The MDCAT stands for National Medical and Dental College Admission Test, otherwise known as the MDCAT or National MDCAT. This is the official test medical student aspirants have to take to qualify for a medical school and to help the admissions offices assess if you are a good fit for them. The initial testing body was the PMC (Pakistan Medical Commission), but in 2022, the testing body changed and the MDCAT 2023 will be conducted by the Pakistan Medical and Dental Commission (PMDC).
The PMDC has stated no official age limit for sitting for the MDCAT examination. This may be good news for a young, potential aspirant for the MDCAT. Contrary to popular belief, you do not need to be 16 years of age to sit for the PMDC MDCAT. If you are younger than that, that is also fine. But do make sure you do not sit for the exam so early that you are not able to prepare for MDCAT appropriately. Age is not as much of a factor as good quality MDCAT preparation is.
Those awaiting their results for the FSc and A-levels are eligible to appear for the MDCAT. Those who have passed their intermediate (FSC pre-medical) examination are required to have scored at least 70% of marks for the examination. This means they need to have scored 770 out of 1100 or more to be eligible to apply for MDCAT.
You do not need to be a Pakistani National to give the MDCAT. Foreign nationalities can also give the MDCAT. This means it does not matter if you do not have a Pakistani passport or dual nationality, you will be allowed to sit for the exam, as per your personal circumstances. For this reason, there are test centers not only in Pakistan but also in various other cities around the globe. The international test centers include but are not limited to Dubai, Riyadh, Chicago, and London.
Those awaiting their results for the FSc and A-levels are eligible to appear for the MDCAT. For FSc, you are required to have taken pre-medical subjects, while for A-levels, you need to have taken Biology as a subject.
There are five subjects for the MDCAT examination. This is the revised criteria for 2021. There used to be negative marking before the 2020 revision but that is not the case anymore, along with the total marks, before 1050 marks and now 210 marks. Below is the PMC MDCAT examination structure with the subject and marks breakdown:
| Subjects | Marks | Total Marks |
| Biology | 68 | |
| Physics | 56 | |
| Chemistry | 56 | |
| English | 20 | 200 |
The PMDC has made a clear range of subjects for the MDCAT Syllabus 2023. There are five subjects to study for the MDCAT i.e Biology, Physics, Chemistry, and English, There is no defined syllabus shared by the PMDC for MDCAT 2023 as of now. There are chances that the PMC MDCAT 2022 syllabus will be used for the MDCAT 2023.
| Subjects | |||||||||||||||||||
| Biology | 1. Bio-diversity (acellular life/variety of life) | 2. Bio-energetic | 3. Biological molecules | 4. Cell structure and function | 5. Coordination and control/nervous & chemical coordination | 6. Diversity among animals | 7. Enzymes | 8. Evolution | 9. Life process in animals and plants (nutrition/gaseous exchange/ | transport) | 10. Prokaryotes | 11. Reproduction | 12. Support and movement | 13. Variation and genetics/inheritance | |||||
| Physics | 1. Force and motion | 2. Work and energy | 3. Rotational and circular motion | 4. Waves | 5. Thermodynamics | 6. Electrostatics | 7. Current electricity | 8. Electromagnetism | 9. Electromagnetic induction | 10. Electronics | 11. Dawn of modern physics | 12. Atomic spectra | 13. Nuclear physics | ||||||
| Chemistry | 1. Introduction to fundamental concepts of chemistry | 2. Atomic structure | 3. Gases | 4. Liquids | 5. Solids | 6. Chemical equilibrium | 7. Reaction kinetics | 8. Thermo-chemistry and energetics of chemical reactions | 9. Electrochemistry | 10. Chemical bonding | 11. S and p block elements | 12. Transition elements | 13. Fundamental principles of organic chemistry | 14. Chemistry of hydrocarbons | 15. Alkyl halides | 16. Alcohols and phenols | 17. Adehydes and ketones | 18. Carboxylic acids | 19. Macromolecules |
| English | 1. Comprehend key vocabulary | 2. Demonstrate control of tenses and sentence structure | 3. Demonstrate ability to differentiate between correct and incorrect structure of sentences & Use of writing conventions of spelling, capitalization, and Punctuation | 4. Demonstrate correct use of subject-verb agreement & of articles and prepositions | 5. Demonstrate ability to identify mistakes in sentences or short written texts. These errors could be of inappropriate word order, vocabulary etc. | 6 Demonstrate ability to comprehend short written text and select the most appropriate responses |
A great way to revise for the MDCAT exam is to past papers. After conceptually understanding the subject at hand with revision and an educational platform like Nearpeer’s MDCAT test preparation, you can figure out your strengths and weaknesses, solve past papers and practice through (where applied):
For past paper access, you can sign up for an MDCAT course with Nearpeer and receive access to quizzes, pop-up questions, and past paper question-solving.
