‘Premature’ MDCAT results stir controversy

Islamabad : The Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC), the regulator for medical education in the country, became mired in a credibility crisis on Saturday morning after it blamed a 'system error' for the premature dispatch of the medical and dental colleges test results to the students.

The final MDCAT 2021 results were scheduled to be announced after 1 p.m. but they reached several students by email in the morning.

Many students reported that they received the PMC's no-reply email with their respective MDCAT 2021 result certificates attached.

The commission issued a clarification saying the final test results were actually to be announced later in the afternoon after the completion of the last exam scheduled in the morning for COVID-19 affected students.

It said the test results sent to students were correct but it apologised for the ‘inadvertent system error’, which caused concern among students. According to the PMC, as part of the online result service provided to students on the PMC website to check their final results, an option was provided to download, print or email their result certificates as well.

"Unfortunately due to an error the system generated all the result certificates and emailed them to students early this morning automatically," it said.

According to the PMC, the final score in all the result certificates received by students are correct and have been checked.

It added that although in a small number of certificates emailed to students in the morning there are errors in subject marks, the total score is correct.

"This only happened due to the results being generated by the system automatically, PMC said, asking students to ignore these errors. Students can recheck and verify their final result once PMC uploads the live results online."

According to it, the National Medical Authority announced the final result of the MDCAT 2021 after the conclusion of the post-exam analysis held after the completion of the MDCAT.

The post-exam analysis was carried out independently by Quaid-e-Azam University at the request of SAPM on National Health Services Dr. Faisal Sultan to PMC president Dr. Arshad Taqi. A record number of 194,133 students took the MDCAT from August 30, 2021, to October 2, 2021. Out of the 194,133 students, 68,680 students passed the exam resulting in a national pass percentage of 35.4%. In addition, 276 students sat the exam this morning for COVID-19 and dengue-affected students.

The MDCAT was held for the first time not only in 25 centres in Pakistan but 6 international centers in North America, Europe and the Middle East.

The PMC said a student can apply for review to PMC where a student will be shown their wrongly answered questions test on a computer terminal.

"This facility is available for a review fee and will further authenticate the MDCAT 2021 results and satisfy the students."