Admission in medical, dental colleges: 31,700 students to appear in entry tests

As many as 31,700 male and female students are appearing in entry tests for admission into public and private sector medical and dental colleges of Punjab. The entry test is scheduled to be held on July 20 simultaneously at 12 cities of the province.
The University of Health Sciences (UHC) set up 14 examination centres in different cities including, Lahore, Faisalabad, Sahiwal, Multan, Bahawalpur, DG Khan, Rahimyar Khan, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Rawalpindi, Sargodha and Hasan Abdal. On special directions of CM Punjab Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, for the first time self-scoring system has been introduced in entry tests to ensure 100 percent transparency in them. Two answer sheets - one original and other carbon copy - will be provided to students who will submit the former to the invigilators and retain the latter for checking their results.
The answer key will be made public through website of University Health Sciences and through electronic and print media. This step would enable the students to check their results and evaluate their performance without any delay and in an easy way.
This was disclosed at an orientation seminar arranged by UHS at auditorium of Punjab Medical College. Briefing the participants over the arrangements and mode of examination, the Co-ordinator of UHS Dr Hamaad Hussain said that for the first time the entry tests were being held before the announcement of FSc results and told the participants that the decision had been taken to facilitate the students.
He said that early conducting of entry tests would benefit the students as they had just taken the FSc exams and would prove helpful in refreshing their memories. He said that this decision had increased the strength of candidates from 22000 last year to 32000 this year. He further said that the decision would also discourage the commercialisation of preparation and would save the students from the clutches of academy mafia.
Moreover, he said that the Punjab govt. had decided to convene the next entry tests within a week of ending FSc exams. He also briefed the participants that a total of 220 MCQs will be asked from the students and they would answer them in 150 minutes. Each question will carry 5 marks and a candidate will lose 1 mark for a wrong answer.
Separate question papers have been designed for FSc and non-FSc students, ie A level and other equivalent, he added. He further said that a student would have to secure 60 percent marks, ie 660 out of 11000. Principal PMC Dr Riaz Hussain Dab, organiser of seminar Professor Dr Imtiaz, UHS Co-ordinator Muhammad Ramzan also spoke on the occasion and briefed the students about the details of entry tests.