The examination is held twice a year, for the January and July admission sessions. It is a computer-based test whose question paper is specific to the feeder speciality the candidate applies from, so an applicant for a cardiology or
neurology seat answers questions drawn from internal medicine, and an applicant for a surgical super-speciality answers from the relevant surgical discipline, rather than from a general medical syllabus. Shortlisted candidates then face a departmental assessment or interview at the institute concerned, where the participating institute requires one, before final selection. Seats are allotted through a common counselling for the participating institutes in which candidates give preferences for institute and super-speciality by merit. The participating institutes, the feeder qualifications mapped to each course, the pattern and the counselling schedule are published in the prospectus issued for each session.