BANGLADESH

Results for the first combined medical and dental admission test have been announced, a Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) official says.

The results were published on Sunday, two days after the test was held amid tension and strict invigilation, said medical information service director Abul Kalam Azad.

The results are available at http://www.dghs.gov.bd/InputRoll.php

According to DGHS, candidate Mohammad Sharafat Karim, roll number 110186, secured first position in the merit list.

He obtained highest 69.5 marks, lowest top score at least in the last five years, in the 100-mark one-hour examination consisting of multiple-choice questions

Tension ran high as intelligence sleuths arrested 21 people including medical students, a teacher of Jahangirnagar University and a doctor of Dhaka Dental College Hospital for selling the question papers of the entry test.

However, much to the relief of the authorities, the papers on sale turned out to be fake ones.

Some 51,236 candidates vied for 2,760 seats in the government medical colleges and 280 seats in dental colleges. Besides the private medical colleges have 3,663 seats and dental colleges 765.

This was the first time that the health directorate collected admission forms online.

However, the score took many by surprise as students after the examination cheered for 'easy' questions.

Rajib Saha, a doctor who taught medical admission seekers for the last five years, told that the top score was the lowest at least in the last five sessions.

"Maybe students were confident in answering easy questions. But their simple mistakes wiped off many numbers due to negative marking," he said.

This year 0.25 number was deducted for a wrong answer.

However, medical education department of the DGHS did not issue any media release on the details of admission process.

The director, Prof Shah Abdul Latif was also not available for comment.

The admission test was deferred by a week from Sep 23 after a staff in the DGHS printing press was caught with a question paper while leaving from his duty on Sep 13. Two other people were arrested in that case that led to printing fresh question papers.