinical subjects of the MBBS/BDS curriculum — the same subject foundation whether you graduated in Pakistan or abroad. Passing Step 1 is what makes a graduate eligible to move on to Step 2.
From the blog
- Most Repeated NLE (NRE) MCQs by Subject
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- HighYield vs StatPearls: PMC/PMDC NRE & NLE Question Bank Compared
- NRE Registration: Step-by-Step Guide to Apply for the PMDC NRE
- NLE Nephrology, Respiratory & Musculoskeletal MCQs: Practice Questions With Explanations
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NRE Step 2
The clinical/practical stage sat after clearing Step 1, assessing hands-on competence rather than pure recall. Requirements and format specifics are best confirmed directly with PM&DC, since they’re the kind of detail that changes between sessions.
From the blog
More about NRE preparation
NRE, NLE and the medical/dental graduate pathway
Both Pakistani graduates re-registering after time abroad and foreign medical graduates use the same NRE pathway to get licensed to practise in Pakistan — the exam doesn’t distinguish between the two beyond documentation requirements. Whether you know it as NRE or the older NLE name, the underlying exam is identical.
Step 1 vs Step 2, in practice
Step 1 tests what you know — a written MCQ paper across the core clinical subjects. Step 2 tests what you can do with it — a practical, competence-based assessment that assumes Step 1’s knowledge base is already solid. Treating Step 1 prep as a box to tick rather than a real foundation tends to show up again at Step 2.
Why explanations matter more than question count
A bank of questions with no explanations tells you that you got something wrong, not why. Every question in the Step 1 QBank above carries a written explanation and a subject reference, so a wrong answer becomes a specific lesson rather than a vague miss to repeat next time.