Medical, dental entry tests held

Medical and dental college admission tests were held without any incident on Friday. The 1-hour entry tests, held in 23 examination centres across Bangladesh, started simultaneously at 10:00am. Forty is the pass mark in the 100-mark MCQ test. ‘The examinations were peaceful,’ Health Ministry Director (Medical Education) Prof ABM Abdul Hannan said at noon. Results are typically published within three days. Atogether 69,477 candidates applied for 10,227 seats this year. Health Minister Mohammed Nasim claimed precautionary measures had made this year’s admission tests incident-free. This time, 29 government medical colleges are offering 3,162 seats, while 5,325 students will be able to study in 56 private medicals. Nine public dental colleges will accept 532 students and another 23 private dentals are offering 1,280 seats. The Health Ministry had on Tuesday ordered closure of all medical admission coaching centres until the admission tests were over in a bid to prevent any rumours of question paper leakage. Mobile phones, calculators, and wrist watches, too, were banned in exam centres to prevent ‘cheating’, according to bdnews24.com.