The Medical and Dental Colleges Admission Tests (MDCAT) would be held on November 13 and on paper, the Pakistan Medical Commission announced on Monday.

“We have decided that the MDCAT exam will not be taken by the PMC itself and it will involve public sector universities,” Dr Noshad Ahmad Shaikh, the PMC president, said while addressing a press conference in Islamabad.

The announcement comes as the test date was delayed due to floods and emergencies.

“Like, Dow University of Health Sciences in Sindh, the University of Health Sciences in Punjab, Bolan University of Medical & Health Sciences in coordination with the National University Of Medical Sciences in Balochistan, Khyber military university in KP, and Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University in Islamabad Capital Territory will take exams,” he elaborated.

The PMC president added that the date was decided after consensus from all provinces and administration and political leaders were taken onboard before the decision.

The paper would be taken at 11am and will continue till 2pm. It would have 200 questions. “We will only give syllabus copy and table of specifications to public sector universities. And they will divide questions from every section.”

Dr Shaikh explained that every university would generate its paper and check it. They would send the results to the PMC which would later update it on the website.

Moreover, the paper would be held at the same time in Pakistan and the other two centres, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates—the surveillance centres.

The student would take a double copy or carbon copy, attached to the exam, with him after the test. The university and the PMC would update the answer key on its website on the test night so that students could evaluate themselves and transparency be ensured.

“One paper will be checked by over the machine, also called OMR, and one paper (carbon copy) will be taken by the student home,” he said, adding that a similar system would be followed in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

“If here, the paper is at 11am then it would be at 9am in Saudi Arabia and 10am in Dubai,” he elaborated.

He tried to clear the confusion over PMC and the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC), saying that the latter’s says also called for decentralising powers and transferring it to provinces.

“If PMDC is converted there will be no issue,” he said, “consider that the PMC is taking exams through public sector universities.”

As many as 205,000 students – including 80,000 in Punjab, 42,000 in Sindh, 44,000 in KP, around 8,200 in Balochistan, and over 20,000 in Islamabad Capital Territory – in Pakistan would appear for the exam in Pakistan. Moreover, 600 students from outside would also appear

The PMC was in coordination with the universities to provide the list of students. “We have conveyed this distribution list.”

Dr Shaikh said that centres with less than 100 students were dropped by the council, adding that UAE and Saudi Arabia had over 200 students. “The portal is open if students want to change their centre,” he added.

“I will try my best to take exams on November 13 as it got late due to floods and an emergency was declared. We will try our best to start the MBBS classes in February’s first week and the BDS classes in the first week of March.”