PMC slashes pass percentage for BDS entrance test

Islamabad: The regulator has reduced the pass percentage for the upcoming nationwide test to enrol students in the dental graduate programme.

Now, the candidates will be required to pass the MDCAT (National Medical and Dental College Admission Test) with 55 per cent marks instead of the previous 65 per cent to be eligible to apply for enrolment in the BDS programmes in dental colleges both private and government ones.

However, the pass percentage for MBBS admission will remain unchanged. Though there is no official word on the reason for the move, the Pakistan Medical Commission insiders insist that the MDCAT pass percentage is lowered due to fewer BDS admissions during the last academic session compared with the previous ones.

Hundreds of seats remained vacant as students did not apply for the BDS programme even in the country's major dental colleges, which recorded protests over the high pass percentage with the PMC and demanded a reasonable cut in it to improve enrolment rates.

Now living up to those expectations, the PMC has announced a new policy for admission to BDS programmes with a reduced pass percentage for admission. The MDCAT 2022 will be held online from September 7 to September 30. Passing it is mandatory for admission to medical and dental colleges in the country.

Every year, pre-medical students appear in the test after the FSc exams are held. It is conducted by the PMC approximately three to four months after the F.Sc examination. In a related development, the Medical and Dental Council, which met at the PMC headquarters here, with President Dr Arshad Taqi in the chair, examined the recommendations of the National Medical and Dental Academic Board in respect of the MDCAT curriculum weightage of subjects and approved them with minor changes.

It removed the topic of 'Gout', as recommended by the Academic Board, from the MDCAT curriculum saying the recommendations were based on inputs from the provincial higher secondary education boards.

The board also declared that the MDCAT curriculum was in line with National Curriculum 2006 as well as with the provincial curriculums and didn't exceed or appear to hold anything to be out of the syllabus.

Some provincial education boards suggested the removal of certain topics in biology even though they exist in the Higher Secondary School Certificate curriculum but the board rejected the request saying the topics are significant in terms of knowledge-based for a student to be admitted to dental and medical college.

It also slightly modified the weightage of questions in respective subjects of the MDCAT curriculum with biology from 32 per cent to 34 per cent, physics and chemistry from 26.5 per cent to 27 per cent, English from 10 per cent to nine per cent, and logical reasoning from five per cent to three per cent and said the next MDCAT would consist of 210 questions based on those percentages.