LAHORE: The University of Health Sciences has released the curriculum and layout of the single entrance test, known as the MCAT, for admission to medical and dental colleges in the Punjab for 2011-2012.
“The MCAT for 2011 shall be held soon after the FSc examination,” UHS Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Malik Hussain Mubashar said at a press conference on Thursday.
He said that the entrance test would be the same for FSc and for non-FSc students who had been through the A-levels system, through the American high school system, or any other international intermediate level education system. The MCAT was introduced in 1998 and the UHS began taking separate entry tests for FSc and non-FSc students in 2008.
“Nowhere in the world is there more than one test or competitive exam conducted by the same authority for different schemes of education,” he said. He noted that India had started a centralised test and admission system for its 32,000 MBBS seats.
The vice chancellor said that the new syllabus had been prepared by a task force of teachers of FSc and non-FSc schemes of education and finalised by the Admissions Board for public sector medical and dental institutions. The syllabi and books of the various education systems were also consulted. He said there was nothing in the new syllabus which was outside of the approved courses for any scheme of education.
He said the format, syllabus and model papers for the 2011 entrance test had already been released on the university website.
He said the 150-minute test would consist of 220 multiple choice questions, each worth five marks. The exam would be divided into five sections: physics, chemistry, English, biology and aptitude. Biology will be the biggest section with 88 questions, followed by physics and chemistry with 44 questions, and English and aptitude with 22 questions.
“The emphasis is on bio-medical sciences. The topics and chapters which are not relevant to medical sciences have been excluded.
The number of biology questions has been doubled as compared to chemistry and physics,” he said.
Prof Mubashar said that the aptitude testing was being introduced from next year to better identify people’s chances of becoming good doctors. “Success in a programme or career is usually determined by a collection of aptitudes. While you may be able to do anything you put your mind to, that doesn’t mean you’ll be able to do it well. We know instinctively people have different aptitudes or innate talents. The basic objective of aptitude testing is to test candidates’ attitude and values as a prerequisite for entry into the medical profession,” he said.
He said that aptitude testing would focus on exploring the cognitive powers of candidates and other attributes considered to be valuable for healthcare professionals.
He said that the aptitude test would consist of three subtests measuring: ethical, moral, professional and personality attributes; quantitative and abstract reasoning; and analytical reasoning and problem solving.
Prof Mubashar said that preparation was neither necessary nor desirable for aptitude tests. “The section is designed to be a test of aptitude rather than academic achievement. It does not draw on any particular body of knowledge or curriculum which a candidate can learn in advance,” he said.
Prof Mubashar advised students to study in advance and avoid cramming. “The questions in the test will not just be questions requiring recall, but conceptual questions requiring candidates to apply their knowledge,” he said.
He said that the university was also considering introducing a grading or percentile system in line with the best international practices. He said one mark would be deducted from the total score for each wrong answer. “Negative marking discourages students from unintelligent guesswork in the test,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 12th, 2010.
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