PMC subsidises MDCAT fee for students

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) on Sunday said that the cost of MDCAT examinations has been subsidised, especially for Pakistani students.

According to an official of the PMC, the fee charges are significantly lower than what other fully-enabled and automated computer-based tests cost anywhere else in the world.

He said that the cost is also inclusive of online tutorials, a practice or mock examination with an option to take more automated electronic dispatch of candidate results to medical colleges for admission applications and an automated scheduling service, allowing applicants the option to schedule or reschedule the time slot for their examination according to what best suits them.

The official said that the MDCAT examination will be a computer-based examination using the highest international standards of testing and integrity by utilising an Artificial Intelligence-based (AI) solution for paper setting and analytics.

He said that the security systems for the question bank and exam systems will be complemented with face recognition and ID verification systems at the centres.

The official further added that there will be a three-and half-hour computerised examination with 210 questions and the results of which will be available to the candidate within 30 minutes after the completion of the examination.

The official said that the results will be emailed directly to the students and to the institutions where the student is applying for admission for a medical or dental degree programme and the services are inclusive of the examination fee.

The computerised examination centres will be in Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Nawabshah, Lahore, Multan, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Bahawalpur, Sargodha, DG Khan, Sialkot, Peshawar, Swat, Abbottabad, DI Khan, Quetta, Mirpur, Muzaffarabad and Gilgit, with international centres in the USA, UK, Europe, Gulf, Africa, and Australia, dependent on the geographic concentration of registrations once they are completed, he added.

The official said that the MDCAT is an international standard examination that makes it at par with foreign examinations across the globe and follows international best practices ensuring strict merit and removing all past issues which generally arise in a paper-pen based exam.

The PMC also tweeted a press release issued in this regard, but it was later deleted.