Medical-Dental Admission Test September 23

Education (buzztimebd.blogspot.com) - Admission test for medical and dental colleges will be held combined this year, for the first time, for both public and private institutions.

Having effected some major changes in the admission process, the health directorate has fixed September 23 for the combined admission test.

"We will also release admission forms online for the first time. They can also be filled up online," director general for health services Khondaker Mohammed Shefyetullah told bdnews24.com on Sunday.

He said the new systems – combined test and online forms – are aimed at easing students' 'hassles.'

"Enrolment process for the MBBS (medical) and BDS (dental) courses used to be same, but held separately," the director general said.

Students had to run from one medical college to another to collect admission forms and get admitted, he said explaining the reason for changes.

According to the health directorate, there are 2,465 seats in 18 government medical colleges while the number is 3,350 for 44 private medical colleges.

Similarly, three public dental colleges have 218 seats while there are 765 seats in private dental institutes.

The one-hour multiple choice question (MCQ) examination will be conducted at about 18 centres (government medical colleges) across Bangladesh.

He said students with GPA-8 would be eligible to buy admission forms. The admission will be completed based on merit position and students' choice of institutions.

The director said they would also identify those second-time candidate, who already have seats in medical colleges.

"Many medical students sit second time to enrol in their desired medical colleges," he said. "In such cases, five marks will be deducted from their total marks (admission test plus GPA)."

"We want to discourage second-timers," he added.

The director said they were also mulling taking thumb impression keep fake candidates at bay.

"It's still in the planning stage," he said.

"But we are in the final stages of releasing admission forms. We will release once the software is ready."

After successful completion of the online forms, students would get a code number and a password.