TOUGH ASK: Students of Patna Medical College and Hospital. Telegraph picture

Patna, Aug. 11: The budding doctors of the state are a tad jittery over a possible change in the question pattern after the Government of India’s decision to conduct a single test for admission to MD courses offered by the medical colleges across the country.

Several medicos said the talks on the change in pattern of questions had made them nervous.

“There are talks that the examination pattern will be completely different now onwards. The questions will be more analytical unlike before when direct questions were asked. Also, as this will be the first year, we have little guidance as to how to go about the preparations,” said Dr Asish Narayan, a junior house surgeon at Nalanda Medical College.

Similar views were expressed by another aspirant, who did not want to be named. “Question banks are available for examinations like United States Medical Licensing Examination and students know what to expect. That is not the case with this examination. In fact, several interns are not doing ward duty these days because they are busy preparing for the MD entrance test, which is difficult to crack. Few seats are available compared to the number of applicants.”

Several other aspirants saw more advantages than disadvantages in the new system.

“The only disadvantage that I see in the new system is that an aspirant will have no way to get a postgraduate (PG) seat if he misses out on the examination. Otherwise, the new system will ensure less hassle for students monetarily, physically and mentally as we will have to apply, pay and take only one examination now,” said Dr Manishankar Thakur, an intern at Patna Medical College and Hospital.

According to experts, the decision to conduct one medical entrance test across India from the next academic session has been taken by the central government on the recommendation of Medical Council of India. It decided to do so to ease the tension and troubles of lakhs of students competing for PG seats. They had to travel to different places to appear in the entrance examinations for PG courses of different colleges.

“From the year 2012, there will be one entrance test each for MBBS and MD courses offered by all 271 medical colleges, 138 government-run and 133 under private management. These colleges offer over 31,000 seats for MBBS course and another 11,000 for PG,” said a senior member of Indian Medical Association, Bihar chapter.

He added, “The step was taken as the government increasingly felt that students suffered a lot because of multiple examinations. The confusion caused by multiple entrance tests and counselling saw hundreds of students rush to the apex court complaining about the system where they were left high and dry for making a single mistake in their choice.”