ISLAMABAD-: As the Pakistan Medical Commission uploaded a revised version of the updated National Medical and Dental College Admission Test (MDCAT) 2020 exam results and struggled to explain to applicants why the results had earlier been taken down, Ali Raza, the vice president PMC exercised damage control by holding press conference recently.
While speaking to the media, Ali Raza told that the Pakistan Medical Commission (PMC) in around 36 hours after the announcement of the Medical and Dental College Admission Test (MDCAT) has received ten thousand re-counting applications from the candidates who appeared in the exam.
Meanwhile, a group of parents and students also reached PMC and protested the results announced by PMC. Students and parents complained that they were marked absent or their names did not match with their roll numbers.
They also complained that after uploading a new list their names and roll numbers were corrected but their marks were reduced.
Mohammad Ali Raza also alleged that a small number of candidates appearing in the exam had written their roll numbers and names wrong in the exam due to which errors erupted in the result.
Addressing a press briefing, Ali Raza said that as many as 121,181 students attempted the MDCAT exam. A total of 67,611 students qualified for the MDCAT exam obtaining more than 60% marks.
“Number of candidates who appeared in the MDCAT had complained of marking them as absent in the result despite they were present in the exam. Candidates also came with the complaint that their names and roll numbers did not match,” he told.
VP PMC explaining the errors in the exam said that above 600 candidates had written their roll number wrong, while around 150 had written their names wrong on the examination sheets.
VP PMC Mohammad Ali Raza said that as an act of transparency the PMC decided to give free of cost opportunity to candidates for re-counting of their exams.
VP PMC said that so far around 10,000 applications for the recounting of the exams by the candidates have been received and PMC welcomes all students to come for re-counting. VP Ali Raza also alleged that the test preparation academies floated wrong information and confusion among students by spreading the answer sheets.
Forms for a recount appeal are available online and can be submitted by the 21st of December 2020. He also said that the exam has been finalised and sent to all provinces as well which will complete the admission process till 14 of the next month, while private medical colleges will start admissions from the 15th of next month and complete the admission process in two weeks.
A statement released by the PMC said that after the PMC released the National MDCAT result on 16th December 2020, we received numerous complaints from students that they had erroneously been marked ‘absent.’ Some students also complained that their names and roll numbers did not match.
Ali said, “To thoroughly investigate the complaints and to ensure that no student was deprived of the correct result, the result was taken offline for reconciliation. The MDCAT result is a computer-generated result.”
PMC official said, “The verified result is now available online again and students may check their result now. There is a very small minority of students whose result is missing because neither their name nor their roll number could be matched. Therefore, these students will be notified next week and asked to appear for verification.”
PMC has re-checked and can confirm that 14 marks have been added to the result of each student who took the exam on the 29th of November 2020. Moreover, seven marks have been added to the result of each student who took the exam on the 13th of December 2020.
-DN Report