MDCAT exams held again across Punjab

LAHORE: As many as 65,155 candidates, including 41,563 female and 23,592 male, appeared for the second time in Medical and Dental Colleges Admission Test (MDCAT) which was conducted again by the University of Health Sciences (UHS) on Sunday.

Earlier this month, the Punjab government announced that the test will be conducted again, after a high-level inquiry found evidence that the paper held on August 20 had been leaked.

The test started at 0900 hrs and completed peacefully at 28 centres set up in Lahore, Sargodha, Sahiwal, Gujrat, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Bahawalpur, Multan, DG Khan, Rahim Yar Khan, Rawalpindi, Sialkot and Hassan Abdal. More than 5,500 invigilators and supervisory staff performed duties at these centres.

Police personnel were deployed at the centres to prevent any disruption of the examination. In addition, ambulances and fire brigades were also present at the test centres to counter untoward incidents. Suitable arrangements had been made for disabled students. Stricter measures were taken to prevent a recurrence of cheating this time.

In Lahore, a total of 12,573 female and 6,705 male candidates appeared in the test. UHS Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr Faisal Masud visited various centres and monitored the arrangements.

Talking to the media at Punjab University Examination Centre at Wahdat Road Dr Faisal Masud said that the re-conduct of MDCAT was important as it would ensure merit and justice.

“We are aware of the hardship and agony that candidates and their parents had to face but the re-conduct was crucial to ensure justice and fair play,” he said.

He said that new standard operating procedures were developed and fresh security measures were taken during the preparation, printing, packaging and transportation of the papers.

“We have done this in just 22 days although it took us four to five months last time. We developed a new question bank as the previous bank had become doubtful”, he said.

Later in the afternoon, the UHS uploaded the answer key to the question paper on its website www.uhs.edu.pk. With the help of this key, candidates can calculate their scores themselves.

The official result will be announced within a week. Candidates scoring 84 percent or above will be eligible to apply on open merit to colleges of their choice, according to PMDC policy. The forms for these applications will be available at UHS Lahore, Nishter Medical University Multan

and Rawalpindi Medical University Rawalpindi, and will need to be submitted between November 8 and 15.

The first selection list for medical/dental colleges will be displayed on November 27, whereas classes in medical colleges will commence on December 4. There are 3,405 MBBS seats in 17 public sector medical colleges and 216 BDS seats in 3 public dental colleges of the Punjab. Besides, there are 2,640 MBBS and 525 BDS seats in 22 private sector medical colleges and nine dental colleges affiliated with the UHS.