ISLAMABAD: Today, Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC)- the country's elite medical and dental licensing organization- announced the various changes introduced across the country in the MDCAT (Medical and Dental College Admissions Test) examination.

As per the PMC, the successor to PMDC, the 2021 MDCAT Examination will be a computer-based examination using the highest international standards of testing and integrity by utilizing an Al solution for paper setting and analytics.

The other salient changes made are as follows:

• MDCAT examination structure is a bit different this time:

TOTAL QUESTIONS: 210

BIOLOGY: 68    CHEMISTRY: 56    PHYSICS: 56    ENGLISH: 20     LOGICAL REASONING: 10 

• Passing Criteria is 65% this time around.

• Time duration allocated will be 3.5 hours.

• The exam will be completely computer-based which will be held for 31 days from 30th August to 30th September 2021 with 2 available time slots per day. To help familiarize the candidates with the examination, they will be given 1 practice examination with the option to take more. 

• The results will be available to the candidate within 30 minutes after the completion of the examination. 

• The result will be emailed directly to the students and to the institutions where the student is applying for admission for a medical or dental degree program.

• The fee charges ( Rs. 6,000) are significantly increased this time as the exam will be completely computer-based. The charges include the tutorial fee as well as the practice exam fee.

• These computerized examination centers will be in Islamabad, Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Nawabshah, Lahore, Multan, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Bahawalpur, Sargodha, DG Khan, Sialkot, Peshawar, Swat, Abbottabad, D Khan, Quetta, Mirpur, Muzaffarabad & Gilgit, with International centers in the USA, UK, Europe, Gulf, Africa, Australia, dependent on the geographic concentration of registrations once they are complete.

• The security systems for the question bank and exam systems will be complemented with face recognition and ID verification systems at the centers.

• Registration deadline is 15th July 2021. The registration portal is now open: https://mdcat.pmc.gov.pk/Account/Login

PMC claims that the MDCAT Examination 2021 is an international standard examination that makes it at par with Foreign Examinations across the globe and follows international best practices ensuring strict merit and removing all past issues which generally arise in a paper-pen based exam.

Regarding the matter of increased fee, the administration said that the fee charges are significantly lower than what other fully enabled and automated computer-based tests cost anywhere else in the world. The cost has been subsidized especially for Pakistani students. The cost is also inclusive of online tutorials; a practice or mock examination with an option to take more; automated electronic dispatch of candidate results to medical colleges for admission applications and automated scheduling service, allowing applicants the option to schedule or reschedule the time slot for their examination according to what best suits them.

These tweaks made in the exam are unprecedented in the country's history but only time will tell how successful the government and the PMC will be in carrying out the exam.