The MDCAT (Medical & Dental College Admission Test) is the one entry test standing between you and MBBS or BDS admission in Pakistan. It is conducted by the PMDC (Pakistan Medical & Dental Council). Here is everything confirmed for 2026, without the rumours.
When was MDCAT 2026?
Sunday, 20 September 2026. PMDC had rescheduled it from an earlier date, which is why so many plans that season had to shift by about five weeks.
The paper is done. If you sat it, the answer key page covers what happens next: objections, the official key, and the result portal. The date for the next cycle has not been announced yet; everything below about the paper itself has held steady for years, so it is still the right thing to prepare against.
The paper format
One paper. 180 multiple-choice questions in a single three-hour sitting, which works out to about a minute per question. It is paper-based; you bubble your answers on an OMR sheet.
Scoring is +1 per correct answer with no negative marking. Let that sink in properly, because it changes how you take the exam: a blank answer and a wrong answer score exactly the same. Attempt everything. Even a half-informed guess is free.
Subject weightage
The split below is the most important set of numbers in your entire preparation, since your study hours should follow it:
- Biology: around 81 questions (roughly 45%)
- Chemistry: around 45 questions (25%)
- Physics: around 36 questions (20%)
- English: around 9 questions (5%)
- Logical Reasoning: around 9 questions (5%)
Biology and Chemistry together make up about 70% of the paper. Giving all five subjects equal time sounds fair and disciplined, but it quietly under-prepares the two subjects that decide your result. Subject-by-subject detail is on the MDCAT subject guides.
Passing marks vs merit
Two different bars here, and students mix them up every single year:
- Passing marks: 55% for MBBS, 50% for BDS under PMDC's current rules. This only makes you eligible.
- Merit aggregate: the thing that actually gets you a seat. It combines MDCAT, FSC and Matric marks (commonly 50% + 40% + 10%), and public college merit routinely closes above 85%. The MDCAT aggregate calculator will tell you the score your target needs.
Nobody hangs a "passed MDCAT" certificate on the wall. The merit list is the exam.
Preparing for the next one
Do not attempt to re-read every textbook; there is never enough time and it would not help anyway. Run an MCQ-first routine weighted by the split above and steered by whichever topics keep costing you marks. Our 6-week MDCAT study plan lays that out day by day, and the full 180-question mock will pressure-test you under the actual timing long before it counts.
Start early, attempt every question, and sleep the night before. That is most of it.