SLMC ERPM
Examination for Registration to Practise Medicine (ERPM)
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ExploreAbout this exam
The Examination for Registration to Practise Medicine (ERPM) is the assessment the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC) uses in the pathway by which medical graduates qualify for registration to practise medicine in Sri Lanka. The SLMC describes itself as the national regulatory authority responsible for maintaining standards of education, professional conduct, and ethical practice among registered healthcare practitioners in Sri Lanka, and it regulates medical, dental, and allied healthcare professionals to protect patients and maintain public confidence in healthcare services. Candidates are typically graduates of foreign universities, since the SLMC's student and graduate pages separate "Graduates of Sri Lankan Universities" from "Graduates of Foreign Universities", and the ERPM sits alongside the parallel dental examination (ERPDS) within the Council's Exams section.
The SLMC does not publish a subject-wise syllabus or domain weighting on its home page, so this page cannot tell you what proportion of marks comes from medicine, surgery, paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology, psychiatry, or the behavioural sciences. What the Council does publish is process material: "ERPM Revised Guidelines 2025", the results notice "ERPM Pass List - August/September 2026 - Listed According to Order of Merit", and a degree approval step - "Opening of Degree Approval Portal For ERPM and ERPDS Exams 2027" with a deadline of 27 November 2026, 4.00 p.m.
Preparation should therefore start with the current ERPM Revised Guidelines 2025 and the degree approval deadline, not with rumoured formats. Build clinical knowledge across the major disciplines, practise clinical reasoning and data interpretation, and rehearse communication and ethics, which the Council regulates explicitly through its Standards, Ethics, and Professional Conduct & Misconduct pages. Confirm every administrative detail directly with the SLMC.
What you'll study
About SLMC ERPM preparation
What is the ERPM and who sits it?
The Examination for Registration to Practise Medicine is an SLMC examination on the route to registration to practise medicine in Sri Lanka. The Council's site groups guidance separately for graduates of Sri Lankan universities and graduates of foreign universities, and lists the ERPM among its exams alongside the dental ERPDS. Check your own eligibility category in the ERPM Revised Guidelines 2025.
What is the exam format - how many papers, questions, and how long?
The SLMC home page does not state the number of papers, question counts, or duration, so no reliable figure can be given here. The operative document is the ERPM Revised Guidelines 2025, linked in the Latest News section. Read it before planning revision, and treat any format described on a third-party site as unverified.
How much does the ERPM cost and what is the passing mark?
Neither the fee nor the pass mark appears in the SLMC material available here, so both are unknown. Fees are handled under the Council's Registration > Fees pages, and scoring rules belong in the ERPM Revised Guidelines 2025. Confirm the current amounts with the SLMC directly rather than relying on older figures.
Is there a degree approval step before I can sit the exam?
Yes. The SLMC announced "Opening of Degree Approval Portal For ERPM and ERPDS Exams 2027" with a deadline of 27 November 2026, 4.00 p.m. If you intend to sit in 2027, treat that portal as a hard prerequisite and complete it well before the deadline, since a qualification that has not been approved cannot support your application.
How and when are results released?
The Council publishes pass lists. Its most recent ERPM notice was "ERPM Pass List - August/September 2026 - Listed According to Order of Merit", dated 29 October 2026. That tells you results are issued as an ordered merit list some weeks after the sitting, and that the exam runs in sessions identified by month, such as August/September.
Can I retake the ERPM if I fail, and how many attempts do I get?
The number of permitted attempts and any waiting period between sittings are not stated in the available SLMC material, so they cannot be confirmed here. Attempt limits and re-sitting rules would sit in the ERPM Revised Guidelines 2025. Read that document and, if it is silent, raise a support ticket with the SLMC before assuming you can re-sit freely.
How hard is the ERPM and what trips candidates up?
Difficulty cannot be quantified from published data. The common avoidable failures are administrative and strategic rather than clinical: missing the degree approval deadline, preparing from outdated guidelines instead of the ERPM Revised Guidelines 2025, and neglecting ethics and professional conduct, which the Council regulates as a distinct standard alongside clinical practice.
In what order should I study?
Start with the ERPM Revised Guidelines 2025 to fix the scope, then confirm your degree approval. Revise the major clinical disciplines systematically, integrate them through case-based reasoning and interpretation of investigations rather than isolated fact recall, and finish with ethics, professional conduct, and communication, using the Council's Standards and Ethics pages as your reference.
How do I contact the SLMC about exam queries?
The Council asks that you submit a support ticket rather than telephone, because of line congestion; your query is logged and you can track it with a reference number, available 24/7. The office is at 31, Norris Canal Road, Colombo 10, open Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM. Confirm exam-specific questions in writing so you have a record.