80% drop in grads clearing MCI screening test



There's been an 80% drop in Indian medical graduates from foreign universities passing the mandatory screening test conducted by the National Board of Examinations from 2005 - 2015.


According to the Indian Medical Council Act, 2001 citizens with undergraduate degrees from outside India should clear the screening test conducted twice every year, before they do a one-year internship in one of the medical colleges recognised by the Medical Council of India. The test is conducted online twice a year - June and December - in English. The test will have 300 multiple-choice questions and to clear it, the student should have a minimum of 150/300 (50%).



Foreign medical graduates argue that the test is extremely tough. "Most questions are sourced from post-graduate medical tests," said Raghuram Nayak, who completed his graduation in Ukraine in 2012. "Every time I appear, I see new questions that are not a part of MBBS curriculum. We have never been able to contest it because the test is online and we never have a question paper," he said.



The students' association of foreign medical graduates also claims that the board has made the test purposely difficult to discourage Indian students from going abroad and opt to study in private colleges here that charge as much as 1 crore - foreign medical education costs 25 lakh. These students can't work as doctors and aren't even considered graduates in India unless they pass the test. "We studied for six years but our education qualification is just Class 12 pass. Many of students are spending lakhs in coaching centres to clear the screening test," said Raghuram.



However, officials at the National Board of Examinations vehemently deny these claims. An expert committee which studied 11 question papers from 2013-2015 submitted a report to the ministry of health and family welfare stating that 52.78% of the questions were of "low difficulty level" and 42.22% questions are of moderate difficulty. While 47.27% were considered vital, 38.13% were termed essential, and 14.6 was "desired knowledge"



The National Board of Examination executive director Dr Bipin Batra said that the test had no negative marking and almost 90% of students who graduated in the last four years cleared the test in three attempts. Since 2002, at least 22,500 students have cleared the screening test. "The number of students clearing the test in the first attempt is low. That is because many of these students study in a different language. The public health priorities of that country are different from ours. Reorientation takes time but when they do that many clear the test," he said.

Popular posts from this blog

PG Doctors of India must work not more than 48 Hr/week: SC

Image
As per the directives of the Honourable Supreme Court in its judgment dated,25.9.87, in writ petition No. 348-352 of 1985, all the State Governments, Medical Institutions and Universities are required to amend their rules and regulations to introduce a uniform residency scheme by 1993 “A uniform practice has to be evolved so that the discipline would be introduced. We accordingly allow the present arrangement to continue for a period of five yearsI.e. upto 1992 inclusive. For admission beginning from 1993 there would be only onepattern. All Universities and institutions shall take timely steps to bring about such amendments as may be necessary to bring statutes, regulations, and rules obtaining in their respective institutions in accord with this direction before the end of 1991 so that there may be no scope for raising of any dispute in regard to the matter.The uniform pattern has to be implemented for 1993. It is proper that one uniform system is brought into vogue throughout
Read more

Why DNB exam tougher than MS/MD exam?

Image
Guest article by Dr Kalyan R Kone   There were 6 people (accompanied by their relatives) sitting in the small waiting room outside the ward waiting for their call inside. They looked battered, tense and had such a depressed look in their eyes that even Shylock would have sympathized with them. They had cleared their DNB (Diplomate of National Board) theory exam and were making last minute preparations for their practical exam. If I were not told that they were all Doctors, I would have thought that they were all waiting for their turn to see a psychiatrist. Dr Kalyan R Kone Five out of six of those waiting doctors were appearing for the second or third time. In spite of that, they didn’t know what would be in store for them except one thing — only one or two would pass out of the six candidates. I thought for a moment that it was a good ploy by the NBE (National Board of Examination) to generate funds – after all, where would these poor guys go except appe
Read more