The Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) on Monday decided to reduce the MDCAT passing percentage for Dental programs from 65 percent to 55 percent for the upcoming admissions in Dental Colleges of Pakistan.
The PMC said in a statement that the decision was taken during a meeting of the Medical and Dental Council which was chaired by the PMC President Dr. Arshad Taqi.
The meeting also approved the minor charges of MDCAT curriculum weightage of subjects on the recommendations of the National Medical and Dental Academic Board. The topic of Gout as recommended by the Academic Board has been removed from the MDCAT curriculum.
The Academic Board recommendations are based on inputs from Provincial Higher Secondary Boards while confirming that the MDCAT curriculum is in line with National Curriculum 2006 as well as with the provincial curriculums and does not exceed or appear to hold anything to be out of the syllabus. Some of the Provincial Boards suggested the removal of certain topics in biology even though they exist in the HSSC curriculum. The Academic Board rejected the request as these are the topics which are significant in terms of knowledge-based for a student to be admitted to dental and medical college.
The weightage of questions in respective subjects of MDCAT curriculum has been slightly modified with Biology from 32% to 34%, Physics & Chemistry from 26.5% to 27%, English from 10% to 9%, and Logical Reasoning from 5% to 3%. The Medical and Dental College admission test would consist of 210 questions based on the above percentages.
