Saudi Licensing Exam for General Practitioners: Resources to Help You Succeed

So, I've been getting a lot of questions from doctors who wished to know how to prepare for the Saudi Licensing Exam. Instead of responding to each individual email, I thought it would be time-saving to respond to most of the questions that I typically get.


What is the Saudi Licensing Exam (SLE)?

The SLE is a one-step examination for healthcare professionals in Saudi Arabia. Physicians who wish to practice in the kingdom have to take the exam in order to be registered with the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties. While some physicians have been reported to practice without sitting for the SLE, the exam is mandatory for those who wish to join a residency programme in Saudi Arabia or for those who earned their medical degrees out of the kingdom to ensure that they have achieved the appropriate standards and criteria to practice in the kingdom.


The exam for general practice consists of 100 multiple choice questions (MCQs) from the following areas:

- Internal medicine (25 questions)
- Family medicine (15 questions)
- Ophthalmology (3 questions)
- Gynaecology/obstetrics (10 questions)
- Paediatrics (15 questions)
- General surgery (15 questions)
- Orthopaedics (3 questions)
- Ear, nose, and throat (3 questions)
- Basic sciences (3 questions)
- Psychiatry (5 questions)
- Dermatology (3 questions)

It is considered an easy exam to pass, but candidates need to put in more work to get high scores. The passing grade for the SLE is 50%, but you should aim for a much higher grade (>75%) if you wish to increase your chances of joining a postgraduate programme.


Resources

Anecdotal reports from interns and general practitioners suggest that the questions are recycled. This said, it might help to revise previous exam questions. A few books currently on the market are great for the exam:

SLE Made Easy: Saudi License Examination by Dr. Yasser Albrahim


Where to purchase: Amazon 

Format: Electronically delivered as a .mobi file on Kindle or any device (PC or tablet) that accepts Kindle

This 769-page long book contains over 1,300 MCQ, including answers and explanations, to help students understand concepts instead of them just practising to memorise answers to questions.

Comprehensive Review for Saudi License Examination (SLE) by Dr Yahia M Al-Khaldi.

Price: 26.66 USD (100 SAR)

Where to purchase: Jarir Bookstore (either online or at a physical store in your area)

Format: Paperback


This 306-page long book contains more than 1,200 MCQs, with answers provided by the author.





Other helpful books

Oxford Handbook of Clinical Medicine by Murray Longmore, Ian Wilkinson, Andrew Baldwin, and Elizabeth Wallin

Price: 39.49 USD (148.13 SAR) for the Kindle version and 46.81 USD (175.59 SAR) for the flexibound version

Where to purchase: Amazon and Jarir Bookstore

Format: Kindle and flexibound

First Aid for the USMLE Step 3 by Tao Le, Vikas Bhushan, James Yeh, and Kachiu Lee

Price: 33.08 USD (124.07 SAR) for the Kindle version and 42.32 USD (158.73 SAR) for the paperback version

Where to purchase: Amazon and Jarir Bookstore

Format: Kindle and paperback









How to Register for the SLE

To register for the exam, you need to visit the offices of the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties (SCFHS). They have offices in several cities of the kingdom. You can visit their website for information on how to register and the location of testing centres, both within and outside Saudi Arabia.

The SCFHS warns all candidates on their website not to submit fraudulent degrees when registering for the exam, as they check all certificates submitted to the council. Frauds risk a jail term and a permanent ban from Saudi if caught.


Have you taken the SLE? If yes, please share your experience below. And for first-time takers of the exam, I wish you all the best!

Meet the Author of "Girl of the Book"

Like many women who relocated to Saudi Arabia under their husbands' sponsorship, Princila Murrell is one of those who sought to make a living by doing jobs out of her field of expertise. As you may already know, most female university graduates who come under the sponsorship of their husbands start off by looking for a teaching job, in most cases at an international school, before transitioning to a job that matches their education. Unfortunately, not everyone is so lucky and some women end up in jobs below their qualification level. 

Murrell believes that every expat woman should explore their skills and get the best out of it. She has, for example, been working as a freelance writer for several researchers in the Kingdom since 2009 and made the leap to indie author this year when she wrote her debut novel Girl of the Book. While the book has not yet been published, she has garnered some positive reviews from book bloggers and reviewers, some of which are presented below:

Editorial review on Amazon.com

Girl of the Book by Princila Murrell is a book about a young teenager, Courtney Parker. Her father has decided to accept a two-year contract in Saudi Arabia, which means uprooting the family from their hometown in South Africa. Courtney hates everything about her new environment. Everything feels foreign to her and she longs for her friends and school back home. Courtney's new school is full of cultural divides. She meets Lana and they forge a shaky friendship, but it's soon shattered when Courtney befriends a Muslim boy in her building, Nizar. All three find themselves faced with challenges of their heritage. Can they overcome their differences?

Murrell tells a very heartwarming story about the journey of fitting into a new life. Girl of the Book is a perfect way to start the conversation rolling about these difficult topics.--Readers' Favorite

Girl of the Book by Princila Murrell is an interesting and engaging story about a South African family that moves to Saudi Arabia for the father’s two-year work assignment. I was concerned that this would be a preachy book for kids about how all Muslims are wonderful and all Christians are intolerant and arrogant, but I was pleasantly surprised by a balanced story line with realistic characters that struggle with real life situations.

The new-girl-in-school problems found in many tween and teen books are magnified in this book. Despite her parents’ careful instructions, Courtney still manages to violate cultural rules regularly, even though she tries not to cause trouble. Many of her classmates at school don’t help--and even work to get her into more trouble. Two young people, a girl and a boy, are the only ones kind to her. Unfortunately, their kindness to Courtney causes them problems with some family members and classmates, too.

This was a wonderful book that respected both religious traditions while showing how difficult it can be for the two cultures to understand one another. There are no objectionable elements, so parents can confidently hand this excellent story to young readers, even very young children who read well above grade level.--Kimberly, Hog on Ice

Her book has also been featured on other blogs:

• A Girl and Her Kindle
• Land of Children's Books