Health and medicine · selection

The IFSI without a competitive exam: a file, one letter per choice, three years

Admission depends on a file, not a paper. The training itself lasts three years, including 66 weeks of placement.

Admission: File-based via Parcoursup, no competitive exam
Length: 3 years, 180 ECTS, bachelor's level
Placements: 66 weeks over the 3 years

What you need to understand.

The real format of the exam, and what actually decides it.

Three years, 180 ECTS, a bachelor's-level diploma. IFSI (institut de formation en soins infirmiers, nursing training institute) training awards the state nursing diploma and totals 4,620 hours, including 66 weeks of placement. Entry no longer goes through a competitive exam: the Parcoursup file does the selection. From the 2027 intake, another route is added, through the licence portail santé.

What decides is the consistency of your first- and final-year marks, the precision of your teachers' comments and a letter written choice by choice, within a limit of 4,500 characters. No national scale says how much each item weighs: each grouping publishes its criteria from 17 December 2026. A file is prepared over two years.

What is examined, and what it weighs

The format and weight of each paper, without the noise around it.

School file

Marks and comments from the first and final years · No national scale; weighting by grouping

Consistent results and comments showing rigour and autonomy.

Cover letter

One letter per choice, 4,500 characters maximum · Read by the trainers, no national scale

An argued project and real knowledge of the job and the training.

Activities and interests

Placements, commitments, experience · Complements the file, no national scale

Verifiable experience related to care or support.

IFSI self-positioning test

Online questionnaire, from the Parcoursup file · Compulsory to confirm a choice, not sent to the courses

Understand the training and the job, not aim for a good mark.

Selection papers (continuing education)

20-minute interview + 1-hour written paper (writing and arithmetic) · Each paper out of 20; under 8/20 eliminatory; 20/40 to be admitted

A solid professional project and the basics of arithmetic.

Diploma validation

5 areas of competence, 180 ECTS, placements, jury · Every unit and every placement must be validated

Last three years, placements and semester assessments included.

The calendar.

The dates that matter, with their status.

Dec 17, 2026
2027 course map
Official date. IFSI pages publish their criteria for examining applications.
Jan 18, 2027 → Mar 11, 2027
Registration and choices
Official date. 5 groupings maximum, each counting as 1 of the 10 choices.
Apr 1, 2027
Choice confirmation
Official date: complete file and confirmed choices, otherwise the application stops.
Jun 1, 2027
Start of admission
Official date. Responses as they come; main phase until 10 July.
Sep 2027 (to be confirmed)
Start of term
No 2027 date published. Each university sets the start of term in September or February.

Dates checked on October 28, 2026. Any date that hasn’t been published is flagged as such.

What actually blocks you.

The obstacles that cost you points, not the clichés.

Five choices, five letters

The letter is required for each choice, not once for all, and capped at 4,500 characters. A recycled text is easy to spot: each grouping expects a project linked to its institutes.

Forgetting the self-positioning test

Without this questionnaire filled in from Parcoursup, the IFSI choice cannot be confirmed before 1 April 2027. It is not marked, but it blocks the application.

An empty activities section

Trainers look there for verifiable experience. Empty, it costs no points, but it deprives the file of concrete proof of motivation.

Applying without reading the criteria

Each grouping publishes its criteria from 17 December 2026. Without reading them, your arguments go out at random: what counts here does not count in the neighbouring IFSI.

The method, in 3 steps.

A course goes in. Ready-made materials come out. You study.

01
Read the five pages before writing
From 17 December 2026, note what each grouping highlights. Your list and your letters are built on that reading, never before.
02
Write from dated facts
An observation placement, a day in a care home, a conversation with a nurse. Three precise facts are worth more than a declaration of faith.
03
Keep a record of placements
After each day, note a situation, a gesture, a question. This notebook will serve the letter, then the three years of assessments.

What Summry does for this exam.

Study materials, not a promise you’ll pass.

Five pages, five letters

Import the Parcoursup pages of your groupings, as PDFs or screenshots. The chat, which answers only from your documents, extracts each one's criteria: enough to write five 4,500-character letters that don't look alike.

Units as quizzes before the assessment

Import a course as PDF, Word or photos, generate a quiz and redo it before the semester assessment. Those assessments determine whether the diploma is validated.

The placement notebook as study sheets

Photograph your placement notes: Summry turns them into sheets, with the gestures and situations to review. Useful when 66 weeks leave little time to copy things out.

Summry does not write your letter for you and does not replace the 66 weeks of placement or learning to care: it organises your courses and quizzes you on them.

Frequently asked questions.

The questions we get asked most often about Nursing (IFSI).

Do you need to sit a competitive exam to enter an IFSI?

No, in initial training, admission is based on examination of the file via Parcoursup, without a competitive exam. The one-hour written paper and 20-minute interview in the decree of 20 February 2026 concern continuing education. From the 2027 intake, another route opens: validating the first year of a licence portail santé with the nursing pathway of the health block gives access to the second year of the IFSI, subject to the required teaching and placements.

What are the selection criteria for an IFSI?

School results, teachers' comments, the cover letter and the activities in the file. No national coefficient: each grouping sets its criteria on the Parcoursup page of its institutes, published from 17 December 2026. The letter is required for each choice and capped at 4,500 characters.

How many IFSI choices can you make?

Five groupings maximum. Each counts as one of the ten authorised choices, and each institute in the grouping is a sub-choice. Their number is not limited, but you must tick each institute you are interested in. Five groupings you really want are better than scattered choices.

Is the self-positioning test marked?

No. The answers are not sent to the courses and do not weigh in the selection. The test checks that you have understood the three-year training and the job it leads to. It remains compulsory to confirm a choice, before 1 April 2027.

Can you enter an IFSI without the bac?

Not through Parcoursup: you need the baccalauréat, the DAEU or an equivalent. Without the bac, the route goes through validation of studies, experience and personal achievements with the university, or through continuing education and its selection papers. The aide-soignant diploma does not count as a bac equivalent for Parcoursup.

Sources.

Information gathered from official websites, checked on October 28, 2026. The links open the original source.

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