ISLAMABAD: Amid the ongoing controversy regarding Medical and Dental Colleges Admission Test (MDCAT), the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PMDC) has decided to conduct an independent analysis of the test and give the same questions to all candidates from across the country to bring uniformity to the difficultly level from next year.

For this, the PMDC has decided to prepare its own question bank, with the collaboration of Inter-Boards Coordination Commission (IBCC) and Higher Education Commission (HEC).

Clearing the test is mandatory to get admission in medical and dental colleges in Pakistan.

Since Sept 22 when around 170,000 candidates took the test, conducted by six universities, across the country and abroad, there have been complaints that the question paper was leaked in Sindh and that over 20 questions were out of the syllabus in the exam conducted by Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Medical University (SZABMU) in Islamabad.

Decides to conduct post hoc analysis of test; plans to standardise question paper across the country from next year

According to a document, available with Dawn, Azad Kashmir College Teachers’ Association President Prof Tariq Saleem sent a letter to the SZABMU and Azad Jammu and Kashmir government representatives, complaining that multiple errors in the examination paper caused distress among the candidates and demanded that their concerns be addressed.

On the other hand, a Sindh High Court bench comprising Justice Salahuddin Panhwar and Justice Amjad Ali Sahito summoned chief secretary, health secretary, PMDC president and vice chancellors of Jinnah Sindh Medical University and other universities to appear in person on Oct 9 to respond to the allegation about paper leak.

Candidates have started filing complaints with the university and PMDC. According to them, some candidates bagged 199 out of a total 200 marks due to paper leak.

SZABMU receives over 200 complaints

Speaking to Dawn, SZABMU vice chancellor Dr Tariq Iqbal said about 210 complaints were received. They were being reviewed and a final decision would be made in a day or two, he said. “All question-related complaints are being reviewed by the independent subject specialist committee having three teachers for each subject,” he said while explaining the review process.

The SZABMU also issued a statement on Wednesday claiming that the university made all necessary arrangements to ensure smooth and transparent conduct of the test under the policy guidelines and auspice of PMDC. “SZABMU employed ample number of invigilation staff and other logistical and technological support to supervise the exam and to effectively prevent any breach of sanctity of exam process particularly paper leakage and use of unfair means during the exam.

More than 22,000 students submitted applications for appearing in the MDCAT-2024. The necessary process of scrutiny and verification of applications was conducted in collaboration with PMDC under the prescribed notified eligibility criteria. Subsequently, more than 21,000 students appeared in the MDCAT-2024.

“Immediately after the test, the SZABMU management established institutional mechanism including a dedicated complaint portal and the experts’ committees for genuine redressal of MDCAT-related post-exam complaints submitted by the respective students. The vice chancellor had directed the committees to resolve all the complaints before announcement of the result.

“The university received a total of 209 complaints. Most of the complaints were essentially the requests by students to the university for uploading of the question paper and the answer key. A few students contended that some questions were out of syllabus. After due process, all these complaints were disposed of with appropriate, expeditious and fair redressal in accordance with the laid down policy, rules and regulations of PMDC and SZABMU. Final result of MDCAT-2024 has been announced and uploaded on website of the university,” it stated.

While talking to Dawn, some candidates, however, said that the university should give at least 23 marks to each student if it was not possible to retake the test.

No proof of paper leak

However, a senior official of PMDC, whishing not to be quoted, said that the council called a meeting of all VCs and discussed post hoc analysis across the country.

“It showed that candidates of Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan got exceptionally good marks. However, test conducted by SZABMU in Islamabad, AJK and abroad was quite difficult. Fact is that for last three years SZABMU’s tests were easy, and the University of Health Sciences (UHS), Lahore, tests were difficult. This year, in Punjab, most of the seats of colleges will be bagged by UHS students while SZABMU candidates will be on the losing end. However, there was no proof of leakage of question papers,” he said.

“We have decided to hold independent analysis of all the questions in which it will be observed how many candidates gave correct answers of all or most of the questions. Moreover, we have decided that PMDC will develop its own question bank and from next year same question paper will be provided to candidates from across the country. We will ensure availability of printers in every district so that question papers would be printed timely and sent to centres. We hope it will end the ‘conspiracy’ as every student will get the same difficulty level,” he said.

Published in Dawn, October 3rd, 2024