Admission to all the government medical colleges and most of the private medical colleges in India is through a combined entrance test as well as respective university level or college level entrance test of a particular college.

Most of the entrance exams are based on class XI and class XII syllabus of the central board or the state board. However, there are some entrance exams which are based on class XII syllabus of their respective state boards.

In most admission test, the written exam is the only means of admission. However, there are some colleges like the Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC), Pune which conducts a personal interview before granting a seat to an already qualified candidate in its written exam.