The IMAT Timeline: What Actually Happens After You Register

What happens after you register for the IMAT? In order: registration and university preferences on Universitaly, the exam itself on a single worldwide date, published results and national ranking, then a window to accept any offer and enroll. A lot of the anxiety around this process comes from not knowing what happens next, rather than the studying itself. Here's the sequence, in order, without pinning down specific dates that shift every cycle and that you should always confirm on Universitaly directly.

Step one: registration

You register through Universitaly, list your university preferences, and (depending on your citizenship status) complete any required pre-enrollment steps. This is also when application fees, if applicable, get paid. Non-EU applicants typically have this step earlier in the year than EU applicants, since the EU and non-EU tracks run on different schedules.

Step two: the test itself

The IMAT is held once, on a single date, simultaneously at every participating location worldwide. You show up, sit the 100-minute exam, and that's it for the testing part of the year.

Step three: results and ranking

Scores are published some weeks after the test. You're then placed into a national ranking based on your score, and the system works through everyone's preference lists against available seats. This is where your earlier choice of university order actually gets used, not before.

Step four: the offer and enrollment

If you're offered a seat, there's a window to formally accept it and complete enrollment paperwork with the specific university, separate from the paperwork you did to register for the exam itself. Miss this window and the seat can move to the next candidate in the ranking, so this stage has real deadlines that matter as much as exam day did.

Step five: if you don't get an offer

There are often subsequent rounds as seats free up from people who don't accept their offers, so a first-round miss isn't always the final answer. We've written separately about what a retake year actually involves if it comes to that.

Knowing the shape of the year in advance doesn't make the studying easier, but it does mean fewer surprises once results week actually arrives.