Prometric exam: which Gulf boards use it and how to choose yours

Facts last verified 5 October 2026.

Prometric runs the exam at its test centres. Your board decides what is in it. Six Gulf regulators use Prometric. Abu Dhabi and Oman use Pearson VUE. Choose the board where you will work, then your profession's paper.

“The Prometric exam” is a short name for any Gulf licensing paper you sit at a Prometric centre. Six boards use Prometric: DHA, MOHAP, SCFHS, Qatar's DHP, NHRA and Kuwait's Ministry of Health. Two use Pearson VUE: DOH in Abu Dhabi and OMSB in Oman. Each board sets its own format and pass mark. Some publish more detail than others. Each also runs its own eligibility process. So you need the exam for the country, or emirate, where you will hold the licence.

Prometric delivers the paper; the board's rules apply

Prometric has a separate programme page for each regulator: DHA, MOHAP, SCFHS, Qatar (SCHQ2), NHRA and Kuwait MOH. Its test center policies say the exam board's rules come before Prometric's general rules. In practice, the work is split like this. The board decides who may sit, the paper's format, the pass mark and the result. Some boards publish more of this than others. Prometric runs the booking, the check-in and the test centre.

DHA shows this split clearly. Prometric gives you a learning-outcome letter after the exam. But the DHA assessment manual says only DHA gives the official pass or fail. It does this through Sheryan, its online licensing portal.

Boards that use Pearson VUE

Two of the eight boards do not use Prometric. DOH applicants book through Pearson VUE. The link appears in TAMM, Abu Dhabi's government services app. It appears once DOH approves you for the exam and you pay the fee (Pearson VUE DOH). OMSB's occupational classification exams run at Pearson VUE centres worldwide. They also run at the OMSB National Test Center in Muscat (OMSB).

So if you search for “Oman Prometric exam” or “HAAD Prometric”, you will find papers run by a different company. Their ID rules and booking screens are different. The Prometric vs Pearson VUE guide explains the differences.

How to read the comparison table

The table shows question counts and pass marks for every board and profession. Some cells have an asterisk, explained below. Open the profession page for timing and qualifications. Take care with these entries:

• An asterisk means the figure is not officially published. It comes from at least two independent sources that agree, not from the board. The MOHAP rows carry one. MOHAP's service pages give no question count or pass mark for any profession. The 60% pass mark for MOHAP pharmacists is one of these figures. Neither NHRA nor Prometric publishes an NHRA question count.
• SCFHS scores on a 200–800 scale. The passing scores are 560 for the SMLE and 500 for the SNLE (SMLE guide, SNLE guide). They are 536 for the SPLE and 542 for the SDLE (SPLE guide, SDLE guide). None of them turns into a percentage.
• DOH sets the cut score internally. Its catalogue gives no percentage. It puts pharmacists in a group that sits 50–100 questions in 1–2 hours (DOH catalogue).
• The profession pages give times, but boards measure time in different ways. DHA's 3 hours include registration and the introduction (DHA guideline). Prometric gives NHRA 2.5 hours of exam time in a 3-hour sitting (Prometric NHRA). Kuwait's blueprint has a 10-minute break. It does not say if the break is part of the 170 minutes.
• Qatar's overview page says 3 hours. The profession blueprints say 3½ hours (DHP overview, GP blueprint). DHP has not said which is right.
• For Bahrain nurses, NHRA's booklet sets 50%. Prometric's NHRA page says 60% for all Bahrain exams. Check NHRA's booklet, because NHRA is the regulator.

Choosing a board

Choose by the facility where you will work, and check its regulator. DHA licenses for Dubai and DOH for Abu Dhabi. MOHAP covers private facilities in Sharjah, Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah (MOHAP). But in Sharjah, both MOHAP and SHA license staff. A facility licensed by SHA needs an SHA licence (SHA). SCFHS, DHP, NHRA and Kuwait MOH license for their own countries. In Oman, the Ministry of Health and other healthcare institutions use OMSB's occupational classification exams for licensing (OMSB).

Inside the UAE, your choice has a cost. The unified PQR gives 3 attempts in total across DHA, DOH, MOHAP and SHA. You do not get three at each. So moving to another emirate after a fail does not reset the count. Outside the UAE, each board counts its own attempts, and the rules differ a lot. The attempts guide compares them.

Published data cannot rank the boards by difficulty. NHRA's 2022 annual report counts outcomes by category. SCFHS's SNLE report counts attempts by university. These measure different groups, so you cannot compare them. Instead, compare the paper length and pass mark for your profession in the table. Read which Gulf exam is easiest for the detail.

Before and after the exam

How you book depends on the programme. Saudi licensing papers use testing windows. SCFHS promotion exams have fixed dates. These guides cover each step for all eight boards: dates and booking, fees by board, test centres in India and results. For practice material, Prometric exam questions explains what to look for.