PMC issues post result analysis for MDCAT 2020

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Medical Commission announced the results of MDCAT on Wednesday declaring 67,611 passed the exam out 121,181 candidates appeared. The passing marks for the MDCAT 2020 were 60%.

According to reports, the regulatory body also issued a statement of post-exam analysis concerning the MDCAT assessment format in order to clear the

Following the announcement of the result the regulatory body also issued its post-exam analysis regarding the MDCAT to clear the misperception spreading around the results.

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The MDCAT first exam was held on November 29 across Pakistan, AJK and Gilgit Baltistan while the second special exam was held on December 13 for students who could not take the exam earlier as they were tested positive for coronavirus. The pattern of exam included 200 MCQs.

The PMC stated that a “Post Exam Analysis including a Reliability Item Analysis” was carried out in line with international standards and best practices.

“The analysis included a discrimination index and item wise analysis of all 200 questions on the basis of answers given and the topic syllabus as approved by the Academic Board,” read the PMC statement.

The statement added that “ambiguous on analysis of the answers by students and the formation of the question itself or which were below the cut off benchmark of the discrimination index were assessed and equal benefit granted to all students ensuring no student is adversely affected”.

The PMC further stated that students, who appeared on the November 29 exam, have secured maximum marks for 14 questions due to the post-analysis. The statement read that out of the 14 questions seven were in biology, five in physics and one in chemistry.

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“From the MDCAT Exam held on 13th December 2020 a total of seven questions were similarly taken out of the scoring and all students have received maximum marks for these questions,” said the PMC.

The PMC elucidated that the exam questions were not “removed” because they were out of the syllabus; instead they were removed because of “examination standards of ambiguity and discrimination”.

“The ambiguity is caused in part due to different textbooks being employed in different parts of Pakistan which may not be fully compliant with the relevant Board Curriculum or otherwise by the formation of the question itself,” said the PMC.

In the post analysis, the commission explained “achieved a 0.96 on the Cronbach's alpha (on a range from 0 to 1 with 1 being maximum) which is a standard to determine the measure of internal consistency and scale reliability of an exam”.

The PMC also said that Cronbach’s alpha is extremely reliable and consistent with its structure and objectives.