All set for MDCAT on Sept 22

More than 12,000 aspirants to vie for 858 seats in city's medical, dental colleges

KARACHI:

The MBBS and BDS entrance tests for public and private medical and dental colleges across Pakistan are set to take place on September 22.

As many as 167,077 candidates will compete for more than 18,000 seats up for grabs in the medical and colleges in the country.

The Pakistan Medical and Dental Council has again assigned the responsibility of the Medical and Dental College Admission Test (MDCAT) in Sindh to Dow University of Health Sciences.

In Sindh alone, around 38,700 candidates, including 12,000-plus from Karachi, are expected to take the test. The entrance test will be conducted for 858 seats available in Karachi's medical and dental institutions, including 746 open merit seats and 112 self-financed seats.

Dow University has assures that comprehensive measures are in place to prevent paper leaks, although concerns regarding past incidents of leaks and out-of-syllabus questions persist among candidates. Meanwhile, doctors' organisations have raised alarms about reported malpractices and paper leaks in this year's MDCAT.

The MDCAT will be held at two main examination centres in Karachi: NED University and Ojha campus of Dow University. As many as 6,000 aspirants will take the test at NED University, while 6,846 will appear at Dow University. Test centres have also been established in Larkana, Sukkur, Jamshoro, and Shaheed Benazirabad.

Candidates are advised to bring a colour printout of their admit card, along with an identity card or B-form, and domicile or PRC to the exam centre. Admission to the centres will be open from 7am to 9am, with a strict closing time of 9:30am. The test will be conducted from 10am to 1:30pm, lasting three and a half hours. Candidates are prohibited from bringing mobile phones, calculators, or any electronic devices; violations will result in the cancellation of the exam.

The test will comprise 200 questions covering biology, chemistry, physics, English, and logical reasoning. The passing marks are set at 110 for MBBS and 90 for BDS. Answer sheets will be evaluated using the OMR (Optical Mark Recognition) system.