ISLAMABAD:President Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) Prof. Dr. Noshad Ahmad Shaikh on Tuesday visited Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University (SZABMU) to examine arrangements for conducting the Medical and Dental College Admission Test (MDCAT).
During his visit, Vice Chancellor SZABMU Dr. Tanvir Khaliq and Member Examination PMC Brdgr (Rtd) Nasir briefed the PMC President. The President PMC discussed the arrangements of MDCAT which is going to be conducted on the 13th of November.
He said that SZAMBU will take the MDCAT exam of international centers followed by centers in AJK, Muzaffarabad and Gilgit under the supervision of PMC.
The President also discussed the steps of holding the examination and added that the exams will be held under the supervision of PMC.
The President also observed the postgraduate programs of Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto University.
He said that the council decided to conduct the MDCAT in two international centres included UAE and Saudi Arabia due to the maximum number of students in these countries. Accordingly, candidates in other countries may either change their centres to UAE and Saudi Arabia or come to Pakistan for the exam.
He said that provincial public sector universities will conduct this test in all provinces and Islamabad on a single day and time included Bolan University of Medical and Health Sciences (Baluchistan), University of Health Services (Punjab), Khyber Medical University (KPK), Dow University of Health Sciences (Sindh) and Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University (Islamabad, AJK, Gilgit Baltistan).
He said that 210,000 candidates have been registered for MDCAT whereas the total seats for medical and dental Colleges are 20,800 in the country. He added all the vice-chancellors of public universities and important concerned stakeholders were taken on board to decide the conduct of MDCAT through meetings in every province to smooth the conduct of the exam.
He said that exam-conducting universities will decide on the modalities of conducting exams either by themselves or through the testing agency. He said that in order to facilitate Pakistani students seeking admission in recognized colleges offering MBBS and BDS programs, the council decided that the pass percentage of MBBS will be 55% and that of BDS will be 45% so that the maximum number of students are catered in the country.
He added that FSc (Pre-Medical) or equivalent with 60% marks will be eligible to apply for admission to MBBS or BDS. The pass percentage has been reduced from 65% to 60%. He said that the MDCAT exam will be a paper-based manual exam and the answer keys of the papers will be uploaded by the concerned universities on the PMC website on the same day after the exam.