THIS is apropos the report ‘MDCAT candidates perplexed as PMC announces results’ (Oct 10). The medical and dental college admission test (MDCAT) results by the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) have left many students stunned across the country. I had secured 1,066 marks in matriculation and appeared in the MDCAT this year after FSc with so many hopes of my parents and family, but the unexpected result left me and the family in nothing but frustration and despair.

I was expecting above 180 marks out of 210 while giving maximum margin to the possible mistakes I may have committed, but I was awarded 141, which was shocking for me just as it was for the thousands of other candidates who have felt the same way once the results were announced.

The unjust results of the examination conducted by a computer-based private testing company, Testing and Evaluation Platform SMC-Private Limited (TEPS), have sparked countrywide protests by the candidates.

The protestors were demanding re-examination due to unequal preparation opportunities for candidates, out-of-syllabus questions and wrong options in the multiple-choice question (MCQ) part, bad internet facilities, flaws in the computer-based system, and seriously debatable marking. The Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health, Dr Faisal Sultan, had merely promised a post-examination analysis of the MDCAT which, as expected, proved to be an eye-wash.

The result cards sent by the PMC via email themselves put a question mark on the ‘fair’ conduct of examination and the compiling of results that were pointed out by the students.

The score which I had received hours after appearing in the examination was 141 out of 210, while the final result received later showed 164 marks.

When calculated as a whole, the subject-wise marks awarded by the PMC do not match the total marks in the ‘final’ result card. In a comedy of errors, I am awarded 53 marks out of 20 in English. Such bloopers have created doubts about the whole system that seems to be flawed, to say the least.

Many students are awarded more marks in different subjects than the total marks of the subject, and very few marks in different subjects, such as biology, chemistry, physics, etc., against their great expectations, while the marks for logical reasoning are termed ‘undefined’.

A friend of mine, who had secured second position in matriculation in the board, did not appear in the National University of Medical Sciences (Nums) test when she was left frustrated after getting the unexpected result of MDCAT.

The government should look into this serious issue and take remedial measures, for it is a matter of the future of so many candidates who had been preparing for MDCAT for such a long time.

Areej Fatima
Gujar Khan

Published in Dawn, October 13th, 2021