The Paper pattern for the MDCAT is simple. The PMDC-officiated MDCAT paper pattern entails 200 total marks in the form of 200 total MCQs. There is an MCQ for each mark. For Biology, there are 68 MCQs. For Physics and Chemistry, there are 56 MCQs each. For English, there are 20 MCQs. The duration of the PMDC MDCAT is 3.5 hours, and the format is the physical exam. For the PMDC MDCAT 2023, there is no news of negative marking.
The PMDC MDCAT Exam date is not announced as of now, however, the exam is expected to be conducted in the second week of August 2023.
PMDC MDCAT registration fee is expected to be Rs. 1500/- However official news regarding the registration fee is still awaited.
The PMC MDCAT passing percentage was
The Breakdown is as follows:
Or just click the following link to access Nearpeer's MDCAT Aggregate Calculator.
https://www.nearpeer.org/np-form/6hwn03j9tw
PMDC MDCAT Exam Registration will open in upcoming months, following step-wise guide will help you in registration for the MDCAT exam.
There are currently 18 PMDC-recognized institutions for Public Punjab Medical Colleges Under MDCAT. In these 18 institutions, there are a total of over 1000 seat allocations in Punjab.
There are over 167 separate public and private Medical & Dental Colleges in Pakistan Under MDCAT. These have in total over thousands of seats. To select the one that is the best option for you in terms of the institution, location, and other factors, visit PMC’s website. Click here to check it out. They have there under the recognized institutions and qualifications Tab the comprehensive list of all undergraduate Medical & Dental Colleges of Pakistan.
| Province | College Name | City | Seat Allocation |
| PUNJAB | Allama Iqbal Medical College | Lahore | 325 |
| PUNJAB | Ameer-ud-Din(PGMI) Medical College | Lahore | 110 |
| PUNJAB | Army Medical College | Rawalpindi | 204 |
| PUNJAB | D.G. Khan Medical College | Dera Ghazi Khan | 120 |
| PUNJAB | Fatima Jinnah Medical College for Women | Lahore | 300 |
| PUNJAB | FEDERAL MEDICAL COLLEGE, ISLAMABAD | Islamabad | 100 |
| PUNJAB | Gujranwala Medical College | Gujranwala | 120 |
| PUNJAB | Khawaja Muhammad Safdar Medical College | Sialkot | 120 |
| PUNJAB | King Edward Medical University | Lahore | 325 |
| PUNJAB | Nawaz Sharif Medical College | Gujrat | 61 |
| PUNJAB | Nishtar Medical College | Multan | 300 |
| PUNJAB | Punjab Medical College | Faisalabad | 300 |
| PUNJAB | Quaid-e-Azam Medical College | Bahawalpur | 325 |
| PUNJAB | Rawalpindi Medical College | Rawalpindi | 350 |
| PUNJAB | Sahiwal Medical College | Sahiwal | 120 |
| PUNJAB | Sargodha Medical College | Sargodha | 120 |
| PUNJAB | Services Institute of Medical Sciences | Lahore | 220 |
| PUNJAB | Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan Medical & Dental College | Lahore | 100 |
| Province | College Name | City | Seat Allocation |
| PUNJAB | Abwa Medical College | Faisalabad | 100 |
| PUNJAB | Akhtar Saeed Medical & Dental College | Lahore | 150 |
| PUNJAB | Al Aleem Medical College | Lahore | 100 |
| PUNJAB | Al-Nafees Medical College | Islamabad | 100 |
| PUNJAB | Amna Inayat Medical College | Lahore | 100 |
| PUNJAB | Avicenna Medical College | Lahore | 150 |
| PUNJAB | Aziz Fatimah Medical & Dental College | Faisalabad | 100 |
| PUNJAB | Azra Naheed Medical College | Lahore | 150 |
| PUNJAB | Bakhtawar Amin Medical & Dental College | Multan | 100 |
| PUNJAB | Central Parks Medical College | Lahore | 100 |
| Province | College Name | City | Seat Allocation |
| PUNJAB | de'Montmorency College of Dentistry | Lahore | 110 |
| PUNJAB | Dental Section, Army Medical College | Rawalpindi | 54 |
| PUNJAB | Dental Section, Punjab Medical College | Faisalabad | 65 |
| PUNJAB | Institute of Dentistry, Nishtar Medical College | Multan | 65 |
| PUNJAB | School of Dentistry, Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University | ISLAMABAD | 50 |
| Province | College Name | City | Seat Allocation |
| PUNJAB | Avicenna Dental College | Lahore | 50 |
