Just like all other exam conducting bodies, SZABMU conducted the MDCAT’24 on 22nd September, 2024 in international centres as well as centres across the nation but it did not go as expected. Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University had to face tough circumstances along with those MDCAT Aspirants who chose SZABMU as their exam conducting body. The future of almost 22,556 candidates was at stake now.

I am Muhammad Abu Bakr Usman, Newsroom Incharge and MDCAT Current-affairs Analyst and in this blog, we will try to know what exactly happened after MDCAT’24 conducted by SZABMU and what was the cut-off aggregate for public sector medical and dental colleges under SZABMU.

Post MDCAT’24 Events

You see, after SZABMU conducted the MDCAT’24 across various sites in the nation and in international centres, the question paper was not made public. Students also claimed that many questions were out of the MDCAT’24 syllabus issued by Pakistan Medical & Dental Council (PM&DC). Situation took a different turn when the keys for MDCAT’24 uploaded by SZABMU had multiple errors in it which made students, parents and teachers raise questions about the MDCAT’24.

Protests

Students reported the error in the keys, based on their knowledge but the correction in keys was pending from SZABMU’s side while the questions paper was still not made public. Besides all this, SZABMU declared the MDCAT’24 results. The errors in the keys were unresolved, the paper was not public and in these moments of despair, students, teachers and parents finally united for peaceful protests to be heard and gain attention of the higher departments of the country.

Beginning of Case

Finally, after the prolonged protests, the case began in the honourable Islamabad High Court. During the hearing of the case, there were delays and excuses coming from Party’s end and the case did not seem to end any longer.

University gave multiple options including giving grace marks and if paper is to be reconducted, test fee should be charged again. This has to be recalled that the test fee for MDCAT’24 was 8K by the instructions of Pakistan Medical and Dental Council (PM&DC). This fee was not only too much but also unaffordable for many medical aspirants.

Publishing of MDCAT’24 Question Paper by SZABMU

After the orders from the honourable Islamabad High Court, SZABMU published the MDCAT’24 Question Paper which proved students' claim of wrong keys and out of syllabus questions.

The question paper was not only comprised of questions from the topics that were not a part of MDCAT’24 Curriculum by PM&DC but the keys, according to which marks were given, had multiple errors.

Other Province Students’ Concerns

The case was getting prolonged day by day and students were also unsure about the final decision made by the honourable jury of Islamabad High Court. On the other side, students of other provinces who had taken their provincial MDCAT were waiting for final admission procedures but amid delays in the SZABMU MDCAT’24 Case, those students started to raise concerns as well.

Many students have the FSC background from the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education and they choose SZABMU as their exam conducting body to attempt the questions according to the curricula of the National Book Foundation. But, due to domicile restrictions, they have to take admissions in their province’s public sector medical and dental colleges.

Owing to this policy, the admission procedure in Punjab, KPK and other provinces were on halt and students and parents were showing raised concerns with every passing day.

Court’s Final Decision

Students’s prayers got heard and the honourable Islamabad High Court ordered the SZABMU to re-conduct the MDCAT’24 considering the previous mistakes and drawbacks they had during the conduct of first test of that respective year.

Conducting of Test for the Second Time

The MDCAT’24 was reconducted by SZABMU and since the expected merit lists had started to be issued by different platforms keeping Punjab’s aggregate hike into consideration, SZABMU made the test relatively easy with the difficulty level slightly similar to that of the MDCAT'24 conducted by UHS in the premises of Punjab.

After the test, SZABMU issued keys and made the question paper public. There were still a few errors in the keys reported by students but they got updated. Now, the fate of students made them wait for the official results.

Test Stats

The stats of MDCAT’24 re-conducted by SZABMU were almost similar to those compared with MDCAT’24 conducted by UHS and now it was sure that the merit was about to hike up for the students who wanted to apply in the public sector medical and dental colleges in Punjab.

Public Sector Medical and Dental Colleges Under SZABMU

Currently, there are a total of 2 public sector medical colleges and 1 public sector dental college under SZABMU for students applying on quota seats and having Islamabad Capitol Territory (ICT) domicile.

The cut-off aggregate for public sector medical and colleges according to open merit as per first merit list is as follows:

College Name

Cut-off Aggregate

Federal Medicall College, Islamabad

96.76364%

Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nayhan Medical and Dental College, Lahore

96.76364%

School of Dentistry, Islamabad

96.22273%

Quota Seats Merit

The quota seats closing aggregate for FMC for other categories according to first selection list is as follows:

Category

Cut-off Aggregate

AJK

95.3%

Balochistan

93.14091%

FATA

92.96364%

Federal (ICT)

93.77273%

GB

94.87727%

KPK

94.94545%

Punjab

96.00455%

Sindh-R

93.24144%

Sindh-U

92.97273%

Federal Government Elected (FGE) Quota

95.52727%

For SKZMDC, Lahore:

Category

Cut-off Aggregate

AJK

95.3%

Balochistan

93.14091%

FATA

92.96364%

Federal (ICT)

93.77273%

GB

94.87727%

KPK

94.94545%

Punjab

96.00455%

Sindh-R

93.24144%

Sindh-U

92.97273%

Federal Government Elected (FGE) Quota

95.52727%

For SOD, Islamabad:

Category

Cut-off Aggregate

AJK

95.3%

Balochistan

93.03636%

FATA

93.54091%

Federal (ICT)

93.82273%

GB

94.28636%

KPK

94.37273%

Punjab

95.42121%

Sindh-R

92.29019%

Sindh-U

92.8%

Federal Government Elected (FGE) Quota

94.66364%

Conclusion

Based on MDCAT’24 reconducted results issued by SZABMU and keeping 3 years policy into consideration, students are advised to have a backup plan in mind as well if you don't want to take a gap year or go for the private sector medical and dental colleges option. It's not the field that always carries the scope, it's YOU!