| PUNJAB | College of Dentistry, Bakhtawar Amin Medical & Dental College | Multan | 50 |
| PUNJAB | College of Dentistry, Sharif Medical & Dental College | Lahore | 50 |
| PUNJAB | Dental College, Akhtar Saeed Medical & Dental College | Lahore | 50 |
| PUNJAB | Dental College, FMH College of Medicine & Dentistry | Lahore | 75 |
| PUNJAB | Dental College, HITEC Institute of Medical Sciences | Taxila Cantt | 50 |
| PUNJAB | Dental College, Islamabad Medical & Dental College | Islamabad | 50 |
| PUNJAB | Dental College, Lahore Medical & Dental College | Lahore | 75 |
| PUNJAB | Dental College, Rawal Institute of Health Sciences | Islamabad | 50 |
| PUNJAB | Dental College, University College of Medicine & Dentistry | Lahore | 75 |
Yes. You are supposed to clear it or else are not eligible for NUMS.
Studying for the MDCAT is not an easy process, but as long as you have the right mindset and are willing to put in the effort, it can be done and you can graduate with a high score. Nearpeer has all required MDCAT subjects, MDCAT test preparation, and more. This is very helpful in having quality resources, which is half of what you need to get a good score in your 2023 MDCAT.
There are many ways you can avoid procrastination. Firstly, make sure your phone or other distractions are away and out of sight. You can also ask your friends and family to not disturb you for any reason. Secondly, make sure you identify your weakness. Then, set goals and priorities for the topics that need to be worked on more so. Also, set deadlines. At the end of the day, don't overwork yourself too much, and make sure to give yourself rewards for following through with the deadlines and goals.
It is important to stay motivated by remembering your dream at the end of the day. Maybe you want to be a doctor to save lives or go into research work. Also, you can reward yourself with breaks or candy (or whatever you like) as a reward for following through with the deadlines.
Make notes for your MDCAT subjects and keep narrowing them down until weeks before the exam. Aim to make one-page notes until a week or two before the exam. This one-pager can be your quick revision guide. This can help you remember topics on the tip of your tongue, and can be a fast way to test your memory, understanding, and knowledge.
No. The MDCAT is not necessary for DPT (Doctor of Physiotherapist). Each institute may have its own testing body though so that is something that needs to be looked into further by you.
No. The MDCAT is not necessary for DPT (Doctor of Pharmacy). Each institute may have its own testing body though so that is something that needs to be looked into further by you.
The passing percentage for the MDCAT is 55% as per the formula for the equivalency.
There is no negative marking in the 2023 MDCAT.
You have three hours and a half for the exam (3.5 hours).
This depends on the student or the MDCAT 2023 aspirant. If you have a good mindset, are disciplined, and dedicated, and have access to good study resources (as Nearpeer can offer for MDCAT) then it should not be very difficult.
The MDCAT is an exam that has been subject to a lot of changes recently, but we hope you benefited from this complete guide to the PMDC MDCAT exam for 2023. Since some of the information has not been released by the PMDC but expect updates whenever announcements are made from official PMDC sources. Still, Nearpeer is here to help you with all your MDCAT troubles with our high-quality, online MDCAT classes, along with other courses. Competitors can not match. Check out our courses for our reasonable prices and exciting discounts. Stay informed with future MDCAT updates through Nearpeer Blogs and our social media handles, including our official Facebook and Instagram. If you need any guidance regarding the MDCAT, MBBS, or BDS in general, please feel free to reach out to our dedicated team of Nearpeer counselors over WhatsApp at 0311-1444734. We know how to prepare for the MDCAT the RIGHT way. Good luck and happy learning!